Archduke Otto & Infanta Marie Josepha of Portugal (parents of Emperor Karl)

Does anyone have any information about the mother of Emperor Karl, and wife to Archduke Otto.

She was a princess of Saxony. Her father was the younger son who married a Portguese Infanta as a wife. Maria Josefa had a sister named Mathilde, who was pretty ugly, but talented as a painter. For more information read Luisa of Tuscany's autobiography called "My Story". Maria Josefa was lucky that he married the best looking Archduke in Austria, but the bad news is that he does not love her.

[European Royal History Journal]

Maria-Josefa was a deeply religious woman with a deep sense of her obligations as a member of the imperial family.  She is the one reponsible for the Karl history knew as the last Austro-Hungarian emperor.  For while she spent great amounts of effort and sacrificed raising her sons as good, observant and obedient Catholics, her husband Archduke Otto, spent equal amount of time seeking diversion in the various brothels of Vienna, an excercise in excess that eventually brought him an early death.

Arturo Beéche

It was Maria Josefa's fate to find fulfilment in her children and they turned out pretty well indeed.

 For while she spent great amounts of effort and sacrificed raising her sons as good, observant and obedient Catholics, her husband Archduke Otto, spent equal amount of time seeking diversion in the various brothels of Vienna, an excercise in excess that eventually brought him an early death.

Didn't Archduke Otto die in the Halloween, All Saints Day? Quite ironically  

He is all beauty but no substance...

[European Royal History Journal]

I have both of these.  Interesitingly enough none of her grandchildren ever remember having seen this tiara, which seems to have disappeared.  I showed the photo to three of her grandsons and none actually recognized their grandmother, whom they remembered as a very different and matronly woman.

Arturo Beéche

How was she different? Was she markedly changed by the loss of the Habsburg empire (ala Marie Coburg or Miechen) or did she adapt well and perhaps a 'less glittering' personality was what had existed all along?

What did she do after the abdication of her  son? Did she remain in Austria, go to Portugal or some other country?

What did she do after the abdication of her  son? Did she remain in Austria, go to Portugal or some other country?

I read that following the abdication of her son, she left Austria. However I don't know where she went.

Maria Josepha left Austria with her son Karl and his family in 1919. First she lived in Switzerland, since 1921  in Germany. She died in Schloss Wildenwart / Upper Bavaria in 1944. Schloss Wildenwart was the home of some members of the Royal Family of Bavaria.

Some pics of Maria Josepha ...







... with her son Maximilian.





... with her grandchildren.

One portrait of Maria Josefa...

Maria Josefa had a visible assymetry of the features.

Maria Josefa and son Karl :