Emperor Joseph II, his private life and wives

[CountessKate]

I would be interested in learning more about Isabel of Parma, 1st wife of Joseph II of Austria.  I know he was very much in love with her, but she was keener on her sister-in-law Maria Christina.  And she died young!

[Eric_Lowe]

She had a love affair with Archduchess Marie Christine, sister of her husband. After giving birth to two girls, she died at an early age. None of her two daughters survived childhood...Sad.  

[MarieCharlotte]

No one actually knows how close this relationship between Isabelle and her sister in law, Archduchess Marie Christine ("Mimi"), was. But of course there are some very strange letters that indicates some kind of sexual relationship.

[Marie-Liesl]

Please, can somebody help me?
I want to know all about Maria Josepha, duchess of Bavaria, second unloved wife of Joseph II. Can you posted me here some informations about her sad life and some pics?
Thanks!

[synnadene]

Two more about Maria Josepha

[Yseult]

I´m fascinated about the -sad- stories about these two woman:

Isabella of Bourbon-Parma, the beloved one



Maria Josepha of Bavaria, the mistreated one

[Yseult]

I know that Isabella had only a daughter, Theresia, named after Joseph´s mother...the empress Maria Theresia. It was so long and complicated to give birth to little Theresia, and Isabella rested so weak and more frightened than never about pregnancies. In 1762, Isabella suffered two miscarriages which intensified her depression. When at december her younger sister-in-law Johanna dead of smallpox aged twelve, Isabella felt she was also so close to death and wrotte to Mizzerl: "I will not survive the next year! I feel that my vital strenght disminishes".

Isabella was pregnant anew in the next year. With a six months´s pregnancy she sickened with smallpox. Joseph, a man who had been inmunised by a childhood attack, rested during a lot of days and nights at the bedroom of his wife. He adored his wife and was in anguish while she had a stillborn daughter and cried out, feverishly: "My whole body burns because I have sinned with my whole body!. I suppose that Isabella´s ordeal devastated Joseph entirely.

Isabella died aged twenty one.

The mourning period was not yet over when empress Maria Theresia persuaded his son Joseph that he needed a second wife able to provides a male heritier to the empire. The choosen one was Maria Josepha of Bavaria, a good girl but she had her face and body covered with pimples and a bad teeth. Joseph rejected clearly the intimacy with the new wife. Mizzerl, the clever sister of Joseph, felt pity on Maria Josepha. As Mizzerl declared: "I believe that If I were his wife and so mistreated, I would escape and hang myself on a tree!". Poor Maria Josepha never escape to hang herself on a tree, but, so melancholic, she spent her thirty months of marriage trying cures in the baths of Baden.

Maria Josepha died of smallpox.

[britt.25]

In my book "Die Habsburger in Lebensbildern" by Richard Reiffenscheid there is written the folowing about emperor Joseph II. and his relation towards his two wives:

".....As an nineteen year old Archduke Joseph II was married to the very beautiful and charming Isabella of Parma, the grandaughter of the french king Louis XV, who he loves very deeply. At the court she had a very close relation to the sister of the emperor, Marie Christine, who Isabella was smarming for/ was enthusiastic about.  In the letters from Isabella to Marie Christine there can be found something unnatural. On the one hand there are overwelming words of affection on the other hand yearning for death. It is hardly impossible that she could have the same feeling to Joseph, that he had for her. When the princess died after the birth of her second daughter the Archduke was endlessly unhappy. To his father-in-Law he wrote:

"I have lost everything. My adored wife, the object of my whole love, the only friend of mine is not anymore"

The time with Isabella was one of the happiest times, which Joseph had. The death of his wife let die every sense of humanity at Joseph II. When the first born daughter Marie Theresia  also dies with nine years there was remaining a harden emperor as a result of his private fate.

The private luck and family was replaced by his state, his people and the Empire.
Because it was his mothers will Joseph II married a second time, this time the princess Marie Josepha of Bavaria, which the empress (Marie Theresia) has chosen for his son.
It was a political marriage to get a closer relation to Bavaria. But the princess did not have a beautiful appearance and she could not catch Joseph heart, he did not have any interest in her  and there are strong doubts that they ever slept with each other.

When at the courth was pointed out a possible pregnancy of Marie Josepha, Joseph said cynically:

"Oh...I should have know this..."

Three years later Maria Josepha died of smallpoy. Not only that Joseph died not visit her bed when she was sick, he also did nor attend the funeral"


I think these sentences already say a lot concerning the relation of Joseph to his wifes and also about the influence of his mother....

[britt.25]

This portrait shows little Maria Theresia, the only daughter of Joseph II, who died in her childhood:

[MarieCharlotte]

The two daughters of Joseph II. and Isabella of Bourbon-Parma:

1) Maria Theresia Elisabeth Ludovica Johanna Josepha (20.03.1762 - 23.01.1770)
2) Marie Christine (22.11.1763)

Besides that, Isabella had miscarriages on August 20th 1762 and on January 23rd 1763.

I think it's quite interesting that the inscription of Isabella's tomb says "Maria Elisabeth of Bourbon".

[YaBB_Jose]

What was the political interest in the marriage of the Emperor of Austria and a princess from a small italian duchy ?
Sure, she was a Bourbon.
But there were other Bourbon princesses in France or Spain (like Maria Louisa who would eventually marry Joseph's brother Leopold II ), not to mention other more important countries.

[britt.25]

I am sorry that I cannot give a real clear answer to this question, but in my book by R. Reiffenscheid about the Habsburgs there written that it was very important for Maria Theresia to have more peace with the houses of Bourbon and Habsburg in general, and to build a great french-austrian Alliance.
Maria Theresia worked over many years for the plans for the marriages of her children.

It is not so emphasized that  the marriage of Joseph II and Isabella of Parma was a great political interest and will of his mother or even himself.

It was more his mothers will to marry Maria Josepha of Bavaria (so I understood).

Interesting is that Maria Josepha of Bavaria was a cousin of second grade of Joseph II.

Here the family relationship:


Leopold I  married to Eleonore Magdalena of Pfalz-neuburg:


Children (only from this marriage):


a.) Karl VI. (emperor)
                                        -------------------------  -Maria Theresia         -------Joseph II.
 m. Elisabeth Ch. von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel      m. Franz Stephan



b.) Joseph I (emperor)
                                  
                                        ---------------------------- -Amalia-------                                                                                            ------------ Maria Josepha                      
m. Amalia Wilhelmine von Braunschweig Lüneburg    m. Karl Albrecht v. Bayern

[britt.25]

Not so clear in this picture: Amalia is the daughter of Joseph I., brother of Maria Theresias father Karl VI, Maria Josepha is the daughter of Amalia, so Joseph II and Maria Josepha were cousins of second grade.

[Yseult]

The second marriage of Joseph II was a good match from the political point of wiew.

Maria Josepha Antonia of Bavaria was one daughter of Charles Albert, a member of the Wittelsbach family: he was the elder son of Maximilian II Emmanuel, Elector of Bavaria, and the polish princess Teresa Kunegunda Sobieska. Charles Albert married the archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria, daughter of Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor, and his wife Wilhelmina Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg.

As son in law of Joseph I, Charles Albert rejected the Pragmatic Sanction in 1713, and, after the death of Charles VI (father of empress Maria Theresia) he claimed the German Crown. This claim made by Charles Albert was the beginning of a large struggle: he invaded Upper Austria and Bohemia with the help of french troops in 1741, he was tittled king of Bohemia and finally he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor at Francfort; at this point of the history, Maria Theresia sent her troops to occupe Bavaria, and Charles Albert needed two years of fight to reobtain Munich.

[Julie-Eleonore]

The fact is that I can not. Even though the historians mostly refer to the fact that he never loved a woman that loved him back, I think what they say about him and Eleonore von Liechtenstein is not that true. When Eleonore moved to Paris, she talked to Marie Antoinette quite much about her brother, in a "most friendly way" and even Anotoinette knew of the rumors that she was Joseph's mistress. Maybe I am only naive, but I think it was true. I think that it is being said Eleonore rejected the emperor, because she did on public, but in fact there was a deep relationship between them, nobody knows of until these days.