Princess Isabella of Parma

Isabella of Parma (Isabella Maria Luisa Antonietta Ferdinanda Giuseppina Saveria Domenica Giovanna; 31 December 1741 – 27 November 1763) was the daughter of Infante Felipe of Spain, Duke of Parma and his wife Louise Elisabeth, eldest daughter of Louis XV of France and Maria Leszczyńska. Her paternal grandparents were Philip V of Spain (in turn a grandson of Louis XIV) and his second wife, Elisabeth of Parma.

Early life

Born at Buen Retiro Palace in Madrid, she was an Infanta of Spain and grew up at the court of her grandfather, Philip V of Spain. As she was an Infanta, she was allowed the style of Royal Highness. One of three children, she had 2 younger siblings:

• Ferdinando Maria Filippo Lodovico Sebastiano Francesco Giacomo of Parma (1751–1802) - he succeeded his father as Duke of Parma in 1765 and married his older sister's sister-in-law, the Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria. He left issue.
• Luisa Maria Teresa Ana of Parma (1751–1819) - she was known as Maria Luisa. She married her cousin, the future Charles IV of Spain. She left issue.

Princess of Parma

Isabella's paternal grandmother was from the House of Farnese, which had ruled the Duchy of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla for many generations. The Duchy had been ruled between 1731 and 1736 by her uncle Charles, but exchanged with Austria for The Two Sicilies after the War of Polish Succession. Twelve years later, in the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748), Austria lost the Duchy, and Philip became the new Duke, founding the House of Bourbon-Parma. As a result she, though still an Infanta of Spain, became a Princess of Parma and kept her style of Her Royal Highness. When her father became the Duke of Parma, the family moved to the duchy, in northern Italy.

Isabella learned to play the violin, and also read books by philosophers and theologians like Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet or John Law. She sometimes became melancholic and, after her mother's death in 1759, was often preoccupied with thoughts about death.

In 1759 Isabella lost her mother, who at the time was in France, living at the Palace of Versailles and plotting to get a better realm to rule. Her mother had been the Duchess of Parma for a mere ten years and was only 32. The relationship between mother and daughter had not been good, since the Duchess was cold towards Isabella and showed a clear favouritism towards her youngest daughter, Maria Luisa.

Marriage

Her mother had for some time been communicating with the very powerful Maria Theresa of Austria, who had promised her mother the Throne of the Netherlands. This idea never materialised, but her eldest daughter was soon married to Maria Theresa's son. On 6 October 1760, at the age of 18, she was married to Archduke Joseph of Austria, heir of the Habsburg Monarchy. Due to her marriage to an Imperial house, she became Her Imperial and Royal Highness - the "Royal" signifying her status as a Princess of Hungary and Bohemia. She quickly charmed the court in Vienna with her beauty and intelligence; apparently Isabella could solve difficult mathematical problems.

She and Joseph's sister, Archduchess Maria Christina, quickly became best friends. Although they met every day, they also wrote letters to each other. In one letter she professes her love for Maria Christina:

"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 throw me into the river.... I can think of nothing but that I am deeply in love. If I only knew why this is so, for you are so without mercy 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.".

It is worth noting that at the time it was not uncommon to use language such as this to describe familial love without the connotations such words would have in a modern day context. Nonetheless, the sheer passionate intensity of the feelings being conveyed can hardly be dismissed as mere "friendship" or even "familial love," unless that of a husband for his wife or vice-versa. Isabella gave birth to two children:

• Her Imperial and Royal Highness Archduchess Maria Theresia of Austria (20 March 1762 - 23 January 1770);
• Her Imperial and Royal Highness Archduchess Marie Christine of Austria (1763). Marie Christine (named after her sister-in-law) died at birth and Isabella herself died a few days later from smallpox. Her daughter Maria Theresia died in January 1770 from pneumonia.

She died at Schönbrunn Palace and was buried in Maria Theresa's vault in the Imperial Crypt Vaults in Vienna, Austria.

In 1765, her father-in-law, Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, died and her husband succeeded him as Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II.

Titles and Styles

• 31 December 1741 – 18 October 1748: Her Royal Highness Doña Isabel, Infanta of Spain
• 18 October 1748 – 7 September 1760: Her Royal Highness Princess Isabella of Parma
• 7 September 1760 – 27 November 1763: Her Imperial and Royal Highness Archduchess Isabella, Princess Imperial of Austria, Princess Royal of Hungary and Bohemia

Ancestry

References

• Isabella von Bourbon-Parma from German Wikipedia. Retrieved 6 August 2006.
• Biography of the melancholy Princess Isabella of Parma (1741-1763). Retrieved 6 August 2006
• Vovk, Justin C. (2008). In Destiny's Hands: Five Tragic Rulers, Children of Maria Theresa.