| Princess Isabella of Parma | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Archduchess of Austria | |||||
 Portrait by Jean-Marc Nattier, 1758 | |||||
| Born | 31 December 1741 Buen Retiro Palace, Madrid, Kingdom of Spain | ||||
| Died | 27 November 1763 (aged 21) Hofburg, Vienna, Archduchy of Austria, Holy Roman Empire | ||||
| Burial | |||||
| Spouse | |||||
| Issue |
| ||||
| |||||
| House | Bourbon-Parma | ||||
| Father | Philip, Duke of Parma | ||||
| Mother | Louise Élisabeth of France | ||||
Isabella of Bourbon-Parma (Spanish: Isabel María Luisa Antonieta, German: Isabella Maria Ludovica Antonia;[note 1][1] 31 December 1741[2] – 27 November 1763[3]) was a princess of Parma[4] and infanta of Spain from the House of Bourbon-Parma as the daughter of Philip, Duke of Parma.[5] She became an archduchess of Austria and crown princess of Bohemia and Hungary in 1760 by her marriage to Archduke Joseph of Austria, the future Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor.[6]
Although her husband loved her, she did not fully return his feelings and found more fulfillment in her (likely romantic, possibly sexual) relationship with her sister-in-law, Archduchess Maria Christina.[7] An austere and lonely childhood, the sudden loss of her unaffectionate but beloved mother, an unhappy arranged marriage, a court life that did not fit her,[7] and a difficult birth followed closely by two miscarriages and a fourth pregnancy all affected her mental health, leading to depression or bipolar disorder, to which she was likely genetically predisposed.[8][9] She died at the age of twenty-one from smallpox.[3]
Infanta Isabel María Luisa Antonieta[note 2] of Spain was born on 31 December 1741 at Buen Retiro Palace in Madrid, Kingdom of Spain as the first child of Infante Philip of Spain and his wife, born Marie Louise Élisabeth of France (known as Madame before her marriage and as Madame Infante afterwards).[1]
Isabella's parents were first cousins once removed with an age difference of almost seven years; Élisabeth had been only twelve when she was married to then-nineteen-years-old Philip. She considered it beneath her, the firstborn daughter of the King of France, to marry anyone who was not a monarch or an heir apparent; Philip was only the third son of Philip V, King of Spain. She soon took on a leading role in the marriage, being more ambitious and strong-willed than him. However, she had a contentious relationship with her mother-in-law, Queen Elisabeth Farnese, the de facto ruler of Spain.[10]
Élisabeth was only fourteen when she gave birth to Isabella, and the difficult labour lasted for two days. Two months later, Philip left to fight in the War of the Austrian Succession, and he did not see his family again until Isabelle was eight years old. Her mother showed little affection towards Isabella and probably found the baby to be a burden.[2]
For the first seven years of her life, Isabella was raised at the Madrid court of her paternal grandfather, Philip V, King of Spain. Her grandmother, Queen Elisabeth, loved her and showed interest in her development, reporting on her well-being and behaviour in her daily letters to her absent son.[11] When she was three, Isabella started throwing tantrums. Her mother responded by chastising her so severely that Queen Elisabeth likened it to a military drill (although she agreed that children need to be 'disciplined' from an early age). This is the only recorded interaction between mother and daughter from this period; the letters never indicate Élisabeth being warm towards her child but show her to have been impatient with her. She reportedly found Isabella to be 'stubborn' and 'unbearable'.[12]
After she had been weaned, Isabella's care and education was entrusted to an aya or governess, the French-born María Catalina, Marchioness of Gonzalez (born Marie-Catherine de Bassecourt-Grigny, later suo jure marchioness of Borghetto; 1693–1770), an austere widow always dressed in black. The Marchioness retained a strong sense of etiquette and hierarchy from her previous employment as dame d'honneur to Barbara of Portugal, Isabella's aunt-by-marriage.[13]
According to her unpublished autobiography titled Les Aventures de l'étourderie, 'The Adventures of Amazement', Isabella was an energetic and mischievous child, loud, 'jumping, climbing, falling', breaking furniture and ornaments. Her favourite pastimes included chasing after butterflies, horse-riding, and performing stunts on a rope, but she also liked to write, sing, and draw. Eventually, in an attempt to beter her conduct, her aya took away her ropes, horses, and swings. 'What to do in this sad situation? [...] But I finally learned to be reasonable', she wrote. From then on, she entertained herself silently: 'My head was always in the clouds, occupying itself with a hundred thousand ideas at once'.[13] Growing up as an only child until the age of ten with no playmates and under strict control, her childhood has been characterised as 'lonely and austere' by her biographer, Élisabeth Badinter. Still, she developed a close bond with her aya which inspired the jealousy of her mother.[14]
Isabella's education was focused on making her fulfill contemporary ideals for princesses. In 1746, a French envoy to Madrid complimented the 'bearing' of the four-year-old Infanta, as well as the 'air of dignity with which she receives the world', saying that she already knows 'who she is, to whom she belongs, and what she must be one day'. He also found her to be 'very big' for her age and her face to be 'one of the most lovely ones'. At the same time, the envoy remarked on the coldness with which Isabella was treated by her mother.[14]
Between 6 January and 7 October 1749, Isabella lived in Versailles when her mother visited her family on her way to their new home, Parma.[15] As the only granddaughter of Louis XV and Queen Marie Leszczyńska, she was pampered by her grandparents and aunts, surrounded by more attention and love than she had previously received. The luxury and cheerfulness of the French court was a shock to the Infanta after the more rigid court of Spain.[16]
According to the customs of Versailles, an eight-year-old princess could already participate in various court functions along with the royal family.[16] She visited many theatres and operas and attended balls and concerts. It was recorded in the Mémoires of Paul d'Albert de Luynes, then bishop of Bayeux, that she did not seem to amuse herself at most performances, and was seen as 'timid'.[17] At this time, Isabella was more comfortable speaking Spanish (which she had learned from her aya) than French, (which she used with her mother and paternal grandmother).[18]
Eventually, she overcame her shyness, adapted to her new surroundings, and started to enjoy her stay. She liked to accompany her grandmother Queen Marie to the salon de la Paix, 'Salon of Peace', where almost daily performances of operas, plays, or music were organised.[19] She was delighted by being treated as a French royal princess: the King had ordered that she rank as high as her mother and aunts. The royal guard always saluted her and she was seated in an identical armchair to that of the other princesses. One time, she even performed in the apartment of the Dauphine, Maria Josepha of Saxony, to general acclaim.[20] After her stay in Versailles, she kept corresponding with her maternal family, and her primary language had become French.[21]
[The French] are lively and stay so to the grave. [...] Their books are witty, their conversations also; few nations are so gifted in this. Their spirit is brilliant and full of fire, it is capable of designing anything with promptness and accuracy, it is vast, it understands everything, it is precise, few things escape it, it is inventive in every way.
Isabella of Parma, quotes Badinter
Following the 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, Isabella's father became duke of Parma and Piacenza, a title formerly belonging to the House of Farnese, his mother's family.[4] This made Isabella a princess of Parma and a member of the new House of Bourbon-Parma. She arrived in her new home with her mother on 20 November 1749.[22]
.jpg)
Parma was impoverished and its Farnese palaces were in ruins. Whereas Isabella thought highly of Spaniards and the French, she found Italians to be 'ignorant of the art of thinking' and wanted to leave the country as soon as she arrived.[22] Her mother also complained of finding 'no talent' in a country 'where there is nothing', as she could not fill many positions in her household. Madame Infante was often reduced to tears by the relative poverty in which she found herself. Resenting her loss of status, she focused on arranging prestigious marriages for her children.[23] She wanted to make Isabella either queen of Spain or Holy Roman empress, and visited Versailles two times to negotiate, once between August 1752 and October 1753,[24] then in the summer of 1757, when she died. Both times, she left her husband and children in Parma.[23][25]
Isabella's parents, reunited after almost ten years apart, had two children in 1751: Ferdinand on 20 January and Luisa on 9 December.[22] Isabella seems not to have been jealous of the affection her mother showed to her two younger children, and enjoyed having company.[26] During Élisabeth's long absences, Isabella reported on her siblings' well-being to their father and to her maternal grandmother. The Duke lived apart from his children for seven months every year in the Ducal Palace of Colorno to be closer to the best hunting grounds. Isabella sent short notes to him detailing the sleeping habits and teething of the two infants. Between November and April, Philip lived with his younger children in the Palazzo della Pilotta, while Isabella lived with her aya in the Palazzo del Giardino.[26]
While Isabella certainly exchanged letters with her mother, these have been lost.[27] It was around this time that two of her friends questioned Élisabeth on her coldness towards her eldest child. She replied that her 'character was too serious' to allow her to 'make a friend of [her] daughter', and that she believed that Isabella should be 'satisfied' with the amount of affection shown to her, especially because of Élisabeth's 'otherwise cold nature'.[27] A few months later, she was officially urged by the Marshal of France, Adrien Maurice de Noailles, to show more tenderness towards Isabella, as it was feared that her cold treatment could diminish the chances of a politically advantageous marriage. The French ambassador to Parma soon assured Noailles that more attention was being paid to Isabella, while Élisabeth protested her maternal love both to the Marshal and to others, saying that 'all the world must see, I believe, how much I love her. For those who know me, it is certain'.[28]
In Parma, Isabella's education continued under the Marchioness of Gonzalez.[29] In the summer of 1749, with her mother's support, her father engaged Pierre Cerou, a well-educated Frenchman who had written a successful comedy and had had some experience as a tutor to manage his property and instruct his daughter in history, literature, and French.[30] In 1754, the Madrid court expressed concerns over his religiosity and demanded that he be replaced by a Jesuit. Élisabeth resisted, saying that a member of the order would seek to control her son. In the end, the family agreed on a French member of the order, Thomas Fumeron, who fulfilled his role to the satisfaction of both courts. From Cerou's depart in April 1754, however, there was no tutor assigned to Isabella.[31] In 1757 and 1758 respectively, a governor and a tutor were employed for Ferdinand: Auguste de Keralio, a soldier and scientist, and Abbot Bonnot de Condillac, a philosopher and close friend of Rousseau, Diderot, and d'Alembert.[32]
Isabella was officially instructed by her confessors, Fathers Fumeron and Belgrado, in the lives of the saints only. Her education focused on drawing, painting, and music; she excelled at singing and playing the violin and the harpsichord.[33] While there is no proof that he listened to the lectures of Keralion and Condillac, Badinter argues that her later knowledge on military theory, history, and Age of Enlightenment ideals on education proves that she did so.[34] During the negotiations for her marriage, Austrian observers reported Isabella to speak four languages, study sciences and maps, and follow military movements.[35] In 1758, the French historian Pierre-Jean Grosley visited Parma and described Isabella as 'one of the main wonders' of the city, as she had a 'marked talent' in all 'useful and pleasurable arts', as well as a good knowledge of the world.[36]
Isabella also probably witnessed the cruelty of the two men, especially the Abbot, towards her brother: despite his progressive ideas about teaching through games and his reputation as a revolutionary pedagogue, he regularly beat Ferdinand with a rod or kicked him. In her Réflexions sur l'éducation, she would condemn the way her brother had been brought up, clearly depicting both him and Condillac (despite never naming them). She maintained a correspondence with Keralio in her adulthood, but barely ever mentioned the Abbot.[37]
Maria Theresa, Holy Roman Empress followed a marriage policy intending to strengthen the relationship between the Houses of Bourbon and Habsburg. Influenced by Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV also decided to shift alliances and join forces with Austria against Britain and Prussia in the Diplomatic Revolution.[38] In late 1751, State Chancellor Wenzel Anton, Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg, the closest advisor of Maria Theresa, ordered the Austrian governor of Milan to go to Parma and report on Isabella, a prospective bride to either of the three sons of the Empress. He was satisfied with her abilities, saying that she danced with 'grace and skill', played musical instruments before him, already spoke French, Spanish, and Italian, and had started to learn Latin.[39]
When Maria Theresa's eldest son and heir, Archduke Joseph, came of age, he was said to have been presented with a list and portraits of marriageable princesses fitting his mother's political plans. He chose the Infanta Isabella, who had been endorsed by the Austrian ambassador to France, the Count of Mercy-Argenteau.[8] Joseph relied on the advice of his mother and was not enthusiastic about marrying because of his low opinion of women. His betrothal to Isabella's cousin, Maria Luisa of Spain, was broken off, officially because he had fallen in love with Isabella; this was an excuse for Maria Theresa's political political decision. On the bride's side, negotiations were led by her mother. The contract was finalised in the summer of 1759, during Élisabeth's last stay with her family at Versailles. Not long after, at thirty-two, she caught smallpox and died in France, devastating her daughter,[40] who might have become convinced at this time that she, too, would die young.[41]
After the betrothal, the two courts decided to wait for some time so that the young couple could mature.[38] The death of Élisabeth further delayed the plans.[42] Meanwhile, Isabella started to learn German, reportedly devoting seven hours a day to the language. The Governor of Milan was asked to prepare a detailed description of her character for the Viennese court. In it, he praised Isabella as 'beautiful' and 'kind', 'dignified' but never 'affected'. She apparently progressed well in German and liked reading but did not 'wish to appear a savant'. While she enjoyed playing music and dancing at balls, she cared little for card games, horse-riding, or hunting, preferring brisk-paced walks. Inspired by her grandmother, Marie Leszczyńska, Isabella distributed much of her income to the poor in Parma, and she was anxious to please her future mother-in-law the Empress.[43] It appears that Isabella prepared methodically for her future, paying attention to the political situation of the Habsburg monarchy and following its ongoing war with Prussia. To please her new family, she was ready to pretend and manipulate.[44]
Shortly before the wedding, Joseph wrote to a friend that he would do everything to win his bride's respect and trust, but that he considered it impossible for him to be 'agreeable, to pose as a lover', as that went against his nature which had never seen the point of being in love. Thoughts of his approaching wedding made him 'tremble' and feel melancholic.[45]
I am extremely worried about my future happiness; I am certainly not entering this [married] state out of curiosity or bestial lust; only the thought of duty brings me to this, which costs me infinitely and disgusts me. [...] A victim of the State, I am sacrificing myself, hoping that God will repay me...
Archduke Joseph, in a letter from 28 September 1760, quotes Badinter
Following a marriage by proxy, Isabella was sent with Joseph Wenzel I, Prince of Liechtenstein to Vienna in late 1760.[46] While she was sorry to say goodbye to her family, she was happy to leave Parma.[43] Maria Theresa refused to let anyone accompany her of her former staff.[44] Publicly, Isabella disguised her sadness, but when she was in private with her father, siblings, confessor, and aya for the last time, she cried a lot.[44]
They travelled from Parma through the Alps and were greeted at the border by the widowed Countess Erdődy, born Antónia Battyhány, her newly appointed Oberhofmeisterin. The company reached a castle near Vienna on 1 October,[47] where they were received by her future father-in-law, Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor. They travelled together to Laxenburg castles where they met the rest of the imperial family. Isabella charmed almost all of them. Her groom, who had declared multiple times that he was more afraid of marriage than of battles, reportedly turned red upon seeing her and now could not wait for the wedding.[48] While this might be an exaggeration, as Badinter argues, she quickly seduced Joseph by her obedience and letting him feel intellectually superior to her.[49]
The Emperor, the Empress, the archdukes and the archduchesses were also enchanted by her. One of them, Maria Christina, wrote that she had never known anyone as attractive as Isabella and that she had 'beautiful eyes and hair, a pretty mouth, and a delightfully shaped bosom'.[48] Empress Maria Theresa judged her to be perfect, and it was generally agreed that she surpassed all expectations, being pretty and interesting despite not being a 'regular beauty' with her tan skin.[50] The only person who disliked her was the eldest archduchess, Maria Anna, who had been the second lady of the court after the Empress, but was now displaced by Isabella. She was also jealous of her being adored, while she had always been slighted by her family.[51]
After arriving in Vienna, Isabella was accommodated in the Belvedere,[52] separate from her new family in line with the etiquette forbidding brides from spending the night in the same house as their grooms.[48] The wedding took place on 6 October. The guests went to the Augustinerkirche [6] in a hundred and twenty gilded carriages, riding among a cheering crowd, with musicians playing on every corner.[48] The wedding was celebrated by the apostolic nuncio Vitaliano Borromeo.[6]
Following the ceremony, there was a display of decorative lighting in Vienna at night, with almost three thousand lanterns burning between the Hofburg and the Stephansdom and the same amount of white wax candles in two lines, complete with many torches in the courtyard of the palace. At night, there was a public banquet at the Hofburg, where the pure golden tableware brought to Vienna as part of Isabella's dowry was used. The festival surrounding the wedding lasted for days and was commemorated in a series of paintings by Martin van Meytens, which can be viewed in the Hall of Ceremonies in Schönbrunn Palace as of 2023.[53] All of this was organised despite the ongoing Seven Years' War draining the treasury, as Maria Theresa wished to distract attention and display the wealth of her empire.[54]
A hundrend and twenty expensive carriages of different kinds came slowly, embellished by horses of rare beauty and build, gold and silver tacks, numerous gentlemen in beautiful, pretty attire going next to them and before them, and especially by the gala dresses of the princes and counts who sat in them (...)
[The bride's] middling, attractive stature, her black eyes, eyebrows and her hair, frilled with rare craftsmanship, her coronal laden with precious stones, her dress made of cloth of silver and her faint pink cheeks attracted the eyes of all.— György Rettegi, The Notes of György M. Rettegi, 1759–67, [55]
While Joseph fell in love with Isabella and was an attentive husband, she did not reciprocate his feelings. It soon became apparent to their family and staff that while Joseph showered his wife with affection, she remained reserved. As an archduchess, it was her duty to produce an heir as quickly as possible, and she became pregnant in late 1761.[7] Although she pregnancy and childbirth caused her anxiety, she was relieved that she did not disappoint her family. Although she worried that she did not have enough 'courage' to withstand the pain, she behaved in the expected way, with 'no sensitivity nor grimacing', as Maria Theresa wrote.[56]
Her pregnancy was difficult with many physical symptoms accompanied by depression and a lingering fear of death. This was worsened by her husband not understanding her problems.[57] On 20 March 1762, she gave birth to a daughter, Archduchess Maria Theresa, named after her paternal grandmother. The court rejoiced at the birth of the imperial couple's first grandchild, and Joseph especially adored the baby.[58] How Isabella felt about her child is unknown, but she only mentioned her once in her most intimate correspondence (which was not written for semi-public consumption in the recipient court) and never in her private writings; a friend commented that her love for her child 'did not show much on the exterior'.[59]
Soon, she was pregnant again, miscarrying in August 1762, and once more in January 1763. Maria Theresa counseled Joseph to wait for six months before trying for a son again so that Isabella could recover.[60] The second miscarriage was kept secret from the public (the court claimed that she had never been pregnant), but Maria Theresa and Joseph were 'in great distress' according to the French ambassador's reports. He wrote that Isabella was 'in good health' but that she remained bedridden for days.[60] Her pregnancies and miscarriages deepened her depression and eroded her will to live. Her death anxiety was aggravated by the risks of childbirth.[5] In the beginning of March, it was reported to the King of France that she was psychologically unwell, still grieving for her last miscarriage, and showing physical symptoms: she was 'extremely thin', had an 'almost constant' 'dry cough', and experienced pain in her sides. It was concluded that her health was 'seriously threatened', and the Ambassador believed that her 'soul' needed to be calmed.[59]
Meanwhile, the love of her husband and mother-in-law for her grew, and it seems that Isabella found a maternal figure in the Empress.[61] She seems to have hidden her independence and her revolutionary beliefs well, being submissive towards both her husband and her mother-in-law.[60]
Thanks to God, our dear and charming daughter has recovered well and is in good health. In ten months of time, she gave birth and had two miscarriages. That is being too diligent. I wish therefore that she rest for six months to regain her strength. I ask you not to show her any desire of having a grandson. She is too used to obeying.
— Maria Theresa, letter to the Duke of Parma from 18 January 1763, [60]
Her sister-in-law, Archduchess Maria Christina 'Marie' or 'Mimi' was Isabella's best friend and closest, if not only confidante in Vienna. She was the third surviving child of the imperial couple, less than five months younger than Isabella, and the favourite child of the Empress. She was intelligent and artistically inclined. The two quickly developed a close relationship,[62] spending so much time together that they earned a comparison with Orpheus and Eurydice.[63] Despite living in the same palace, they exchanged letters and small notes in French. Only those written by Isabella have survived (those of Marie were burned after her death), but even these amount to almost two hundred.[64]
It seems that Isabella soon became romantically and sexually attracted to Marie. The latter's feelings developed more gradually and remained more reserved.[65] She was recovering from her love for Louis Eugene of Württemberg, after their relationship had been ended by Maria Theresa who considered him inferior to an archduchess.[66] Soon after Isabella's arrival, in October or November 1760, she started to playfully pay court to Marie, writing that 'love, that cruel god, torment[ed her]' and that death would be 'surely sweet', except for not being able to love Marie anymore.[67]
In the beginning of their relationship, she addressed Marie formally, calling her [m]adame, ma chère Sœur, 'my lady my dear Sister', but soon started calling her mon cher ange, 'my dear angel', mon plus précieux trésor, 'my most precious treasure', ma consolation, 'my consolation', and many other nicknames. She also regularly portrayed the two of them as a heterosexual couple. In these depictions, Marie was Eurydice and Isabelle Orpheus; often, she used the names of couples from contemporary comedies, or called herself the lover ('amant') of Mimi.[67]
The two women agreed to meet in hidden places and Isabella wrote short notes to Marie during mass. They gifted each other contemporary toilets, chairs with a hole under which chamber pots could be placed, and Isabella commented that she hoped Marie would think of her each time she used it. If the weather prevented Joseph going on a hunt, the sisters-in-law cancelled their date in hurried, disappointed notes.[68] They were worried to keep their relationship a secret, with Isabella writing a letter in March 1761 to remind Marie of her 'given word' not to ever talk of something that the text does not name, 'for there is nothing in the world as shameful as going against nature'.[69]
While earlier historians dismissed the heated language of these letters as a fashionable, emotional expression of friendly love, later it became consensus that the two had a secret lesbian affair.[62] Hans Bankl, who analysed the letters, concluded that '[t]he wife of the heir to the throne was in love, and, as she wrote, à la rage, to the point of madness. Only, not with her husband but with his sister'.[70] Élisabeth Badinter, who published Isabella's letters, said that the desire to possess the object of one's love, the pain of being separated from her, an obsession with the beloved, jealousy, and dependency—seen as characteristics of romantic-sexual relationships both in the 18th century and since then—were apparent in their correspondence.[65]
Marie seems to have been more reserved than Isabella, but she did return her feelings. This inequality made Isabella unhappy in the relationship,[citation needed] while their shared perception of homosexuality as sinful led to feelings of guilt. Isabella also felt ashamed for not returning the love of her husband and failing to fulfill her duty as a wife.[71] This worsened her depression and convinced her that the only solution was death.[46] She wrote to Marie that 'only the Almighty knows how gladly I would part with this life in which grievance is inflicted upon Him daily'.[72]
| A selection of quotes by Isabella in letters to Marie cited by Badinter as supporting a love affair | |
|---|---|
| French original or *French translation of German original by Badinter | English translation |
| Je vous aime à l'adoration et mon bonheur est de vous aimer et d'être assurée de vous. | I love you to the point of worship and my happiness is loving you and being certain of you[r love]. |
| Je suis amoureuse de toi comme une folle, saintement ou diaboliquement, je vous aime et aimerai jusqu'au tombeau. | I love thee like a madwoman, in a holy way or diabolically, I love you and will love you to the grave. |
| Je suis très disposée à vous étouffer à force de caresses. | I am quite inclined to smother you with caresses. |
| Vous me faites tourner la tête [...] Je suis dans l'état le plus violent, la sueur me coule sur le front, je suis sans haleine... | You make my head spin [...] I am in the most violent state, sweat runs down my forehead, I am breathless... |
| Je vous baise de toutes mes forces, mais plus avec le menton. | I kiss you with all my might, but no longer with my chin. |
| Je vous baise tout ce que vous laissez baiser. | I kiss all that you let me kiss. |
| Il pourrait bien arriver que nous nous embrassions jusqu'à épuisement. | It could very well happen that we kiss each other to [deadly] exhaustion. |
| Je baise ton petit cul d'archange.* | I kiss thine archangelic little ass. |
| Je baise votre adorable cul en me gardant bien de vous offrir le mien qui est un peu foireux. | I kiss your lovely ass while being careful not to offer you mine, which is a bit of a mess. |
| Le visage est un peu malade, mais votre place favorite ne [l'est pas]. | The face is a little sick, but your favourite place is not. |
| Tout ce qui m'occpe à cette heure, c'est de dire si je pouvais seulement la voir, quelle douceur ne serait-ce pas, quel bonheur, quelle satisfaction intérieure ne ressentirais-je pas, si je pouvais seulement contempler ce nez tourné avec tant de grâce et d'attrait, qui m'a si souvent transportée, cette bouche si propre à consoler par ses baisers, ces yeux dont le langage est si touchant. [...] J'oublie où je suis, j'oublie ceux avec qui je suis. [...] Je ne pense qu'à ce nouveau désir que je cherche à satisfaire à quelque prix que cela soit. | All that occupies me at this hour is to say if I could only see her, what sweetness it would be, what happiness, what inner satisfaction I would feel, if I could only contemplate that nose turned with such grace and attractiveness, which has so often carried me away, that mouth so suited to console with its kisses, those eyes whose language is so touching. [...] I forget where I am, I forget those with whom I am. [...] I think only of this new desire that I seek to satisfy whatever the price may be. |
While most of her family loved and respected her, her relationship with her eldest sister-in-law, the Archduchess Maria Anna, known as Marianne, only deteriorated. Isabella was beautiful, while everyone considered Marianne to be the least attractive among her sisters; she was lovely and charming, while Marianne was always ignored by her mother and siblings.[73] The Infanta was also intelligent, and the sciences had been Marianne's refuge, something she shared with her father the Emperor Francis—who now also adored Isabella. The Spanish princess was even a better singer and violinist than the Archduchess. Marianne considered Isabella a rival and greeted her coldly, hardly even extending her hand upon their first meeting.[51]
Marianne's coldness, motivated by jealousy and a feeling of inferiority, deeply hurt Isabella and she decided not to trust her. She considered her a false, duplicitous, and hypocritical person.[51] It seems like Marianne was the only one to suspect the lesbian love affair between Isabella and Marie, and she spied on them. In many letters by Isabella to Marie, she warned her to take care to keep their exchanges safe from Marianne, and her short dissertation titled Les Charmes de la fausse amitié, 'The Charms of False Friendship' was about her. The two women exchanged hugs, kisses, and compliments in public.[74] Their coldness, slowly turning into hostility,[75] worsened the already distant relationship between Marianne and Joseph, and after Isabella's death he never forgave his sister for not loving his wife.[76] As emperor and head of the family, he used his power to take revenge on her.[74]
According to the custom introduced by Maria Theresa, the imperial court spent summers in Schönbrunn. In 1763, warm weather lasted so long that they only returned to the Hofburg on 14 November.[77] It was recorded that Isabella did not want to move back that year.[78] She was around six months pregnant, believing that she might be carrying twins;[59] and reports of smallpox cases were heard around Vienna. On 18 November, Isabella developed a fever and was soon diagnosed with smallpox. The Empress, who had been nursing her, was begged to leave her bedroom, as she had not had the disease yet. Afterwards, Joseph, Marianne, and Marie (her husband and his two sisters) took care of her.[79] The fever induced labour, and on 22 November, she gave birth to a second daughter. On her request, he baby was baptised Maria Christina, but died the same day.[3]
Following the birth, Isabella was rarely conscious, but displayed a courage bordering on indifference.[79] The odour coming from her bedroom was so strong that most people could not pass by its door, but Joseph stayed by her side and took care of her without a break. On 26 November, the doctors had to tell him that Isabella was agonising, and she died on the next day at dawn, one month and three days before her twenty-second birthday. As her body was still infectious, it was buried quickly without an autopsy or embalming,[3] and placed in the Maria Theresa Vault of the Imperial Crypt.[80] The coffin of her daughter Christina was placed beneath hers, and an unusually long mourning period of three months was ordered by the Empress.[3]
Isabella's death, along with the death from smallpox of three or four of the imperial children, and the suffering most family members underwent because of the disease, contributed to Maria Theresa's 1768 decision to have younger members of the family variolated, and the subsequent acceptance of the practice in Austria.[81]
Joseph was devastated by her death and never fully recovered.[82] He remarried on the insistence of his mother in 1765 to Maria Josepha of Bavaria. They lived in loveless and childless marriage for two years before she also died of smallpox.[64] He adored his only child, Maria Theresa, who died of pleurisy in 1770, aged seven.[49] While the love he had felt for his wife brought forward his more positive attributes, he closed off to the world after her death. He became even more sarcastic, easily irritable, and aggressive than he had been before their marriage.[49]
I have lost everything. My adorable wife and only friend is no more. (...) What a frightful separation! Can I survive it? Yes, and only to be unhappy all my life. (...) There is nothing I will enjoy ever again.
— Archduke Joseph of Austria, in a letter to her father-in-law Philip, Duke of Parma
There is no record of Marie's reaction to Isabella's death.[83] She nursed her until her death, and took care of her daughter until she herself died in childhood. According to a letter by Maria Theresa, Isabella entrusted her papers to her mother-in-law shortly before her death, saying that 'not everything was viewable' for Joseph. The Empress asked Countess Erdődy, Isabella's Oberhofmeisterin, to collect and burn all of Isabella's writings, saying that it would be her greatest service to the imperial family.[84]
In 1766, Marie married Prince Albert Casimir of Saxony. She was the only one of the empress' children to choose her own spouse and marry for love.[85] After her death, a miniature of Isabella and her daughter Maria Theresa was found in her prayer book. On its back, she had written the date and cause of Isabella's death and that she was her 'best and truest friend' who had 'lived as an angel and died as an angel'.[83]
The letters Isabella had written to her were also found among Marie's papers and read by her husband, then passed down in the family. Albert understood the letters as proof of the exceptional friendship between his beloved wife and an 'unpararelled princess'.[86] As of 2023, the letters are in the National Archives of Hungary. They were published in part (excluding five letters which detailed the bodily functions of the writer) by Alfred Ritter von Arneth, archivist of the Habsburg papers in the late 19th century. Another heavily censored edition was included in Joseph Hrasky's 1959 Die Persönlichkeit der Infantin von Parma, 'The Personality of the Infanta of Parma', published as a part of the Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs, 'Bulletin of the Austrian State Archives'. In 2008, Élisabeth Badinter published the preserved correspondence in full with notations and her own biography of Isabella.[87]
Isabella left many writings from the time of her marriage, analysing her life, her philosophy and the state of the world around her. She wrote her own autobiography under the title Les Aventures de l'étourderie, 'The Adventures of Amazement'. In her Christian Reflections, which was published on Maria Theresa's orders in 1764,[88] she contemplated religious questions and death. She was also planning a longer study titled On the Customs of Peoples, but could only write the part about Ancient Egyptians before her early death. In another, shorter dissertation, she summarised the Viennese court's efforts to join the Habsburg monarchy into world trade.[89] Another short dissertation titled Les Charmes de la fausse amitié, 'The Charms of False Friendship' was clearly about her sister-in-law Marianne, with whom she had a hostile relationship.[90]
Her Reflections on Education was Isabella's rejection of the traditional upbringing of children, and specifically a condemnation of the cruel tutors of her brother, as well as of their parents who put them in charge.[91] She charged parents with full responsibility over their children, implying that only lazy, indifferent, or weak people allowed strangers to raise their offspring.[91] The most important tenet of her pedagogy was an avoidance of authoritarianism and corporal punishment.[92] She defined authority as 'requiring everything without listening to the child', and ordering, punishing, and rewarding without ever showing satisfaction.[91]
One of Isabella's main convictions was that the suppressing of the natural vivacity of children made them violent, stubborn, and harsh both immediately and in adulthood. Such treatment would also deprive them of their goodwill and confidence, leaving only a 'servile fear' of humiliation. Abusing parental authority leads, in her opinion, to children who think of themselves as slaves; to cope with this, they then became 'unfeeling and self-mocking'.[92]
She considered corporal punishment to be futile and even dangerous, a form of discipline originating in the 'hardened hearts' and 'lowly sentiments' of educators and in the 'false belief' that humans are no better than animals. In Isabella's opinion, the use of violence against children only betrayed the adult's lack of understanding and talent in pedagogy. Painting a portrait of her brother Ferdinand without naming him, she concluded that hitting inspired in children hate and the desire to lie and 'avenge themselves'.[93]
Instead of these methods, which she said had been gaining in popularity, she argued for kindness, 'almost unknown today' as it was regarded as a 'weakness, a failure of firmness and reason'.[93]
In the study The Fate of Princesses, Isabella wrote that a princess was the 'victim of a minister's unfortunate policies', sacrificed for the supposed public good. She criticised the idea of allying countries through marriages, saying that this cannot lead to a lasting alliance.[89] In the end, she declared that a princess might be able to make her 'sad situation' 'enviable' by invoking the will of God and serving Him.[94]
What can the daughter of a great prince expect? [...] Already at birth she is a slave to the prejudices of the people; she is born only to be subjected to this welter of honours, to this etiquette attached to greatness. [..] Her position deprives her of knowing [those] by whom she is surrounded. She cannot get to know the people living around her. The rank which she bears, far from bringing her the slighest advantage, deprives her of the greatest pleasure of life. [...] [O]bligated to live in the world, she hardly has any acquaintances or friends. [...]
This is not all. In the end, they want to marry her off. She is therefore condemned to leave everything behind, her family, her homeland, and for whom? For a stranger, for a person whose character and way of thinking she does not know, for a family who will perhaps only look at her with jealousy, but in the best case with suspicion.— Archduchess Isabella of Austria, The Fate of Princesses, [95]
Isabella wrote a critical piece examining the status and behaviour of men in patriarchal contemporary European society, titled Traité sur les hommes ('Treatise on Men'). She argued that women were as good and capable as men if not better, and mocked the male sex. Humorously, she described men as 'useless animals' only existing to 'do bad things, be impatient, and create confusion'. Based on her experiences, she concluded that men 'deprived of feelings, only loved themselves'. In her opinion, man is born to think but instead spends his life 'with entertainment, yelling, playing heroes, running up and down, in other words, doing nothing but what flatters his vanity or requires no thought of him'.[96]
She summarised why, in her opinion, men were nevertheless above women in society: firstly, so that their 'faults can make [women's] virtues shine brighter', secondly to become better every day, and, thirdly, 'to be endured in the world, from which, if they did not hold all power in their hands, they would be exiled entirely'. In conclusion, Isabella argued that the 'slavery' of women is caused by men sensing that women are superior to them.[90][97]
Isabella wrote a long letter to her sister-in-law and possible lover, Archduchess Maria Christina, as part of her preparations for death, as she was certain that she would die young and even looked forward to this. The Conseils à Marie ('Advice to Marie') consisted mostly of descriptions of their family members, including Maria Theresa and Joseph. In her view, her husband was 'not primarily emotional' and viewed usual expressions of love such as terms of endearment or hugs to be mere flattery or even hypocrisy. She described her father-in-law Emperor Francis as an 'honourable, good-hearted' man and a 'reliable, true friend', but someone who is prone to listening to bad advisors. Of Empress Maria Theresa, she wrote that 'a kind of mistrust and seeming coldness' is mixed in her love for her children. She stated that her death will not be a great loss for her mother-in-law, but will nevertheless cause her pain and that she will 'transfer all of the friendship she feels for [Isabella] to [Marie]'.[98]
Isabella was an intelligent and well-educated woman especially interested in philosophy, morality, music, history, physics, and metaphysics.[71] She was also artistically inclined: she painted, drew, sang, played the violin (something rare even among men at the time), and wrote poems and studies.[99] She studied mechanics, worked on various machinery, and enjoyed doing sports.[100] The imperial court and even her husband, who had previously viewed chatting with women an empty pastime,[101] considered her a witty conversationalist. Despite her shy and reserved nature, she was well-liked by most people. She observed others consciously and analysed their personalities.[46]
When her best friend and possible lover, Archduchess Maria Christina wrote a description of Isabella, she mentioned being biased in favour of those she loved and changing her opinions reluctantly among her negative traits. She also stated that Isabella liked to 'torture' people, but that once she had reached her goal and upset them she was devastated.[102]
Her physical appearance was the opposite of fashionable among noble ladies: she had olive skin and short hair.[8]
Isabella was considered melancholic, as depression was known in the 18th century. Despite her usual liveliness and love of sports, she had sudden periods of being unable to move and sitting in her place staring in front of herself.[8] It has been suggested by Ursula Tamussino that her problems, probably a form of bipolar disorder, were hereditary as both of her grandfathers and her father showed similar symptoms.[9] Her mother's death also had a strong effect on her, and soon became convinced that she would not live for more than four years from then.[41] Burdened by her marriage, difficult pregnancies and homosexual desires, she became suicidal. She admitted in a letter that she would feel 'great temptation' to commit suicide if it was not forbidden by the church. As reasons for this she listed that she felt she was good for nothing, only did bad things, and saw no way for her salvation.[103] By 1763, her yearning for death reached the extent that she declared to have heard a voice telling her that the end is near, which put her in a 'gentle, peaceful, festive mood', encouraged her to do anything and gave her a 'mysterious power over [herself]'.[9]
