On 23 May, in the presence of the Neapolitan court, the Prince expressly asked for the hand of the young Princess, making three speeches: the first two were directed to King Ferdinand II, the bride's brother, and to Maria Isabella, the Queen Mother.

The third speech was instead directed to Maria Antonia: «The virtues with which Your Royal Highness is adorned, and which are admired in Her combined with the particular qualities of nature that heaven has lavished on her, made her rightly chosen by the Grand Duke of Tuscany, my lord in His bride.

Brother, and of the Queen my most august and dearest Mother; recognizing with gratitude that I owe only to Their affectionate care of her the happiness that this union promises me, which is all the more flattering to my heart, as it will not distance me much from my dear family.

I sincerely desire to find in that of His Imperial and Royal Highness (of which I am going to be a part) the friendship that I already have for you, as I hope that by following the Family maxims that have been inspired in me from the first days of my age, I will be able to deserve the affection of the good and cultured Tuscan nation, so commendable for its attachment to its Sovereigns.

Before the wedding, the court reserved some entertainment for the two engaged couples: a gala show at the Teatro di San Carlo and a visit to the ruins of Pompeii, which the Grand Duke particularly appreciated.

The journey was peaceful and Leopold II remembered that: «Antoinetta opened her beautiful heart, she poured out every treasure of hers: she spoke of her youth, of her pain at the death of her dear father.

Her sweet and sagacious eye, her serene forehead, a row of chosen pearls shining on her smile, her hair of golden splendor, her neck gently expanding over her shoulders, her arm, her hand of uncommon elegance, her every movement composed and dignified, appropriate words».

The young Grand Duchess was moved by the death of her stepdaughter; three days later, on 21 May, she gave birth for the first time: another baby girl was born, who was given the name Maria Isabella, in honor of her maternal grandmother.

On 10 June 1835 at 9.20 in the evening (as Leopold II noted),[15] Maria Antonia gave birth to a son who was immediately baptized Ferdinand in honor of his paternal grandfather and maternal uncle.

The birth was welcomed with joy in all countries; the Prince Metternich wrote: «The assured succession in Tuscany is luck for all of Europe»,[16] since the order desired by the Congress of Vienna was thus preserved.

All these deaths brought a lot of pain to the entire family: Maria Antonia always remained at her children's bedside until the end, only to faint from the suffering of seeing them die in her arms.

You can believe how much has been said about you in these bad moments that you are in, take courage because dear, the world wants go like this, and of course the conditions in Tuscany are getting worse every day, and it seems impossible to me that order can be restored without a big bonfire, I hear that Lenzoni is being recalled, if this were the case think why he has to do my business here everything is calm but there are Ragnoni and Clementini who are sorry and have printed their letters to him, putting them as Citizen Minister that they hadn't put, already today they're doing it all, at least they'd make big ones so it would end; I expected the closing of the Chambers, I'm sorry that it will cause us to go a while without seeing you, but I believe that things won't take long and they'll tell you to go away, you're already reduced to nothing; at least you could take the good time and leave them, how they will fix Portoferraio, I always told you that I wasn't counting on it at all, it seems like a thousand years to see the end but the probability of going grows more and more.

It seems to me a thousand years for Garibaldi to leave because what does he have to do with us, here they quote a letter from Mazzini where he says that for now they will preserve the Sovereign by putting people of their color in all the first jobs, and having done this they can then send the Prince back, they say it was written by Guerrazzi.

Say hello to Arrighi, Sproni and Matteo, I call myself Your most affectionate Antonietta.»[22]On 30 January 1849, the Grand Duke's signature was required in the Senate to approve the new political trend: Leopold II, who did not want to continue the war, left Florence and headed for Siena, from where he resolved to leave: Maria Antonia left with her youngest children, Luisa and Ludwig; Ferdinand and Karl set out with their knight-in-waiting; Leopold II went out with his sister, her stepmother/sister-in-law and daughters Isabella and Christina.

The exile lasted until April, when after the defeat of Charles Albert at Novara, the Tuscan moderates overthrew the Guerrazzi government to avoid an Austrian invasion and recalled the Grand Duke, hoping that he would maintain the reforms.

From Naples, on 16 April 1849, Maria Antonia wrote to Leopold II, who was in Gaeta: «My dear Leopoldo, this morning I received the news of the events in Tuscany when I received yours, I am pleased that they want you but you will think about it first to go because without troops nothing can be done and then return with Capponi and others who brought you to this point you will think about it because now is the time to have no mercy with many who don't deserve it who will be the first to humble you; if we had Neapolitans for a year so that the Swiss would come, but it seems to me that the best are the Germans even though I hate them, but to do the cleaning there is only them and you wouldn't have the hatred.»[25]Maria Antonia hoped that the Austrian intervention could restore her husband, without damaging his reputation, but this was not the case: lieutenant-field marshal d'Aspre descended from Parma with 18,000 men, took and sacked Livorno and then occupied Florence.

[26] The political action of the Grand Duke, under the intransigent push of the young Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, resulted in a reactionary turn, although extremely mild compared to that of the other Italian kingdoms: on 25 April 1851 was signed a concordat, with who granted unlimited freedom and autonomy to the Church of Pius IX, in exchange for the formal recognition of the Tuscan succession in 1737 (an issue that had dragged on for 115 years); this further antagonized democratic and patriotic opinion.

The atmosphere in Florence had changed and the Grand Duchess, sister of the tyrannical and bloodthirsty King of the Two Sicilies, was under attack; La Maria Antonia, a little ditty dating back to 1848 written by Francesco Dall'Ongaro, read: «The day I return to my countries/they will see me again in my true form/With the braids of the Livorno people/I will make a mattress for myself and the eavesdroppers/Above the trophy of my offended rights/I will have sweeter and more flattering dreams/I will have them sheared by my Croatians/like tramps who have never been shorn».

On 15 June 1857, however, the grand ducal family was struck by a new loss: Archduchess Luisa, Leopold II's invalid sister, died; Maria Antonia remained at her bedside until her end and performed her final duties.

Grand Duke Leopold II, entrenched in Palazzo Pitti with his ministers, summoned Prince Neri Corsini, a liberal of the highest reputation not directly involved with the rebels, declaring that he was willing to form a new government and take sides against Austria-Hungary and grant a constitution; to calm things down he allowed the troops to raise the tricolour.

Prince Corsini went to the diplomatic headquarters of the Kingdom of Sardinia where the conspirator leaders were gathered, but returned to the Grand Duke with a deliberately unacceptable ultimatum, which also provided for the abdication of the sovereign.

Leopold II understood the bad situation and prepared to leave Florence with his family, certainly wanting to avoid bloodshed and in any case not being able to count on the army, but refusing to abdicate.

At six o'clock, in front of a large tumultuous crowd in the streets of Florence and the open revolt of the army, Leopold II left in a carriage from Fort Belvedere, exiting through the Porta di Boboli, towards the road to Bologna.

The peaceful resignation to the course of history (the Grand Duke never thought of a solution of force) and the manner of the farewell, with a few personal effects loaded into three carriages and with declarations of sympathy to the court staff, meant that in these last moments of staying in Tuscany the now ex-subjects regained for a while their ancient esteem for Leopold II: the grand ducal family was greeted by the Florentines, who took off their hats as they passed, with the cry "Goodbye father Leopold!"

Having taken refuge at the Viennese court, the deposed Grand Duke officially abdicated only on the following 21 July; since then he lived in Bohemia, going to Rome in 1869, where he died on 28 January 1870, a few months before the fall of the Eternal City.

[31] The Emperor stripped Johann of his Austrian nationality, and he headed for England; on 26 March 1890, together with his wife Ludmilla "Milli" Stubel (a dancer at the Vienna State Opera)[32] he set sail for Argentina on the ship "Santa Margareta".

Maria Antonia always refused to mourn Johann Salvator, convinced that her son was still alive; some scammers even managed to extort money from her by providing false information.

In April 1893 she was invited by Duke Amerigo Antinori to visit his newly renovated palace in Florence; although she remained there for a few days, the Dowager Grand Duchess received demonstrations of affection not only from the old nobility, but also from the people of the neighborhood.