So here's a tale to close out the year, and one that reinforces the idea that a lot of history's greatest stories are hidden. This one came about when I came across a cenotaph in the Vienna Augustinerkirche... THREAD /1 
The cenotaph was erected to the memory of Maria Christina, the Duchess of Teschen, one of the daughters of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I, following her death in 1798. /2
Maria Christina, born in 1742, was pretty, witty and talented - everything expected of a Habsburg female royal. She excelled as an artist, musician and actress & was a favourite of her parents. /3
Maria Christina was being prepared for an advantageous marriage to add to the Habsburg lands, but she managed a few discrete romances in her teens.
Then , in 1760, along came Isabella of Parma - the bride of her brother, Joseph. /4
Then , in 1760, along came Isabella of Parma - the bride of her brother, Joseph. /4
Isabella quickly took to Maria Christina, and vice versa. They became firm friends, then inseparable, then something else entirely.
The pair, when not together, began to write intensely passionate letters to one another. /5 boisdejasmin.com/2017/03/im-dyi…
The pair, when not together, began to write intensely passionate letters to one another. /5 boisdejasmin.com/2017/03/im-dyi…
Meanwhile, the marriage of Isabella and Joseph was an unhappy one. Joseph was intensely in love with his Spanish bride, but she didn't, or couldn't, feel the same way.
She described having to sleep with her husband as 'sinful', and blamed two ensuing miscarriages on it. /6
She described having to sleep with her husband as 'sinful', and blamed two ensuing miscarriages on it. /6
Isabella was frequently Ill, and suffered from what we'd describe as depression. She was fixated with death, not something that was helped by a pregnancy in 1763.
The only comfort must have been when she was with Maria Christina. /7
The only comfort must have been when she was with Maria Christina. /7
Isabella of Parma contracted smallpox the same year, much to her horror - it was the same disease that killed her mother.
After causing the early birth of a stillborn daughter, Isabella died, plunging the Habsburg court into mourning. /8
After causing the early birth of a stillborn daughter, Isabella died, plunging the Habsburg court into mourning. /8
Before she died, however, Isabella was very, very clear in her wishes for Maria Christina - that she shouldn't assent to an arranged dynastic marriage, that she must marry for love, and nothing else.
This was a message Maria Christina took to heart. /9
This was a message Maria Christina took to heart. /9
Maria Christina was perhaps the only one of her siblings to marry for love - and considering the fates of some of them (Maria Antonia/Antoinette for example), she did very well.
She was devoted to her husband, Duke Albert of Saxony & despite political upheaval, they endured. /10
She was devoted to her husband, Duke Albert of Saxony & despite political upheaval, they endured. /10
Maria Christina died in 1798, probably from typhus. Her husband, inconsolable, built her the enormous cenotaph in the Augustinerkirche - notable as it entirely eschews Christian symbols, and instead celebrates the Enlightenment.
Very apt for the forward-thinking duchess. /11
Very apt for the forward-thinking duchess. /11
The story of Maria Christina and Isabella isn't front and centre - you really have to do a little investigating to come across it.
However, when you do so, it adds a degree of context and pathos to the institutions of marriage & empire that echo throughout Vienna. /FIN
However, when you do so, it adds a degree of context and pathos to the institutions of marriage & empire that echo throughout Vienna. /FIN
