Isabella of Bourbon-Parma (, , ; 31 December 1741 – 27 November 1763) was a princess of Parma and infanta of Spain from the House of Bourbon-Parma as the daughter of Philip, Duke of Parma, and Louise-Élisabeth of France. She became an archduchess of Austria and crown princess of Bohemia and Hungary in 1760 by her marriage to Archduke Joseph of Austria, the future Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor (she never became empress due to her early death). As a granddaughter of both King Louis XV of France and King Philip V of Spain, she was the first cousin of future French kings Louis XVI, Louis XVIII, and Charles X, and the first cousin of the future Spanish king Charles IV of Spain.
Secretly an Enlightenment thinker, she was a prolific writer on philosophy, religion, ethics, politics, diplomacy, military theory, world trade, education and childrearing, human culture and societies, and the position of women. In secret essays, she argued for the intellectual equality of women. None of her writings were published in her life. Her Méditations chrétiennes (“Christian Meditations”) were published in 1764, the year after her death. Some of her personal correspondence and other works have been published by biographers and historians.
Although her husband loved her, she did not fully return his feelings and found more fulfillment in her (likely romantic, possibly sexual) relationship with her sister-in-law, Archduchess Maria Christina. Despite her popularity at the Viennese court, she was unhappy because of the guilt of being unable to reciprocate her husband's feelings, compounded by the same-sex attraction that she considered sinful. A lonely childhood with demanding and unaffectionate caretakers, the sudden loss of her mother, a difficult birth and two miscarriages in the span of ten months, and later a fourth pregnancy all adversely affected her physical and mental health. She was described as melancholic and experienced suicidal ideation. Biographers have suggested that she suffered from depression or bipolar disorder, to which she was likely genetically predisposed. She died at the age of 21 from smallpox.
Early life
Birth and family Infanta Isabel María Luisa Antonieta of Spain was born on 31 December 1741 at Buen Retiro Palace in Madrid as the first child of Infante Philip of Spain and his wife, Louise-Élisabeth of France (known as “Madame Infante”), both from the House of Bourbon.
Isabella's parents were first cousins once removed with an age difference of six years (her mother had been twelve and her father eighteen years old when they married). Madame Infante was the eldest daughter of Louis XV of France and Queen Marie Leszczyńska. She and her contemporaries thought that she should only marry a (future) monarch, yet the Infante Philip was only Philip V of Spain's third son. Madame Infante was ambitious and strong-willed, unlike her husband. She worked through her international connections to secure a higher position for herself and her husband and more power for the Bourbons as a whole. She had a contentious relationship with her mother-in-law Elisabeth Farnese, the de facto ruler of Spain, whom she threatened in her influence over her son, but they worked together to advance the Infante Philip's career.
Madame Infante was fourteen years old when she gave birth to Isabella. The delivery was difficult and lasted for two days. Two months later, Philip left to fight in the War of the Austrian Succession. He did not see his family again until Isabella was eight years old, although he kept up an intensive correspondence with his wife and mother, learning about his daughter from them.
Early life in Madrid For the first seven years of her life, Isabella was raised at the Madrid court of her paternal grandparents. Her grandmother, Queen Elisabeth, loved her, reporting regularly on her well-being, development, and behaviour to her absent son. Based on these letters, her mother never displayed affection towards Isabella, whom she found “stubborn” and “unbearable”. She was impatient with her, and if Isabella threw tantrums, Madame Infante chastised her so severely that Queen Elisabeth called it a “military drill”. Isabella was raised by an aya (governess), the French-born widow Marie-Catherine de Bassecourt-Grigny, Marquise of Gonzalez (later suo jure marquise of Borghetto; 1693–1770). The Marquise retained a strong sense of etiquette and hierarchy from her previous position as dame d'honneur to Isabella's aunt by marriage, Barbara of Portugal. Isabella developed a close bond with her aya, which inspired jealousy in her mother.
Isabella's education was structured around contemporary ideals for princesses. The use of corporal punishment was ordered by her father and endorsed by her mother. According to a work by her that is probably autobiographical in part, she appers to have been an energetic and mischievous child. The character, l'Étourderie (“Amazement”) personified, that she wrote about as an adult, was always loud, “jumping, climbing, falling”, breaking furniture and ornaments as a child. Her favourite pastimes were chasing after butterflies, horse-riding, and performing stunts with a rope, but she also liked to write, sing, and draw. Because her behaviour was considered unsuitable, her governess forbade her access to ropes, horses, and swings. “What to do in this sad situation? [...] But I eventually learned to be reasonable”, Isabella commented, writing as l'Étourderie. She started to entertain herself silently, later recalling that her head was “always in the clouds, occupying itself with a hundred thousand ideas at once”. Badinter argues that these scenes reveal the character and difficulties of Isabella as a young child, and Seth agrees that the work is at least somewhat autobiographical. In 1746, when Isabella was four, a French envoy complimented her “dignity”, saying that she already knew “who she is, to whom she belongs, and what she must be one day”. He also remarked on the coldness of Madame Infante towards Isabella. Growing up as an only child until the age of ten with no playmates and under strict control, her childhood has been characterised as “lonely and austere” by Élisabeth Badinter.
Visit to Versailles Between 6 January and 7 October 1749, Isabella lived in Versailles, visiting her maternal family on her way to Parma. As the then-only grandchild of Louis XV and Marie Leszczyńska, she received more attention and affection than ever before. The luxury and cheerfulness of the French court was a shock compared to the rigidity of Spanish courtly customs. Aged eight, she participated in court functions fully and attended the theatre, the opera, balls, and concerts. Paul d'Albert de Luynes recorded that she did not seem to enjoy these and was considered “timid”. At this time, Isabella was more comfortable speaking Spanish (which she had learned from her aya) than French (which she had always used with her mother and paternal grandmother).
With time, Isabella started to enjoy her stay. She liked to accompany Queen Marie to operas, plays, and concerts, and she was delighted by being treated as a French royal princess: the royal guard saluted her, and she was seated in an identical armchair to that of her mother and aunts. Once, she performed in a play in the apartment of Dauphine Maria Josepha of Saxony to general acclaim. After her stay in Versailles, she corresponded with her maternal family until the end of her life and her primary language had become French.
Adolescence in Parma
With the 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, Isabella's father became duke of Parma, a title formerly belonging to his mother's family. Isabella and her mother arrived in Parma on 20 November 1749. The duchy was impoverished, its palaces in ruins. Whereas Isabella thought highly of Spaniards and the French, she considered Italians to be “ignorant of the art of thinking” and immediately wanted to leave.
Isabella's parents had two children in 1751: Ferdinand on 20 January and Luisa on 9 December, to whom their mother showed more affection. Isabella seems not to have been jealous and to have enjoyed having company. Her mother, resenting her low status and relative poverty, focussed on arranging prestigious marriages for her children. She visited Versailles twice to negotiate a match for Isabella, first between August 1752 and October 1753, then in the summer of 1757, when she died. Both times, her husband and children stayed in Parma.
During Madame Infante's absences, Isabella reported on her siblings' well-being to their father and maternal grandmother. The Infante Philip lived apart from his children for seven months every year to be closer to the best hunting grounds in the Ducal Palace of Colorno. Isabella sent short notes to him on the sleeping habits and teething of the two infants. Between November and April, Philip lived with his younger children in the Palazzo della Pilotta and Isabella stayed with her aya in the Palazzo del Giardino.
While Isabella certainly exchanged letters with her mother, these have been lost. Around this time, her French friends questioned Madame Infante about her coldness towards her eldest child. She replied that her own “character was too serious” to “make a friend of [her] daughter” and she believed that Isabella should be “satisfied” with the affection shown to her Madame Infante's “cold nature” did not allow for more. The Marshal of France, Adrien-Maurice de Noailles, officially urged Madame Infante to show more love to Isabella as it was feared that rumours about her cold treatment could diminish the chances of a politically advantageous marriage. The French ambassador to Parma assured Noailles that more attention was being paid to Isabella, while Madame Infante protested that “all the world must see […] how much I love her. For those who know me, it is certain”.
Education In the summer of 1749, Isabella's parents hired Pierre Cerou, an educated French comedy writer and tutor to manage their property and instruct Isabella in history, literature, and French. The Madrid court was concerned about Cerou's religiosity, and at their request he was replaced by a French Jesuit, Thomas Fumeron in 1754. Fumeron, however, was assigned to Ferdinand, not Isabella. From then on, she did not officially have a teacher. In 1757 and 1758 respectively, a governor and a tutor were hired for Ferdinand: Auguste de Keralio, a soldier and scientist, and Étienne Bonnot, Abbot of Condillac, a philosopher and close friend of Rousseau, Diderot, and d'Alembert. Isabella was instructed by her confessors, Fathers Fumeron and Belgrado, in the lives of the saints. She continued to practice drawing, painting, and music with her aya. She excelled at singing and playing the violin and the harpsichord. While there is no proof that she attended lectures by Keralion and Condillac, Badinter argues that her later knowledge of military theory, history, and Enlightenment ideals shows that she did. She was certainly exposed to Enlightenment ideas in Parma, where her father was engaged in an extensive project of modernisation with the help of Keralio, Bonnot de Condillac, and Alexandre Deleyre, the court librarian.
Isabella probably witnessed the cruelty of Keralio and Condillac, especially the latter, towards her brother. Despite his progressive idea of teaching through games and his reputation as a revolutionary pedagogue, he regularly beat Ferdinand with a rod or kicked him. In her Réflexions sur l'éducation, Isabella would condemn the way her brother had been raised, anonymously depicting both him and Condillac. She maintained a correspondence with Keralio in her adulthood, but rarely mentioned the Abbot.
Life in Vienna
Marriage with Archduke Joseph
Background