"[6] Maria Josepha and her siblings were taught history, geography, theology, land surveying, and mathematics, with "a scant hour or two devoted to studying maps and reading stories.

After the death of her sister-in-law Princess Isabella of Parma, Maria Josepha was the most important woman at court after her mother, niece and sister.

She lost that position during May 1767 when her elder brother, Archduke Joseph, married his second cousin Maria Josepha of Bavaria.

Empress Maria Theresa wanted her fourth eldest surviving daughter, Archduchess Maria Amalia, to marry King Ferdinand of Naples and Sicily for political reasons; however, after Ferdinand's father Charles III of Spain objected to the five-year age difference, Maria Josepha, as the next eldest daughter, was left as the next candidate for Ferdinand's hand in marriage.

[4] She and Ferdinand were the same age, and Maria Josepha was considered "delightfully pretty, pliant by nature.

"[4] Thus began Maria Josepha's training for her future role as Queen consort of Naples.

Her fears were realised when she died of smallpox on the very day she was to have left Vienna for her journey across the Alps to marry Ferdinand.

[11] On 15 October 1767, at the age of 16, Maria Josepha, clinging to her brother Joseph,[12] died due to the disease.

After her death, her younger sister, Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria, was given as a bride to the king of Naples in her place.