April 11, 2023 • 30 mins
Isabella of Parma had a fairy tale wedding to Joseph, the son of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. But he wasn't the great love of her life: his sister was.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim
and Mild from Aaron Mankie Listener Discretion advised. In the
heart of Schonbrun Palace, the summer home of the Austrian Habsburgs,
(00:25):
is the hall of Ceremonies. In the eighteenth century, Empress
Maria Teresa would welcome guests there, awing them with the
room's elaborate goal decorations. Today the hall still has the
power to awe, for it's here that the cycle of
paintings depicting the seventeen sixty wedding of Archduke Joseph of Austria,
(00:52):
the Empress's son and Princess Isabella of Parma are hung.
Even three hundred years later, the scale of the celebration,
as depicted on the artist Martin van Maiden's enormous canvases,
is almost hard to absorb. The wedding was classic Imperial
(01:14):
pageantry at its finest. The bride wore cloth woven with silver,
and she rode into the city in a procession of
ninety carriages through a series of decorative arches built just
for the occasion. Musicians serenaded her from every street corner.
(01:36):
After the church ceremony. Wedding guests followed a trail of
three thousand glowing lanterns to the Imperial Palace, where the
guests ate off of solid gold dishware as they toasted
the newlyweds. There was a reason for all of this
conspicuous consumption. Austria was in the middle of the Seven
(02:01):
Years War, and the public's patience for the war's costs,
both in money and in lives, was wearing thin. The
wedding of her son and briss Maria Theresa hoped would
serve as both a pleasant diversion for the Austrians and
as a symbol to her foreign allies that her empire
(02:25):
could sustain the costs of war. But what about the
young people at the heart of this grand wedding? How
did they feel about it all? Not particularly happy, as
you might have guessed by the other royal weddings we've
covered on this podcast. The nineteen year old Archduke would
(02:46):
have rather been off fighting. In fact, he was more
scared of marriage than of going into battle, and was
only agreeing to the marriage out of duty. Quote as
a victim of the state, I sacrifice myself, he wrote
to an adviser the eighteen year old Princess Isabella of
Parma was similarly reluctant. Reflecting on the painful life of
(03:12):
noble women. Several years later, Isabella would write that princesses
are quote condemned to abandon everything for an unknown person
whose character and manner of thinking she does not know,
in a sacrifice for the supposed public good end quote.
(03:33):
Fortunately for Joseph and Isabella, their marriage would not be
quite as miserable as many other such sacrificial matches. Joseph,
like nearly everyone the brilliant Isabella came into contact with,
would soon be thoroughly charmed and infatuated by his new bride.
(03:54):
Isabella too would come to find love not with her husband, though,
but with his sister. Today, I'll tell you about the
doomed romance of Princess Isabella of Parma and her sister
in law, Arch Duchess Maria Christina. It's a story of
(04:15):
love and loss and the way that these forces shape
our lives. It's also a story about history and historians,
how the historical record is shaped by contemporary beliefs, how
narratives are created and erased, and how the truth has
(04:36):
a way as Shakespeare once said of outing, I'm Dana Schwartz,
and this is noble blood. Before we talk about Maria
and Christina, we need to spend a little bit more
(04:59):
talking about Joseph and Isabella. The couple's wedding wasn't just
about putting on a show for the world. The marriage
itself was an important act of political alliance, in this
case an alliance between Austria and France. Though Isabella's father
was Spanish, her mother was French, the beloved eldest daughter
(05:22):
of King Louis the fifteenth. Isabella herself had spent nearly
a year at Versailles as a child, during which time
she won over the court with her precocious intelligence and
vivacious spirit. She had much the same effect on the Austrians,
her gift for knowing exactly the right thing to say
(05:45):
having only grown with time. By the time she arrived
in Vienna in October seventeen sixty. She spoke four languages,
played violin beautifully, could shoot well, and was conversant in
the latest developments of science and philosophy. She also knew
when to make jokes and when to stay serious, an
(06:08):
important skill at court. She could be everything to everybody,
a skill that served her particularly well in the chaotic
Habsburg court, where the Empress and Emperor lived alongside their
eleven children, each of whom had their own distinct personalities.
These children would grow up to rule much of Western Europe,
(06:33):
either in their own right or through marriage. You're likely
familiar with several of them, probably especially the youngest daughter, one,
Marie Antoinette. Isabella managed to find her place in this
boisterous household and charm nearly all of the Habsburgs in turn,
(06:54):
but the princess had a dark side too. In seventeen
fifty nine, after the marriage contract between Isabella and Joseph
was finalized, Isabella's mother, Elizabeth, died of smallpox. Elizabeth had
been only fourteen when she had had Isabella, and so
(07:14):
the two were more like sisters than mother and daughter.
Imagine a Gilmore girl's style relationship. Their relationship had not
always been easy, but Elizabeth's sudden death devastated Isabella. Years later,
a rumor would circulate that upon Elizabeth's death, Isabella had
(07:36):
heard a voice telling her that she herself would only
live a few more years, and while Isabella herself never
told such a story, its core idea wasn't entirely basis.
Isabella was obsessed with thoughts of her own death, and
sometimes even with a longing for it. She wrote countless
(07:58):
letters about her yearning for death to close friends and
family members, who mostly responded with annoyance. In fairness to them,
Isabella was not explicitly suicidal. She simply pondered that death
would have more to offer her than the constrained life
of a princess, and she also had a family history
(08:23):
of what we would now likely identify as depression, particularly
on her father's side. Despite her inner turmoil, Isabella was
an expert at maintaining a happy facade. Joseph became more
and more besotted with his beautiful bride, although many at
(08:43):
court observed that his love was not returned quite as
eagerly as it was given. Poor Joseph, who was consistently
described as aloof and awkward, he seemed to be the
only one who didn't notice. The couple's misaligned interests didn't
(09:03):
help matters, nor did the discrepancy between their maturity levels. Nonetheless,
Isabella fulfilled her marital and dynastic responsibilities and gave birth
to her first child, a daughter, on March twentieth, seventeen
sixty two. The baby was named Maria Teresa, after the
(09:26):
Empress Joseph's mother, Isabella's mother in law. As we all know,
royal daughters are all well and good, but what was
really needed was a son. So the pressure to get
pregnant resumed. The second Isabella recovered from birth. Only five
months after little Maria Teresa's birth, Isabella had a miscarriage,
(09:50):
followed by another miscarriage only five months after that. I
know that the Empress wishes to see me pregnant, she
wrote in a letter, but you can't do as you want.
The physical and emotional toll of these constant attempts weighed
on Isabella heavily, but through the pain, one bright spot
(10:13):
was constant her relationship with her sister in law, the
arch Duchess Maria Christina. Isabella and Maria Christina had begun
corresponding even before Isabella came to Vienna, as the Princess
attempted to get to know her new family in law.
The two young women were only six months apart in
(10:35):
age and shared many interests. Both were artistic, sensitive and intelligent.
The timeline of their relationship, how and when it grew
from friendship to love has been lost to history. But
by the time Isabella arrived in Austria at nineteen, the
two were writing to one another constantly. We only have
(10:59):
one of Maria Christina's letters to Isabella, but Maria Christina
saved many of Isabella's letters to her, revealing the shape
of their playful, teasing and occasionally melodramatic relationship. The women
spent as much time together as possible, arranging private rendezvous
(11:21):
whenever Joseph was out. When they could not be together physically,
they expressed their longing in letters. I love you, madly,
wrote Isabella. In one such letter, I will be delighted
to see you, kiss you and be kissed by you.
I report that I am impatient to die in your
bosom end the joy of loving Maria Christina even soothed
(11:47):
Isabella's desire to die. Quote let me adore you forever,
Isabella once wrote, while noting in another letter that quote,
I thought about death again last night, But more I
think about it, the less I contain myself with this idea,
since it would be a separation from you. End quote.
(12:09):
The one remaining letter we have from Maria Christina is
no less romantic. Responding to Isabella's request that Maria Christina
describe her, Maria Christina noted that Isabella could quote turn
to no one who understands your personality and your significant
qualities better than I, who loves you tenderly end quote.
(12:34):
Maria Christina begins by describing Isabella's appearance, writing quote, I
don't know anyone more agreeable. Beautiful eyes and hair, a
pretty mouth, and everything so expressive that despite your mischievous expression,
one recognizes the spirit that you possess, a bosom that
(12:56):
couldn't be lovelier. And Maria Christina contain in use quote
as for what's on the inside, it's even more lovable
than what's on the outside. An utterly tender heart for
your friends, of which I received daily evidence. A good daughter,
a good wife, a good sister, a good mistress. Goodness
(13:18):
is the basis of your whole character. A bit mischievous,
but never hurtful. End quote. The women could indeed be mischievous.
They gifted each other chamber pots, with Isabella reminding Maria
Christina to think of her whenever she used hers. They
were also passionate. Isabella wrote of kissing Maria Christina's quote
(13:43):
lovely ass of quote kissing Maria Christina with all my might,
and of quote kissing each other to utter exhaustion. Despite
the fairly explicitness of these letters, historians long shide away
from calling Maria Christina and Isabella's relationship a romantic or
(14:04):
sexual one. This isn't to say that historians didn't recognize
it for what it was. Alfred von Arneth, the preeminent
nineteenth century biographer of Empress Maria Teresa and keeper of
the Austrian State Archives, remarked, upon reading Isabella's letters that
(14:25):
quote her infatuation almost exceeds the limit within which, according
to our modern concepts, it seems desirable that such affections
should move. As a result, he recommended that some of
the letters be either destroyed or at the very least
(14:47):
kept from the public. Fortunately for us, the letters were
not destroyed. But von Arneth was not the only historian
who wanted to suppress the intimacies of that relationship. The
modern historian Barbara Stolberg Rillinger argues that as sexual behaviors
(15:09):
and identities were increasingly pathologized in the nineteenth century, contemporary
historians became more and more unwilling to admit the existence
of a homosexual relationship within the Austrian royal family. This
reluctance continued into the twentieth century. When Isabella's letters were
(15:31):
first transcribed and published in the nineteen fifties, many of
the most explicit passages and letters were omitted. It was
not until two thousand and eight that the letters were
published in full by the French historian Elizabeth Badinterre. Though
some historians, like Ursula Temusino wrote about the romantic connection
(15:53):
between the two women as early as the nineteen eighties.
As one of the first to write openly about the relationship,
Temissino was aware that she was up against two hundred
years of historians who had actively tried to cover it up.
She noted, quote, should the suspicion arise that only such
(16:15):
quotations were selected that suggest an intense relationship between Isabella
and Maria, I would like to emphasize with all possible emphasis,
that there is hardly a note in the collection of
letters that does not contain such a reference. End quote.
That's the beautiful thing about history. In the end, despite
(16:37):
our biases and beliefs, all we truly have are the
primary sources, and in this case the primary source is
a series of letters from one woman to another in
which she writes about, quote, what inner satisfaction I would
feel if I could only contemplate that nose turned with
(16:57):
such grace and attractiveness, that in mouth so suited to
console with its kisses, those eyes whose language is so touching.
I forget where I am, I forget those with whom
I am. I think only of this new desire that
I seek to satisfy, whatever the price. End quote to
(17:20):
quote the lyrics of a song I heard on TikTok
by the artist, and I hope I'm pronouncing this correctly.
All blair and historians will call them close friends, besties, roommates, colleagues,
anything but lovers. History hates lovers. Unfortunately for Isabella and
(17:42):
Maria Christina, they would not have long to satisfy their desires.
Isabella's premonitions about an early death came to fruition in
November seventeen sixty three. Pregnant once again, Isabella came down
with a fever. Overnight, her condition worsened, and soon the
(18:04):
truth could not be denied. She had smallpox. Because of
the infectious nature of the disease. Only those who had
already had smallpox were allowed to visit sufferers. This meant
that Joseph, who had survived about could see Isabella. His
wife Maria Christina, however, could not. In the middle of
(18:28):
the night on November twenty second, Isabella went into premature labor,
likely caused by her illness. She gave birth to a
girl in the early morning, a baby that passed away quickly,
but not before being baptized. Isabella named her daughter Maria Christina.
(18:49):
For a painful period of several days after the birth,
it seemed that Isabella might recover. She sat up on
her own, drank some roth ate some biscuits, but it
was a false hope. On November twenty sixth, she slipped
into unconsciousness, awakening only once more before dying on the
(19:12):
morning of November twenty seventh, aged twenty one. All of
Vienna mourned the passing of their brilliant princess, though likely
none grieved more deeply than those who had loved her best, Joseph,
her husband, and Maria Christina, whose lives would both be
(19:33):
forever shaped by Isabella's impact. Joseph had barely left his
wife's bedside throughout her nine day illness. Though it's doubtful
that Isabella truly romantically loved Joseph, she had given him attention,
care and respect, and he felt unmoored without her. I
(19:54):
lost everything, Joseph wrote his father in law, My adorable wife,
the object of all my tenderness. My only friend is
no more end quote. He would in some ways never
recover from this loss. Four months later, he was elected
Holy Roman Emperor and crowned in Frankfurt. He wrote to
(20:18):
his mother of the torture of keeping a stiff upper
lip at such a time. Quote, I'm a burden to
everyone with my grief, so I have to choke it
all down and pretend all day long end quote. Unfortunately,
his charade couldn't end with his coronation. Because Isabella had
(20:41):
not had a son during their brief marriage, Joseph didn't
have an heir, and so within a year of Isabella's death,
the pressure to remarry had grown intense. He reluctantly agreed
and married Maria Josepha of Bavaria in January seventeen sixty five.
It was a deeply unhappy marriage for both. Maria Josepha
(21:05):
was constantly compared unfavorably to her predecessor. The couple had
no children. When Maria Josepha contracted smallpox two years later,
Joseph never visited her sick room. When she died a
week later, he did not attend her burial. Three years later,
(21:25):
tragedy struck again when Joseph's living daughter with Isabella died
at age seven of pleurisy. That daughter had been the
emperor's closest link to his late wife, and he had
had the girl raised on an educational program that Isabella
herself had designed before her death. An observer wrote of
(21:48):
Joseph after his daughter's death, quote, the Emperor's grief is extreme.
It is frightful that every person who would naturally engage
his feelings should be snatched away from him. And since
he has none too many feelings, it's to be feared that,
through inability to give them rain, he may entirely lose
(22:12):
the habit and quote In many ways it seems that
he did. Joseph would not remarry a third time, forever
haunted by the ghost of his idealized first wife. Maria
Christina's life too, was forever shaped by Isabella, although in
(22:33):
her case, the haunting was a more beneficial one. Before
her death, Isabella had written a document entitled Advice to Maria,
in which she dissected the personalities of Empress Maria Theresa
and Emperor Franz Stephen observance and astute. Isabella's psychological portraits
(22:55):
of her in laws are deeply revealing and surely would
have been in value well to any spy or political
lackey who stumbled upon them. But they were only for
the eyes of Maria Christina, and Isabella intended them to
be used by her lover in a very particular way
to secure her status. After Isabella's death, Isabella's advice to
(23:20):
Maria Christina for winning over her own parents would soon
pay off. After Isabella's death, Maria Christina, always close to
her mother, became the Empress's clear favorite. This favoritism didn't
endear her to her siblings, but it helped her enormously
when it came to negotiating a good marriage. Maria Christina's
(23:45):
father wanted her to marry his nephew, her cousin, the
Duke of Chablis, but Maria Christina had other ideas for herself,
namely Prince Albert of Saxony, a good friend of Isabella
before her death. Prince Albert was a poor match by
imperial standards. He was a penniless sixth son, but Maria
(24:08):
Christina and Albert had connected over their shared mourning for Isabella,
and soon their friendship blossomed into love. The Empress, who
herself had enjoyed a marriage for love, was determined to
help her favorite daughter. After the Emperor's death in seventeen
sixty five, which ended the plan for Maria Christina to
(24:31):
marry the Duke of Shehabilis, the Empress made the bold
move to support Albert's proposal. Maria Teresa negotiated a marriage
contract in which her daughter Maria Christina was allowed to
keep her titles and status as an archduchess, granted her
an enormous dowry, and gave Albert a new title of
(24:54):
his own. The Empress's other children were acutely aware of
this favorite treatment, with one brother, Leopold, writing quote towards
Maria and Prince Albert, she has the utmost tenderness and trust.
They twist the Empress around their little finger end quote.
(25:14):
Clearly Isabella's lessons that she left for Maria Christina had worked.
Maria Christina and Albert's marriage was a very happy one.
Upon Maria Christina's death in seventeen ninety eight, Albert commissioned
a famous sculptor to create her tomb, and he had
(25:35):
it inscribed uxuri Optime. The best wife. Albert is also
the reason that we still have Isabella's letters today. He
saved them, calling them quote interesting because of her spirit
and estimable character, which sure, that's why they're interesting. Despite
(25:57):
the years of happiness shared by Christina and her husband,
she seems never to have forgotten the great love of
her young life. After Maria Christina died, a miniature was
found in her prayer book. It was a picture of
Isabella and her daughter. The caption, written by Maria Christina herself,
(26:20):
read quote portrait of my dear sister in law Isabella
and her only daughter. The former died of smallpox in
seventeen sixty three at the age of twenty one. On
November twenty seven, warned by all the world, but especially
by me, who has lost the best and truest friend
(26:42):
I have ever had in the world. This woman was
endowed with every imaginable virtue and kindness. She lived and
died as an angel. That's the story of the short
(27:05):
life and early love affair of Isabella of Parma and
Maria Christina. But keep listening after a brief sponsor break
to hear a little bit more about Isabella's writings. Throughout
(27:26):
this episode, I've mentioned several of Isabella's writings, her advice
to Maria Christina, and the educational program she designed for
her daughter. Besides these more personal documents, Isabella also wrote
a number of treatises of philosophy and public affairs, many
of which feel surprisingly modern for the eighteenth century. There's
(27:50):
her Treaty on Men, for example, where she dissects the patriarchy,
writing every woman in the world can do without a
man and argues that men have created a system that
empowers them over women as a means of survival, because
if they did not quote have all the authority in
(28:10):
hand and quote, they would be quote exiled entirely. And
then there's her discussion on the lot of royal women,
which I briefly mentioned in the prologue, called on the
Fate of Princesses. Quote what can the daughter of a
great prince expect? She asks in the text, not much
(28:33):
it turns out quote already at birth, she is a
slave to the prejudices of the people. Her position deprives
her of knowing those by whom she surrounded. The rank
which she bears, far from bringing her the slightest advantage,
deprives her of the greatest pleasure of life. Obligated to
(28:54):
live in the world, she hardly has any acquaintances or friends.
This is not all. In the end, they want to
marry her off end quote. A discussion of the hidden
pain behind the privileged veil of royalty, and investigation into
how one's humanity can be lost when one becomes a
(29:17):
symbol of something larger. To me, it sounds a little
bit like Isabella wrote the very first episode of Noble
Blood nearly three hundred years ago. Noble Blood is a
(29:43):
production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankie.
Noble Blood is created and hosted by me Dana Schwartz,
with additional writing and researching by Hannah Johnston, hannah's Wick,
Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Laurie Goodman. The show is
edited and produced by Naimi Griffin and rema Il Kali,
(30:07):
with supervising producer Josh Faine and executive producers Aaron Manky,
Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim
and Mild from Aaron Mankie Listener Discretion advised. In the
heart of Schonbrun Palace, the summer home of the Austrian Habsburgs,
(00:25):
is the hall of Ceremonies. In the eighteenth century, Empress
Maria Teresa would welcome guests there, awing them with the
room's elaborate goal decorations. Today the hall still has the
power to awe, for it's here that the cycle of
paintings depicting the seventeen sixty wedding of Archduke Joseph of Austria,
(00:52):
the Empress's son and Princess Isabella of Parma are hung.
Even three hundred years later, the scale of the celebration,
as depicted on the artist Martin van Maiden's enormous canvases,
is almost hard to absorb. The wedding was classic Imperial
(01:14):
pageantry at its finest. The bride wore cloth woven with silver,
and she rode into the city in a procession of
ninety carriages through a series of decorative arches built just
for the occasion. Musicians serenaded her from every street corner.
(01:36):
After the church ceremony. Wedding guests followed a trail of
three thousand glowing lanterns to the Imperial Palace, where the
guests ate off of solid gold dishware as they toasted
the newlyweds. There was a reason for all of this
conspicuous consumption. Austria was in the middle of the Seven
(02:01):
Years War, and the public's patience for the war's costs,
both in money and in lives, was wearing thin. The
wedding of her son and briss Maria Theresa hoped would
serve as both a pleasant diversion for the Austrians and
as a symbol to her foreign allies that her empire
(02:25):
could sustain the costs of war. But what about the
young people at the heart of this grand wedding? How
did they feel about it all? Not particularly happy, as
you might have guessed by the other royal weddings we've
covered on this podcast. The nineteen year old Archduke would
(02:46):
have rather been off fighting. In fact, he was more
scared of marriage than of going into battle, and was
only agreeing to the marriage out of duty. Quote as
a victim of the state, I sacrifice myself, he wrote
to an adviser the eighteen year old Princess Isabella of
Parma was similarly reluctant. Reflecting on the painful life of
(03:12):
noble women. Several years later, Isabella would write that princesses
are quote condemned to abandon everything for an unknown person
whose character and manner of thinking she does not know,
in a sacrifice for the supposed public good end quote.
(03:33):
Fortunately for Joseph and Isabella, their marriage would not be
quite as miserable as many other such sacrificial matches. Joseph,
like nearly everyone the brilliant Isabella came into contact with,
would soon be thoroughly charmed and infatuated by his new bride.
(03:54):
Isabella too would come to find love not with her husband, though,
but with his sister. Today, I'll tell you about the
doomed romance of Princess Isabella of Parma and her sister
in law, Arch Duchess Maria Christina. It's a story of
(04:15):
love and loss and the way that these forces shape
our lives. It's also a story about history and historians,
how the historical record is shaped by contemporary beliefs, how
narratives are created and erased, and how the truth has
(04:36):
a way as Shakespeare once said of outing, I'm Dana Schwartz,
and this is noble blood. Before we talk about Maria
and Christina, we need to spend a little bit more
(04:59):
talking about Joseph and Isabella. The couple's wedding wasn't just
about putting on a show for the world. The marriage
itself was an important act of political alliance, in this
case an alliance between Austria and France. Though Isabella's father
was Spanish, her mother was French, the beloved eldest daughter
(05:22):
of King Louis the fifteenth. Isabella herself had spent nearly
a year at Versailles as a child, during which time
she won over the court with her precocious intelligence and
vivacious spirit. She had much the same effect on the Austrians,
her gift for knowing exactly the right thing to say
(05:45):
having only grown with time. By the time she arrived
in Vienna in October seventeen sixty. She spoke four languages,
played violin beautifully, could shoot well, and was conversant in
the latest developments of science and philosophy. She also knew
when to make jokes and when to stay serious, an
(06:08):
important skill at court. She could be everything to everybody,
a skill that served her particularly well in the chaotic
Habsburg court, where the Empress and Emperor lived alongside their
eleven children, each of whom had their own distinct personalities.
These children would grow up to rule much of Western Europe,
(06:33):
either in their own right or through marriage. You're likely
familiar with several of them, probably especially the youngest daughter, one,
Marie Antoinette. Isabella managed to find her place in this
boisterous household and charm nearly all of the Habsburgs in turn,
(06:54):
but the princess had a dark side too. In seventeen
fifty nine, after the marriage contract between Isabella and Joseph
was finalized, Isabella's mother, Elizabeth, died of smallpox. Elizabeth had
been only fourteen when she had had Isabella, and so
(07:14):
the two were more like sisters than mother and daughter.
Imagine a Gilmore girl's style relationship. Their relationship had not
always been easy, but Elizabeth's sudden death devastated Isabella. Years later,
a rumor would circulate that upon Elizabeth's death, Isabella had
(07:36):
heard a voice telling her that she herself would only
live a few more years, and while Isabella herself never
told such a story, its core idea wasn't entirely basis.
Isabella was obsessed with thoughts of her own death, and
sometimes even with a longing for it. She wrote countless
(07:58):
letters about her yearning for death to close friends and
family members, who mostly responded with annoyance. In fairness to them,
Isabella was not explicitly suicidal. She simply pondered that death
would have more to offer her than the constrained life
of a princess, and she also had a family history
(08:23):
of what we would now likely identify as depression, particularly
on her father's side. Despite her inner turmoil, Isabella was
an expert at maintaining a happy facade. Joseph became more
and more besotted with his beautiful bride, although many at
(08:43):
court observed that his love was not returned quite as
eagerly as it was given. Poor Joseph, who was consistently
described as aloof and awkward, he seemed to be the
only one who didn't notice. The couple's misaligned interests didn't
(09:03):
help matters, nor did the discrepancy between their maturity levels. Nonetheless,
Isabella fulfilled her marital and dynastic responsibilities and gave birth
to her first child, a daughter, on March twentieth, seventeen
sixty two. The baby was named Maria Teresa, after the
(09:26):
Empress Joseph's mother, Isabella's mother in law. As we all know,
royal daughters are all well and good, but what was
really needed was a son. So the pressure to get
pregnant resumed. The second Isabella recovered from birth. Only five
months after little Maria Teresa's birth, Isabella had a miscarriage,
(09:50):
followed by another miscarriage only five months after that. I
know that the Empress wishes to see me pregnant, she
wrote in a letter, but you can't do as you want.
The physical and emotional toll of these constant attempts weighed
on Isabella heavily, but through the pain, one bright spot
(10:13):
was constant her relationship with her sister in law, the
arch Duchess Maria Christina. Isabella and Maria Christina had begun
corresponding even before Isabella came to Vienna, as the Princess
attempted to get to know her new family in law.
The two young women were only six months apart in
(10:35):
age and shared many interests. Both were artistic, sensitive and intelligent.
The timeline of their relationship, how and when it grew
from friendship to love has been lost to history. But
by the time Isabella arrived in Austria at nineteen, the
two were writing to one another constantly. We only have
(10:59):
one of Maria Christina's letters to Isabella, but Maria Christina
saved many of Isabella's letters to her, revealing the shape
of their playful, teasing and occasionally melodramatic relationship. The women
spent as much time together as possible, arranging private rendezvous
(11:21):
whenever Joseph was out. When they could not be together physically,
they expressed their longing in letters. I love you, madly,
wrote Isabella. In one such letter, I will be delighted
to see you, kiss you and be kissed by you.
I report that I am impatient to die in your
bosom end the joy of loving Maria Christina even soothed
(11:47):
Isabella's desire to die. Quote let me adore you forever,
Isabella once wrote, while noting in another letter that quote,
I thought about death again last night, But more I
think about it, the less I contain myself with this idea,
since it would be a separation from you. End quote.
(12:09):
The one remaining letter we have from Maria Christina is
no less romantic. Responding to Isabella's request that Maria Christina
describe her, Maria Christina noted that Isabella could quote turn
to no one who understands your personality and your significant
qualities better than I, who loves you tenderly end quote.
(12:34):
Maria Christina begins by describing Isabella's appearance, writing quote, I
don't know anyone more agreeable. Beautiful eyes and hair, a
pretty mouth, and everything so expressive that despite your mischievous expression,
one recognizes the spirit that you possess, a bosom that
(12:56):
couldn't be lovelier. And Maria Christina contain in use quote
as for what's on the inside, it's even more lovable
than what's on the outside. An utterly tender heart for
your friends, of which I received daily evidence. A good daughter,
a good wife, a good sister, a good mistress. Goodness
(13:18):
is the basis of your whole character. A bit mischievous,
but never hurtful. End quote. The women could indeed be mischievous.
They gifted each other chamber pots, with Isabella reminding Maria
Christina to think of her whenever she used hers. They
were also passionate. Isabella wrote of kissing Maria Christina's quote
(13:43):
lovely ass of quote kissing Maria Christina with all my might,
and of quote kissing each other to utter exhaustion. Despite
the fairly explicitness of these letters, historians long shide away
from calling Maria Christina and Isabella's relationship a romantic or
(14:04):
sexual one. This isn't to say that historians didn't recognize
it for what it was. Alfred von Arneth, the preeminent
nineteenth century biographer of Empress Maria Teresa and keeper of
the Austrian State Archives, remarked, upon reading Isabella's letters that
(14:25):
quote her infatuation almost exceeds the limit within which, according
to our modern concepts, it seems desirable that such affections
should move. As a result, he recommended that some of
the letters be either destroyed or at the very least
(14:47):
kept from the public. Fortunately for us, the letters were
not destroyed. But von Arneth was not the only historian
who wanted to suppress the intimacies of that relationship. The
modern historian Barbara Stolberg Rillinger argues that as sexual behaviors
(15:09):
and identities were increasingly pathologized in the nineteenth century, contemporary
historians became more and more unwilling to admit the existence
of a homosexual relationship within the Austrian royal family. This
reluctance continued into the twentieth century. When Isabella's letters were
(15:31):
first transcribed and published in the nineteen fifties, many of
the most explicit passages and letters were omitted. It was
not until two thousand and eight that the letters were
published in full by the French historian Elizabeth Badinterre. Though
some historians, like Ursula Temusino wrote about the romantic connection
(15:53):
between the two women as early as the nineteen eighties.
As one of the first to write openly about the relationship,
Temissino was aware that she was up against two hundred
years of historians who had actively tried to cover it up.
She noted, quote, should the suspicion arise that only such
(16:15):
quotations were selected that suggest an intense relationship between Isabella
and Maria, I would like to emphasize with all possible emphasis,
that there is hardly a note in the collection of
letters that does not contain such a reference. End quote.
That's the beautiful thing about history. In the end, despite
(16:37):
our biases and beliefs, all we truly have are the
primary sources, and in this case the primary source is
a series of letters from one woman to another in
which she writes about, quote, what inner satisfaction I would
feel if I could only contemplate that nose turned with
(16:57):
such grace and attractiveness, that in mouth so suited to
console with its kisses, those eyes whose language is so touching.
I forget where I am, I forget those with whom
I am. I think only of this new desire that
I seek to satisfy, whatever the price. End quote to
(17:20):
quote the lyrics of a song I heard on TikTok
by the artist, and I hope I'm pronouncing this correctly.
All blair and historians will call them close friends, besties, roommates, colleagues,
anything but lovers. History hates lovers. Unfortunately for Isabella and
(17:42):
Maria Christina, they would not have long to satisfy their desires.
Isabella's premonitions about an early death came to fruition in
November seventeen sixty three. Pregnant once again, Isabella came down
with a fever. Overnight, her condition worsened, and soon the
(18:04):
truth could not be denied. She had smallpox. Because of
the infectious nature of the disease. Only those who had
already had smallpox were allowed to visit sufferers. This meant
that Joseph, who had survived about could see Isabella. His
wife Maria Christina, however, could not. In the middle of
(18:28):
the night on November twenty second, Isabella went into premature labor,
likely caused by her illness. She gave birth to a
girl in the early morning, a baby that passed away quickly,
but not before being baptized. Isabella named her daughter Maria Christina.
(18:49):
For a painful period of several days after the birth,
it seemed that Isabella might recover. She sat up on
her own, drank some roth ate some biscuits, but it
was a false hope. On November twenty sixth, she slipped
into unconsciousness, awakening only once more before dying on the
(19:12):
morning of November twenty seventh, aged twenty one. All of
Vienna mourned the passing of their brilliant princess, though likely
none grieved more deeply than those who had loved her best, Joseph,
her husband, and Maria Christina, whose lives would both be
(19:33):
forever shaped by Isabella's impact. Joseph had barely left his
wife's bedside throughout her nine day illness. Though it's doubtful
that Isabella truly romantically loved Joseph, she had given him attention,
care and respect, and he felt unmoored without her. I
(19:54):
lost everything, Joseph wrote his father in law, My adorable wife,
the object of all my tenderness. My only friend is
no more end quote. He would in some ways never
recover from this loss. Four months later, he was elected
Holy Roman Emperor and crowned in Frankfurt. He wrote to
(20:18):
his mother of the torture of keeping a stiff upper
lip at such a time. Quote, I'm a burden to
everyone with my grief, so I have to choke it
all down and pretend all day long end quote. Unfortunately,
his charade couldn't end with his coronation. Because Isabella had
(20:41):
not had a son during their brief marriage, Joseph didn't
have an heir, and so within a year of Isabella's death,
the pressure to remarry had grown intense. He reluctantly agreed
and married Maria Josepha of Bavaria in January seventeen sixty five.
It was a deeply unhappy marriage for both. Maria Josepha
(21:05):
was constantly compared unfavorably to her predecessor. The couple had
no children. When Maria Josepha contracted smallpox two years later,
Joseph never visited her sick room. When she died a
week later, he did not attend her burial. Three years later,
(21:25):
tragedy struck again when Joseph's living daughter with Isabella died
at age seven of pleurisy. That daughter had been the
emperor's closest link to his late wife, and he had
had the girl raised on an educational program that Isabella
herself had designed before her death. An observer wrote of
(21:48):
Joseph after his daughter's death, quote, the Emperor's grief is extreme.
It is frightful that every person who would naturally engage
his feelings should be snatched away from him. And since
he has none too many feelings, it's to be feared that,
through inability to give them rain, he may entirely lose
(22:12):
the habit and quote In many ways it seems that
he did. Joseph would not remarry a third time, forever
haunted by the ghost of his idealized first wife. Maria
Christina's life too, was forever shaped by Isabella, although in
(22:33):
her case, the haunting was a more beneficial one. Before
her death, Isabella had written a document entitled Advice to Maria,
in which she dissected the personalities of Empress Maria Theresa
and Emperor Franz Stephen observance and astute. Isabella's psychological portraits
(22:55):
of her in laws are deeply revealing and surely would
have been in value well to any spy or political
lackey who stumbled upon them. But they were only for
the eyes of Maria Christina, and Isabella intended them to
be used by her lover in a very particular way
to secure her status. After Isabella's death, Isabella's advice to
(23:20):
Maria Christina for winning over her own parents would soon
pay off. After Isabella's death, Maria Christina, always close to
her mother, became the Empress's clear favorite. This favoritism didn't
endear her to her siblings, but it helped her enormously
when it came to negotiating a good marriage. Maria Christina's
(23:45):
father wanted her to marry his nephew, her cousin, the
Duke of Chablis, but Maria Christina had other ideas for herself,
namely Prince Albert of Saxony, a good friend of Isabella
before her death. Prince Albert was a poor match by
imperial standards. He was a penniless sixth son, but Maria
(24:08):
Christina and Albert had connected over their shared mourning for Isabella,
and soon their friendship blossomed into love. The Empress, who
herself had enjoyed a marriage for love, was determined to
help her favorite daughter. After the Emperor's death in seventeen
sixty five, which ended the plan for Maria Christina to
(24:31):
marry the Duke of Shehabilis, the Empress made the bold
move to support Albert's proposal. Maria Teresa negotiated a marriage
contract in which her daughter Maria Christina was allowed to
keep her titles and status as an archduchess, granted her
an enormous dowry, and gave Albert a new title of
(24:54):
his own. The Empress's other children were acutely aware of
this favorite treatment, with one brother, Leopold, writing quote towards
Maria and Prince Albert, she has the utmost tenderness and trust.
They twist the Empress around their little finger end quote.
(25:14):
Clearly Isabella's lessons that she left for Maria Christina had worked.
Maria Christina and Albert's marriage was a very happy one.
Upon Maria Christina's death in seventeen ninety eight, Albert commissioned
a famous sculptor to create her tomb, and he had
(25:35):
it inscribed uxuri Optime. The best wife. Albert is also
the reason that we still have Isabella's letters today. He
saved them, calling them quote interesting because of her spirit
and estimable character, which sure, that's why they're interesting. Despite
(25:57):
the years of happiness shared by Christina and her husband,
she seems never to have forgotten the great love of
her young life. After Maria Christina died, a miniature was
found in her prayer book. It was a picture of
Isabella and her daughter. The caption, written by Maria Christina herself,
(26:20):
read quote portrait of my dear sister in law Isabella
and her only daughter. The former died of smallpox in
seventeen sixty three at the age of twenty one. On
November twenty seven, warned by all the world, but especially
by me, who has lost the best and truest friend
(26:42):
I have ever had in the world. This woman was
endowed with every imaginable virtue and kindness. She lived and
died as an angel. That's the story of the short
(27:05):
life and early love affair of Isabella of Parma and
Maria Christina. But keep listening after a brief sponsor break
to hear a little bit more about Isabella's writings. Throughout
(27:26):
this episode, I've mentioned several of Isabella's writings, her advice
to Maria Christina, and the educational program she designed for
her daughter. Besides these more personal documents, Isabella also wrote
a number of treatises of philosophy and public affairs, many
of which feel surprisingly modern for the eighteenth century. There's
(27:50):
her Treaty on Men, for example, where she dissects the patriarchy,
writing every woman in the world can do without a
man and argues that men have created a system that
empowers them over women as a means of survival, because
if they did not quote have all the authority in
(28:10):
hand and quote, they would be quote exiled entirely. And
then there's her discussion on the lot of royal women,
which I briefly mentioned in the prologue, called on the
Fate of Princesses. Quote what can the daughter of a
great prince expect? She asks in the text, not much
(28:33):
it turns out quote already at birth, she is a
slave to the prejudices of the people. Her position deprives
her of knowing those by whom she surrounded. The rank
which she bears, far from bringing her the slightest advantage,
deprives her of the greatest pleasure of life. Obligated to
(28:54):
live in the world, she hardly has any acquaintances or friends.
This is not all. In the end, they want to
marry her off end quote. A discussion of the hidden
pain behind the privileged veil of royalty, and investigation into
how one's humanity can be lost when one becomes a
(29:17):
symbol of something larger. To me, it sounds a little
bit like Isabella wrote the very first episode of Noble
Blood nearly three hundred years ago. Noble Blood is a
(29:43):
production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankie.
Noble Blood is created and hosted by me Dana Schwartz,
with additional writing and researching by Hannah Johnston, hannah's Wick,
Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Laurie Goodman. The show is
edited and produced by Naimi Griffin and rema Il Kali,
(30:07):
with supervising producer Josh Faine and executive producers Aaron Manky,
Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
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