Princess Isabella of Parma

In 1760 a marriage was arranged between Isabella and Archduke Joseph of Austria, heir to the Habsburg monarchy. After a marriage by proxy, Isabella was escorted to Austria. On 6 October 1760, at the age of 18, Isabella married Joseph II in a ceremony lasting a couple days, the wedding festivities being recorded in paintings by Martin van Meytens.[1] Joseph was thrilled with his new bride and overwhelmed Isabella with his love. In return, she increasingly locked herself away, so much so that shortly after their wedding Isabella was plunged into melancholy. This marriage signaled the first marital union of Philip I of Castile's most senior descendant (by absolute primogeniture) with the Royal House of Habsburg-Lorraine.

The Princess spent most of her time in the Viennese court with her husband’s sister, Archduchess Maria Christina. The two women seemed to have had a romantic lesbian affair.[2][3] During the few years Isabella and Maria knew each other, they exchanged 200 letters and "billets" while living at the same court.[4][5] They spent so much time together that they earned the comparison with Orpheus and Eurydice.

Isabella and Maria were united not only by a shared interest in music and art but also by a deep mutual love.[6] However Isabella was unhappy in this love affair. To her it was the grand passion of her life, whereas for Maria Christina it was obviously merely one of these attachments to a woman which many girls form before they are married. Isabella grieved not only because she was more fond of Maria Christina than her sister-in-law was of her, but also because it meant a nervous tension to conceal this emotional struggle from her husband. Isabella's constant conflict between her sense of duty as a prince's wife and her feelings for Maria Christina made her feel guilty, and this had a disastrous effect on her mental health. The problem before her seemed insoluble and, increasingly, the thought of death occupied her mind and seemed the only escape from her emotional impasse.[7]

Isabella spent most of the hours when she was separated from her sister-in-law writing to her. They wrote long letters to each other in which they revealed their feelings. While the letters of Maria Christina showed her happy nature, Isabella's feelings were mixed and, in her expressions of affection, showed a certain pessimism, reflecting her growing obsession with death.[7]

In one such letter, Isabella wrote:

"I am writing you again, cruel sister, though I have only just left you. I cannot bear waiting to know my fate, and to learn whether you consider me a person worthy of your love, or whether you would like to fling me into the river. I cannot tolerate this uncertainty, I can think of nothing but that I am madly in love. If only I knew why this is so, for you are so cruel that one should not love you, but I cannot help myself".

In a different letter, she wrote: "I am told that the day begins with God. I, however, begin the day by thinking of the object of my love, for I think of her incessantly."[7]

Only the letters of Isabella have been preserved; those of Maria Christina were destroyed after her death.

A portrait of Princess Isabella in a pink and white gown (portrait attributed to Giuseppe Baldrighi)

However, as wife of the heir to the throne, Isabella knew that her duty was to give birth to a healthy heir. Despite this, the Princess developed disquieted feelings toward her husband, spurred by anxieties over sexual intimacy and the possibilities of pregnancy.

By late 1761, one year into the marriage, Isabella became pregnant. It was an especially difficult pregnancy, and due to that Isabella suffered symptoms of physical illness, melancholy and lingering fears of death. Joseph, infatuated and inexperienced, failed to fully understand his wife's misery. On 20 March 1762, after nine months of mental and physical strain, Isabella gave birth to a daughter they named Maria Theresa. Isabella remained bedridden for 6 weeks after giving birth.

A portrait of Princess Isabella, by an unidentified artist (ca. 1758-1759). The painting arrived in the Royal Palace of Turin in 1930 from that of Milan, where it had arrived from Parma in 1865. The inventories of the Royal Palace of 1911 and 1966 mistakenly identify the character with Giuseppina di Lorena, though in fact it is Princess Isabella. Compare the portrait of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, executed by Jean-Marc Nattier in 1758, and the painting by Giuseppe Boldrighi of 1757-58 depicting Philipe V of Spain with his family, where the Princess sports the same dress and the same hairstyle with feather and lace ribbons.

In August 1762 and January 1763 Isabella suffered two separate miscarriages that aggravated her mental unrest, causing her to fall into a depression that eroded her will to live.[8]

In 1763, Isabella was six months pregnant with a girl when she contracted smallpox. This brought on a premature labor ending in the death of the child, who was given the name Maria Christina hastily after Isabella had given birth, a few hours after birth. In total, out of four pregnancies, only one child survived infancy.[lower-alpha 1]

Isabella followed her daughter in death at the Schönbrunn Palace in 1763, a week after giving birth to her. She was buried in Empress Maria Theresa's vault in the Imperial Crypt Vaults in Vienna. Joseph could not find comfort and did not recover from the death of his wife.

His second marriage (January 1765 – May 1767) to Princess Maria Josepha of Bavaria was unhappy and did not produce children. Subsequently, in August 1765, Isabella's father-in-law Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor died, and Joseph succeeded him as Holy Roman Emperor with the title of Joseph II.

Isabella had predicted even before her death that their daughter would follow the same road shortly after. Her forebodings were fulfilled on 23 January 1770, when the little Archduchess Maria Theresa died at age 7 due to pleurisy. The loss was overwhelming for Joseph. After the death of his only child, Joseph withdrew increasingly from public life.

West side of the Maria Theresa Crypt in the Kapuzinergruft. The one in the center is that of Isabella’s