Princess Isabella of Parma
Isabella of Bourbon -Parma ( born December 31, 1741 Buen Retiro in Madrid, † November 27, 1763 in Vienna) was Infanta of Spain, Princess of Bourbon -Parma, married Archduchess of Austria, Princess Royal of Hungary and Bohemia.
Life
Childhood
Isabella Maria Luisa Antonietta Giuseppina Ferdinanda Saveria Dominica Giovanna of Bourbon- Parma was born on December 31, 1741 in Buen Retiro near Madrid, the first child of the Spanish Infante Philip, later Duke Philip of Bourbon -Parma, and his wife Louise Elisabeth of France ( Louise born Isabelle of France).
The first seven years of her life spent Isabella in Spain on her grandfather's farm. During this time a close and trusting relationship between Louise Elisabeth of France and her daughter developed. Only after the collection of her father the Duke of Parma in 1748, the family moved to Parma. The marriage of the Duke and Duchess of Parma was not happy in her new territory and so Isabella stayed for 10 years, an only child. Only in 1751 the Duchess of Parma gave back two children, later Duke Ferdinand of Bourbon -Parma and later Queen Marie Louise of Spain, life.
Isabella was very musical and spent her time at her father's court with the perfection of the violin game. In addition, she read with enthusiasm the writings of Italian and French philosophers. At a very early age she showed a tendency to melancholy and depression and thinking through death. Your mental situation worsened after the early death of her mother in 1759.
In 1760 she was engaged as a 18 -year-old with the Austrian heir to the throne, the future emperor Joseph II of Austria. First, the marriage was consummated by procurationem on September 5, 1760 at the Cathedral of Padua. The actual wedding took place in Vienna on October 6, 1760.
Life at the Viennese court
Although, in this connection first was only the political interest in the foreground, Joseph II very soon developed a deep affection for his wife. Isabella not only won the heart of her husband, but soon was fascinated by the whole imperial court with her beauty, her charm, her intelligence and her musicality. She was interested not only in mathematics, art and music but also read works by John Law and Bossuet. Joseph's love for Isabella grew constantly and soon she was the center of his life.
Joseph was finally completely fixated on his young wife and showered them with love evidence. The more intense the love of Joseph was, the more Isabella withdrew into her own world. Soon after the wedding, she sank into a melancholy and wrote long letters in which she expressed her longing for death expressed. Am Wiener Hof she spent most of the time not with her husband but with his sister Marie Christine of Austria, later Duchess Marie Christine of Saxe -Teschen. Isabella and Marie Christine joined not only the interest in music and art, but also a strong mutual affection. The two young women wrote daily page-long letters in which they revealed their feelings for each other and their mutual love of the insured. While the letters Marie Christine reflect a cheerful character, next phrases of affection mingled with the content of Isabella's letters to his girlfriend increasingly increased thoughts of death and premonitions of death. It 's only the letters of Isabella obtained because the other half of the correspondence was confiscated shortly after her death.
Illness and death
Isabella suffered to give birth under her duty as wife of the heir to the throne, a healthy male heir. After a problematic pregnancy, which was overshadowed by thoughts of death and psychological problems brought on March 20, 1762, a daughter named Maria Theresa to the world, but, as predicted by Isabella, before her eighth birthday died of pneumonia.
In August 1762 and in January 1763 Isabella suffered one miscarriage, still worse their mental suffering. After the death of Archduchess Johanna Gabriela she was engulfed by thoughts of death and longing for death.
1763 ill the pregnant Isabella of smallpox and brought on 22 November 1763 after six months of pregnancy, a girl named Christine to the world, died a few hours after birth. A week later also died Isabella. Her last words she addressed to her husband, were:
" Grâce à Dieu! My whole body was on fire, for I have sinned with the whole body. The Nessushemd of sin, cher ami! "