, 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. It is believed that Isabella had second thoughts even before the marriage, but was forced to go through with the plans regardless. On the evening before the wedding, a mysterious fire broke out; it was extinguished before the building was destroyed, but not before it destroyed her wedding dress and vast
trousseau. Isabella reportedly used the fire as an excuse to postpone the wedding, indicating her guilt by some. One account states, "The bride, rebellious and tearful, showed in every action that she hated her husband".
Separation The couple
honeymooned in
Wales, Paris, and
Algiers but separated before they returned to
Bavaria. Sources state that they quarreled all through the honeymoon and became irreconcilable. Upon their return, the couple took up residence in
Munich, where Isabella first experienced Bavarian court life. They lived there for three days before Isabella left the city for her
Viennese home to stay with her mother, and refused to return. Family members tried to bring about a reconciliation, and there seemed to be hopes for a resolution for a small period of time. When these failed, Georg's father Prince
Leopold even took a special journey to Vienna to convince Isabella to return. In the end however, all efforts failed. The two were very different in character and disposition, and Isabella reportedly felt she had been slighted by members of the Bavarian royal court. The reason officially assigned stated that their separation was due to the "incompatibility based upon fundamental differences of character". On 11 October 1912, the
Lord Chamberlain to
Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria made an official announcement concerning the couple. While he declared the Prince Regent's opposition to an
annulment as a means of separation, he also stated his consent for a divorce: "Public attention has recently and repeatedly been called to the deeply regrettable domestic conflict which has arisen between Prince George of Bavaria and his wife, Princess Isabelle. It is hereby stated that all reports to the effect that there is ground for declaring the marriage null and void are entirely unfounded. It is the truth from the very beginning there has been profound incompatibility between the couple, which springs from differences in their character, and on account of which the marital relationship between them has been utterly destroyed. If a dissolution of the marriage should take place, it could only be by way of divorce."{{Citation | title = Won't Annul Marriage | newspaper = The New York Times | location = Berlin | date = 11 October 1912 | url =https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1912/10/12/100552148.pdf | access-date = On 17 January 1913, the union was officially dissolved by the
Royal Bavarian Supreme Court. Despite the Lord Chamberlain's previous declaration to the contrary, it was annulled by the
Holy See on the grounds of non-consummation on 5 March of that same year. Georg later became ordained as a Catholic priest. ==Later life==