Isabella

THE TRAGIC LIFE OF ISABELLA OF PARMA

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Born on the 31st December 1741, Isabella's father was Prince Phillip, the third son of the King of Spain.

Her mother, Elisabeth, also came from royalty, as she was the eldest daughter of the King of France.

Sadly, despite their immense wealth and charmed existence, Isabella's parent's, were not in love, nor would they ever be.

Isabella's mother Elisabeth, was only 12 years old when she married Prince Phillip, giving birth to Isabella two years later.

Instead of having a mother-daughter relationship, the two bonded like sisters, often adventuring throughout Versailles for much of Isabella’s upbringing.

Because of the strained relationship between her parents, Isabella lacked the understanding of what a healthy relationship entailed.

In 1759, Elisabeth contracted smallpox and died a week into her illness at 32.

The loss of her mother, devastated Isabella and also had a profound effect on her outlook.

From the moment her mother died, Isabella convinced herself that she too would die a young woman.

This was the first of her eerie prophecies.

While still grieving her mother’s untimely death, Prince Phillip dropped a bomb on his daughter.

Apparently, her mourning period was over; it was time for her to get married.

Motivated by political gain, King Louis XV agreed to align himself with Austria, by offering his granddaughter Isabella as a match for Archduke Joseph, the heir to the powerful Habsburg Dynasty.

On paper, the young couple was a perfect match.

Joseph was an intelligent man who took his own ideologies quite seriously.

The Princess had a passion for music, excelling at the violin.

She was also an avid reader and a skilled mathematician, making her a perfect match for someone who could challenge her.

The problem was, Joseph wasn’t that someone; he simply couldn’t keep up.

Joseph kept to himself, often passing the time reading alone in his chambers.

Though the Princess lacked certain social skills, she was exuberant and could carry on a conversation.

Joseph, on the other hand, was no charmer.

Aside from discussing his own ideologies, the man had absolutely nothing to say.

Unfortunately, Isabella had no way of discovering her future husband’s shortcomings, before they were wed.

The rulers on both sides of the coin, agreed to a marriage by proxy, meaning the bride and groom would not meet until after they were bound to one another by law.

The couple finally met during their ceremony on 6th October, 1760.

The wedding was a grand affair, hosted by the Royal Roman Empress Maria Theresa, Joseph’s overbearing mother.

The celebration following the vows lasted for days, with the Archduke becoming more and more smitten with his new bride, Isabella was more beautiful and charming than he had imagined.

Joseph’s growing obsession soon became evident.

The young Archduke was quite inexperienced when it came to wooing women.

His neverending compliments, and overeager behavior overwhelmed Isabella, who had spent most of her life either alone or in the presence of her late mother.

The Princess felt smothered, afraid, and disappointed.

Though life in the Austrian court was considered extravagant, Isabella found the Viennese traditions to be stuffy, boring, and conservative.

In addition, Isabella was required to be perfect, stiffly formal, with every hair in place and a smile on her face.

As hard as she tried, she never felt good enough.

While hiding from her husband’s overeager affections, Isabella forged an unlikely friendship with his younger sister Maria Christina, who was affectionately nicknamed Mimi by her family. Mimi was the antithesis of her older brother.

Being their mother’s favorite, she was more confident, lively, funny, and rebellious, so much so that Isabella was instantly hooked.

Maria Christina was the belle of the ball, the pride and joy of the royal family, and the can-do-no-wrong favorite child of the Holy Roman Empress.

The compliments, gifts, and privileges bestowed on her by her parents, only made her more confident and exuberant.

The two Princesses soon became inseparable.

Isabella and Mimi spent every waking moment in deep conversation, sharing their passion for music, and wandering through the garden paths marveling at nature’s beauty.

The young women even went so far as to paint portraits of one another, capturing their mutual affection.

While in plain sight, Mimi and Isabella were regarded as best friends.

However, in their rare moments apart, both women wrote hundreds of letters that could have revealed their passion for one another.

In one, Isabella wrote, "I still love you madly, and I hope that I can kiss you thoroughly and you will kiss me back."

Based on their written exchanges, historians are convinced their relationship was much more than friendship.....

Isabella’s desire to be with Mimi, curtailed any hope of her embracing her marital union with Joseph.

On top of that, she was repulsed by the thought of being intimate with him.

Her parents’ marriage was so dysfunctional, that she could only recall her mother flinching away from her father’s advances. Knowing no different, she modeled her mother’s behavior, constantly pushing the Archduke away.

Things only went downhill from there.

Isabella was disgusted by her husband’s passion for her.

The more the Princess considered her wifely duties, the more terrified she became, that the act itself was sinful.

Was this a convenient excuse to avoid intimacy with Joseph? Perhaps, however, this was only the beginning of Isabella’s fears.

The Princess was already avoiding her husband’s bed chambers for fear of committing a sin, but she then developed a new phobia, the fear of getting pregnant.

Isabella wasn’t scared to become a parent, this fear stemmed from her mother’s early demise.

As time wore on, she became convinced that pregnancy, would undoubtedly lead to her death.

Was she wrong? Not really.

Soon, Isabella would second think her realtionship with Mimi too.

She began to question Mimi’s devotion.

Isabella learned it was common for an unmarried noblewoman, to seek affection from another female in the Habsburg world.

Was she simply a toy for her beloved Mimi, or was their intimacy real?

Mimi was oblivious to her friend's dismay, bouncing around the court happy, as her love became a ghost of her former self. Thoughts of death consumed Isabella, her already stormy moods, suddenly grew darker.

Isabella's insecurity and violent thoughts, would overtake everything else.

Her mental health was fragile, it was only a matter of time before she broke.

Despite her growing phobia of conceiving a child, Isabella fulfilled her duty in 1761.

Though she had avoided intimate relations with Joseph for years, pressure from the court, and her mother-in-law, pushed Isabella to concede.

Sure enough, within a few weeks, her worst fears came true, she was pregnant.

This news horrified Isabella, would this child end her life?

Unfortunately, this was a very difficult pregnancy for the Princess.

From the moment she found out there was a baby in her womb, Isabella became crippled by headaches and fatigue.

Surely, the court physician could help...unfortunately her treatment, was even worse, than the ailment.

The medicinal practices of the 18th century, were gruesome.

The court physicians concluded, the best treatment for Isabella would be to bleed her.

This was the practice of placing leeches on the patient’s body, to extract the so-called “bad blood” causing their symptoms.

The Princess endured this ineffective treatment, until she went into labour.

The blood loss from the leeches, only made Isabella weaker. When it came time to give birth, she was nowhere near strong enough to withstand the trauma.

As Joseph held her hand, Isabella began to push, finding herself too weak to endure the pain and exertion.

Miraculously, little Maria Theresia entered the world healthy on 20th March 1762.

Her birth didn’t kill Isabella as she had predicted, however, her body was so damaged she was bedridden for the first six weeks of her infant’s life.

Surviving childbirth alongside her healthy baby girl, should have put Isabella’s fears at rest.

Unfortunately, her excruciatingly long recuperation period, only increased her obsession with death.

Whether it was too much time on her hands, or her diminishing mental health, the Princess became convinced that she would die at any moment.

She became so distraught that she warned her caregivers, to be prepared to find her lifeless body every day of her recovery.

This wasn’t her only morbid prediction, either.

Though Isabella was adamant she would die an untimely death, she also predicted others would meet a tragic fate.

As her baby began to crawl, the Princess told her friends and attendants, that her daughter would also die too young.

Despite the signs of her evident mental decline, her husband Joseph, remained blissfully unaware of Isabella’s anguish.

Despite the apparent warning signs, Isabella’s blissfully unaware husband, only thought about his need for a male heir.

Though going through another pregnancy terrified the Princess, she once again fulfilled her noble duty as a wife.

Within the same year that little Maria Theresia was born, Isabella suffered two traumatic miscarriages, that left her more depressed and anxious than before.

Joseph began to immediately try for a son again, but this time, he would “restrain his lust” during the pregnancy.

In 1763, Joseph successfully impregnated his fragile wife, though that was the last thing Isabella wanted.

The Archduke stayed far away from his wife’s bed chambers, and instead prayed with his family, for a boy.

By the fall of 1763, Isabella had reached the six-month mark in her pregnancy, and was beginning to feel a bit relieved.

Both of her miscarriages had occurred early on, so she and her husband were confident this child would survive.

Their confidence was shattered, however, when the Princess contracted smallpox.

The virus was spreading fast through the land, killing expectant mothers, and their unborn children with ease.

Sure enough, Isabella went into early labor, three months prior to her due date.

She successfully gave birth to yet another girl, who she affectionately named Maria Christina.

Sadly, between the virus and being so premature, the infant died within hours of her first breath.

This was just the beginning of a tragic chain of events.

Giving birth to Maria Christina, while infected with smallpox left Isabella clinging to life.

The Princess barely survived labour, so by delivery, she was suffering from an uncontrollable fever, that had her screaming.

Were her predictions right all along?

It turns out they were.

Isabella of Parma perished from smallpox, on 27th November 1763, just 21 years old, and only five days after the death of her premature daughter.

The Princess had foreseen her untimely death, as well as that of her daughter.

She also lost her life to the same virus that killed her beloved mother so long before, proving yet another of her prophetic thoughts to be true.

Perhaps her lifelong obsession regarding her own mortality, was valid.

Either way, Joseph, who was always so unaware of his wife’s anguish, was left a widower.

Despite Isabella’s disinterest in the marriage, the Archduke loved her very much.

So, it should come as no surprise that he became unhinged upon her passing.

The disappointment over the gender of their newest child, her subsequent death, and his wife’s demise, sent him spiraling into a chasm of grief.

Archduke Joseph, who never recovered from losing Isabella, would grudgingly agree to marry again, and in 1765, he married Maria Josepha of Bavaria.

Just because his beloved Isabella was laid to rest, didn’t mean the tragedies had come to an end.

Sadly, Isabella's morbid worries about her only surviving child, Maria Theresia, ultimately came true.

In 1770, the seven-year-old Maria Theresia, suffered a severe bout of pleurisy, and sadly perished.

After the loss of his eldest and only surviving child, Joseph was once again drowning in depression,

With Maria Theresa laid to rest next to her mother, he withdrew from the public, only surfacing to attend to his royal duties.

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https://www.factinate.com/people/facts-isabella-of-parma/

Other Sources~claireandjamie.

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https://ko-fi.com/thetudorintruders