Princess Isabella of Parma | |||||
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Archduchess of Austria | |||||
![]() Portrait by Jean-Marc Nattier, 1758 | |||||
Born | 31 December 1741 Buen Retiro Palace, Madrid, Kingdom of Spain | ||||
Died | 27 November 1763 Hofburg, Vienna, Archduchy of Austria, Holy Roman Empire | (aged 21)||||
Burial | |||||
Spouse | |||||
Issue |
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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, French: Isabelle-Marie-Louise-Antoine; 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 was a prolific writer, and nineteen separate works (some of them unfinished) have been preserved from the three years of her marriage. In them, she discussed philosophy, religion, ethics, politics, diplomacy, military theory, world trade, education and childrearing, human culture and societies, and the position of women. In her writings (which she kept secret), 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, the shame and guilt inspired by her inability to reciprocate her husband's feelings, compounded by the same-sex attraction that she considered sinful, made her unhappy. 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, and biographers have suggested that she suffered from depression or bipolar disorder, to which she was likely genetically predisposed. She died at the age of twenty-one from smallpox.
Early life
Birth and family
Infanta Isabel María Luisa Antonieta[note 1] 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, Louise-Élisabeth of France (who was known as 'Madame Infante').[1]
![Two toddlers, one in white and the other in white and gold in front of a red background, playing with a small dog](Https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0e/Isabella_di_Parma_and_Maria_Isabella_di_Neapoli.jpg/220px-Isabella_di_Parma_and_Maria_Isabella_di_Neapoli.jpg)
Isabella's parents were first cousins once removed with an age difference of seven years: her mother had been twelve and her father nineteen years old when they married. Being the firstborn daughter of Louis XV of France, Élisabeth considered it beneath her to marry anyone who was not a monarch or an heir apparent, while Philip was only the third son of Philip V of Spain. Élisabeth was ambitious and strong-willed, unlike her husband, and she soon took on a leading role in the marriage, working through her French and Spanish contacts to secure a higher position for her themselves[2] and more power for the House of Bourbon.[3] She had a contentious relationship with her mother-in-law Elisabeth Farnese, the de facto ruler of Spain, who felt threatened by her in her influence over her son, but they worked together to advance Philip's career.[4]
Élisabeth was fourteen when she gave birth to Isabella after a difficult labour lasting 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. Her mother showed little affection towards Isabella and probably found the baby to be a burden.[5]
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 and showed interest in her development, reporting on her well-being and behaviour in her daily letters to her absent son.[6] 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. 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'.[7]
![Royal couple seated in a sumptuous marble hall on thrones, the queen in a bejeweled white silk dress with her arms on a red pillow holding a crown. The king, in a silvery-blue military coat, is looking towards his wife.](Https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c9/Felipe_V_e_Isabel_de_Farnesio.jpg/220px-Felipe_V_e_Isabel_de_Farnesio.jpg)
After she had been weaned, Isabella's care and education was entrusted to an aya (governess), the French-born widow María Catalina, Marquise of Gonzalez (born Marie-Catherine de Bassecourt-Grigny, 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's aunt-by-marriage.[8]
According to her unpublished autobiography, Isabella was an energetic and mischievous child, always 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. In order to better her behaviour, her aya forbade her access to ropes, horses, and swings. 'What to do in this sad situation? [...] But I finally learned to be reasonable', Isabella commented as an adult. From then on, she entertained herself silently, and later recalled that her 'head was always in the clouds, occupying itself with a hundred thousand ideas at once'.[8]
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. She developed a close bond with her aya which inspired the jealousy of her mother. Isabella’s education was focused on contemporary ideals for princesses. In 1746, a French envoy to Madrid complimented her 'dignity', saying that, at the age of four, she already knew 'who she is, to whom she belongs, and what she must be one day'. At the same time, he remarked on the coldness of her mother towards Isabella.[9]
Visit to Versailles
![A young, short-haired girl in a white gown with red and golden embellishments and lace, standing before a landscape.](Https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f7/Isabelle_de_Bourbon%2C_infante_de_Parme_by_Jean-Marc_Nattier_001.jpg/220px-Isabelle_de_Bourbon%2C_infante_de_Parme_by_Jean-Marc_Nattier_001.jpg)
Between 6 January and 7 October 1749, Isabella lived in Versailles, as her mother visited her family on her way to their new home, Parma.[10] Being the only grandchild of Louis XV and Queen Marie Leszczyńska at the time, she was pampered by her grandparents and aunts, surrounded by more attention and affection than she had previously received. The luxury and cheerfulness of the French court was a shock to her after the more rigid Spanish courtly customs.[11]
Aged eight, Isabella was allowed to participate in court functions along with the royal family.[11] She attended the theatre, the opera, ballsm and concerts. The Mémoires of Paul d'Albert de Luynes record that she did not seem to enjoy these performances and was considered 'timid'.[12] 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).[13]
With time, Isabella 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, where almost daily performances of operas, plays, or music were organised.[14] She was delighted by being treated as a French royal princess: the royal guard saluted her if she passed them and she was seated in an identical armchair to that of her mother and aunts. Once, she performed in the apartment of the Dauphine, Maria Josepha of Saxony, to general acclaim.[15] After her stay in Versailles, she started corresponding with her maternal family, and her primary language had become French.[16]
[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, Réflexions sur l’éducation, quotes Badinter
Adolescence in Parma
Following the 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, Isabella's father became duke of Parma, a title formerly belonging to his mother’s family.[17] 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.[18]
![A family sitting in a luxurious salon. The mother, a middle-aged woman in white, is sitting in the front-left, next to her is the father in brown with golden embroidery. Behind them and on their right is Isabella in light purple, showing her father a drawing. On the other side of the couple are two small children playing with a sword, a boy in blue and a girl in yellow. An older woman, the governess of the children is also visible from the back in the far-right of the picture.](Https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/00/La_famiglia_di_Don_Filippo_di_Borbone_by_Giuseppe_Baldrighi_%28C._1757%29.jpg/220px-La_famiglia_di_Don_Filippo_di_Borbone_by_Giuseppe_Baldrighi_%28C._1757%29.jpg)
Parma was impoverished and its Farnese palaces were 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 as soon as she arrived.[18] Her mother also complained of her new situation as she could not fill the positions of her household, and often cried over her relative poverty. Resenting her loss of status, she focused on arranging prestigious marriages for her children.[19] 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,[20] then in the summer of 1757, when she died. Both times, she left her husband and children in Parma.[19][21]
Isabella’s parents had her two younger siblings in 1751: Ferdinand on 20 January and Luisa on 9 December.[18] Isabella seems not to have been jealous of the affection her mother showed to her younger children, and to have enjoyed having company.[22] During Élisabeth's long 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 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 stayed with her aya in the Palazzo del Giardino.[22]
While Isabella certainly exchanged letters with her mother, these have been lost.[23] Around this time, two of her friends questioned Élisabeth about her coldness towards her eldest child. She replied that her 'character was too serious' to 'make a friend of [her] daughter', and that she believed Isabella should be 'satisfied' with the affection shown to her, especially because of Élisabeth's 'otherwise cold nature'.[23] 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 news of her cold treatment spreading to foreign courts 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 Élisabeth protested her maternal love, saying that 'all the world must see, I believe, how much I love her. For those who know me, it is certain'.[24]
Education
In Parma, Isabella's education continued under the Marchioness of Gonzalez.[25] In the summer of 1749, with her mother's support, her father engaged Pierre Cerou, a well-educated French comedy writer with experience as a tutor to manage his property and instruct his daughter in history, literature, and French.[26] In 1754, the Madrid court expressed concerns over his religiosity and demanded that he be replaced by a Jesuit, and after some resistance from Élisabeth (who feared that a member of the order would seek to control her son), a French Jesuit, Thomas Fumeron was chosen to supervise the children's education, especially that of Ferdinand. From Cerou's depart in April 1754, no educator was assigned to Isabella.[27] In 1757 and 1758 respectively, a governor and a tutor were hired for her brother Ferdinand: Auguste de Keralio, a soldier and scientist, and Abbot Bonnot de Condillac, a philosopher and close friend of Rousseau, Diderot, and d'Alembert.[28]
![Adolescent boy in gilded red courtly robes, hair powdered white, standing next to a table with a globe on it, with various military decorations..](Https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a2/Ferrari_-_Ferdinand_I_of_Parma.jpg/220px-Ferrari_-_Ferdinand_I_of_Parma.jpg)
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 at playing the violin and the harpsichord.[29] 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.[30] During negotiations for her marriage, Austrian observers reported that Isabella spoke four languages, studied sciences and maps, and was following military movements in ongoing wars.[31] 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'.[32]
Isabella probably witnessed the cruelty of Keralio and Condillac, but 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, depicting both him and Condillac without naming them. She maintained a correspondence with Keralio in her adulthood, but barely mentioned the Abbot.[33]
Life in Vienna
Marriage with Archduke Joseph
Background
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.[34] In late 1751, State Chancellor Prince Kaunitz, closest advisor of Maria Theresa, ordered the governor of Milan to go to Parma and report on Isabella, considered a prospective bride to either of the (then) three sons of the Empress. He was satisfied with her abilities, saying that she danced with 'grace and skill', played musical instruments, already spoke French, Spanish, and Italian, and was learning Latin.[35]
In his choice of a spouse, Joseph relied on the advice of his mother and was not enthusiastic about marriage because of his low opinion of women. 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 by his mother. 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 in Versailles. Shortly afterwards, aged thirty-two, she caught smallpox and died, devastating her daughter,[36] who might have become convinced at this time that she, too, would die young.[37]
![An adolescent boy in a gilded red courtly robe, his hair gray.](Https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/be/Joseph_II_als_Thronfolger.jpg/220px-Joseph_II_als_Thronfolger.jpg)
After the betrothal, the two courts decided to wait so that the young couple could mature. The death of Élisabeth further delayed the plans.[38] 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. He praised Isabella as 'beautiful' and 'kind', 'dignified' but never 'affected'. She 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 did not like card games, horse-riding, or hunting, preferring brisk-paced walks as physical exercise. Inspired by her grandmother Marie Leszczyńska, she distributed much of her income to the poor, and she was anxious to please her future mother-in-law the Empress.[39] 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.[40]
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 understood romantic love. Thoughts of his approaching wedding made him 'tremble' and feel melancholic.[41]
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
Wedding
Following a marriage by proxy, Isabella was sent with Joseph Wenzel I, Prince of Liechtenstein to Vienna in late 1760.[42] While she was sorry to say goodbye to her family, she was happy to leave Parma.[39] Maria Theresa refused to let anyone of her former staff accompany her.[40] Publicly, Isabella disguised her sadness, but when she was in private with her father, siblings, confessor, and aya for the last time, she cried.[40]
They travelled from Parma through the Alps and were greeted at the border by the widowed Countess Erdődy, Antónia Battyhány, her newly appointed Oberhofmeisterin. The company reached a castle near Vienna on 1 October,[43] where they were received by her 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.[44] While this might be an exaggeration, as Badinter argues, she quickly seduced Joseph by her obedience and letting him feel intellectually superior to her.[45]
The Emperor, the Empress, the archdukes, and the archduchesses were also enchanted by her. Archduchess Maria Christina wrote that she had never known anyone as attractive as Isabella as she had ‘beautiful eyes and hair, a pretty mouth, and a delightfully shaped bosom’.[44] Empress Maria Theresa declared that she was her 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.[46] 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 jealous of her being adored, while she had always been slighted by her family.[47]
![Countless carriages and horsemen are marching in front of a Viennese landscape.](Https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5c/Martin_van_Meytens_-_Einzug_der_Braut.jpg/220px-Martin_van_Meytens_-_Einzug_der_Braut.jpg)
The wedding was celebrated in the Augustinekirche by Nuncio Vitaliano Borromeo on 6 October.[48] That night, there was a display of decorative lighting 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 torches in the courtyard of the palace. In the Hofburg, there was a public banquet with where the pure golden tableware from Isabella's dowry was used. Festivities lasted for days and were commemorated in a series of paintings by Martin van Meytens, which can be viewed in the Hall of Ceremonies in Schönbrunn Palace as of 2024.[49] 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.[50]
Married life and relationship with her husband
![A bedroom with a young woman in white laying on the pink, canopy bed. A man in a gray coat is sitting next to her, leaning towards her. A woman in white is seated in the middle, nursing a swaddled baby, with a young woman in blue looking on. Next to them is a crib.](Https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e2/Joseph_II_of_Austria_with_his_wife.jpg/220px-Joseph_II_of_Austria_with_his_wife.jpg)
While Joseph fell in love with Isabella and was an attentive husband, she did not fully reciprocate his feelings. As an archduchess, it was considered her duty to produce an heir as quickly as possible, and she became pregnant in late 1761. Although the pregnancy and childbirth caused her anxiety, she was relieved that she did not disappoint her family. She worried that she would be unable to withstand the pain, but behaved in the expected way, with 'no sensitivity nor grimacing', as Maria Theresa wrote.[51]
![A young woman in a simple white dress with a light blue coat is sitting next to a gilded table with fruits on it. Her hair is powdered white with black lace braided into it. A toddler in a light pink dress is running near her, with a small black dog and a white parrot.](Https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c7/Circle_of_Meytens_-_Isabella_of_Parma_and_her_daughter_Maria_Theresia_-_Heeresgeschichtliches_Museum.png/220px-Circle_of_Meytens_-_Isabella_of_Parma_and_her_daughter_Maria_Theresia_-_Heeresgeschichtliches_Museum.png)
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.[52] 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.[53] How Isabella felt about her child is unknown, but she only mentioned her once in her 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'.[54]
Soon she was pregnant again, miscarrying in August 1762 and in January 1763. Maria Theresa advised Joseph to wait for six months before trying for a son again so that Isabella could recover.[55] The second miscarriage was kept secret (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 remained bedridden for days.[55] Her pregnancies and miscarriages deepened her depression and eroded her will to live. Her death anxiety was aggravated by the risks of childbirth.[56] In the beginning of March, it was reported to the King of France that she was psychologically unwell, still grieving her last miscarriage, and displaying physical symptoms: she was 'extremely thin', had an 'almost constant' 'dry cough', and pain in her sides. It was concluded that her health was 'seriously threatened', and the Ambassador believed that her 'soul' needed to be calmed.[54]
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.[57] She seems to have hidden her independence and her revolutionary beliefs well, being submissive towards both her husband and her mother-in-law.[55]
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, [55]
Relationship with Archduchess Maria Christina
![A young woman in a simple white dress with a black apron and a white cap is sitting before a background of small paintings. She is weaving on a small loom.](Https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/Marie_Christine_of_Austria1.jpg/220px-Marie_Christine_of_Austria1.jpg)
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,[58] spending so much time together that they earned a comparison with Orpheus and Eurydice.[59] Despite living in the same palace, they exchanged letters and small notes daily. Only those written by Isabella survived (those by Marie were burned after her death), but even these amount to almost two hundred.[60]
It seems that Isabella soon became romantically and sexually attracted to Marie. The latter's feelings developed more gradually and remained more reserved.[61] 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.[62] 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.[63]
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 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.[63]
![Young woman wearing an elaborate pink dress with white lace, pink ribbons, and diamond jewellery. There is a fan in her hand; she is seated before a plain background, looking directly at the viewer. Her hair is long and powdered white.](Https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8d/Marie-Christine_de_Habsbourg-Lorraine.jpg/220px-Marie-Christine_de_Habsbourg-Lorraine.jpg)
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 from going on a hunt, the sisters-in-law cancelled their date in hurried, disappointed notes.[64] They were worried to keep their relationship a secret; in a letter from March 1761, Isabella reminded Marie of her 'given word' to never talk about something (she does not specify what), because 'there is nothing in the world as shameful as going against nature'.[65]
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.[58] 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'.[66] 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.[61]
Marie seems to have been more reserved than Isabella, but she did return her feelings. 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.[67] This worsened her depression and convinced her that the only solution was death.[42] 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'.[68]
A selection of quotes by Isabella in letters to Marie cited by Badinter as supporting a love affair | |
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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'occupe 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. |
Relationship with Archduchess Maria Anna
![Young woman seated, wearing a red skirt with light purple flowers, a white shirt with elaborate lacing, a deep yellow scarf, and a black-and-silver headdress on her hair which is powdered white.](Https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4f/Meister_der_Erzherzoginnen-Portr%C3%A4t_-_Erzherzogin_Maria_Anna.jpg/220px-Meister_der_Erzherzoginnen-Portr%C3%A4t_-_Erzherzogin_Maria_Anna.jpg)
While most of her family loved and respected her, her relationship with her eldest sister-in-law, the Archduchess Maria Anna, known as Marianne, was bad from the outset and only deteriorated. Isabella was seen as beautiful, while everyone considered Marianne to be the least attractive among her sisters; she was praised as lovely and charming, while Marianne was always ignored by her mother and siblings.[69] The Infanta was intelligent and educated, while studying sciences had been Marianne's refuge from her lonely and contentious family life, an interest that connected her with her father, who now also adored Isabella. Isabella was also a better singer and violinist than the Archduchess. Marianne considered Isabella her rival even before she arrived in Austria and greeted her coldly, hardly even extending her hand upon their first meeting.[47]
Marianne's coldness, motivated by jealousy and feelings of inferiority, hurt Isabella who decided not to trust her. She considered Marianne a 'false', 'duplicitous', and 'hypocritical' person.[47] It seems that Marianne was the only one to suspect the love affair between Isabella and Marie, and she spied on them. In many letters by Isabella to Marie, she warned her 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.[70] Their coldness, slowly turning into hostility,[71] worsened the already distant relationship between Marianne and Joseph, and after Isabella's death he never forgave his sister for not loving his wife.[72] As emperor and head of the family, he used his power to take revenge on her.[70]
Death and aftermath
According to custom introduced by Maria Theresa, the imperial court spent summers in Schönbrunn. In 1763, it was recorded that Isabella did not want to move back.[73] She was around six months pregnant and believed that she might be carrying twins[54] and reports of smallpox cases were made around Vienna. On 18 November, four days after they moved to Vienna, 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 and thus could have caught it. Afterwards, Joseph, Marianne, and Marie (her husband and his two sisters) took care of her.[74] The fever induced labour, and on 22 November, she gave birth to a second daughter. On her request, the baby was baptised Maria Christina, but died the same day.[75]
![Three grey, ornamental sarcophagi standing next to each other, with a fourth underneath the one in the centre](Https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/47/MariaTheresia.children01.jpg/220px-MariaTheresia.children01.jpg)
Following the birth, Isabella was rarely conscious and displayed a 'courage' bordering on indifference to her possible death.[74] The odour coming from her bedroom was so strong that most people could not pass by its door, but Joseph took care of her without a break. On 26 November, the doctors informed 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,[75] and placed in the Maria Theresa Vault of the Imperial Crypt. The coffin of her daughter Christina was placed beneath hers.[75][76]
![A young, blonde girl in a greenish-blue dress and a white cap. Her dress is embellished with white lace, greenish-blue bows and golden embroidery.](Https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6f/Maria_Theresia_Daughter_of_Isabella_de_Parma.jpg/220px-Maria_Theresia_Daughter_of_Isabella_de_Parma.jpg)
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.[77]
Impact on her husband
Joseph was devastated by her death and never fully recovered.[78] In 1765, he remarried on his mother's insistence to Maria Josepha of Bavaria, whom he repulsed physically and he mistreated despite her attempts to accommodate him. She died of smallpox after two years of marriage.[60] 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, he closed off to the world after her death. He became even more sarcastic, easily irritable, and aggressive than he had been before his marriage.[45]
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
Impact on Archduchess Maria Christina
There is no record of Marie's reaction to Isabella's death.[79] She nursed her until her death, and took care of her daughter until she 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' she had ever done for the imperial family.[80]
![A family seated around a table, playing cards. A young man in red is on the left side and a middle-aged woman in the middle, behind her standing a young woman in pink. On the right side of the table is another young woman in blue.](Https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f2/Archduke_Joseph_with_Empress_Maria_Theresa%2C_Princess_Isabella_of_Parma_and_Archduchess_Maria_Christina_by_Martin_Van_Meytens_in_1763.jpg/220px-Archduke_Joseph_with_Empress_Maria_Theresa%2C_Princess_Isabella_of_Parma_and_Archduchess_Maria_Christina_by_Martin_Van_Meytens_in_1763.jpg)
In 1766, Marie married Prince Albert Casimir of Saxony. She was the only one of the Empress' children to choose her own spouse.[81] 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'.[79]
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 an 'exceptional friendship' between his beloved wife and an 'unpararelled princess'.[82] As of 2024, 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 in 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.[83]
Writings
![A middle-aged woman a little girl in a park. The woman is wearing a simple blue dress and her daughter, leaning against her legs, is in white. They both hold light pink roses and their hair is in a strict up-do, powdered white.](Https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/Isabella_Louise_Elisabeth_de_Parma.jpg/220px-Isabella_Louise_Elisabeth_de_Parma.jpg)
Isabella left numerous writings from the time of her marriage. In them, she analysing her life, her philosophy, and the state of the world around her. She wrote her own autobiography, titled Les Aventures de l'étourderie, 'The Adventures of Amazement'. In her Christian Reflections, which was published on Maria Theresa's orders in 1764,[84] 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.[85] A short dissertation titled Les Charmes de la fausse amitié, 'The Charms of False Friendship' was about her sister-in-law Marianne, with whom she had a hostile relationship.[86]
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'.[87]
She rejected authoritarianism and corporal punishment,[88] as she believed that they made children 'violent, stubborn, and harsh' both 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', then become 'unfeeling and self-mocking' to cope with their low self-esteem.[88]
She considered corporal punishment 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 thus cannot be persuaded through reason. In her opinion, the use of violence against children showed the adult's 'lack of understanding' and pedagogical talent. Painting a portrait of her brother without naming him, she concluded that beatings inspired 'hate', dishonesty, and a desire to 'avenge themselves' in children.[89]
Instead of these methods, which she say had been gaining popularity at the time, she argued for kindness, 'almost unknown today', as it was regarded as a 'weakness, a failure of firmness and reason'.[89]
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.[85] 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.[90]
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. [...] 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, [91]
Traité sur les hommes
![Two young men with hair powdered white, one in white-and-red, the other in black-and-gold military uniforms standing next to a statue of a Greek or Roman goddess](Https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/33/Pompeo_Batoni_002.jpg/220px-Pompeo_Batoni_002.jpg)
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 existed 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, [and] only 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'.[92]
She summarised why, in her opinion, men were nevertheless above women in society: so that their 'faults can make [women's] virtues shine brighter', to be able 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'. In conclusion, Isabella argued that the 'slavery' of women is caused by men sensing that women are superior to them.[86][93]
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, as she was certain that she would die young and even looked forward to this. The Conseils à Marie ('Advice to Marie') consisted 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 hugs to be 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]'.[94]
Personality and appearance
![Four children around a table, a toddler in a blue dress on the left, a young teenager in pink seated and drawing, on her right a girl stands and helps her. A 6-year-old boy in a white-and-red military uniform is standing on the right with a book.](Https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/Archduchesses_Maria_Theresa%2C_Maria_Carolina_and_Maria_Antonia_with_Archduke_Max_Francis_by_Martin_van_Meytens_in_1763.jpg/220px-Archduchesses_Maria_Theresa%2C_Maria_Carolina_and_Maria_Antonia_with_Archduke_Max_Francis_by_Martin_van_Meytens_in_1763.jpg)
Isabella was an intelligent and well-educated person interested in philosophy, morality, music, history, physics, and metaphysics.[67] 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.[95] She studied mechanics, worked on various machinery, and enjoyed doing sports.[96] The imperial court and even her husband, who had previously viewed chatting with women as an empty pastime,[97] 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.[42]
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 'torture' people, but that once she had reached her goal and upset them she was devastated.[98]
Her physical appearance was the opposite of what was fashionable among noble ladies at the time: she had olive skin and short hair.[99]
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.[99] 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.[100] Her mother's death also had a strong effect on her, and she became convinced that she would not live for more than four years from that time.[37] 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.[101] 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 [herself]'.[100]
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.[82] 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'.[102] 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.[102] As of 2024, they can be found in the National Archives of Hungary and the National Archives of Austria. Very few of her writings have ever been published. It is known that she also composed music, and a few airs and odes by her are preserved in Budapest.[103]
original (French) title | English title | publication status/details | location of manuscript | notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Conseils à Marie | Advice to Marie | published by Badinter[104] | National Archives of Hungary | detailed characterisation of the members of the imperial family and advice on how to behave towards them; written to her sister-in-law Maria Christina |
L’Art d’écrire des lettres | The Art of Letterwriting | not published | National Archives of Austria | found among short works on diverse subjects |
Les Aventures de l'étourderie | The Adventures of Amazement | not published, quoted in part and analysed by Sanger[105] | National Archives of Hungary | autobiography |
Les Charmes de la fausse amitié | The Charms of False Friendship | not published, quoted in part and analysed by Sanger[106] | National Archives of Hungary | written against her sister-in-law Maria Anna |
Les Exercices de l’esprit | Spiritual Exercises | not published | National Archives of Hungary | |
Le Vrai philosophe | The True Philosopher | not published, quoted in part and analysed by Sanger[107] | National Archives of Hungary | |
Méditations chrétiennes | Christian Meditations | published in 1764 on orders by Maria Theresa; available on Google Books; quoted in part and analysed by Sanger[84] | National Archives of Austria | medtiations on various religious subjects, especially death |
Observations sur les Prussiens | Observations on the Prussians | not published, quoted in part and analysed by Sanger[108] | National Archives of Hungary | |
Réflexions faites dans la solitude | Reflections Made in Solitude | not published, quoted in part and analysed by Sanger[109] | National Archives of Hungary | |
Réflexions sur l’éducation | Reflections on Education | not published, quoted in part and analysed by Badinter[110] and by Sanger[111] | National Archives of Austria | enlightened educational philosophy based on her adverse childhood experiences |
Remarques politiques et militaires | Political and Military Observations | not published, quoted in part and analysed by Sanger[112] | Biblioteca Palatina, Parma | comments on government and war |
Sur la sort des princesses | On the Fate of Princesses | published by Badinter[113] and by Sanger[114] | National Archives of Hungary | argument against dynastic marriages on a political and personal basis |
Traité historique des mœurs | A Historical Treatise on Mores | not published | National Archives of Hungary | unfinished overview of human societies and cultural practices |
Traité sur la réligion | A Treatise on Religion | not published | National Archives of Austria | only a transcript of the original exists |
Traité sur les hommes | A Treatise on Men | not published, quoted in part and analysed by Badinter[115] and by Sanger[116] | National Archives of Hungary | argument against a patriarchal society and for the moral and intellectual equality of women |
Vues générales que l’on doit avoir pour bien élever un prince | General Points One Must Consider to Raise a Prince Well | not published | National Archives of Austria | includes a German study on how to teach history to young archdukes |
Vues sur le commerce | Views on Trade | not published | National Archives of Austria | |
Pièces sur la morale | Pieces on Morality | not published | National Archives of Austria | |
Questions à définir au sujet de gagner le cœur de l’Archiduc | Questions to Answer in Relation to Winning the Heart of the Archduke | published by Badinter[117] | National Archives of Hungary | guide to her sister-in-law Maria Christina on how to be on good terms with her husband Joseph |
Issue
Isabella had four known pregnancies during the three years of her marriage to Archduke Joseph. Two of these ended in a miscarriage and the two live births produced two daughters, only one of whom survived infancy and neither of whom lived to adulthood.[67]
Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Archduchess Maria Theresa Elizabeth Philippine Louise Josepha Joanna | 20 March 1762 | 23 January 1770 | Died at the age of 7 of pleurisy.[45] |
Unnamed child | August 1762 | August 1762 | Suffered a miscarriage. |
Unnamed child | January 1763 | January 1763 | Suffered a miscarriage. |
Archduchess Maria Christina | 22 November 1763 | 22 November 1763 | Born three months premature and died shortly after birth. |
Ancestry
Ancestors of Princess Isabella of Parma[118] |
---|
Notes
- ^ She was christened Maria Elisabetha Ludovica Antonia, the Latin version of her names. In childhood, she was known as Doña Isabel or Isabelita; in adulthood, as Isabelle. Formally, she signed her name as Isabelle-Marie-Louise (French) or Isabella Maria Ludovica (German), never using Antonia, Antoine, or Antoinette. On her tomb, she is named as Elisabetha Maria.
References
- ^ Badinter 2008, pp. 48, 134.
- ^ Latour 1927, pp. 221–223.
- ^ Latour 1927, p. 220.
- ^ Latour 1927, p. 223.
- ^ Badinter 2008, p. 13.
- ^ Badinter 2008, pp. 13–14.
- ^ Badinter 2008, p. 14.
- ^ a b Badinter 2008, p. 15.
- ^ Badinter 2008, p. 16.
- ^ Latour 1927, pp. 228–229.
- ^ a b Badinter 2008, p. 17.
- ^ Badinter 2008, pp. 17–18.
- ^ Badinter 2008, pp. 16, 18.
- ^ Badinter 2008, pp. 18–19.
- ^ Badinter 2008, pp. 19.
- ^ Badinter 2008, pp. 20.
- ^ Anderson 1996, p. 198.
- ^ a b c Badinter 2008, p. 21.
- ^ a b Badinter 2008, p. 22.
- ^ Badinter 2008, pp. 22–23.
- ^ Tamussino 1989, p. 55.
- ^ a b Badinter 2008, p. 23.
- ^ a b Badinter 2008, p. 24.
- ^ Badinter 2008, pp. 24–25.
- ^ Badinter 2008, p. 26.
- ^ Badinter 2008, pp. 26–27.
- ^ Badinter 2008, p. 27.
- ^ Badinter 2008, pp. 27–28.
- ^ Badinter 2008, p. 28.
- ^ Badinter 2008, pp. 28–29.
- ^ Badinter 2008, p. 33.
- ^ Badinter 2008, pp. 33–34.
- ^ Badinter 2008, pp. 29–30.
- ^ Falvai 2012, p. 12.
- ^ Falvai 2012, p. 33.
- ^ Latour 1927, p. 241.
- ^ a b Badinter 2008, p. 66.
- ^ Badinter 2008, p. 34.
- ^ a b Badinter 2008, pp. 34–35.
- ^ a b c Badinter 2008, p. 36.
- ^ Badinter 2008, pp. 39–40.
- ^ a b c Goldsmith 1935, Chapter Twelve.
- ^ Badinter 2008, p. 38.
- ^ a b Falvai 2012, pp. 13–14.
- ^ a b c Falvai 2012, p. 40.
- ^ Falvai 2012, p. 38.
- ^ a b c Leitner 1994, p. 70.
- ^ Weissensteiner 1995, p. 66.
- ^ "Isabella of Parma". Die Welt der Habsburger. Retrieved 27 July 2024.
- ^ Weissensteiner 1995, p. 64.
- ^ a b Badinter 2008, p. 51.
- ^ Weissensteiner 1995, p. 67.
- ^ Falvai 2012, p. 30.
- ^ a b c Badinter 2008, p. 54.
- ^ a b c d Badinter 2008, p. 53.
- ^ Timms 2018.
- ^ Badinter 2008, p. 52.
- ^ a b Farquhar 2001, p. 4.
- ^ Fraser, Antonia (2002). "Born to Obey". Marie Antoinette: The Journey. New York: Anchor Books. p. 24. ISBN 978-1400033287. OCLC 773606857 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ a b Vovk 2010.
- ^ a b Badinter 2008, p. 60.
- ^ Badinter 2008, p. 61.
- ^ a b Badinter 2008, pp. 60–61.
- ^ Falvai 2012, pp. 24–25.
- ^ Badinter 2008, p. 64.
- ^ Falvai 2012, p. 26.
- ^ a b c Weissensteiner 1995, p. 71.
- ^ Falvai 2012, p. 29.
- ^ Weissensteiner 1995, pp. 35–36.
- ^ a b Weissensteiner 1995, p. 40.
- ^ Weissensteiner 1995, p. 39.
- ^ Leitner 1994, p. 71.
- ^ Tamussino 1989, p. 248.
- ^ a b Badinter 2008, p. 55.
- ^ a b c Falvai 2012, pp. 34–36.
- ^ "Maria-Theresien-Gruft" [Maria Theresa Vault]. Kapuzinergruft (in German). Retrieved 11 June 2022.
- ^ Stollberg-Rilinger 2017, pp. 507–514.
- ^ Falvai 2012, p. 36.
- ^ a b Weissensteiner 1995, p. 74.
- ^ Badinter 2008, p. 75.
- ^ Weissensteiner 1995, pp. 74–76, 82.
- ^ a b Badinter 2008, pp. 64–65.
- ^ Badinter 2008, pp. 73, 146.
- ^ a b Sanger 2002, pp. 277–280.
- ^ a b Weissensteiner 1995, pp. 72–73.
- ^ a b Weissensteiner 1995, p. 68.
- ^ Badinter 2008, p. 30.
- ^ a b Badinter 2008, pp. 30–31.
- ^ a b Badinter 2008, p. 31.
- ^ Badinter 2008, p. 102.
- ^ Badinter 2008, pp. 100–101.
- ^ Badinter 2008, p. 47.
- ^ Falvai 2012, p. 18.
- ^ Weissensteiner 1995, pp. 62–63.
- ^ Weissensteiner 1995, pp. 71–72.
- ^ Falvai 2012, pp. 17–19.
- ^ Falvai 2012, p. 8.
- ^ Weissensteiner 1995, pp. 69–70.
- ^ a b Falvai 2012, p. 11.
- ^ a b Weissensteiner 1995, p. 72.
- ^ Weissensteiner 1995, pp. 70–71.
- ^ a b Badinter 2008, p. 73.
- ^ a b Tamussino 1989, pp. 306–308.
- ^ Badinter 2008, pp. 237–252.
- ^ Sanger 2002, pp. 285–289.
- ^ Sanger 2002, p. 277.
- ^ Sanger 2002, pp. 274–275.
- ^ Sanger 2002, pp. 273–274.
- ^ Sanger 2002, pp. 275–277.
- ^ Badinter 2008, pp. 29–32.
- ^ Sanger 2002, pp. 137–140.
- ^ Sanger 2002, pp. 177–179.
- ^ Badinter 2008, pp. 100–102.
- ^ Sanger 2002, pp. 282–283.
- ^ Badinter 2008, pp. 46–47.
- ^ Sanger 2002, p. 281.
- ^ Badinter 2008, pp. 107–109.
- ^ Genealogie ascendante jusqu'au quatrieme degre inclusivement de tous les Rois et Princes de maisons souveraines de l'Europe actuellement vivans [Genealogy up to the fourth degree inclusive of all the Kings and Princes of sovereign houses of Europe currently living] (in French). Bourdeaux: Frederic Guillaume Birnstiel. 1768. p. 96.
Sources
Journals
- Torma, Károly (January 1884). Abafi, Lajos; Szokoly, Viktor (eds.). "Rettegi György emlékiratai 1718-1767" [The Memoires of György Rettegi 1718-1767]. Hazánk. Történelmi közlöny. 1. 1884: 378–379. Retrieved 11 June 2022 – via Arcanum Digitális Tudománytár.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: location (link)
Books
- Anderson, Matthew Smith (23 January 1996). The War of the Austrian Succession, 1740–1748. Longman. p. 198. ISBN 978-0582059504. OCLC 30358032.
- Beutler, Gigi (1 December 1999). The Imperial Vaults of the PP Capuchins in Vienna (Capuchin Crypt). Beutler Heldenstern. ISBN 978-3950058413.
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{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Latour, Thérèse-Louis (1927). "The Daughters of Louis XV". Princesses, Ladies and Salonnières of the Reign of Louis XV. Translated by Clegg, Ivy E. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd. pp. 216–242. Retrieved 10 June 2022.
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- Vovk, Justin C. (20 January 2010). In Destiny's Hands. Five Tragic Rulers, Children of Maria Theresa. iUniverse. ISBN 978-1450200813.
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Web pages
- Mutschlechner, Martin. "A Wedding Album – The Marriage of Joseph II to Isabella of Parma". Die Welt der Habsburger. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
- "Isabella of Parma". Die Welt der Habsburger. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
- "Maria-Theresien-Gruft" [Maria Theresa Vault]. Kapuzinergruft (in German). Retrieved 11 June 2022.
- Rice, 'Women in Love: Gluck's Orfeo as a Source of Romantic Consolation in Vienna, Paris, and Stockholm
- Timms, Elizabeth James (14 May 2018). "Melancholy Princess: Isabella of Parma". Royal Central. Retrieved 10 June 2022.