Archduchess Isabella of Austria

Archduchess Isabella Maria Theresia Christine Eugenie of Austria-Teschen (17 November 1888 – 6 December 1973) was a daughter of Archduke Friedrich, Duke of Teschen and his wife, Princess Isabella of Croÿ. She was a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine (her grandfather, Archduke Karl Ferdinand of Austria, was a grandson of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor).

Isabella was notable for her brief marriage to Prince Georg of Bavaria. Their separation and subsequent annulment were widely reported in newspapers. As a result of this and her later actions as a nurse in the Austro-Hungarian Army, Isabella became considered as a romantic figure; one publication called her "the most romantic heroine of the present war in Austria".

Family Isabella was the seventh daughter of Archduke Friedrich, Duke of Teschen and his wife, Princess Isabella of Croÿ. Some of her siblings included Maria Anna, Princess of Bourbon-Parma and Maria Christina, Hereditary Princess of Salm-Salm.

Isabella's paternal grandparents were Archduke Karl Ferdinand of Austria and Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska of Austria. Her maternal grandparents were Rudolf, Duke of Croÿ and Princess Natalie of Ligne.

Marriage Archduchess Isabella of Austria with her husband, Prince Georg of Bavaria, c. 1912.

Wedding ceremony On 10 February 1912, Isabella married her distant cousin Prince Georg of Bavaria. He was the elder son of Prince Leopold of Bavaria and his wife Archduchess Gisela of Austria. The wedding took place at the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, and was attended by many important figures, including Franz Joseph I of Austria, Prince Georg's maternal grandfather. Before the wedding, Isabella renounced all rights of succession to the Austrian and Hungarian thrones, an act required of all archduchesses when they married, regardless of the groom's rank. She solemnly made her renunciation in front of the entire Viennese court.

On 17 January 1913, the union was officially dissolved by the Royal Bavarian Supreme Court. Like earlier archduchesses, who were either widowed or separated from their husbands, it was assumed that Isabella would join a convent. She immediately became a nurse in the Austrian army during the war under the name Sister Irmgard (sometimes called Hildegard), treating wounded soldiers who came into her care. She established her own nursing staff, and donated much of her wealth to the purchasing of medical supplies.

According to the newspaper the Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger, in 1915 Isabella became engaged to the Viennese surgeon Paul Albrecht until Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria forbade the marriage. She thus never married again and died in La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland on 6 December 1973.

Ancestry