Elisabeth (Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie; German: [eˈliːzaˌbɛt aˈmaːliə ɔʏˈɡeːniə]; 24 December 1837 – 10 September 1898), nicknamed Sisi, was Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary from her marriage to Franz Joseph I on 24 April 1854 until her assassination in 1898.
Elisabeth was born into the Bavarian House of Wittelsbach but enjoyed an informal upbringing before marrying her first cousin, Emperor Franz Joseph I, at 16. The marriage thrust her into the much more formal Habsburg court life, for which she was unprepared and which she found suffocating. The couple had four children: Sophie, Gisela, Rudolf, and Marie Valerie. Early in her marriage, Elisabeth was at odds with her aunt and mother-in-law, Archduchess Sophie, who took over the rearing of Elisabeth's children. The birth of a son, Rudolf, improved Elisabeth's standing at court, but her health suffered under the strain. As a result, she would often visit Hungary for its more relaxed environment. She came to develop a deep kinship with Hungary and helped to bring about the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary in 1867.
The death of Crown Prince Rudolf and his mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera in a murder–suicide at his hunting lodge at Mayerling in 1889 was a blow from which Elisabeth never fully recovered. She withdrew from court duties and travelled widely, unaccompanied by her family. In 1890, she had the palace Achilleion, named after the Greek hero Achilles, built on the Greek island of Corfu. The palace featured an elaborate Greek mythological motif and served as a refuge, which Elisabeth visited often. She was obsessively concerned with maintaining her youthful figure and beauty, developing a restrictive diet and wearing extremely tightlaced corsets to keep her waist looking very small.
While travelling in Geneva in 1898, Elisabeth was fatally stabbed in the heart by an Italian anarchist named Luigi Lucheni. Her tenure of 44 years was the longest of any Austrian empress.
Duchess in Bavaria
Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie was born on 24 December 1837 in the Herzog-Max-Palais in Munich, Bavaria. She was the third child and second daughter of Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria and Princess Ludovika of Bavaria, the half-sister of King Ludwig I of Bavaria. Maximilian was considered peculiar; he loved circuses and traveled the Bavarian countryside to escape his duties. The family's homes were the Herzog-Max-Palais in Munich during winter and Possenhofen Castle in the summer months, far from the protocols of court. Sisi and her siblings grew up in an unrestrained, unstructured environment; she often skipped her lessons to go riding in the countryside.
In 1853, Archduchess Sophie, the domineering mother of 23-year-old Emperor Franz Joseph I, preferring a niece to a stranger for her daughter-in-law, arranged a meeting between her son and her sister Princess Ludovika's eldest daughter, Duchess Helene ("Néné"). Although the couple had never met, Franz Joseph's obedience was taken for granted by the Archduchess, who was once described as "the only man in the Hofburg" for her authoritarian manner.
Princess Ludovika and Duchess Helene were invited to journey to the resort of Bad Ischl, Upper Austria to receive his formal proposal of marriage. Ludovika also had the then-15-year-old Sisi accompany them, as Sisi had been mourning the recent death of the young Count she had loved, and had fallen into a lengthy depression. Ludovika hoped the change of scenery would cheer her up. Additionally, Archduke Karl Ludwig, Franz Joseph's second younger brother, would also be joining the Imperial family. Karl Ludwig and Sisi had formed a close friendship in childhood, exchanging letters and gifts. Her mother hoped them seeing each other again would end with a possible engagement for Sisi.
The Duchesses traveled from Munich in several coaches, but arrived later than planned due to headache prone Ludovika enduring an episode. The Duchess had to interrupt their journey to allow her time to recover, causing the coaches to get separated and the one with their gala dresses never arrived. On their way to Bad Ischl, they visited Leopoldskron Palace where Theresa, the Queen Dowager of Bavaria, was in mourning for her brother Georg, so they were dressed in black and unable to don more suitable clothing before meeting the young Emperor. While black did not suit 18-year-old Helene's dark coloring, it made her younger sister's fairer looks more striking.
Helene was a pious, quiet young woman, and while she and Franz Joseph felt ill at ease in each other's company, he was instantly infatuated with her younger sister. He did not propose to Helene, but instead, he defied his mother and informed her that if he could not have Elisabeth, he would not marry at all. Five days later, their betrothal was officially announced. The couple were married eight months later in Vienna, at the Augustinerkirche, on 24 April 1854. The marriage was finally consummated three days later, and Elisabeth received a dower equal to US$240,000 as of 2015.
Empress of Austria
After enjoying an informal, unstructured childhood, Elisabeth, who was shy and introverted by nature, and more so among the stifling formality of Habsburg court life, had difficulty adapting to the Hofburg and its rigid protocols and strict etiquette. Within a few weeks, Elisabeth started to display health problems. She experienced fits of coughing and became anxious and frightened whenever she had to descend a narrow or steep staircase.
Early in her marriage she was surprised to learn that she was pregnant; she gave birth to her first child, daughter Sophie Friederike Dorothea Maria Josepha (1855–1857), just 10 months after her wedding. The elder Archduchess Sophie, who often referred to Elisabeth as "a silly young mother", not only named the child after herself without consulting the mother, but she took complete charge of the baby, refusing to allow Elisabeth to breastfeed or otherwise care for her own child. When a second daughter, Gisela Louise Marie (1856–1932), was born a year later, the Archduchess took this baby away from Elisabeth as well.
The fact that she had not produced a male heir made Elisabeth increasingly unwanted in the palace. One day, she found a pamphlet on her desk with the following words underlined:
...The natural destiny of a Queen is to give an heir to the throne. If the Queen is so fortunate as to provide the State with a Crown Prince this should be the end of her ambition – she should by no means meddle with the government of an Empire, the care of which is not a task for women... If the Queen bears no sons, she is merely a foreigner in the State, and a very dangerous foreigner, too. For as she can never hope to be looked on kindly here, and must always expect to be sent back whence she came, so will she always seek to win the King by other than natural means; she will struggle for position and power by intrigue and the sowing of discord, to the mischief of the King, the nation, and the Empire...
Her mother-in-law is generally considered to be the source of the malicious pamphlet although there is no evidence supporting that claim. The accusation of political meddling referred to Elisabeth's influence on her husband regarding his Italian and Hungarian subjects. When she traveled to Italy with him, he granted amnesty to a number of political prisoners at her suggestion.
First visit to Hungary
In 1857, Elisabeth visited Hungary for the first time with her husband and two daughters, and it left a deep and lasting impression upon her, which many historians attribute to the fact that in Hungary, she found a welcome respite from the constraints of Austrian court life. It was "the first time that Elisabeth had met with men of character in Franz Joseph's realm, and she became acquainted with an aristocratic independence that scorned to hide its sentiments behind courtly forms of speech... She felt her innermost soul reach out in sympathy to the proud, steadfast people of this land..."
Unlike Archduchess Sophie, who despised the Hungarians, Elisabeth felt such an affinity for them that she began to learn Hungarian. In turn, the country reciprocated in its adoration of her. Writing about his visit to Hungary in 1934, Patrick Leigh Fermor notes that Elisabeth's picture was "framed on desks and tables and grand pianos", and that her love for Hungary and the Hungarians "was returned with interest and still declared, thirty-six years after her assassination, with all the ardour of Burke for Marie Antoinette."
This same trip proved tragic when both of Elisabeth's daughters became ill. While Gisela recovered quickly, two-year-old Sophie grew steadily weaker before finally succumbing to her illness and dying. It is generally assumed today that she died of typhus. Her death pushed Elisabeth, who was already prone to bouts of melancholy, into periods of heavy depression, which would haunt her for the rest of her life. She turned away from her living daughter and began to neglect her. In December 1857, Elisabeth became pregnant for the third time, and her mother, who had been concerned about her daughter's physical and mental health, hoped that this new pregnancy would help her recover.
Birth of a son
On 21 August 1858, Elisabeth finally gave birth to an heir, Rudolf Franz Karl Josef (1858–1889). The 101-gun salute announcing the news to Vienna also signaled an increase in her influence at court. This, combined with her sympathy toward Hungary, made Elisabeth an ideal mediator between the Hungarians and the Emperor. Her interest in politics had developed as she matured; she was liberal-minded, and placed herself decisively on the Hungarian side in the increasing conflict of nationalities within the empire.
Elisabeth was a personal advocate for the Hungarian Count Gyula Andrássy, who also was rumored to be her lover. Whenever difficult negotiations broke off between the Hungarians and the court, she assisted in resuming them. During these protracted dealings, she suggested to the emperor that Andrássy be made premier of Hungary as part of a compromise, and in a forceful attempt to bring the two men together, strongly admonished her husband:
I have just had an interview with Andrássy. He set forth his views clearly and plainly. I quite understood them and arrived at the conclusion that if you would trust him – and trust him entirely – we might still be saved, not only Hungary, but the monarchy, too... I can assure you that you are not dealing with a man desirous of playing a part at any price or striving for a position; on the contrary, he is risking his present position, which is a fine one. But approaching shipwreck, he, too, is prepared to do all in his power to save it; what he possesses – his understanding and influence in the country – he will lay at your feet. For the last time I beg you in Rudolf's name not to lose this, at the last moment......If you say 'No', if at the last moment you are no longer willing to listen to disinterested counsels. Then... you will be relieved forever from my future... and nothing will remain to me but the consciousness that whatever may happen, I shall be able to say honestly to Rudolf one day: "I did everything in my power. Your misfortunes are not on my conscience."
When Elisabeth was still blocked from controlling her son's upbringing and education, she openly rebelled.
Due to her nervous attacks, fasting cures, severe exercise regime, and frequent fits of coughing, the state of her health had become so alarming that in October 1860, she was reported to suffer not only from green-sickness, but also from physical exhaustion. A serious lung complaint of "Lungenschwindsucht" (tuberculosis) was feared by Joseph Škoda, a lung specialist, who advised a stay on Madeira. During this time, the court was rife with malicious rumors that Franz Joseph was having a liaison with an actress named Frau Roll.
Elisabeth seized on the excuse and left her husband and children, to spend the winter in seclusion. Six months later, a mere four days after her return to Vienna, she again experienced coughing fits and fever. She ate hardly anything and slept badly, and Škoda observed a recurrence of her lung disease. A fresh rest cure was advised, this time on Corfu, where she improved almost immediately. If her illnesses were mostly psychosomatic, abating when she was removed from her husband and her duties, her eating habits were definitely causing physical problems as well. In 1862, she had not seen Vienna for about a year when her family physician, Fischer of Munich, examined her and observed serious anemia and signs of dropsy. Her feet were sometimes so swollen that she could walk only laboriously, and with the support of others. On medical advice, she went to Bad Kissingen for a cure. Elisabeth recovered quickly at the spa, but instead of returning home to assuage the gossip about her absence, she spent more time with her own family in Bavaria. She returned in August 1862, shortly before her husband's birthday, but immediately suffered from a violent migraine and vomited four times en route, which might support a theory that some of her complaints were stress-related and psychosomatic.
Rudolf was now four years old, and Franz Joseph hoped for another son to safeguard the succession. Fischer claimed that the health of the Empress would not permit another pregnancy, and she would need to visit Kissingen regularly for a cure. Elisabeth fell into her old pattern of escaping boredom and dull court protocol through frequent walking and riding, using her health as an excuse to avoid both official obligations and sexual intimacy. Preserving her youthful appearance was also an important influence in her avoidance of pregnancies: "Children are the curse of a woman, for when they come, they drive away Beauty, which is the best gift of the gods."