Elisabeth of Bavaria

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This article is about Elisabeth "Sis(s)i" von Wittelsbach, the empress consort of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria:

Image:Elisabeth.jpg Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie, Duchess in Bavaria and Princess of Bavaria (December 24, 1837 – September 10, 1898), of the House of Wittelsbach, was the Empress consort of Austria and Queen consort of Hungary due to her marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph. Her father was Maximilian, Duke in Bavaria, and her mother was Ludovika, Royal Princess of Bavaria; her family home was Castle Possenhofen. From an early age, she was called Sisi (or Sissi in films and novels) by family and friends.

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Her life

She was born in Munich, Bavaria. In the summer of 1853, Elisabeth, aged 15, accompanied her mother and her older sister, Helene, on a trip to the resort of Bad Ischl, Upper Austria [1], where they hoped Helene would attract the attention of their cousin, 23-year-old Franz Joseph, then Emperor of Austria. Instead, Franz Joseph chose Elisabeth, and the couple were married in Vienna on the 24th of April 1854. Image:Elizabeth of Austrua Habit.jpg

Rightly called "the Diana of her day," Elisabeth had difficulty adapting to the strict etiquette practiced at the Habsburg court. Nevertheless she bore the Emperor three children in quick succession: Archduchess Sophie of Austria (1855–1857), Archduchess Gisela of Austria (1856–1932), and the hoped-for crown prince, Rudolf (1858–1889). A decade later, Archduchess Marie Valerie of Austria (1868–1924) followed. Elisabeth was denied any major influence on her own children's upbringing, however — they were raised by her mother-in-law Sophie, and soon after Rudolf's birth the marriage started to deteriorate, undone by Elisabeth's increasingly erratic behavior (her family, the Wittelsbachs, had a history of mental instability).

She embarked on a life of travel, seeing very little of her offspring, visiting places such as Madeira, Hungary, England, and Corfu, where she commissioned the building of a castle which she called Achilleon — after her death the building was sold to the German Emperor Wilhelm II). She also became famed for her influential fashion sense and her beauty, diet, and exercise regimens, which reduced her to near-emaciation; her feverish passion for sports, particularly riding, and a series of reputed lovers, including George "Bay" Middleton, a dashing Anglo–Scot who was probably the father of Clementine Ogilvy Hozier (Mrs. Winston Churchill). Image:Winterhalter Elisabeth.jpg National unrest within the Habsburg monarchy caused by the rebellious Hungarians led, in 1867, to the foundation of the Austro–Hungarian double monarchy, making Elisabeth Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary. Elisabeth had always sympathized with the Hungarian cause and, reconciled and reunited with her alienated husband, she joined Franz Joseph in Budapest, where their coronation took place. In due course, their fourth child, Archduchess Marie Valerie was born (1868–1924). Afterwards, however, she again took up her former life of restlessly travelling through Europe, decades of what basically became a walking trance.

In 1889, Elisabeth's life was shattered by the death of her only son: 31 year-old Crown Prince Rudolf and his young lover Baroness Mary Vetsera were found dead, apparently by suicide. The scandal is known by the name Mayerling, after the name of Rudolf's hunting lodge in Lower Austria.

On September 10, 1898, in Geneva, Switzerland, Elisabeth, aged 60, was stabbed to death with a needle file by a young anarchist named Luigi Lucheni, in an act of propaganda of the deed. Bleeding to death from a puncture wound to the heart, Elisabeth's last words were "What happened to me?" Reportedly, her assassin had hoped to kill a prince from the House of Orléans and, failing to find him, turned on Elisabeth instead as she was walking along the promenade of Lake Geneva about to board a steamship for Montreux. As Lucheni afterward said, "I wanted to kill a royalty. It did not matter which one."

The empress was buried in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna's city centre which for centuries served as the imperial burial place.

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The myth

Image:Hungary szeged elisabeth 2.jpg While Elisabeth's role and influence on Austro-Hungarian politics should not be overestimated (she is only marginally mentioned in scholarly books on Austrian history), she has undoubtedly become a 20th century icon, often compared to Diana, Princess of Wales. A free yet tragic spirit who abhorred conventional court protocol, she has inspired filmmakers and theatre people alike.

In the 1980s, Brigitte Hamann, a historian renowned for her book on Hitler's early years in Vienna (see bibliography), wrote a biography of Elisabeth, again fuelling interest in Franz Joseph's consort.

Tourism has profited enormously from the renewed interest in Elisabeth and vice versa, both in Austria and abroad. Apart from the usual souvenirs such as T-shirts and coffee mugs, visitors are eager to see the various residences frequented by Elisabeth at different points in her life. These include her apartments in Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, the imperial villa in Ischl, the Achilleon in Corfu, Greece, and her summer residence in Gödöllő, Hungary.

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In film

In the German-speaking world, her name will forever be associated with a trilogy of romantic films about her life directed by Ernst Marischka starring a young and still unknown Romy Schneider in the title role:

  • Sissi (1955)
  • Sissi — die junge Kaiserin (1956) (Sissi — The Young Empress)
  • Sissi — Schicksalsjahre einer Kaiserin (1957) (Sissi — Fateful Years of an Empress)

The three films, now newly restored, are shown every few years on Austrian and German TV and have done much to create the myth surrounding Elisabeth. It may be assumed that for the average Austrian these films are the only source of knowledge as far as Elisabeth's life is concerned. A condensed version dubbed in English was published under the title Forever My Love.

There is also a 1991 movie titled Sisi/Last Minute.

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In music

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In 1992, the musical Elisabeth premièred at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna. Written by Michael Kunze (libretto, lyrics) and Sylvester Levay (music) it has also been produced successfully in other parts of Europe.

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Literature

  • Brigitte Hamann: The Reluctant Empress: A Biography of Empress Elisabeth of Austria (Knopf: 1986) (ISBN 0394537173) (410pp.).
  • Brigitte Hamann: Sissi, Elisabeth, Empress of Austria (Taschen America: 1997) (ISBN 3822878650) (short, illustrated).
  • Barry Denenburg: The Royal Diaries Elisabeth, The Princess Bride
  • Matt Pavelich: Our Savage (Shoemaker & Hoard: 2004) (ISBN 159376023X) (270pp.).
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External links

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