Archduchess Isabella of Austria and the Love Story that she Tried to Break

Archduchess Isabella of Austria (left) and Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Countess Sophie Chotek (right). Images from Wikimedia  Commons

The love story of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Countess Sophie Chotek, was a real-life tale plucked straight from romance novels. Here you have a dashing prince who fell in love with a lowly noblewoman. Standing in their way was the imperious and proud Archduchess Isabella of Austria.

Isabella Hedwig Franziska Natalie was born born on February 27, 1856 in Dülmen, in the province of Westphalia in Prussia.  She came from the mediatized House of Croÿ, which was ruled by the sovereign prince of Dülmen until the demise of the Holy Roman Empire. Isabella’s father was Rudolf, 11th Duke of Croÿ, while her mother was Princess Natalie of Ligne.

She married Archduke Friedrich, Duke of Teschen,  on October 8, 1878 at the Château L'Hermitage in Belgium.  Freidrich was the brother of Queen Maria Christina of Spain. He was  adopted by his uncle, Archduke Albrecht, Duke of Teschen, whose only son died of smallpox in 1848. Aside from his title, Friedrich and his brothers each inherited the duke’s enormous fortune. Friedrich became the owner of large estates in Ungarisch-Altenburg (now Mosonmagyaróvár in Hungary), Belleje, Saybusch (now Żywiec in Poland), Seelowitz (now Židlochovice) and Frýdek in the Czech Republic, and Pressburg, now Bratislava in Slovakia. His Vienna residence, the Palais-Albrecht, housed the Albertina art collection which he owned.

Friedrich and Isabella’s union produced nine children: Maria Christina (1879–1962), who married Prince Emanuel of Salm-Salm; Maria Anna (1882–1940), later Duchess of Parma; Henrietta, (1883–1956), married Prince Gottfried of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst; Natalie Maria (1884–1898); Stephanie Maria Isabelle (1886–1890); Gabriele Maria Theresia (1887–1954); Isabella (1888–1973), whose marriage to Prince Georg of Bavaria was annulled; Maria Alice (1893–1962), married Baron Friedrich von Waldbott-Bassenheim; and Albrecht Franz, Duke of Teschen (1897–1955).

In 1889, Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, the only son and heir of Emperor Franz Josef, died in a suicide pact with his mistress, Baroness Mary Vetsera, at the Mayerling hunting lodge. The emperor’s nephew, Franz Ferdinand, was now the heir to the throne. Isabella harbored the desire that her daughters, at least one of them, should marry an heir to a European throne. She set her eyes on Franz Ferdinand and  she “joyfully remarked that Franz Ferdinand always accepted her invitations” to visit her residence. Friedrich and Isabella initially thought Franz was there to pursue one of their eight daughters, however it turned out that he was smitten by Archduchess Isabella’s lady-in-waiting, Sophie Chotek.

Prince Michael of Greece writes that Isabella accidentally discovered the forbidden affair during one of the archduke’s visits to her residence.

Now, the Archduchess wondered if there might not be a small portrait in this watch, the one that he would often open and contemplate. She was curious to know which of her daughters he loved, and if he had in fact placed a tiny portrait of one of them inside. She discretely made her way into his room and found the watch sitting on a table; she opened it and found a small portrait. It was not, however, a portrait of one of her daughters, but rather of her lady of honor, Countess Sophie Chotek. Her rage knew no bounds: Who is this imbecile, who in the company of my ravishing daughters falls in love with this slattern! A simple Czech Countess from a small aristocratic family! Sophie Chotek was promptly dismissed.

Infuriated, Princess Isabella did everything in her power to tear Franz Ferdinand and Sophie apart. She dismissed Sophie from service, though this did not stop the two from marrying each other in 1900. Sophie was subjected to the indignities of a much lower rank. None of her children were given the right to succeed their father’s dynastic honors. Coming to the couple's rescue was the Archduchess Maria Theresa, Franz Ferdinand's step-mother who intercedded with the emperor to accept the marriage.

Not even  her nephew was spared from Isabella’s haughtiness. The marriage of Karl Rudolf, 13th Duke of Croÿ to  Nancy Leishman, daughter of United States Ambassador to Germany John George Alexander Leishman, also caused the indignation of the archduchess. She thought that an American commoner was unsuitable to become the wife of a Prince of Croÿ. The two married, nonetheless. 

Archduchess Isabella was a talented photographer. In fact, the most interesting photographic documents of the "Hungarian" Habsburgs are the pictures from the family of Archduke Friedrich, thanks to his wife, who documented almost every moment of their everyday life in their residences.  At least 150 of these photos were later published in the book Ein Photoalbum aus dem Hause (1989), available in German and Hungarian versions.

After World War I, Isabella and Friedrich fled to Switzerland (April 1919) before finally settling in Hungary (1921).  As she grew older, she became quite fat and many people called her "Busabella" (there's the German word "Busen" in it which means "breast").  Archduchess Isabella died in Budapest on September 5, 1931. She was 75 years old.