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Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim

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Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Mankie Listener Discretion advised. In the

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Speaker 1: heart of Schonbrun Palace, the summer home of the Austrian Habsburgs,

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Speaker 1: is the hall of Ceremonies. In the eighteenth century, Empress

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Speaker 1: Maria Teresa would welcome guests there, awing them with the

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Speaker 1: room's elaborate goal decorations. Today the hall still has the

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Speaker 1: power to awe, for it's here that the cycle of

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Speaker 1: paintings depicting the seventeen sixty wedding of Archduke Joseph of Austria,

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Speaker 1: the Empress's son and Princess Isabella of Parma are hung.

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Speaker 1: Even three hundred years later, the scale of the celebration,

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Speaker 1: as depicted on the artist Martin van Maiden's enormous canvases,

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Speaker 1: is almost hard to absorb. The wedding was classic Imperial

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Speaker 1: pageantry at its finest. The bride wore cloth woven with silver,

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Speaker 1: and she rode into the city in a procession of

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Speaker 1: ninety carriages through a series of decorative arches built just

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Speaker 1: for the occasion. Musicians serenaded her from every street corner.

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Speaker 1: After the church ceremony. Wedding guests followed a trail of

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Speaker 1: three thousand glowing lanterns to the Imperial Palace, where the

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Speaker 1: guests ate off of solid gold dishware as they toasted

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Speaker 1: the newlyweds. There was a reason for all of this

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Speaker 1: conspicuous consumption. Austria was in the middle of the Seven

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Speaker 1: Years War, and the public's patience for the war's costs,

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Speaker 1: both in money and in lives, was wearing thin. The

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Speaker 1: wedding of her son and briss Maria Theresa hoped would

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Speaker 1: serve as both a pleasant diversion for the Austrians and

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Speaker 1: as a symbol to her foreign allies that her empire

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Speaker 1: could sustain the costs of war. But what about the

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Speaker 1: young people at the heart of this grand wedding? How

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Speaker 1: did they feel about it all? Not particularly happy, as

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Speaker 1: you might have guessed by the other royal weddings we've

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Speaker 1: covered on this podcast. The nineteen year old Archduke would

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Speaker 1: have rather been off fighting. In fact, he was more

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Speaker 1: scared of marriage than of going into battle, and was

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Speaker 1: only agreeing to the marriage out of duty. Quote as

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Speaker 1: a victim of the state, I sacrifice myself, he wrote

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Speaker 1: to an adviser the eighteen year old Princess Isabella of

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Speaker 1: Parma was similarly reluctant. Reflecting on the painful life of

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Speaker 1: noble women. Several years later, Isabella would write that princesses

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Speaker 1: are quote condemned to abandon everything for an unknown person

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Speaker 1: whose character and manner of thinking she does not know,

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Speaker 1: in a sacrifice for the supposed public good end quote.

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Speaker 1: Fortunately for Joseph and Isabella, their marriage would not be

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Speaker 1: quite as miserable as many other such sacrificial matches. Joseph,

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Speaker 1: like nearly everyone the brilliant Isabella came into contact with,

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Speaker 1: would soon be thoroughly charmed and infatuated by his new bride.

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Speaker 1: Isabella too would come to find love not with her husband, though,

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Speaker 1: but with his sister. Today, I'll tell you about the

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Speaker 1: doomed romance of Princess Isabella of Parma and her sister

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Speaker 1: in law, Arch Duchess Maria Christina. It's a story of

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Speaker 1: love and loss and the way that these forces shape

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Speaker 1: our lives. It's also a story about history and historians,

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Speaker 1: how the historical record is shaped by contemporary beliefs, how

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Speaker 1: narratives are created and erased, and how the truth has

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Speaker 1: a way as Shakespeare once said of outing, I'm Dana Schwartz,

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Speaker 1: and this is noble blood. Before we talk about Maria

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Speaker 1: and Christina, we need to spend a little bit more

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Speaker 1: talking about Joseph and Isabella. The couple's wedding wasn't just

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Speaker 1: about putting on a show for the world. The marriage

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Speaker 1: itself was an important act of political alliance, in this

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Speaker 1: case an alliance between Austria and France. Though Isabella's father

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Speaker 1: was Spanish, her mother was French, the beloved eldest daughter

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Speaker 1: of King Louis the fifteenth. Isabella herself had spent nearly

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Speaker 1: a year at Versailles as a child, during which time

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Speaker 1: she won over the court with her precocious intelligence and

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Speaker 1: vivacious spirit. She had much the same effect on the Austrians,

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Speaker 1: her gift for knowing exactly the right thing to say

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Speaker 1: having only grown with time. By the time she arrived

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Speaker 1: in Vienna in October seventeen sixty. She spoke four languages,

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Speaker 1: played violin beautifully, could shoot well, and was conversant in

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Speaker 1: the latest developments of science and philosophy. She also knew

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Speaker 1: when to make jokes and when to stay serious, an

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Speaker 1: important skill at court. She could be everything to everybody,

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Speaker 1: a skill that served her particularly well in the chaotic

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Speaker 1: Habsburg court, where the Empress and Emperor lived alongside their

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Speaker 1: eleven children, each of whom had their own distinct personalities.

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Speaker 1: These children would grow up to rule much of Western Europe,

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Speaker 1: either in their own right or through marriage. You're likely

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Speaker 1: familiar with several of them, probably especially the youngest daughter, one,

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Speaker 1: Marie Antoinette. Isabella managed to find her place in this

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Speaker 1: boisterous household and charm nearly all of the Habsburgs in turn,

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Speaker 1: but the princess had a dark side too. In seventeen

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Speaker 1: fifty nine, after the marriage contract between Isabella and Joseph

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Speaker 1: was finalized, Isabella's mother, Elizabeth, died of smallpox. Elizabeth had

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Speaker 1: been only fourteen when she had had Isabella, and so

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Speaker 1: the two were more like sisters than mother and daughter.

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Speaker 1: Imagine a Gilmore girl's style relationship. Their relationship had not

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Speaker 1: always been easy, but Elizabeth's sudden death devastated Isabella. Years later,

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Speaker 1: a rumor would circulate that upon Elizabeth's death, Isabella had

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Speaker 1: heard a voice telling her that she herself would only

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Speaker 1: live a few more years, and while Isabella herself never

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Speaker 1: told such a story, its core idea wasn't entirely basis.

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Speaker 1: Isabella was obsessed with thoughts of her own death, and

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Speaker 1: sometimes even with a longing for it. She wrote countless

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Speaker 1: letters about her yearning for death to close friends and

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Speaker 1: family members, who mostly responded with annoyance. In fairness to them,

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Speaker 1: Isabella was not explicitly suicidal. She simply pondered that death

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Speaker 1: would have more to offer her than the constrained life

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Speaker 1: of a princess, and she also had a family history

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Speaker 1: of what we would now likely identify as depression, particularly

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Speaker 1: on her father's side. Despite her inner turmoil, Isabella was

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Speaker 1: an expert at maintaining a happy facade. Joseph became more

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Speaker 1: and more besotted with his beautiful bride, although many at

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Speaker 1: court observed that his love was not returned quite as

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Speaker 1: eagerly as it was given. Poor Joseph, who was consistently

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Speaker 1: described as aloof and awkward, he seemed to be the

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Speaker 1: only one who didn't notice. The couple's misaligned interests didn't

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Speaker 1: help matters, nor did the discrepancy between their maturity levels. Nonetheless,

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Speaker 1: Isabella fulfilled her marital and dynastic responsibilities and gave birth

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Speaker 1: to her first child, a daughter, on March twentieth, seventeen

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Speaker 1: sixty two. The baby was named Maria Teresa, after the

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Speaker 1: Empress Joseph's mother, Isabella's mother in law. As we all know,

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Speaker 1: royal daughters are all well and good, but what was

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Speaker 1: really needed was a son. So the pressure to get

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Speaker 1: pregnant resumed. The second Isabella recovered from birth. Only five

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Speaker 1: months after little Maria Teresa's birth, Isabella had a miscarriage,

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Speaker 1: followed by another miscarriage only five months after that. I

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Speaker 1: know that the Empress wishes to see me pregnant, she

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Speaker 1: wrote in a letter, but you can't do as you want.

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Speaker 1: The physical and emotional toll of these constant attempts weighed

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Speaker 1: on Isabella heavily, but through the pain, one bright spot

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Speaker 1: was constant her relationship with her sister in law, the

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Speaker 1: arch Duchess Maria Christina. Isabella and Maria Christina had begun

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Speaker 1: corresponding even before Isabella came to Vienna, as the Princess

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Speaker 1: attempted to get to know her new family in law.

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Speaker 1: The two young women were only six months apart in

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Speaker 1: age and shared many interests. Both were artistic, sensitive and intelligent.

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Speaker 1: The timeline of their relationship, how and when it grew

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Speaker 1: from friendship to love has been lost to history. But

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Speaker 1: by the time Isabella arrived in Austria at nineteen, the

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Speaker 1: two were writing to one another constantly. We only have

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Speaker 1: one of Maria Christina's letters to Isabella, but Maria Christina

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Speaker 1: saved many of Isabella's letters to her, revealing the shape

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Speaker 1: of their playful, teasing and occasionally melodramatic relationship. The women

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Speaker 1: spent as much time together as possible, arranging private rendezvous

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Speaker 1: whenever Joseph was out. When they could not be together physically,

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Speaker 1: they expressed their longing in letters. I love you, madly,

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Speaker 1: wrote Isabella. In one such letter, I will be delighted

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Speaker 1: to see you, kiss you and be kissed by you.

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Speaker 1: I report that I am impatient to die in your

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Speaker 1: bosom end the joy of loving Maria Christina even soothed

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Speaker 1: Isabella's desire to die. Quote let me adore you forever,

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Speaker 1: Isabella once wrote, while noting in another letter that quote,

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Speaker 1: I thought about death again last night, But more I

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Speaker 1: think about it, the less I contain myself with this idea,

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Speaker 1: since it would be a separation from you. End quote.

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Speaker 1: The one remaining letter we have from Maria Christina is

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Speaker 1: no less romantic. Responding to Isabella's request that Maria Christina

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Speaker 1: describe her, Maria Christina noted that Isabella could quote turn

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Speaker 1: to no one who understands your personality and your significant

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Speaker 1: qualities better than I, who loves you tenderly end quote.

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Speaker 1: Maria Christina begins by describing Isabella's appearance, writing quote, I

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Speaker 1: don't know anyone more agreeable. Beautiful eyes and hair, a

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Speaker 1: pretty mouth, and everything so expressive that despite your mischievous expression,

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Speaker 1: one recognizes the spirit that you possess, a bosom that

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Speaker 1: couldn't be lovelier. And Maria Christina contain in use quote

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Speaker 1: as for what's on the inside, it's even more lovable

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Speaker 1: than what's on the outside. An utterly tender heart for

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Speaker 1: your friends, of which I received daily evidence. A good daughter,

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Speaker 1: a good wife, a good sister, a good mistress. Goodness

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Speaker 1: is the basis of your whole character. A bit mischievous,

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Speaker 1: but never hurtful. End quote. The women could indeed be mischievous.

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Speaker 1: They gifted each other chamber pots, with Isabella reminding Maria

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Speaker 1: Christina to think of her whenever she used hers. They

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Speaker 1: were also passionate. Isabella wrote of kissing Maria Christina's quote

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Speaker 1: lovely ass of quote kissing Maria Christina with all my might,

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Speaker 1: and of quote kissing each other to utter exhaustion. Despite

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Speaker 1: the fairly explicitness of these letters, historians long shide away

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Speaker 1: from calling Maria Christina and Isabella's relationship a romantic or

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Speaker 1: sexual one. This isn't to say that historians didn't recognize

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Speaker 1: it for what it was. Alfred von Arneth, the preeminent

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Speaker 1: nineteenth century biographer of Empress Maria Teresa and keeper of

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Speaker 1: the Austrian State Archives, remarked, upon reading Isabella's letters that

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Speaker 1: quote her infatuation almost exceeds the limit within which, according

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Speaker 1: to our modern concepts, it seems desirable that such affections

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Speaker 1: should move. As a result, he recommended that some of

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Speaker 1: the letters be either destroyed or at the very least

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Speaker 1: kept from the public. Fortunately for us, the letters were

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Speaker 1: not destroyed. But von Arneth was not the only historian

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Speaker 1: who wanted to suppress the intimacies of that relationship. The

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Speaker 1: modern historian Barbara Stolberg Rillinger argues that as sexual behaviors

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Speaker 1: and identities were increasingly pathologized in the nineteenth century, contemporary

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Speaker 1: historians became more and more unwilling to admit the existence

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Speaker 1: of a homosexual relationship within the Austrian royal family. This

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Speaker 1: reluctance continued into the twentieth century. When Isabella's letters were

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Speaker 1: first transcribed and published in the nineteen fifties, many of

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Speaker 1: the most explicit passages and letters were omitted. It was

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Speaker 1: not until two thousand and eight that the letters were

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Speaker 1: published in full by the French historian Elizabeth Badinterre. Though

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Speaker 1: some historians, like Ursula Temusino wrote about the romantic connection

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Speaker 1: between the two women as early as the nineteen eighties.

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Speaker 1: As one of the first to write openly about the relationship,

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Speaker 1: Temissino was aware that she was up against two hundred

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Speaker 1: years of historians who had actively tried to cover it up.

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Speaker 1: She noted, quote, should the suspicion arise that only such

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Speaker 1: quotations were selected that suggest an intense relationship between Isabella

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Speaker 1: and Maria, I would like to emphasize with all possible emphasis,

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Speaker 1: that there is hardly a note in the collection of

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Speaker 1: letters that does not contain such a reference. End quote.

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Speaker 1: That's the beautiful thing about history. In the end, despite

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Speaker 1: our biases and beliefs, all we truly have are the

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Speaker 1: primary sources, and in this case the primary source is

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Speaker 1: a series of letters from one woman to another in

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Speaker 1: which she writes about, quote, what inner satisfaction I would

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Speaker 1: feel if I could only contemplate that nose turned with

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Speaker 1: such grace and attractiveness, that in mouth so suited to

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Speaker 1: console with its kisses, those eyes whose language is so touching.

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Speaker 1: I forget where I am, I forget those with whom

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Speaker 1: I am. I think only of this new desire that

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Speaker 1: I seek to satisfy, whatever the price. End quote to

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Speaker 1: quote the lyrics of a song I heard on TikTok

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Speaker 1: by the artist, and I hope I'm pronouncing this correctly.

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Speaker 1: All blair and historians will call them close friends, besties, roommates, colleagues,

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Speaker 1: anything but lovers. History hates lovers. Unfortunately for Isabella and

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Speaker 1: Maria Christina, they would not have long to satisfy their desires.

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Speaker 1: Isabella's premonitions about an early death came to fruition in

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Speaker 1: November seventeen sixty three. Pregnant once again, Isabella came down

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Speaker 1: with a fever. Overnight, her condition worsened, and soon the

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Speaker 1: truth could not be denied. She had smallpox. Because of

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Speaker 1: the infectious nature of the disease. Only those who had

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Speaker 1: already had smallpox were allowed to visit sufferers. This meant

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Speaker 1: that Joseph, who had survived about could see Isabella. His

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Speaker 1: wife Maria Christina, however, could not. In the middle of

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Speaker 1: the night on November twenty second, Isabella went into premature labor,

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Speaker 1: likely caused by her illness. She gave birth to a

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Speaker 1: girl in the early morning, a baby that passed away quickly,

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Speaker 1: but not before being baptized. Isabella named her daughter Maria Christina.

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Speaker 1: For a painful period of several days after the birth,

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Speaker 1: it seemed that Isabella might recover. She sat up on

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Speaker 1: her own, drank some roth ate some biscuits, but it

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Speaker 1: was a false hope. On November twenty sixth, she slipped

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Speaker 1: into unconsciousness, awakening only once more before dying on the

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Speaker 1: morning of November twenty seventh, aged twenty one. All of

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Speaker 1: Vienna mourned the passing of their brilliant princess, though likely

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Speaker 1: none grieved more deeply than those who had loved her best, Joseph,

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Speaker 1: her husband, and Maria Christina, whose lives would both be

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Speaker 1: forever shaped by Isabella's impact. Joseph had barely left his

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Speaker 1: wife's bedside throughout her nine day illness. Though it's doubtful

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Speaker 1: that Isabella truly romantically loved Joseph, she had given him attention,

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Speaker 1: care and respect, and he felt unmoored without her. I

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Speaker 1: lost everything, Joseph wrote his father in law, My adorable wife,

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Speaker 1: the object of all my tenderness. My only friend is

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Speaker 1: no more end quote. He would in some ways never

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Speaker 1: recover from this loss. Four months later, he was elected

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Speaker 1: Holy Roman Emperor and crowned in Frankfurt. He wrote to

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Speaker 1: his mother of the torture of keeping a stiff upper

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Speaker 1: lip at such a time. Quote, I'm a burden to

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Speaker 1: everyone with my grief, so I have to choke it

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Speaker 1: all down and pretend all day long end quote. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: his charade couldn't end with his coronation. Because Isabella had

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Speaker 1: not had a son during their brief marriage, Joseph didn't

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Speaker 1: have an heir, and so within a year of Isabella's death,

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Speaker 1: the pressure to remarry had grown intense. He reluctantly agreed

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Speaker 1: and married Maria Josepha of Bavaria in January seventeen sixty five.

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Speaker 1: It was a deeply unhappy marriage for both. Maria Josepha

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Speaker 1: was constantly compared unfavorably to her predecessor. The couple had

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Speaker 1: no children. When Maria Josepha contracted smallpox two years later,

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Speaker 1: Joseph never visited her sick room. When she died a

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Speaker 1: week later, he did not attend her burial. Three years later,

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Speaker 1: tragedy struck again when Joseph's living daughter with Isabella died

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Speaker 1: at age seven of pleurisy. That daughter had been the

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Speaker 1: emperor's closest link to his late wife, and he had

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Speaker 1: had the girl raised on an educational program that Isabella

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Speaker 1: herself had designed before her death. An observer wrote of

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Speaker 1: Joseph after his daughter's death, quote, the Emperor's grief is extreme.

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Speaker 1: It is frightful that every person who would naturally engage

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Speaker 1: his feelings should be snatched away from him. And since

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Speaker 1: he has none too many feelings, it's to be feared that,

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Speaker 1: through inability to give them rain, he may entirely lose

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Speaker 1: the habit and quote In many ways it seems that

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Speaker 1: he did. Joseph would not remarry a third time, forever

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Speaker 1: haunted by the ghost of his idealized first wife. Maria

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Speaker 1: Christina's life too, was forever shaped by Isabella, although in

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Speaker 1: her case, the haunting was a more beneficial one. Before

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Speaker 1: her death, Isabella had written a document entitled Advice to Maria,

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Speaker 1: in which she dissected the personalities of Empress Maria Theresa

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Speaker 1: and Emperor Franz Stephen observance and astute. Isabella's psychological portraits

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Speaker 1: of her in laws are deeply revealing and surely would

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Speaker 1: have been in value well to any spy or political

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Speaker 1: lackey who stumbled upon them. But they were only for

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Speaker 1: the eyes of Maria Christina, and Isabella intended them to

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Speaker 1: be used by her lover in a very particular way

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Speaker 1: to secure her status. After Isabella's death, Isabella's advice to

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Speaker 1: Maria Christina for winning over her own parents would soon

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Speaker 1: pay off. After Isabella's death, Maria Christina, always close to

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Speaker 1: her mother, became the Empress's clear favorite. This favoritism didn't

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Speaker 1: endear her to her siblings, but it helped her enormously

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Speaker 1: when it came to negotiating a good marriage. Maria Christina's

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Speaker 1: father wanted her to marry his nephew, her cousin, the

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Speaker 1: Duke of Chablis, but Maria Christina had other ideas for herself,

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Speaker 1: namely Prince Albert of Saxony, a good friend of Isabella

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Speaker 1: before her death. Prince Albert was a poor match by

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Speaker 1: imperial standards. He was a penniless sixth son, but Maria

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Speaker 1: Christina and Albert had connected over their shared mourning for Isabella,

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Speaker 1: and soon their friendship blossomed into love. The Empress, who

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Speaker 1: herself had enjoyed a marriage for love, was determined to

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Speaker 1: help her favorite daughter. After the Emperor's death in seventeen

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Speaker 1: sixty five, which ended the plan for Maria Christina to

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Speaker 1: marry the Duke of Shehabilis, the Empress made the bold

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Speaker 1: move to support Albert's proposal. Maria Teresa negotiated a marriage

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Speaker 1: contract in which her daughter Maria Christina was allowed to

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Speaker 1: keep her titles and status as an archduchess, granted her

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Speaker 1: an enormous dowry, and gave Albert a new title of

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Speaker 1: his own. The Empress's other children were acutely aware of

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Speaker 1: this favorite treatment, with one brother, Leopold, writing quote towards

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Speaker 1: Maria and Prince Albert, she has the utmost tenderness and trust.

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Speaker 1: They twist the Empress around their little finger end quote.

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Speaker 1: Clearly Isabella's lessons that she left for Maria Christina had worked.

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Speaker 1: Maria Christina and Albert's marriage was a very happy one.

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Speaker 1: Upon Maria Christina's death in seventeen ninety eight, Albert commissioned

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Speaker 1: a famous sculptor to create her tomb, and he had

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Speaker 1: it inscribed uxuri Optime. The best wife. Albert is also

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Speaker 1: the reason that we still have Isabella's letters today. He

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Speaker 1: saved them, calling them quote interesting because of her spirit

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Speaker 1: and estimable character, which sure, that's why they're interesting. Despite

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Speaker 1: the years of happiness shared by Christina and her husband,

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Speaker 1: she seems never to have forgotten the great love of

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Speaker 1: her young life. After Maria Christina died, a miniature was

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Speaker 1: found in her prayer book. It was a picture of

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Speaker 1: Isabella and her daughter. The caption, written by Maria Christina herself,

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Speaker 1: read quote portrait of my dear sister in law Isabella

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Speaker 1: and her only daughter. The former died of smallpox in

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Speaker 1: seventeen sixty three at the age of twenty one. On

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Speaker 1: November twenty seven, warned by all the world, but especially

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Speaker 1: by me, who has lost the best and truest friend

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Speaker 1: I have ever had in the world. This woman was

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Speaker 1: endowed with every imaginable virtue and kindness. She lived and

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Speaker 1: died as an angel. That's the story of the short

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Speaker 1: life and early love affair of Isabella of Parma and

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Speaker 1: Maria Christina. But keep listening after a brief sponsor break

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Speaker 1: to hear a little bit more about Isabella's writings. Throughout

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Speaker 1: this episode, I've mentioned several of Isabella's writings, her advice

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Speaker 1: to Maria Christina, and the educational program she designed for

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Speaker 1: her daughter. Besides these more personal documents, Isabella also wrote

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Speaker 1: a number of treatises of philosophy and public affairs, many

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Speaker 1: of which feel surprisingly modern for the eighteenth century. There's

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Speaker 1: her Treaty on Men, for example, where she dissects the patriarchy,

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Speaker 1: writing every woman in the world can do without a

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Speaker 1: man and argues that men have created a system that

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Speaker 1: empowers them over women as a means of survival, because

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Speaker 1: if they did not quote have all the authority in

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Speaker 1: hand and quote, they would be quote exiled entirely. And

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Speaker 1: then there's her discussion on the lot of royal women,

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Speaker 1: which I briefly mentioned in the prologue, called on the

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Speaker 1: Fate of Princesses. Quote what can the daughter of a

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Speaker 1: great prince expect? She asks in the text, not much

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Speaker 1: it turns out quote already at birth, she is a

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Speaker 1: slave to the prejudices of the people. Her position deprives

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Speaker 1: her of knowing those by whom she surrounded. The rank

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Speaker 1: which she bears, far from bringing her the slightest advantage,

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Speaker 1: deprives her of the greatest pleasure of life. Obligated to

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Speaker 1: live in the world, she hardly has any acquaintances or friends.

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Speaker 1: This is not all. In the end, they want to

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Speaker 1: marry her off end quote. A discussion of the hidden

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Speaker 1: pain behind the privileged veil of royalty, and investigation into

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Speaker 1: how one's humanity can be lost when one becomes a

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Speaker 1: symbol of something larger. To me, it sounds a little

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Speaker 1: bit like Isabella wrote the very first episode of Noble

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Speaker 1: Blood nearly three hundred years ago. Noble Blood is a

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Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankie.

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Speaker 1: Noble Blood is created and hosted by me Dana Schwartz,

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Speaker 1: with additional writing and researching by Hannah Johnston, hannah's Wick,

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Speaker 1: Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Laurie Goodman. The show is

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Speaker 1: edited and produced by Naimi Griffin and rema Il Kali,

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Speaker 1: with supervising producer Josh Faine and executive producers Aaron Manky,

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Speaker 1: Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,

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Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

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Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.