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