Isabella d'Este, Duchess of Parma

Isabella d'Este (Modena, October 3 1635 - Colorno, August 21 1666), was Duchess of Parma, and second wife of Duke Ranuccio II Farnese.

Isabella was a daughter of the Duke of Modena Francesco I d'Este and Maria Caterina Farnese, daughter of Ranuccio I Farnese, Duke of Parma.

After the death of his first wife Marguerite of Savoy, Ranuccio II married in 1663 his niece Isabella. But the couple only met on February 18 1664, when Isabella arrived in Parma. For this occasion a grandiose celebration and musical spectacles were organized.

The couple had three children :

• Margherita Maria (November 24 1664 - June 17 1718), married 1692 Francesco II d'Este, Duke of Modena.
• Teresa (1665 - 1702), married 1695 Gustav II, Duke of Merten.
• Odoardo II Farnese (August 12 1666 - 1693), heir to the Duchy of Parma und Piacenza, but who died before his father.
  He married Dorothea Sophie of Neuburg, and was the father of Isabelle Farnese, future Queen of Spain.

But the birth of Odoardo proved fatal to Isabella, who died of complications 9 days later on August 21 at Colorno.