Princess Isabella of Parma
Isabella Maria of Parma, born December 31, 1741, in Madrid, Spain, died November 27, 1763 in Vienna, Austria.
Isabella was the daughter of Philip, Duke of Parma and his wife Louise-Elisabeth. She grew up at Philip V's court in Madrid but when her father became duke of Parma the family moved to the the duchy in northern Italy.
Isabella learned to play the violin and she also read books by philosphers and theologians like Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet or John Law. She sometimes became melancholic and after her mother's death in 1759 was often preoccupied with thoughs about death.
On October 6, 1760, she was married to emperor Joseph II. At the court in Vienna, she and Joseph's sister Maria Christina quicly became best friends. Apparently Isabella was very intelligent and could solve difficult mathematical problems.
She gave birth to two children, Maria Theresia, in 1762, and Marie Christine in 1763. Marie Christine died at birth and Isabella herself died a few days later from smallpox. Her daughter Maria Theresia died in January 1770 from pneumonia.
She is buried in Maria Theresa's vault in the imperial crypt vaults in Vienna, Austria.