This is a portrait of the proud young mother in my last post, Princess Isabella of Parma. She had the most amazing name, are you ready for this? Princess Isabella Maria Luisa Antonietta Ferdinanda Giuseppina Saveria Dominica Giovanna of Parma.
She was born in Madrid on the 31st December 1741, the daughter of Louis XV’s adored eldest daughter, Louise-Élisabeth, who was the only one to ever leave Versailles to become a wife and mother, creating a ‘little France’ in her new home Parma. Her son, Duke Ferdinand of Parma was to marry Marie Antoinette’s feisty elder sister, Maria Amalia while her youngest daughter, Luisa Maria was to become the Queen of Spain, so infamously depicted by Goya.
Isabella is said to have been a highly intelligent girl with an interest in philosophy and mathematics and a talent for music. She was gentle, with pleasing manners but had a decided and unfortunate melancholy side, which led her to fall into a deep depression after the premature death of her overbearing mother in 1759.
Shortly after this, Isabella was sent to Vienna to be married to the Archduke Joseph, eldest son and heir of the Empress Maria Theresa. The young couple fell deeply in love and Isabella seems to have won over the Imperial court thanks to her youthful beauty and charm. Her somewhat sombre nature was probably far more to the taste of the Viennese than it was to her frivolous, Parisian mother, who had a decided preference for her rather more flighty younger sister, Luisa.
Isabella was to become close friends with her sister in law, Maria Christina (‘Mimi’). It has been speculated that there was more than mere friendship between the two girls, thanks to the caressing and affectionate way in which they addressed each other in their letters, but I think that this is reading far too much into it as employing lavish sentimental language when addressing female friends was perfectly normal at the time and nothing out of the ordinary at all. Maria Christina and Isabella were both of a similar serious nature and shared a mutual interest in science, maths, art and music so it is hardly surprising that they became close friends.
One of Isabella’s letters to Maria Christina includes the following: ‘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.“.’
Isabella and Joseph were to have their first child, the Archduchess Maria Theresa, on the 20th March 1762. She became pregnant again shortly afterwards but sadly the baby, another daughter, Maria Christina died at birth and Isabella herself became ill with small pox and died only a few days after this on the 27th November 1763.
I agree with your assessment, Melanie. People has an unabashed and unrestrained manner of expressing affection that sounds odd to us but to them it was perfectly innocent and very natural.
I am so sure that it was innocent, based on the characters of the people concerned and also the fact that most upper class women at that time wrote similar, very affectionate letters to their friends. It was really sweet, I think. It’s just a shame that in modern times such guileless behaviour is regarded with suspicion.
Melanie,
A quick word to say how much I love your blog – I have Elena Maria to thank for cluing me into it. Huge fan of it and the period!
I think it’s also worth noting on the whole “were they/weren’t they” debate about Maria-Christina and the Archduchess Isabella, much like the similar situation with Marie-Antoinette and Gabrielle de Polignac or the Princesse de Lamballe, that whilst male homosexuality was fairly well “understood” at the time, (although, of course, the word as a psychological distinction wasn’t coined until the next century), lesbianism really wasn’t. Whilst anti-royalist pamphleteers fixated on it, I often try to remind people that many ladies, such as Isabella or Marie-Antoinette, were not entirely sure what lesbianism even was. Queen Victoria in the next century, for instance, didn’t even believe it existed at all! So as far as I can tell, I’m not even sure how they could have been something more than friends. And, as you’ve said, adultery of any variety would have been out of character for both women.
Gareth
Hello Gareth!
Thank you for your comment – that is an interesting point and I absolutely agree. I don’t think that either girl was that way inclined – the fact that Maria Christina was never linked with anyone else, even though she outlived Isabella by a very long time, would imply that also.
I think it was viewed as the ultimate taboo at the time and gossipy people were very quick to latch onto any sort of hint that something improper was going on, aided by the very affectionate manner that aristocratic ladies of the time used both in person and in their correspondance. It is such a shame that innocent friendships that were obviously a source of enormous consolation to shy, estranged foreign brides like Isabella, the Princesse de Lamballe and Marie Antoinette were fastened upon and turned into something that I am fairly sure all of the ladies would have been utterly confused by.