Princess Isabella of Parma

Princess Isabella of Parma
Archduchess of Austria
Portrait by Jean-Marc Nattier, 1758
Born	31 December 1741 Buen Retiro Palace, Madrid, Kingdom of Spain
Died	27 November 1763(1763-11-27) (aged 21) Hofburg, Vienna, Archduchy of Austria, Holy Roman Empire
Burial	Maria Theresa Vault, Imperial Crypt, Capuchin Church, Vienna, Austria
Spouse	Archduke Joseph of Austria ​ ​ (m. 1760)​
Issue	Archduchess Maria Theresa Archduchess Maria Christina
Names Spanish: Isabel María Luisa Antonieta de Borbón-Parma German: Isabella Maria Ludovica Antonia von Bourbon-Parma French: Isabelle-Marie-Louise-Antoinette de Bourbon-Parme
House	Bourbon-Parma
Father	Philip, Duke of Parma
Mother	Louise Élisabeth of France

Isabella of Bourbon-Parma (Spanish: Isabel María Luisa Antonieta, German: Isabella Maria Ludovica Antonia, French: Isabelle-Marie-Louise-Antoine; 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 was a prolific writer, and nineteen separate works (some of them unfinished) have been preserved from the three years of her marriage. In them, she discussed philosophy, religion, ethics, politics, diplomacy, military theory, world trade, education and childrearing, human culture and societies, and the position of women. In her writings (which she kept secret) 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, a 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, the shame and guilt inspired by her inability to reciprocate her husband’s feelings, compounded by the same-sex attraction that she considered sinful, made her unhappy. 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, and biographers have suggested that she suffered from depression or bipolar disorder, to which she was likely genetically predisposed. She died at the age of twenty-one from smallpox.