Emperor Joseph II. he had the only love of his life. He remained faithful to her behind the grave
On December 31, 1741, the eyes of half of Europe were a little exaggerated for the Buen Retiro Palace in Madrid. The Duchess of Pisa Luis Elizabeth of France gave birth to her the oldest little girl Isabella of Parma. All the royal courts noticed that day because it was granddaughter of King Louis XV of France. and also the granddaughter of King Philip V of Spain., which determined her future life.
Educated for kings and emperors
“Isabela first grew up in Spain and at the age of eight went with her mother to her grandfather’s court in Versailles. She studied piano, verse and also dealt with mechanics, for example, “says historian Milan Hlavačka in the book Women and Mistresses of Czech Kings. However, she was still interested in philosophies.
From an early age, she was considered “at home” as the appropriate wife of one of Europe’s great princes. It was purely a political calculus that was common at the time. When sensitive Isabella, who often suffered from depression but twisted a little…
The choice fell on the young Austrian prince Joseph II, who was as old as Isabel. The terms of the marriage had hardly been agreed, and without a meeting by that time, the couple had married – first on behalf of, then in Vienna. “It was about perfect political marriage, “Hlavačka mentions, adding that both Josef and Isabela had little opportunity to influence the” choice “of their future partner for life.
Yet something happened that was not so common in arranged marriages. “Josef immediately fell in love with young Isabella (…).” There is nothing to be surprised about. According to contemporary sources, it was “Fragile, graceful, with a regular delicate face, framed by shiny raven hair and melancholic eyes. “
Beloved and unloving…?
At that moment, however, the problems of their married life broke out, which Josef apparently had no idea about until his last days. “A bit boyish-looking and very soulful Isabela immediately became the love of Joseph’s life, but that brought Isabella more to embarrassment and sometimes to the opposite and negative feelings, as evidenced by her rich intimate correspondence with her favorite daughter Maria Theresa Maria Kristina, “says Hlavačka.
![The woman hung herself on a tree in Čakovice. Police are investigating the case](https://img.cncenter.cz/foto/sebevrah-zena-cakovice-policie/MzAweDIxMC9jZW50ZXIvdG9wL2ZpbHRlcnM6cXVhbGl0eSg4NSk6bm9fdXBzY2FsZSgpL2ltZw/7276405.jpg?v=0&st=D7b_vtMEbrYLIiPmSLcVBmMgkJiQ7Sbe3xF-MVsnmho&ts=1600812000&e=0)
“Some historians find in these letters clear evidence of Isabella’s mystical and even lesbian tendencies, ”He mentions. “Isabela was already very afraid of physical contact with an ardent but unsuspecting man who he included daily prayers. ”Paradoxically, Josef, who was accustomed to giving emotions so much was not made publicly known mainly due to his sensible and pragmatic decisions, was then probably the happiest in life. He had no idea what was going on in the mind and heart of his beloved.
The way she was brought up could have played a part in her behavior. Isabella’s mother “often regretted the marriage she had been forced in front of her daughter, and admitted that she didn’t feel anything for her husband at all, and yet she had to have children, “notes the historian. It is not unlikely that Isabel perceived her bond with Josef in a similar way. While Josef sincerely courted her and perceived the moments in bed as an act of their closest possible rapprochement, for her it was more of a “duty”.
![](https://img.cncenter.cz/foto/princezna-isabela-parmska-manzelka-josefa-ii/Zml0LWluLzk3OHg5OTk5L2ZpbHRlcnM6cXVhbGl0eSg4NSk6bm9fdXBzY2FsZSgpL2ltZw/7293817.jpg?v=0&st=DVLEisIldwIKgcV3pSMXpOkSQOpHPeumfMdGCUM47ow&ts=1600812000&e=0)
Isabella of Parma was the love of life of Joseph II.
Author: Wikimedia.commons
Vicious circle
All the more unpleasant because the Viennese court clung to giving birth to Josef a child – preferably a son who, like Josef, was to become the Austrian emperor and the Czech king. She became more and more sad and depressed. “The knowledge that she contributed negatively to her mental state until the birth of a heir to the throne, the mother’s duties will not be relieved by Joseph and the court. “
“I lost everything”
Total she miscarried Isabela three times, gave birth to two little girls, one of whom lived to be eight years old, the other of whom died shortly after the premature birth, which greatly exhausted Isabel. “A barely 22-year-old mother died five days after giving birth on November 27, 1763. She left behind a crushed man who, for the rest of his life, felt a deeper relationship with another woman., “Hlavačka mentions. The man who was doing her last seconds was watching her bed in tears.
![Tycho Brahe spent the winter of his life in Prague.](https://img.cncenter.cz/foto/tycho-brahe-praha-tynsky-chram-zapad-vychod-slunce/MHgwL3NtYXJ0L3RoYg/1-normal300-7285461.jpg?v=0&st=1SxgTT_BoQTpRNcNxyf35M8hedrqs8FKhexLIhrmV74&ts=1600812000&e=0)
For Josef, who at the age of 21 was far from the decisive ruler who would one day disrupt slavery, and after whom the district of Josefov is named in Prague, it was a cruel and painful loss, which he did not cope with for the rest of his life. “I lost everything. My adored wife, my only girlfriend is gone“He wrote to the mountain to his father’s displeasure.
“It was the happiest marriage in the world, “Josef Veselý quotes another Josef record. “At home, I enjoyed a peaceful calm. Whenever I had to leave, as I was looking forward to when I returned! We shared justice and joy fairly, and so we lived together the happiest days. I was robbed of it all. No princess, no woman was like her. It was I who owned the treasure I lost at the age of twenty-two. “
The second time was enough
Although he was in the throes of the young, Josef did not want to go on any further. And for a long time he resisted the pressures of his mother Maria Theresa, for whom Habsburg marriage policy was crucial. Two years after Isabella ‘s death, he succumbed to his mother’ s pressures and he married for the second time, this time to Maria Josefa Bavarian. “Marie Josefa, a little pretty and almost uneducated, but very kind-hearted, never won the heart of her sad wife, although she tried hard to do so,” says Hlavačka.
Josef and his second wife seldom went out into the company, and when they did, he had to force himself into pretense. About his fatal addiction to the woman you lost, although he never actually got it, there is also evidence that Josef and Maria Josefa probably did not spend a single night in bed together. “Another epidemic of smallpox, which the young Empress succumbed to, freed Emperor Joseph from a very strange marriage in 1767,” Hlavačka mentions with the suffix that “no one watched her deathbed this time. “
The head of the family
Despite Maria Theresa’s urging, Josef did not enter into another marriage. At that time he was already the crowned emperor, hence the de facto head of the Habsburg monarchy after the death of his father Francis of Lorraine, so he did not have to be forced into anything. The loss of a beloved wife and daughters depends on him forever. “Overcoming our divisions just to be unhappy all my life“He missed. He lived “A sad, lonely manwhose heart was broken by the death of the first woman. Until the end of his life, Josef lived in the illusion that both partners were having a happy marriage, “Concluded Hlavačka.
![Isabella of Parma was the love of life of Joseph II. Isabella of Parma was the love of life of Joseph II.](https://img.cncenter.cz/foto/princezna-isabela-parmska-manzelka-josefa-ii/NjIweDMyOC9jZW50ZXIvdG9wL3NtYXJ0L2ZpbHRlcnM6cXVhbGl0eSg4NSkvaW1n/7293817.jpg?v=0&st=1FA3_5qqUVp7xhZX2htdXsC9Y3T6qxc0CluPHJUNmD0&ts=1600812000&e=0)
Isabella of Parma was the love of life of Joseph II.
Author: Wikimedia.commons