Birth of Marie Antoinette

Maria Theresa gave birth to baby Marie Antoinette

Maria Teresa was thirty-eight years old when she gave birth to Marie Antoinette. She has been married for nearly twenty years and had produced four Archdukes and ten Archduchesses. By the time Marie Antoinette was born, seven of the ten Archduchesses were living in 1755). Maria Theresa looked so well after giving birth to Marie Antoinette, in a way he had not before. Emperor Frances Stephen and many courtiers were present to congratulate Maria Theresa on the birth of her fifteenth child. The baby, Archduchess Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna (or Marie Antoinette), was small but healthy. Somehow, Maria Theresa knew beforehand that she was going to have a daughter. The room where Marie Antoinette was born at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna is now the Austrian President's salon.

Marie Antoinette 's wet nurse

Soon after Marie Antoinette was born, she was handed over to an official wet nurse, called Constance Weber, wife of a magistrate. This is a routine practice since great ladies of that time do not nurse their own children. By being appointed to be Marie Antoinette 's wet nurse, Constance Weber was to acquired great fortune for her entire family.