[citation needed] The last Habsburg king of Spain, Charles II, never fathered any children, due to his severe deformities and illnesses.

According to the laws of succession in Spain, Maria Antonia would have had the right to inherit the crown had she lived long enough, because she was the only surviving child of Empress Margaret Theresa, Charles II's sister.

The marriage between an heiress of the Spanish throne, in Maria Anna of Austria, Queen of Spain's view, gave the Bavarian Wittelsbachs the closer place in succession to the Crown than the Austrian Habsburg.

As the niece of Charles II of Spain, Maria Antonia was of great relevance in connection with the succession to the Spanish throne,[19] which was a major political issue in late-17th-century Europe.

One of her sons, Joseph Ferdinand, was of central importance to European politics at the end of the seventeenth century as a claimant to the throne of Spain.