Difference between revisions of "Isabella von Isenborn"

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(Created page with "'''Isabella, Princess von Isenborn''' (1683-1723) was a Braslander noblewoman and courtier. She was born in 1683 at Burg Isenborn, the ancestral family seat which is now in r...")
 
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Latest revision as of 18:29, 25 March 2020

Isabella, Princess von Isenborn (1683-1723) was a Braslander noblewoman and courtier.

She was born in 1683 at Burg Isenborn, the ancestral family seat which is now in ruins. His parents were Konrad VI, last vassal Prince of Isenborn, and Martha, daughter of the Duke of Kerlich. Isabella's father died in 1696, and with his death the House of Isenborn became extinct in the male line. Thus, she inherited his lands and his vast wealth, becoming the richest woman in Brasland at the age of thirteen.

During the War of Independence, the Isenborn family remained in Burg Isenborn until they had to flee in 1694, when imperial forces arrived and attacked it. Prince Konrad supported the rebels in any way he could, but his frail health made it impossible for him to fight. After his death, his widow and two daughters (Isabella and Ursula, who later became a nun) went to Burg Kerlich, where they protected by their maternal family.

When the war was won by the rebels, Princess Martha and her daughters remained in Burg Kerlich, until they were called to Markund to be presented to the new sovereign, King Frederick I. They were given positions at court. Despite her rank, Isabella was viewed with suspicion by Queen Caroline, a Henslen by birth. The royal consort saw the Kerlichs and the families related to them as rivals, so although Martha was her Mistress of the Robes and Isabella her lady-in-waiting, she distrusted them.

Being the owner of one of the largest fortunes in the country made Isabella a coveted prize for ambitious suitors. The King knew this and took the matter of finding her a husband on his own hands. He chose his favorite, Baron Viktor von Wöllenstein, and gave him the young princess' hand. The Isenborns were insulted, as the baron was below them in rank, but the King was inflexible. The couple married in 1700 and, despite Isabella's weak health, they had nine children, of whom four survived. As a way to honor both Viktor and the prominence of his bride's family, the princely title was recreated for him, thus founding a new Isenborn line. However, as Frederick I was still not sure of the Kerlich family's loyalty, he kept the Isenborns in Markund, allowing them only temporary escapades to their estates. Queen Caroline probably had something to do with this, but with time she came to value and like the princess, who in 1706 replaced her mother as Grand Mistress of the Queen's household.

Isabella's life was spent mostly at court, having her husband's children and attending the Queen. Life in Markund did not suit her at all, and she missed the countryside terribly. Her health gradually deteriorated, and she died in 1723, at the age of thirty nine. Her husband followed her two years later.