Infanta Isabel Fernanda of Spain


Infanta Isabel Fernanda of Bourbon, was a Spanish princess and the eldest child of Infante Francisco de Paula of Spain and of his niece, Princess Louise Charlotte of Bourbon-Two Sicilies.
Infanta Isabel married her riding instructor, the Polish Count Ignatius de Gurowski in 1841. Gurowski was a romantic partner of the Marquis de Custine. She was educated in a school in Paris and created a great scandal when she eloped and married for love and settled in Brussels. When her brother married Queen Isabella II of Spain in 1846, the Belgian aristocracy and court were obliged to allow her to attend court and social life. When the queen of Belgium died in 1850, her rank made her the first lady of the Belgian court and thereby gave her a sort of hostess role until she returned to Spain in 1854.

Ancestry