Early Life
Archduchess Maria Clementina was born at the Villa del Poggio Imperiale, Poggio Imperiale then located in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, which had been ruled by her father Leopold I, Grand Duke of Tuscany (later Holy Roman Emperor) since 1765. She was named after Prince Clemens Wenceslaus of Saxony, her mother's uncle and brother of Maria Amalia of Saxony, Maria Clementina's maternal grandmother.
Her father was a son of Empress Maria Theresa and her mother a daughter of Charles III of Spain and Maria Amalia of Saxony. Maria Clementina was her parents' tenth child among sixteen children. She was raised in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany where her father ruled and the family lived until 1790 when, at the death of Maria Clementina's paternal uncle, Joseph II, her father became Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and the family moved to the court of Vienna
In the same year, 1790, she was engaged to Francis, Hereditary Prince of Naples, eldest surviving son of Ferdinand IV of Naples and his consort, Maria Carolina of Austria. Prince Francis was the Heir apparent to both the Neapolitan and Sicilian thrones. They were double first cousins as they shared all their grandparents in common. Their union was the last of three between the Austrian and Neapolitan royal families, the previous two being between Archduke Francis, her oldest brother and Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily in 1790 after Archduke Ferdinand and Luisa of Naples and Sicily.
The marriage by proxy took place on 19 September 1790. It was a turbulent period with the Napoleonic wars afflicting the Italian peninsula and the actual wedding did not occur for several years. In the meantime, both of Maria Clementina's parents died in 1792, in a short period of time, and her brother Francis became the new Emperor. A truce with France finally allowed Maria Clementina to travel to Naples in 1797. A frigate picked he up in Trieste, and her new family awaited her at Foggia where the wedding took place on 26 June 1797. It was a simple event since it was war time.
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