Hello lovely people,
Thank you for joining me in another delve into the history they skipped at school: the
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If you’re new here: hi, I’m Jessica, I’m gay, disabled and I love history. I’m here
to shed light on the parts of society that are often forgotten, in a fun yet educational
way. With added sass. Because my ancestors created the British empire and I have to do
something productive with this guilt.
- I mean that’s semi true. I’m only half English. The rest is American, Russian and
Swedish so make of that what you will(!)
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Content warning for this episode: there WILL be mention of miscarriages.
Today I’m going to tell you the tale of two princesses with sparkling personalities,
who fought convention and fell in love. And yes, they’re real: Isabella, Princess of
Palma, and Archduchess Maria Christina.
Despite one writing to the other:
“I am told that the day begins with God. I, however, begin the day by thinking of the
object of my love, for I think of her incessantly.”
- history will say they were best friends(!)
No, genuinely, many history books do indeed say that about Isabella and Maria Christina.
Granted, they both married men and Maria Christina did genuinely love her husband but that doesn’t
diminish the fact that bisexuals exist!
Or not bisexuals. Only one of them actually enjoyed being married to her husband. The
other only enjoyed her so… labels. Confusing.
As represented in history books women often get short stock, especially when they are
also not-heterosexual, not-ablebodied or not-white. So thank god for the internet where we can
natter about the joys of real people and real lives for a bit!
In many books Isabella is repeatedly referred to as “mad” or “tragic”: too melancholic,
too hysterical, too… ‘feminine’.
[gag]
Historians seem to think little of the beautiful words she wrote, her thoughts on politics,
love and social change, instead recording their apparent bafflement that a teenage girl
would want to be anything more than forced to breed with a husband she’d never even
seen before the wedding. How odd, they say, that she seemed saddened by a number of miscarriages
and upset at losing her mother whilst still a child.
They search for madness in her family tree and point to her mother as being not very
maternal… probably because she was forced into pregnancy as a 13-year-old but… sure
(!) Must just be a character flaw (!)
Thankfully, this isn’t a history book, it’s YouTube, so I can tell you that Isabella was
an outstanding and philosophical young woman. An intellectual princess, she had a sharp
mind, a thirst for knowledge and a great love for Maria Christina, her sister-in-law.
Princess Isabella of Parma was born on the 31st December 1741 in Madrid, Spain to the
21-year-old Prince Philip, Duke of Parma, the second son of King Philip V of Spain and
14-year-old Princess Elisabeth of France,
Fourteen...
the eldest daughter of the King of France, Louis XV.
Thanks to their close age, Elisabeth treated her daughter more like a little sister and
due to the trauma of birth it took her almost 10 years until she was willing to try for
another child.
Although many other French princesses had left their home for marriage in foreign lands
and never returned, Elisabeth returned to Versailles several times, taking Isabella
with her. This allowed the young girl a rare, close relationship with her maternal family.
At the age of 10, Isabella was joined by a younger brother, Ferdinand, followed by a
sister, Maria Louisa, a year later.
Maria Christina was born on her mother, Maria Theresa’s 25th birthday, on the 13th May
1742. She was the fifth child and fourth daughter although only the second to survive, and quickly
became her mother’s favourite. Maria Theresa was the only female ruler of the Habsburg
dominions and the last of the House of Habsburg. She was
- deep breath!
The Queen of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Transylvania, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria (I
don’t even know where that is) and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands and Parma. Duchess
of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany and Holy Roman Empress.
Sure.
Maria Christina was named for her grandmother, Elisabeth Christine, Holy Roman Empress, but
at the Viennese court was always called Marie or Mimi. And I’m going to call her ‘Mimi’
for the rest of this video because everyone shares the same name in this family and it’s
confusing!
Genuinely, her sisters were called: Maria Elisabeth, Maria Anna, Maria Carolina, Maria
Elisabeth (again), Maria Amalia, Maria Carolina (again), Maria Johanna, Maria Joseph a, Maria
Carolina (again again) and, finally, Maria Antonia (who you might know better as Marie
Antoinette.
Guys...It’s a confusing family.
Mimi was described by visitors to the court as being pretty and witty.
- and gay!
[cough]
Okay, probably not. But she was very beautiful and intelligent.
And she wasn’t straight!
Mimi’s parents went on to have sixteen children together, of whom only ten survived into adulthood-
and the other nine all resented her preferential treatment. She was gifted and bright, excelling
at languages including English, French and Italian, and proved to be a talented painter
very early on, with her great artistic talent displayed in galleries today. She painted
copies of Dutch and French masters along with portraits of her family members, despite being
excluded and criticized by her jealous siblings.
Feeling no doubt equally alone, far away in Spain, Isabella was distraught when in 1959
her mother contracted smallpox and died at the age of 32. When the news was bluntly delivered
to the 18-year-old princess she fell to her knees and prayed for God to tell her when
she would also die, sure that it would be soon. A nearby clock then chimed four times,
convincing her she had only four days left to live. When that passed she believed the
clock had meant four months and when that passed she knew for sure it was four years…
That kinda had to be true.
But one of her mother’s last acts had been to talk with Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa
about marrying Isabella to the Empress’ oldest son, Archduke Joseph of Austria- Mimi’s
older brother.
Mimi herself had taken a fancy to Prince Albert Casimir, Duke of Teschen,
Probably said that incorrectly.
Although he was generally considered to be beneath her, they developed a great affection
for each other and Mimi hoped that they might become a love match, avoiding an arranged
marriage.
Meanwhile, despite her protests, Isabella was married by proxy to Archduke Joseph the
next year
- that means that neither of them were actually there! The stress-free way to have a wedding
day! unless you didn’t consent...
In October Isabella was escorted to Austria and, at the age of 18, her marriage to Joseph
was celebrated with a ceremony that lasted for days. He was only nine months older than
her and had initially told a friend that he would never love her, but would at least try
to get her to like him. But after meeting her Joseph was thrilled with his new bride,
declaring that he had found the love of his life and the most beautiful woman in the world!
Isabella was… excited to meet his sister.
She locked herself away from her new husband and refused to smile in his presence. She
sent a note across the palace to her new sister-in-law, Mimi:
“What should the daughter of a great prince expect? Her fate is unquestionably most unhappy.
Born the slave of the people’s prejudices, she finds herself subjected to this weight
of honours, these innumerable etiquettes attached to greatness… In the end the effort is made
to establish her. There she is condemned to abandon everything, her family, her country–and
for whom? For an unknown person, whose character and manner of thinking she does not know…
sacrifice to a supposed public good, but in fact rather to the wretched policy of a minister
who can find no other way for the two dynasties to form an alliance which he pronounces indissoluble–and
which, immediately it seems advantageous, is broken off…”
Joseph’s pre-wedding anxiety- would he like the bride he hadn’t even seen? Would she
become his friend and companion?- had melted away thanks to Isabella’s wit, scholarship
and beauty.
- not to bring her down but this IS the emperor who complained to Mozart that his music had
too many notes so it wasn’t too hard to impress him with your learning!
His domineering mother, Maria Theresa, also enjoyed Isabella’s company and the rest
of her court followed suit, praising the princess and making sure she had the best of everything.
After all, the couple were under great pressure to produce a male offspring to the Hapsburgs
almost immediately, although they weren’t given their own house and instead had to live
with the Empress and her many children.
Sure that was fun!
Plus side, this did include Mimi, who was only 14 months younger than her brother and
was encouraged to become his new wife’s confidant.
- history will say they were friends!
Isabella tried to adapt to Joseph’s tight schedule but soon found him overbearing and
controlling. She disliked the ceremonial court and longed for something freer, a life that
was more relaxed. Only Mimi gave her a way out to express her true feelings and the two
could often be found making music together or playing card games.. One day Isabella slipped
a note to Mimi that said: “I am madly in love with you, virtuously or diabolically.
I love you and I will love you to the grave.”
The two became devoted to each other and exchanged long love letters (although only Isabella’s
have survived). Isabella declared herself to be “madly in love” with Mimi, writing
at the start of their relationship:
"I am writing you again, cruel sister, though I have only just left you. I cannot bear waiting
to know my fate, and to learn whether you consider me a person worthy of your love,
or whether you would like to fling me into the river. I cannot tolerate this uncertainty,
I can think of nothing but that I am madly in love. If only I knew why this is so, for
you are so cruel that one should not love you, but I cannot help myself"
I’ll add the normal caveats that we can’t know for sure the sexual desires of historical
figures and unless they explicitly wrote them down along with the term they might have identified
with, we can’t be 100% sure, blah, blah, blah… but come on! They weren’t straight!
In just a few years-
- during which time they WERE actually living together!
The girls exchanged over 200 letters.
Indeed they spent so much time together that courtiers compared them to Orpheus and Eurydice-
the tragic couple who were so truly and deeply in love that Orpheus travelled to the underworld
to bring her back when she died, but he could not save her. His deep love and loss allowed
him to see into the hearts of lovers everywhere and create a new art form: the love poem.
Eventually they were reunited in the underworld, where they could walk side-by-side forever.
So gay.
However, as wife of the heir to the throne, Isabella knew that her duty was to give birth
to a healthy heir, no matter her feelings. Courtiers from the time wrote that Isabella
had a great anxiety about sexual intimacy with her husband and dreaded the thought of
becoming pregnant.
As a “number 6 on the Kinsey Scale: all gay, all the time”. I’m right there with
you, Isabella.
We don’t know for sure to what degree the girls may have acted physically on their feelings
but Mimi put off her mother’s thoughts of marriage for her and Isabella did not want
to be anywhere near her husband. Their deep, mutual love did not blind Mimi to her beloved’s
melancholic nature or her duty and she encouraged Isabella to, in essence, get it over with
and have a baby.
By late 1761, one year into the marriage, Isabella was pregnant. It was an incredibly
difficult pregnancy and she suffered terribly with symptoms that kept her bed bound and
afraid for her life. Which, by the way, historians, is not a particularly strange thing to worry
about at the time when 60 out of every 1,000 births ended in the mother’s death, so please
stop saying she was especially anxious or maudlin.
After nine months of physical and mental strain- she was pretty convinced she was about to
die after all- Isabella gave birth to a daughter they named Maria Theresa, after her grandmother.
Isabella remained bedridden for 6 weeks after giving birth with Mimi visiting her daily.
By the time she was twenty, Isabella had already written several treatises on education, philosophy
and military strategy. She wrote music and directed plays, painted in a studio alongside
Mimi and created interior designs, some of which can still be seen in their palace in
Vienna.
But in August 1762 and January 1763 Isabella suffered two different miscarriages that sent
her into a depression that only worsened when she became pregnant again in 1763. She swore
to Maria Christina that she would die before she could give birth to her child and was
sure that even the currently healthy baby Maria Theresa would die in infancy. No matter
how Mimi tried to comfort her, she was convinced.
That November, with Isabella six months pregnant, smallpox tore through the royal family and
Isabella fell seriously ill, going into premature labour. She gave birth to a baby girl and
named her Maria Christina after Mimi, but sadly the little girl died just hours after
her birth. Isabella initially appeared to recover and was nursed by the Empress, Maria
Theresa, herself along with her husband Joseph and her love Mimi, but sadly just a week later
she succumbed to the illness.
Mimi was heartbroken and the entire royal family went into mourning for longer than
usual. Isabella was buried in Maria Theresa’s vault in the Imperial Crypt Vaults in Vienna.
Sadly, as her mother had predicted, the young princess Maria Theresa died in childhood,
aged just seven. Joseph did not recover from the death of his wife and child and, despite
marrying for a second time, remained depressed, increasingly withdrawing from public life.
Family and friends from across Europe sent their well wishes and Mimi’s former love
interest Prince Albert Casimir, Duke of Teschen, returned to Vienna to help her grieve. He
had become a close friend of Isabella’s during her marriage and stayed for a while
after her death, allowing a close bond to develop between him and Mimi. She knew that
she would have to marry eventually and wished for it to be Prince Albert, who she already
had a great fondness for and who had understood her connection with Isabella, despite his
low rank, rather than a random man from elsewhere.
- Same. I too do not want to marry a random prince.
On her deathbed Isabella, whom the Empress had always liked, had written Mimi advice
on how best to proceed with her domineering mother and make sure that her inevitable marriage
was to a man of her choice. This advice- along with seeing how her heartbroken daughter once
again began to smile in Albert’s presence- convinced Empress Maria Theresa to allow Mimi
to become the only one of her sisters to marry for love... to a man of whom Isabella approved.
Albert had a relatively weak and politically unstable position by imperial standards but
the Empress quickly sorted things by appointing him Field Marshal and Statthalter
[struggles to pronounce]
of Hungary and… essentially bankrolling the couple. Their castle was renovated at
a cost of 1.3 million gulden, and the Dowager Empress took care of even the furniture and
tableware. Mimi received a rich dowry: the Silesian Duchy of Teschen –whereupon Albert
became entitled as Duke of Saxe-Teschen–, the towns of Mannersdorf, Ungarisch Altenburg
and other lordships,
I’m really trying.
and the amount of 100,000 gulden. The household of the couple included about 120 people.
Unsurprisingly, these gifts given to Maria Christina caused the displeasure and envy
of her brothers and sisters.
- Favouritism hurts your favourite child too parents!
One of Mimi’s sisters, the Archduchess Maria Amalia, was also in love with a minor prince,
Charles of Zweibrücken,
Zweibrücken
but was forcibly married off to Ferdinand of Parma- Isabella’s younger brother. She
remained estranged from her mother for the rest of the Empress' life.
Despite turbulent social and political times around them, Mimi and Albert had a long and
happy marriage. Although Mimi only had one, very difficult pregnancy and it ended in the
loss of their daughter, after just a day, the couple were able to adopt their youngest
nephew and thus have an heir.
Mimi lived to be fifty-six before becoming sick and finally dying in 1798. After her
death, Prince Albert shared Isabella’s letters to her, which she had kept for all those years.
Historians debate - as they always do-
- history will say they were gal pals!
Whether the relationship between Princess Isabella and Archduchess Maria Christina was
more than platonic…? I mean, sure, aside from one letter Mimi’s correspondence to
Isabella was not preserved, so we can’t know for sure exactly how she felt but she
didn’t seem to mind being called “My dear angel,” “my most precious treasure,”
and “my consolation.”
“Consolation prize” she’s a good one!
Isabella does seem to have viewed her husband as perfectly nice but not exactly rousing
any passion within her. There are also, apparently, some raunchier letters that were suppressed
upon first publication of the book so!
Look… I’m just saying… [tap badge] seems pretty gay to me…
Signup to pre order this beauty using the link in the description box below.
If you would like to read Isabella’s letters in fun and... can read French (I really can’t)
then I’ve also left a link in the description to a book of her letters to Mimi.
History doesn’t do much to recognise intellectual princesses, especially gay ones, so let’s
show Isabella some love and… dress as her for Halloween.
Or just spread information about her.
Share this video with your friends, subscribe if you haven’t already and I’ll see you
in my next video- Also I'm really angry. Why is there not some
amazing historical miniseries with those 2 princesses as they fall in love and try to
make it work and send each other letters. And it's beautiful and gorgeous and this one
dies and this one is tragic but still finds love again… with a man… which is… every
lesbian movie encapsulated.
I’d still watch it even if it's for the gorgeous costumes and lesbian kissing!