 Born "Maria Teresa", and named after her maternal grandmother Maria Theresa of Austria, she was the eldest of 18 children born to Ferdinand IV & III and Maria Carolina of Austria, the King and Queen of Naples and Sicily.She was her mother's favourite child from birth until she left the Neapolitan court to marry.In February 1790, Archduke Francis of Austria's first wife, Duchess Elisabeth of Württemberg, died in childbirth, and it was announced that he would marry one of the princesses of Naples.