Isabella Of Parma

Isabella of Bourbon-Parma (, , ; 31 December 1741 – 27 November 1763) was a princess of Parma and infanta of Spain from the House of Bourbon-Parma as the daughter of Philip, Duke of Parma, and Louise-Élisabeth of France. 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 (she never became empress due to her early death).

Secretly an Enlightenment thinker, she was a prolific writer, and nineteen separate works by her have been preserved. She discussed philosophy, religion, ethics, politics, diplomacy, military theory, world trade, education and childrearing, human culture and societies, and the position of women. In secret essays, she argued for the intellectual equality of women. None of her writings were published in her life. Her ''Méditations chrétiennes'' ('Christian Meditations') were published in 1764, a year after her death. Some of her personal correspondence and other works have been published by biographers and historians.

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. Despite her popularity at the Viennese court, she was unhappy because of the guilt of being unable to reciprocate her husband's feelings, compounded by the same-sex attraction that she considered sinful. A lonely childhood with demanding and unaffectionate caretakers, the sudden loss of her mother, a difficult birth and two miscarriages in the span of ten months, and later a fourth pregnancy all adversely affected her physical and mental health. She was described as melancholic and experienced suicidal ideation. Biographers have suggested that she suffered from depression or bipolar disorder, to which she was likely genetically predisposed. She died at the age of 21 from smallpox.

Early life

Birth and family

Infanta Isabel María Luisa Antonieta of Spain was born on 31 December 1741 at Buen Retiro Palace in Madrid as the first child of Infante Philip of Spain and his wife, Louise-Élisabeth of France (known as 'Madame Infante').

Isabella's parents were first cousins once removed with an age difference of six years (her mother had been twelve- and her father eighteen years old when they married). As the eldest daughter of Louis XV of France, Madame Infante and her contemporaries thought that she should only marry a monarch or an heir apparent, yet the Infante Philip was only the third son of Philip V of Spain. Madame Infante was ambitious and strong-willed, unlike her husband. She soon took on a leading role in the marriage, working through her international connections to secure a higher position for themselves and more power for the Bourbons as a whole. She had a contentious relationship with her mother-in-law Elisabeth Farnese, the '' de facto'' ruler of Spain, whom she threatened in her influence over her son, but they worked together to advance Philip's career.

Madame Infante was fourteen years old when she gave birth to Isabella. The delivery was difficult and 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 his child was eight years old, although he kept up an intensive correspondence with his wife and mother, learning about Isabella from them. Her mother showed little affection towards Isabella and probably found the baby to be a burden.

Early life in Madrid

For the first seven years of her life, Isabella was raised at the Madrid court of her paternal grandparents. Her grandmother, Queen Elisabeth, loved her, reporting regularly on her well-being, development, and behaviour to her absent son. Based on these letters, her mother never displayed warmth towards Isabella, and was impatient with her. When the child threw tantrums, she chastised her so severely that Queen Elisabeth called it a 'military drill'. Madame Infante reportedly found Isabella to be 'stubborn' and 'unbearable'. Isabella was raised by an ''aya'' (governess), the French-born widow Marie-Catherine de Bassecourt-Grigny, Marquise of Gonzalez (later ''suo jure'' marquise of Borghetto; 1693–1770). The Marquise retained a strong sense of etiquette and hierarchy from her previous position as ''dame d'honneur'' to Barbara of Portugal. Isabella developed a close bond with her ''aya'', which inspired the jealousy of her mother.

Isabella's education was structured around contemporary ideals for princesses. The use of corporal punishment was ordered by her father and endorsed by her mother. According to her autobiography, she was an energetic and mischievous child, always loud, 'jumping, climbing, falling', breaking furniture and ornaments. Her favourite pastimes were chasing after butterflies, horse-riding, and performing stunts with a rope, but she also liked to write, sing, and draw. Because her behaviour was considered unsuitable for her position, her ''aya'' eventually forbade her access to ropes, horses, and swings. 'What to do in this sad situation? ..But I eventually learned to be reasonable', Isabella commented as an adult. She started to entertain herself silently, later recalling that her 'head was always in the clouds, occupying itself with a hundred thousand ideas at once'. In 1746, when Isabella was four, a French envoy complimented her 'dignity', saying that she already knew 'who she is, to whom she belongs, and what she must be one day'. He also remarked on the coldness of Madame Infante towards Isabella. 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 Élisabeth Badinter.

Visit to Versailles

Between 6 January and 7 October 1749, Isabella lived in Versailles, visiting her maternal family on their way to Parma. As the then-only grandchild of Louis XV and Marie Leszczyńska, she received more attention and affection than ever before. The luxury and cheerfulness of the French court was a shock to her after the more rigid Spanish courtly customs. Aged eight, she participated in court functions and attended the theatre, the opera, balls, and concerts. Paul d'Albert de Luynes recorded that she did not seem to enjoy these performances and was considered 'timid'. 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).

With time, Isabella started to enjoy her stay. She liked to accompany Queen Marie to operas, plays, and concerts, and she was delighted by being treated as a French royal princess: the royal guard saluted her, and she was seated in an identical armchair to that of her mother and aunts. Once, she performed in a play in the apartment of the Dauphine Maria Josepha of Saxony to general acclaim. After her stay in Versailles, she corresponded with her maternal family and her primary language had become French.

Adolescence in Parma

With the 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, Isabella's father became duke of Parma, a title formerly belonging to his mother's family. Isabella and her mother arrived in Parma on 20 November 1749. The duchy was impoverished, its palaces in ruins. Whereas Isabella thought highly of Spaniards and the French, she considered Italians to be 'ignorant of the art of thinking' and wanted to leave the country immediately. Her mother, resenting her low status and relative poverty, focused on arranging prestigious marriages for her children. She visited Versailles twice to negotiate a match for Isabella, between August 1752 and October 1753, then in the summer of 1757, when she died. Both times, her husband and children stayed in Parma.

Isabella's parents had two children in 1751: Ferdinand on 20 January and Luisa on 9 December, to whom their mother showed more affection. Isabella seems not to have been jealous and to have enjoyed having company. During Madame Infante's absences, Isabella reported on her siblings' well-being to their father and 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 on 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 stayed with her ''aya'' in the Palazzo del Giardino.

While Isabella certainly exchanged letters with her mother, these have been lost. Around this time, her friends questioned Madame Infante about her coldness towards her eldest child. She replied that her 'character was too serious' to 'make a friend of erdaughter'. She believed that Isabella should be 'satisfied' with the affection shown to her because of Madame Infante's 'cold nature'. She was officially urged by the Marshal of France, Adrien-Maurice de Noailles, to show more love to Isabella, as it was feared that rumours about her cold treatment could diminish the chances of a politically advantageous marriage. The French ambassador to Parma assured Noailles that more attention was being paid to Isabella, while Madame Infante protested her maternal love: 'all the world must see ..how much I love her. For those who know me, it is certain'.

Education

In the summer of 1749, Isabella's parents hired Pierre Cerou, an educated French comedy writer with experience as a tutor to manage their property and instruct Isabella in history, literature, and French. In 1754, at the request of the Madrid court who were concerned about Cerou's religiosity, he was replaced by a French Jesuit, Thomas Fumeron. Fumeron, however, was assigned to Ferdinand, not Isabella. From then on, she did not officially have a teacher. In 1757 and 1758 respectively, a governor and a tutor were hired 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. Isabella was instructed by her confessors, Fathers Fumeron and Belgrado, in the lives of the saints, and she continued to practice drawing, painting, and music with her ''aya''. She excelled at singing and playing the violin and the harpsichord. While there is no proof that she attended lectures by Keralion and Condillac, Badinter argues that her later knowledge of military theory, history, and Enlightenment ideals shows that she did.

Isabella probably witnessed the cruelty of Keralio and Condillac, especially the latter, towards her brother. Despite his progressive idea of 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'', Isabella would condemn the way her brother had been brought up, anonymously depicting both him and Condillac. She maintained a correspondence with Keralio in her adulthood, but rarely mentioned the Abbot.

Life in Vienna

Marriage with Archduke Joseph

Background

The family policy of Maria Theresa, Holy Roman Empress was intended to strengthen the relationship between the Bourbons and the Habsburgs. Influenced by Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV decided to shift alliances and join Austria against Britain and Prussia in the Diplomatic Revolution. The Empress' eldest son, Joseph, was unenthusiastic about marriage because of his low opinion of women, and relied on the advice of his mother in choosing a bride. His betrothal to Isabella's cousin, Maria Luisa of Spain, was broken off with the excuse that he had fallen in love with Isabella, although the decision was a political one made by his mother. On the bride's side, negotiations were led by Madame Infante. The contract was finalised in the summer of 1759 in Versailles. Shortly after, aged thirty-two, Madame Infante died of smallpox, devastating her daughter. Isabella might have become convinced at this time that she was to die within four years. She was reported to repeatedly say that she would die before turning twenty-two.

After the betrothal, the parties decided to wait so that the young couple could mature. The death of Élisabeth further delayed the plans. Isabella started to learn German, devoting seven hours a day to it. She was anxious to please her future mother-in-law the Empress. Isabella prepared methodically for her future, studying 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. Meanwhile, Joseph wrote to a friend that he would try to win his bride's 'respect and trust'. He considered it impossible to be 'agreeable, to pose as a lover', as that went against his 'nature' which had never understood romantic love. Thoughts of his approaching wedding made him 'tremble' and feel melancholic.

Wedding

Following a marriage by proxy, Isabella was sent to Vienna with Joseph Wenzel I, Prince of Liechtenstein in late 1760. While she was sad to say goodbye to her family, she was happy to leave Parma. Maria Theresa refused to let anyone of her former staff accompany her. Publicly, Isabella disguised her sadness, but cried in private with her father, siblings, confessor, and ''aya''. She travelled from Parma through the Alps and was greeted at the border by her ''Oberhofmeisterin'', the widowed Countess Erdődy, Antónia Battyhány. They reached a castle near Vienna on 1 October, where they were received by Isabella's father-in-law Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor.

The Emperor accompanied Isabella to Laxenburg castles', and wrote a short dissertation titled about her. The two nevertheless exchanged embraces, kisses, and compliments in public. Marianne seems to have been the only person to suspect the affair between Isabella and Marie, and she spied on them. Isabella often warned Marie to keep their letters safe from Marianne. Their coldness, turning into hostility, worsened the already distant relationship between Marianne and Joseph, and he never forgave his sister for antagonising his wife. Later, as head of the family, he used his power to isolate her and deprive her financially

Death and aftermath

The imperial court spent summers in Schönbrunn Palace">Schönbrunn. In 1763, it was recorded that Isabella did not want to move back to the Hofburg. She was around six months pregnant and believed that she might be carrying twins; smallpox cases were reported around Vienna. On 18 November, four days after her arrival in Vienna, Isabella developed a fever and was soon diagnosed with smallpox. The Empress, who had been nursing her, was persuaded to leave her room, as she had not had the disease yet and thus could have caught it. Afterwards, Joseph, Marianne, and Marie (her husband and his two sisters) took care of her. The fever induced labour, and on 22 November, she prematurely gave birth. On her request, the baby was baptised Maria Christina, but died the same day.

Following the birth, Isabella was rarely conscious and displayed a 'courage' bordering on indifference to death. On 26 November, the doctors informed Joseph that Isabella was agonising, and she died on the next day at dawn, a month before her twenty-second birthday. As her body was still infectious, it was buried without an autopsy or embalming in the Maria Theresa Vault of the Imperial Crypt. The coffin of her daughter Christina was placed beneath hers. 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.

Impact on Joseph and Maria Christina

Joseph was devastated by her death and never fully recovered. On his mother's insistence, he remarried to Maria Josepha of Bavaria in 1765, who physically repulsed him and whom he mistreated despite her attempts to accommodate him. She died of smallpox after two years of marriage. He adored his only child, Maria Theresa, who died of pleurisy in 1770, aged seven. While the love he had felt for his wife helped develop his more positive attributes, after her death, he became even more sarcastic, easily irritable, and aggressive than he had been before his marriage. There is no record of Marie's reaction to Isabella's death. She took care of her daughter until she died in childhood, and married Prince Albert Casimir of Saxony in 1766 Later, she wrote that Isabella's death was 'to the great regret of all, but above all of me'.

Personality and appearance

Isabella was interested in philosophy, morality, music, history, physics, and metaphysics. She was also artistically inclined: she painted, drew, sang, played the violin and the harpsichord with both enjoyment and talent, and wrote poems and studies. In 1758, French historian Pierre-Jean Grosley visited Parma and described Isabella as 'one of the main wonders' of the city because of her 'marked talent' in all 'useful and pleasurable arts' and her 'good knowledge of the world'. Freyermuth argues that the travels she undertook as a child and her diverse experiences in Spain, France, Parma, and later Austria stimulated her intellectual development and her critical thinking skills.

During negotiations for her marriage, Austrian observers reported that Isabella spoke French, Spanish, Italian, and some Latin, studied sciences and maps, and followed military movements in Austria's ongoing Third Silesian War. She had also started to learn German. In a report commissioned by Maria Theresa, she was praised as 'beautiful' and 'kind', 'dignified' but never 'affected', calling her an 'angel of beauty and of goodness'. She liked to read but did not 'wish to appear a savant'—she was able to express her intelligence and knowledge while remaining in line with contemporary expectations of proper feminine behaviour. Contemporaries appreciated that she was both 'erudite' and good-hearted. She enjoyed dancing at balls but not card games, horse-riding, or hunting (all popular forms of entertainment in European royal courts of the time), preferring brisk-paced walks as physical exercise. Inspired by her grandmother Marie Leszczyńska, she distributed much of her income to the poor.

Despite her shy and reserved nature, Isabella was well-liked by most people. She observed others consciously and analysed their personalities, strengths, and weaknesses to build a good relationship with them. 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 being reluctant to change her opinions among her negative traits. She also stated that Isabella liked to mock people, but that once she had reached her goal and upset them, she was devastated. Her physical appearance was the opposite of what was fashionable among noble ladies at the time: she had olive skin, but she was nevertheless considered pretty.

Mental health problems

Isabella was considered melancholic, the contemporary name for depressive tendencies. Despite her usual liveliness and love of sports, she had sudden periods of being unable to move and sitting in one place, staring in front of herself. It has been suggested by Tamussino that her problems, probably a form of bipolar disorder, were hereditary as both of her grandfathers and her father showed similar symptoms. Her mother's death had a strong effect on her, and she became convinced that she would not live for more than four years from that time. 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 to reach salvation. In 1763, she declared that she had heard a voice telling her that her death was near, which put her in a 'gentle, peaceful, festive' mood, encouraged her to 'do anything' and gave her a 'mysterious power over erself.

Writings

Isabella left numerous writings from the time of her marriage. In them, she analysed her life and the world around her. Her first surviving work, ''Remarques politiques et militaires'' ('Political and Military Observations') is dated to 1758, when she was aged seventeen. She wrote an autobiography titled . In her ''Christian Reflections'', which was published on Maria Theresa's orders in 1764, she contemplated religious questions and death from a Catholic perspective. She was planning a longer study titled ''On the Customs of Peoples'', but could only write its first part (about ancient Egyptians) before her death. In a shorter dissertation, she summarised the Viennese court's efforts to join the Habsburg monarchy into world trade.

''Réflexions sur l'éducation''

''Reflections on Education'' was Isabella's rejection of the contemporary upbringing of upper-class children and a covert condemnation of her own parents and the teachers they hired, especially the abusive tutors of her brother Ferdinand. She charged parents with full responsibility over their children, calling those who allow strangers to raise their offspring as 'lazy, indifferent, and weak'.

She rejected authoritarianism and corporal punishment, as she believed that they made children 'violent, stubborn, and harsh' immediately and in adulthood. She argued that unexplained restrictions and harsh punishments deprived children of the experience of 'fulfilling their duties willingly'. Their only behavioural example would then be 'violence' (as was the case with her brother). She believed that children had inherent 'goodwill and confidence', but those raised authoritatively would learn to act out of a 'servile fear of humiliation'. In Isabella's opinion, abusing parental authority leads children to think of themselves as 'slaves' and become 'unfeeling and self-mocking' to cope with their low self-esteem.

She considered corporal punishment (which her parents had embraced) to be futile and dangerous, a form of discipline originating in 'hardened hearts' and 'lowly sentiments', based on the 'false belief' that humans are 'no better than animals' and cannot be persuaded through reason. For her, violence against children showed the adult's lack of 'understanding' and pedagogical talent. Painting an anonymous portrait of her brother, she concluded that beatings inspired 'hate', dishonesty, and a desire to 'avenge themselves' in children. Instead of these methods, which she say had been gaining popularity at the time, she advocated for kindness, 'almost unknown' as it was regarded as a 'weakness, a failure of firmness and reason'.

''Sur le sort des princesses''

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, arguing that this cannot lead to a lasting alliance. She concluded with saying that a princess might be able to make her 'sad situation' 'enviable' by invoking the will of God and serving Him.

''Traité sur les hommes''

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 intellectually as men, perhaps even better, and mocked the male sex. Humorously, she described men as 'useless animals' who only exist to 'do bad things, be impatient, and create confusion'. Based on her experiences and maybe on her opinion of her husband, she concluded that men were 'deprived of feelings, ndonly loved themselves'. In her opinion, a 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'. She summarised why, in her opinion, men were nevertheless above women in society: so that their 'faults can make omen'svirtues shine brighter', to become better every day, and 'to be endured in the world, from which, if they did not hold all power in their hands, they would be exiled entirely'. Isabella concluded that the 'slavery' of women is caused by men sensing that women are superior to them.

''Conseils à Marie''

Isabella wrote a long letter to her sister-in-law and possible lover, Archduchess Maria Christina, as part of her preparations for death. The ''Conseils à Marie'' ('Advice to Marie') consists of descriptions of their family members and ways of nurturing a good relationship with them. In her view, her husband was 'not primarily emotional' and viewed usual expressions of love such as terms of endearment or embraces as flattery or 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 sabellato arie.

Bibliography

Isabella was a prolific writer of essays and studies during her marriage. A number of her works were found among the papers of her sister-in-law Maria Christina by her widower Albert Casimir, Duke of Teschen. They were then placed in the Habsburg family archives with his comments. He noted that other works by Isabella had been lost in a shipwreck, referring to an accident in 1792 when the belongings of the couple were transported from Rotterdam to Hamburg. Hrasky and Tamussino consider it improbable that there were further writings, 'given the abundance of what has been preserved'. Together with the rest of the family papers, Isabella's work was stored in Vienna until World War I, then in a Habsburg residence in Mosonmagyaróvár, Hungary. There, a fire damaged them in 1956. As of 2024, they can be found in the National Archives of Hungary and the National Archives of Austria. Few of her writings have been published. She also composed music, and a few airs and odes by her are preserved in Budapest.

Issue

Isabella had four known pregnancies during the three years of her marriage. Two of these ended in a miscarriage and two produced daughters, only one of whom survived infancy and neither of whom lived to adulthood.

Ancestry

Notes

References

Sources

Books

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Web pages

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Rice, 'Women in Love: Gluck's ''Orfeo'' as a Source of Romantic Consolation in Vienna, Paris, and Stockholm
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Isabella of Parma
1741 births
1763 deaths
Princesses of Bourbon-Parma
House of Habsburg-Lorraine
18th-century Austrian LGBTQ people
Austrian lesbians
Infectious disease deaths in Austria
Deaths from smallpox
Burials at the Imperial Crypt
Daughters of dukes
Spanish infantas