Isabella of Bourbon-Parma

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Isabella of Bourbon-Parma, Archduchess of Austria

Isabella von Bourbon-Parma (born December 31, 1741 in Buen Retiro near Madrid , † November 27, 1763 in Vienna ) was Infanta of Spain , Princess of Bourbon-Parma, married Archduchess of Austria, Crown Princess of Bohemia and Hungary.

Life

childhood

Isabella Maria Luisa Antonietta Ferdinanda Giuseppina Saveria Dominica Giovanna of Bourbon-Parma was born on December 31, 1741 in Buen Retiro near Madrid as the first child of the Spanish Infante Philip, who later became Duke Philip of Bourbon-Parma , and his wife Louise Elisabeth of France (Louise Isabelle of France).

Isabella of Bourbon-Parma as a child

Isabella's mother, Louise Elisabeth of France, the eldest daughter of King Louis XV, was married to the Spanish Infante Philip, later Duke of Bourbon-Parma, at the age of twelve for purely dynastic reasons. Practically as a child, she came to the Spanish court, where the strict Spanish court ceremonies were also practiced, and never felt comfortable there. Louise Elisabeth saw herself as a puppet who had to submit to the king's orders. She developed no feelings for her husband Philipp, who soon preferred staying with soldiers than with his wife, who probably became obese because of an inherited glandular disease. She even later admitted that she freezes to ice every time she lies in his arms. It was obvious that she would rather play with dolls than share the marriage bed with her husband. The Spanish court took no notice of this. Louise had her duties to fulfill, and most of them were to look after children. In fact, she gave birth to her first child, Isabella, on December 31, 1741 in the Buen Retiro Palace in Madrid. At the time she was only 14 years old. It was not until 1751 that the Duchess of Parma gave birth to two children, the future Duke Ferdinand of Bourbon-Parma and the future Queen Marie Luise of Spain .

Even still a child, Louise Elisabeth developed a particularly close relationship with her young daughter. In the first seven years of her life at the Spanish court, Isabella was confronted again and again with the fact that her parents hardly understood each other and that the fulfillment of her marital duties was an annoying, almost unbearable burden for her mother meant. Nothing changed when Philip was appointed Duke of Parma and the family moved to his new domain.

Isabella with her mother Louise Élisabeth 1748 by Jean-Marc Nattier , oil on canvas

Isabella may have been shaped by the coldness and aversion between her parents. But it also meant that a particularly close relationship developed between mother and daughter, who remained an only child for ten years. It is all the more astonishing that Louise Elisabeth was already considering a connection between her daughter and Maria Theresa's son in 1750, i.e. at a time when Isabella was only nine years old.

Isabella received an extensive education at the court of Parma. She was very musical, received violin lessons and perfected this instrument at an early age. Inquisitive and often interested, she read the writings of Italian and French philosophers, showed an understanding of mathematics and military matters, drew and painted and soon began to write herself. Even in her early youth, Isabella, who grew up to be a great beauty, also showed a tendency towards sadness and melancholy. Again and again she expressed the wish to go to the monastery.

Politicians, however, had other plans for Isabella. In August 1759, Maria Theresa and Franz I Stephan (HRR) of Lorraine turned to King Louis XV with a formal request . to solicit his granddaughter's hand for their eldest son with the Dukes of Parma . Your request was crowned with success. Preparations for the "marriage of the century" between a Habsburg and a Bourbon woman soon began at the courts of Versailles, Parma and Vienna. The mood was all the more euphoric when it was precisely at that time that Maria Theresa's general Gideon Ernst Laudon had succeeded in winning victories over the Prussians with the combined Austrian and Russian forces. The details for the wedding, which Louise Elisabeth considered to be her life's work, were still being worked on, when she suddenly fell ill with the leaves in December 1759 and died within a few days.

Wedding to Joseph

The solemn entry of Isabella of Parma into Vienna for the wedding with Joseph

The displayed splendor of the wedding celebrations was intended to make the misery of the Seven Years' War forgotten and to give the European public the impression of the inexhaustible resources of the monarchy. But politics also had an important say in the choice of the bride. The fact that the lot fell on Isabella of Parma, who came from an Italian side line of the French Bourbons, was due to the “renversement des alliances”, the change in the Habsburg alliance policy towards France. The new alliance with the old 'archenemy' was to be strengthened by mutual marriages between the dynasties.

The court table in the Redoutensaal on the occasion of the wedding of Joseph II with Isabella von Bourbon-Parma after 1760 by Martin van Meytens

The usual ceremonial process of a dynastic wedding now unfolded. In the person of Prince Joseph Wenzel von Liechtenstein , a high-ranking (and financially strong) suitor was sent to Parma to bring the bride home, as this was a prestigious but also very expensive service of honor.

The main part of the festivities then took place in Vienna. The bride solemnly entered the city. An impressive train of over 90 carriages dragged its way through the narrow streets of the old town, past the triumphal gateways made of wood and plaster, which allegorically glorified the bride and the House of Habsburg. The spacious square shown in the picture did not exist, the painters had only left out the houses to reveal the noble carriages.

First, the marriage was performed by procurationem on September 5, 1760 in the Cathedral of Padua . The actual wedding with Joseph II of Austria took place on October 6, 1760 in Vienna . The actual wedding ceremony in the Augustinian court church was followed by a public show dinner in the Hofburg. Only members of the imperial family sat at the table. In the middle sat the ruling imperial couple Maria Theresia and Franz I Stephan, on the left and right you can see the bride and groom. The tableware made of solid gold was also the wedding gift to the bride. The dishes were served by members of the high nobility in black silk Spanish cloaks, who performed their honorary positions as cupbearers and traditional feasts, with the ceremonial sequence following a strict choreography up to the number of bows.

The following days were also marked by festivities, with the presentation of a musical serenade showing a special detail: In the crowd of spectators you can recognize the little Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart .

This series of pictures can be seen in the ceremonial hall in Schönbrunn Palace.

Archduchess Isabella, by Martin van Meytens around 1770

Life at the Viennese court

The marriage between Joseph and Isabella, begun so pompously and magnificently, soon turned out to be very strange. The young heir to the throne literally adored his distinctive and witty wife. He admired and adored her and spent atmospheric, romantic evenings with her. He also saw her as his closest confidante and friend, lived in the certainty that he would spend a time of intimate togetherness and the most beautiful harmony with her and always discovered new advantages in her. What was going on in the complex emotional world of his beautiful wife, who, like later the unhappy Sissi, deeply detested the constraints of ceremonial and court life, remained hidden from him. Nor did he ask. After all, all he had learned was to deal with himself. When seven months had passed and there were no signs of the couple's imminent offspring, Joseph and Isabella went on a pilgrimage to Mariazell at the end of May 1761. They traveled in a modest setting and, like Maria Theresa and Franz Stephan 25 years earlier, prayed reverently in front of the altar of grace of the Magna Mater Austriae. The pilgrimage was worth it. In the early autumn of 1761, the Viennese court, who of course wanted nothing more than a male heir to the throne, was pleased that Isabella was in good hope. The expectant mother herself went through difficult times in the months that followed. She suffered from mood swings and ailments, was often almost unresponsive and lost her emotional balance.

Princess Maria Josepha v. Bavaria, second wife of Joseph II by the court painter Martin van Meytens

When labor began on March 19, 1762, the entire aristocracy gathered in the Hofburg, which was prescribed by the court ceremony. Gerard van Swieten , Maria Theresa's personal physician from Leiden , had, however, put an end to the previously practiced habit of crowds of people crowding into the room of the woman giving birth. The gentlemen had to go to the council chamber and the ladies to the mirrored room. With Isabella, besides the extremely nervous Joseph, only van Swieten himself and the midwife stayed. That didn't change the fact that the birth was extremely dramatic. The violent contractions lasted all day and all night. Eventually they reached such an agonizing and threatening extent that the imperial family had the Holy of Holies exposed in several churches in Vienna and prayed for a happy delivery. The imperial couple themselves lay on their knees in the court chapel and prayed rosary for rosary. The prayers were answered.

Isabella gave birth to a healthy girl on March 20, 1762 around seven o'clock in the evening. It was portrayed in a watercolor by Marie Christine , following the idyll of the family : next to Isabella Joseph, who has recently given birth, in a dressing gown, in the foreground is the newborn with his wet nurse, and behind it Marie Christine herself.

Joseph II at the puerperium of Isabella of Parma

The fact was, Joseph idolized his Isabella. But it was also a fact that his adored "Tia-Tia" hardly met with approval. Isabella felt indifferent to him, she might even find herself repulsed by his awkward expressions of love. But she never let it be noted. And what's more, she managed the feat of making Joseph feel that he was loved by her and that being with him was pure happiness. There is no doubt that Isabella was deeply unhappy in her role as the wife of the heir to the throne. But she was still in love. Not in her husband, however, but in his sister Marie Christine.

Isabella and Marie Christine not only shared an interest in music and art, but also had a strong mutual affection. The two young women wrote each other long letters every day, in which they revealed their feelings for one another and assured one another of their love for one another. While Marie Christine's letters reflect a cheerful character, the content of Isabella's letters, along with phrases of affection for her girlfriend, increasingly mixed thoughts of death and premonitions. Only the letters from Isabella have survived, since the other half of the correspondence was confiscated shortly after her death.

Sickness and death

Isabella suffered miscarriages in August 1762 and January 1763, which made her mental illness worse. After the death of Archduchess Johanna Gabriela, she sank more and more into thoughts of death and longing for death.

In the center of the picture the sarcophagus of Isabella of Bourbon-Parma in the Capuchin crypt . Below this, that of her daughter Christine

In 1763 the pregnant Isabella fell ill with smallpox and on November 22nd, 1763, after six months of pregnancy, gave birth to a girl named Christine, who died a few hours after the birth. Isabella passed away a week later. Her last words she addressed to her husband were:

“Grâce à Dieu! My whole body is on fire because I have sinned with my whole body. The Nessus shirt of sin, cher ami! "

ancestors

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ludwig , Dauphin of France (1661–1711)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Philip V King of Spain (1683–1746)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Maria Anna of Bavaria (1660–1690)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Philip Duke of Parma (1720–1765)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Odoardo II Farnese (1666-1693)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Elisabetta Farnese (1692–1766)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Dorothea Sophie of the Palatinate (1670–1748)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Isabella of Bourbon-Parma
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ludwig Duke of Burgundy (1682–1712)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Louis XV King of France (1710–1774)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Maria Adelaide of Savoy (1685-1712)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Marie Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon (1727-1759)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Stanislaus I. Leszczyński (1677–1766)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Maria Leszczyńska Queen of France (1703–1768)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Katharina Opalińska (1680–1747)
 
 
 
 
 
 

progeny

  1. Maria Theresa , Archduchess of Austria (born March 20, 1762 in Vienna , † January 23, 1770 in Vienna)
  2. Miscarriage (* / † August 1762)
  3. Miscarriage (* / † January 1763)
  4. Christine, Archduchess of Austria (* / † November 22, 1763 in Vienna)

literature

Web links

Commons : Isabella von Bourbon-Parma  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Hanne Egghardt: Scandalous Amours in the House of Habsburg K&S, Graz 2013, ISBN 978-3-218-00860-0 , p. 10.
  2. ↑ Hanne Egghardt: Scandalous amours in the Habsburg K&S house, Graz 2013, ISBN 978-3-218-00860-0 , p. 11.
  3. ^ Hanne Egghardt: Scandalous amours in the Habsburg K&S house, Graz 2013, ISBN 978-3-218-00860-0 , p. 12.
  4. ↑ Hanne Egghardt: Scandalous amours in the house of Habsburg K&S, Graz 2013, ISBN 978-3-218-00860-0 , p. 14.
  5. ↑ Hanne Egghardt: Scandalous amours in the house of Habsburg K&S, Graz 2013, ISBN 978-3-218-00860-0 , p. 16.
  6. ↑ Hanne Egghardt: Scandalous amours in the house of Habsburg K&S, Graz 2013, ISBN 978-3-218-00860-0 , p. 17.
  7. ↑ Sigrid Maria Großering: We could have sat in a rose garden - love and suffering in the Habsburg family. P. 213
personal data
SURNAME Bourbon-Parma, Isabella of
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Princess of Bourbon-Parma and Archduchess of Austria
DATE OF BIRTH December 31, 1741
PLACE OF BIRTH Buen Retiro near Madrid
DATE OF DEATH November 27, 1763
Place of death Vienna