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Empress Elizabeth
Love at first sight followed by a magnificent wedding to an emperor- this is where a fairy tale ends- and reality takes over. This is how the life of Elizabeth, Empress of Austria can be described. Elizabeth Amalia Eugenia was born in Munich on the 24th December, 1837 which was the Christmas Eve and a Sunday. She was the fourth of nine children to Duke Maximilian in Bavaria and his wife Ludovika a sister of Archduchess Sophie, mother of the Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria.

In Spring and Summer the family lived in the castle of Possenhofen on Lake Starnberg. The children were brought up without restrictions of protocol and formality, and Duke Max took his social and marital duties none too seriously.The children were allowed to run fairly free and wild. Elizabeth or Sisi as she was known in the family, often accompanied her father on his jaunts to the neighboring inns and countryside.

Ludovika wanted that the Emperor Franz Joseph should marry Helene a daughter of Ludovika elder to Elizabeth. With this intention she invited her sister Ludovika together with her daughter Helene to Bad Ischl in 1853. The Archduchess hoped that her son would choose his cousin Helene as his bride. The 15 year old Sisi came along merely as her sister's traveling companion. The family arrived in Ischl on the 16th August, in good time to celebrate the Emperor's 23rd birthday two days later.

As soon as the Emperor set eyes on his cousin Sisi, he would have no one else. All the plans and hopes of the Archduchess were turned upside down. On the 19th August Bad Ischl celebrated the official engagement of the Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria with the Princess Elizabeth in Bavaria.

Back in Possenhofen frantic efforts were undertaken to make good the shortcomings in Elizabeth's education. On the 20th April, 1854, Sisi departed from Munich. With her family, she took a ship down the Danube to Vienna and her new life as wife and Empress. On the 22nd April. she arrived at Nußdorf outside Vienna and was taken to the Palace of Schönbrunn.

The wedding was conducted by the Prince Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Rauscher, in the Augustinian Church on the 24th April. Eight days of celebrations followed. Then the imperial couple moved out to the Palace of Laxenburg, from where Franz Joseph rode each day into Vienna to attend to the business of government.

The Archduchess Sophie believed that Elizabeth did not have the manners of an empress and needed to be trained. Sisi felt herself alone and neglected. Her ladies-in-waiting were all much older than she, and her mother-in-law had appointed them. The influence of the Archduchess Sophie at Court, in politics and above all over the young Emperor was not to the liking of Elizabeth. In response to the well-intended but often tactless suggestions and criticisms by her mother-in-law, Elizabeth became increasingly shy. The resulting resentment on Elizabeth's part grew into almost an obsession. Even Elizabeth's well-known love for Hungary was encouraged by the Archduchess Sophie's unwillingness to forget or to forgive the Hungarian revolt of 1848/49.

On the 5th March, 1855, the first child, a daughter, was born. Without consulting Elizabeth, she was named Sophie after her grandmother. A second daughter Gisela was born on the 12th July, 1856. . The young mother hardly had access to her own children and played no part in their upbringing. Against her will, Sisi had to accept that an empress wasn't there to raise children! Sisi was allowed to see her children only with the permission of her mother-in-law who would remain present during such visits. The struggle for control of the nursery merely added fuel to the resentment Elizabeth felt for the Archduchess Sophie.

In the Winter of 1856/57 Franz Joseph visited his North Italian provinces of Lombardy- Venetia. The Austrian military rule was very unpopular there, and the local nobility in protest boycotted the imperial couple. Sisi stood courageously beside her husband and by the end of the tour her charm and her beauty had succeeded in softening some of the Italian hearts.

The Hungarians also resented the control by Austria. In 1857 Elizabeth accompanied the Emperor on a visit to Hungary with her two little daughters. As in Italy, here too Elisabeth's grace and beauty worked its magic on the gallant Hungarians. During their journey both the children fell ill with diarrhea and high temperature. Two year old Sophie died. The 19 year old empress suffered a breakdown. She completely withdrew for weeks and months at a time, she locked herself in and cried all day. Or she spent hours out riding until she would reach a state of total exhaustion, just to avoid having to think.

The empress became emotionally distant towards Gisela. Later she behaved in a similar manner when her only son Crown Prince Archduke Rudolf Rudolf was born on 21st. August 1858. The son also was handed over to her mother-in-law after his birth.

In 1859 Franz Joseph went to war against France and Piedmont-Sardinia, leading to the loss of the province of Lombardy.
While Franz Joseph was fighting in Northern Italy, Sisi was very anxious for him. Her nerves were in a bad state for several reasons and in 1860 she suddenly fell alarmingly ill. To the present day historians still puzzel over the exact nature of the illness. Certainly her nerves played a decisive role. The Empress insisted on leaving Vienna, even on leaving Austrian territory itself. She wanted to go to the island of Madeira, and that at once. Franz Joseph was forced to request the loan of a British ship from Queen Victoria to take his ailing wife away. Victoria placed the royal yacht Osborne at Elizabeth's disposal. Once at sea, the Empress began to recover with surprising rapidity.
By the end of April, 1861, Elizabeth was feeling well enough to return. She again took an English yacht, the Victoria and Albert, via Cadiz, Malta and Corfu back to Trieste. She was barely back in Vienna when she suffered a terrible relapse. The doctors suspected consumption. This time Sisi went to the island of Corfu in the Adriatic. Later she would build the palace of her dreams, the Achilleon, there. This was the beginning of Sisi's famous wanderlust and restlessness, of her flight from the Court.
As time passed, Elizabeth fled her public duties ever more frequently. She became increasingly shy and could not stand to be stared at. She hid her face behind umbrellas and fans. The Empress travelled under the pseudonym of the Countess of Hohenembs in order to avoid official receptions or inquisitive visitors. In Bad Ischl she had the Marmorschlößl built, so she could withdraw from the Kaiservilla whenever her husband had "boring" visitors. In Vienna her "Court Ball headaches" were legendary!
Elizabeth was a very beautiful woman, light and graceful in movement. She could charm and fascinate everyone she met. She had an extremely slim figure and luxuriant long hair, of which she was inordinately proud. She spent hours daily with her hairdresser and in gymnastics to maintain her youthful and lovely appearance. She also underwent draconian diets that probably did more harm than good. An excellent horsewoman, she rode to excess. Her "walks" were at such a pace, that she left her ladies-in-waiting out of breath straggling behind her. The last genuine photos of the Empress date from the mid-1860s. Thereafter she refused to be photographed or to stand model for portraits.
Her enthusiasm for Hungary grew during these years. Elizabeth admired Hungarian politicians like Deák and Andrássy. After the defeat at Königgrätz at the hands of the Prussians, a political settlement with Hungary was unavoidable. Elizabeth did her best to actively influence Franz Joseph in the interests of Hungary. Many in Vienna resented the fact that their Empress seemed to be the advocate of the Hungarians, but the Emperor himself later praised her efforts in reaching the so-called Compromise. On the 8th June, 1867, a proud Sisi knelt in the coronation church of St. Matthew in Budapest to have her shoulder touched by the holy crown of St.Stephen. She was now Erzsébet, the crowned Queen of Hungary. A grateful nation gave her and her husband the Palace of Gödöllö as a coronation gift. On the 22nd March, 1868, she in turn presented Franz Joseph with their fourth and last child, the Archduchess Marie Valerie.
On the 28th May, 1872, the Archduchess Sophie died. Since the death of her favourite son, Maximilian, in Mexico in 1867, she had been a broken woman. Sisi could no longer reconcile herself with her mother-in-law, but in the last days she hardly stirred from Sophie's deathbed. Afterwards she did all she could to comfort the widowed Franz Karl, her own husband and children.
In the 1870s and 1880s Elizabeth travelled often to England and Ireland, where society was freer and less formal, and where they were almost as obsessed with horses and riding as she was. Inspired by her favourite poet, Heinrich Heine, Sisi wrote poetry. She saw herself as Titania and Franz Joseph as Oberon from her favourite piece "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Elizabeth was a strange sort of "soul-mate" to her cousin, King Ludwig II of Bavaria. She was all the more upset when Ludwig was deposed and then drowned under mysterious circumstances in Lake Starnberg in 1886.
Elizabeth was so taken up with her beauty, her travelling, her poetry, her studies of Hungarian and Greek, that she hardly noticed the problems facing her son, Crown Prince Rudolf. On the 30th January, 1889, she was the first in the Hofburg to receive the dreadful news of Rudolf's death in Mayerling. In this crisis she again displayed great strength, supporting and comforting her husband. After the funeral, however, Sisi broke down. She felt that in some way she could have fended off the tragedy. From that day onwards she always wore black.
Her restless travelling increased. Elizabeth was lonely and unfulfilled. Franz Joseph had long ago got use to his loneliness. In order to alleviate his isolation, and probably to ease her own conscience, Sisi had arranged the acquaintance of the Emperor with the actress, Katharina Schratt, whom he greatly admired. Elizabeth protected this unusual friendship from any hint of scandal. Nonetheless Franz Joseph treasured each day Elizabeth spent with him and the family. While she was absent on her travels, he wrote her loving letters full of concern for her wellbeing.
In September of 1898 the Empress Elizabeth was at Lake Geneva. Although she travelled under the pseudonym of the Countess of Hohenembs, it was generally known which high personage this name disguised. At this time an Italian anarchist called Luigi Luccheni was also in Geneva. Originally he intended killing the French Duke of Orléans, but he was no longer there. Luccheni was determined to strike a blow for "freedom and anarchy", and he decided to kill some other important person instead. His choice fell upon the Empress of Austria.
On the 10th September the Empress and her lady-in-waiting, Countess Sztáray, were hurrying along the quay in Geneva to catch the steamer back to Territet. Suddenly Luccheni sprang at the Empress and stabbed with a home-made dagger in the chest. Neither the lady-in-waiting nor the Empress herself seemed to realise just what had happened. Only when Elizabeth collapsed on board the ship and the Countess discovered the small bloodstain on her blouse, it became clear that the Empress was the victim of assassination. The ship put back to shore immediately. Unfortunately, it was already too late. Elizabeth of Austria was dying.
The terrible news was telegraphed to Vienna. Badly shocked and deeply mourning they brought her body back home. On the 17th. September, 1898, the Empress and Queen Elizabeth was buried with all ceremony in the imperial crypt of the Capuchin Church.
THE ASSASSINATION
After a health cure in Bad Nauheim near Frankfurt, Elizabeth left at the end of August for a somewhat lengthy stay in Caux near Territet in Switzerland. She travelled incognito under her title Countess of Hohenembs.
After a luncheon with Baroness Rothschild in Pregny on the outskirts of Geneva on the 9th September, the Empress remained overnight in the Hotel Beau-Rivage on the shore of Lake Geneva.
Next morning, the 10th September, 1898, she went shopping for some gifts. Elizabeth intended to take the steamer back to Territet at 1.40 p.m. Her entourage had already left Geneva on the midday train. Only the lady-in-waiting, Countess Sztáray and a footman remained with the Empress in the hotel. While the Countess took a hurried lunch, Elizabeth stood at her window with a glass of fresh milk.
At 1.35 p.m. they left the hotel. The Countess tried to get her mistress to hurry. The footman had been sent on ahead to the ship. As usual, Elizabeth was dressed in black. She carried white gloves, a fan and a parasol. She was in excellent spirits. She admired the chestnut trees. Countess Sztáray was concerned they would miss the ship. The Empress laughed and walked on.
Meanwhile, Luigi Luccheni was waiting for his victim. He had a dagger that he had fashioned from a thin, three-edged file and a wooden handle. He approached the two ladies. The Empress was a few paces in front. The Countess saw Luccheni approaching.
"Immediately in front of us he seemed suddenly to stumble. He made a motion with his hand. I thought it was to hold him up from falling. In that moment I took in nothing more..........The Empress sank to the ground. Completely silent. It then first occurred to me that this monster must have hit Her Majesty."
Apparently Elizabeth herself did not realise what had happened to her. She stood up with some help. "No. Nothing has happened to me,". She replied to anxious inquiries. She refused to return to the hotel. "We had better hurry, otherwise we really will miss our ship!" She did not appear to take in the news that Luccheni had been apprehended. "I think my breast hurts a little. But I am not quite sure."
Once on board the ship the Empress began to collapse. "Now your arm! Hurry, please!" Countess Sztáray reported in her deposition: "I could not hold her. With her head pressing on my breast, I sank with her in the knees. A doctor! A doctor! I cried. The Empress lay deadly white in my arms." They thought the Empress had fainted. She was immediately carried to the upper deck to provide more fresh air. "She opened her eyes and lay some minutes with a wandering expression. What has happened to me? she asked." Those were Elizabeth's last words.
Only when the Countess tried to loosen the Empress's clothes did she notice the small wound near the heart. She called the captain. "Sir, on board your ship is lying Her Majesty the Empress of Austria, Queen of Hungary mortally wounded. She cannot be allowed to die without medical and spiritual assistance. Please give the order to turn back immediately."
On that same day in the Palace of Schönbrunn Franz Joseph had written a letter to his wife. At 4.30 p.m. the General Adjutant Count Paar sought an audience. He brought a telegram from Geneva: "Her Majesty the Empress dangerously injured. Please inform His Majesty gently." For the Emperor a world broke apart. Beside himself with agitation he commanded: "Telegraph, telephone! See to it that you learn more!"
Just then the second telegram from Geneva was brought into him:
"Her Majesty the Empress has just passed away."
The Emperor sank back into his chair. "I am to be spared absolutely nothing in this world."
Then quietly:
"No-one will ever know how much I loved her."