after the marriage, the couple was appointed governors of the Austrian Netherlands in succession of their aunt Archduchess Maria Elisabeth of Austria, who had died in 1741. The couple left Vienna on 3 February and arrived in Wuustwezel, a town in the Austrian Netherlands, on 24 March where they were met by Count Karl Ferdinand von Königsegg-Erps. Karl Ferdinand was a member of the Supreme council of the Netherlands and had to receive Prince Charles and Maria Anna due to etiquette. Their arrival was greeted with much celebration. A ceremony had been organised for their arrival; this included a Te Deum and a collection of balls and banquets. The couple only had two months of time together in the Netherlands, as Charles had to leave to participate in the war against Prussia, while Maria Anna, pregnant with their first child, remained in Brussels. Charles left officially on 4 May. While alone in Brussels, Maria Anna was assisted in governing by the Austrian statesman Count Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz-Rietberg. Death On 16 December 1744 Maria Anna went into labour and gave birth to a stillborn son; she never recovered and died later that same day due to the difficult childbirth. She and her son were buried in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna. Charles Alexander never remarried, and would remain the governor until his death in 1780. He was a very popular governor and died in Brussels like his wife. Ancestry References 1718 births 1744 deaths Deaths in childbirth Nobility from Vienna 18th-century House of Habsburg Governors of the Habsburg Netherlands Austrian princesses House of Lorraine Burials at the Imperial Crypt Burials at St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna 18th-century women rulers Austrian people of the War of the Austrian Succession Daughters of emperors Daughters of kings