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Elisabeth of Austria's mother, Princess Ludovika of Bavaria, and aunt, Princess Sophie of Bavaria, were ambitious sisters from the ruling Wittelsbach family who wanted their children to marry into power. For Ludovika’s daughters, her sister Sophie’s son, Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I, was a top pick.
n 1857, during a visit to Hungary, two-year-old Sophie and her one-year-old sister Gisela became ill. The older child died from what is suspected to be typhus, and Princess Sophie used the incident to take more intense control of Gisela, which later estranged the child from her mother.
The young and spirited empress was immediately averse to the rigid rules and protocols of the Viennese court. Their honeymoon at Laxenburg Palace was reportedly a disaster—she’s said to have cried the whole time.
After Elisabeth had children with Franz Joseph, her aunt turned mother-in-law (pictured) took charge of the children’s upbringing, even christening their first daughter, named Sophie, without Elisabeth's input.
It’s said she also slept with slices of raw veal bound to her face with a leather mask, and slathered her face in a mixture of honey and crushed strawberries. She also reportedly slept with cloths soaked in vinegar. It could be argued that since she felt such a lack of control over her life, she began obsessing over controlling her appearance.
By today’s standards, Elisabeth likely had an eating disorder. She lived mostly on dairy and eggs, exercised rigorously, and if she gained a little weight she would fast for days. It’s said, however, she had a secret staircase installed in one palace so that she could secretly binge in the royal kitchen without anyone knowing, which is confirmed by her known sweet tooth.
Regarded not only as one of the most beautiful women in the world but also as someone whose beauty was seen as the reason for public interest in the Austrian court, Elisabeth put immense care into her appearance. She spent hours each day taking care of her extremely long hair, which she would reportedly wash with a combination of eggs and cognac. On her face she wore no makeup, but rather used creams she made from wax, almond oil, and rosewater.
Elisabeth was famous for being a free spirit who was not suited for a submissive, polite lifestyle where her life’s purpose was to produce male heirs. She scoffed at the protocols of the Austrian court and was not a quiet wife or devoted mother.
Elisabeth's father, Duke Maximilian Joseph of Bavaria, was a free spirit himself, loved the arts, and traveled a lot. He reportedly encouraged Elisabeth’s adventurousness, which included skipping school for horse rides and hikes, and was likely the reason she didn’t want to conform to a conventional royal lifestyle.
Despite her dedication to her looks, starting around age 30 Elisabeth reportedly refused to allow formal photographs, sitting for her last portrait at age 40. She’d hide behind a fan, veil, or parasol when she left her room, with historians suspecting she wanted to remain in people's minds as a beautiful, young girl.
Despite the strict ban on smoking for ladies, Elisabeth was reportedly often spotted smoking—news of which spread even as far as the English court, where Queen Victoria was allegedly outraged.
Had Rudolf assumed the throne, many believe he would have ended Austria's alliance with Germany as well as Kaiser Wilhelm II and prevented the possibility of full-scale war in Europe. Instead, Franz Joseph’s nephew Franz Ferdinand (pictured) became heir to the throne, and his subsequent assassination in 1914 kicked off the events that triggered World War I.
While praised endlessly for her beauty, Elisabeth’s intelligence was mostly overlooked. She loved history, philosophy, and literature and reportedly took a liking to German lyric poet and radical political thinker Heinrich Heine, whose letters she collected and who inspired her to write poetry.
After the death of their son, Elisabeth was largely absent from the imperial court and instead traveled frequently. It’s said she and her husband had a strained relationship, that Franz Joseph had numerous affairs, and that he even gave her a venereal disease—which would explain her mysterious illnesses, prolonged absences, and refusal to have more kids.
She fell ill after giving birth to Rudolf and doctors recommended she travel to a more tropical climate, which ended up being the Portuguese island of Madeira. She stayed for six months without her husband or children and found she rather liked it. She believed Vienna made her ill and kicked off a life of frequent traveling.
Hungary was historically oppressed in the Austria-Hungary empire and Franz Joseph only further damaged relations. Elisabeth, however, perhaps encouraged by her relationship with Hungarian populist leader Count Gyula Andrassy, convinced her husband after Austria’s defeat at the hands of Prussia in 1867 to improve relations with Hungary in hopes of reestablishing Austria as a European power. Their union set off a period of economic prosperity in the dual state, and Elisabeth became extremely popular.
Elisabeth was close to her cousin Ludwig II who became the king of Bavaria at 19 and even proposed to Elisabeth’s younger sister in 1867, though he called it off some months later—likely because he was suspected to be gay. He was deposed by a government-led coup d'état after bankrupting Bavaria with his grandiose castles, and died on June 13, 1886, by drowning. It was yet another huge loss for Elisabeth.
Elisabeth did give birth to one more child, a daughter named Marie Valerie, in 1866. It’s said she made her husband promise that if she had one more child, he’d crown her Queen of Hungary, which he did in June of 1867, as he simultaneously was crowned King. Andrassy was named as the prime minister.
Minutes later, she died, with only a drop of blood reportedly seeping onto her dress—which was black like the first day she met Franz Joseph. Her last words were reportedly, "What actually happened?" Authorities later arrested Lucheni, placed him on trial, and gave him a life sentence. He hanged himself in 1910.
Elisabeth spent her days restlessly moving between spa towns, never staying too long in one place, though she favored Corfu, Greece. While traveling in Greece at the age of 51, Elisabeth reportedly had an anchor tattooed on her shoulder to honor her love for the sea. She was known to sail even in the worst storms. Pictured is a statue of Elisabeth at Achilleion Palace in Corfu, Greece.
In the 1950s, the ‘Sissi’ trilogy starring Romy Schneider made Sisi world famous. Schneider later also starred as a more mature princess in a 1972 film by Luchino Visconti about her close friend, the eccentric King Ludwig II of Bavaria.
Ludovika and her daughters Helene, 17, and Elisabeth (pictured), 15, were in mourning because of a recently deceased aunt, and in Bad Ischl, a town in Austria's Salzburg Lake District, they lost their suitcases with their colorful dresses, so when they met Franz Joseph they were in all black. The intention was for Sophie’s 23-year-old son to court and marry Ludovika’s elder 17-year-old daughter Helene.
While grieving the loss of her first child and becoming estranged to her second child, Elisabeth was also being pressured by her mother-in-law to produce a male child who could be heir to the Austrian throne. Elisabeth gave birth to Crown Prince Rudolf in 1858.
Because of Elisabeth's extremely tight corset, she didn't feel pain from the wound and thought the man had just knocked her over. She got up and even made it onto the ship. But a few minutes after the craft's departure, she collapsed.
In 1888, Rudolf allegedly had an affair with a 17-year-old noblewoman named Mary Vetsera, but on January 30, 1889 they were both found dead at Rudolf’s hunting lodge at Mayerling. Historians aren’t sure if Rudolf took his own life, or whether it was because his father ordered him to end the affair, or if he was simply depressed. He posthumously received a special dispensation from the Vatican and was deemed "mentally unbalanced."
Crown Prince Rudolf (pictured) seemed fine at first as he got married in his early twenties to a member of the Belgian royal family and fathered a daughter in 1883. But constraints of his life started to weigh on him. He tried and failed to officially annul his marriage, had numerous affairs, and drank heavily.
But Franz Joseph was more interested in 15-year-old Elisabeth, or “Sisi,” as she was called. Just two days after their meeting, Franz Joseph asked Elisabeth to marry him, and eight months later they wed in Vienna on April 24, 1854.
At 60 years old in 1898, Elisabeth was rarely in Vienna. In Switzerland, she was planning to take a boat across Lake Geneva to Montreux and on the short walk from the hotel to the port, Italian anarchist and fanatic Luigi Lucheni approached the unprotected empress, appeared to stumble, and stabbed her with an industrial file.
In 2021, a miniseries called ‘Sisi’ aired, from the perspective of her closest confidants. In 2022, Netflix launched a series called 'The Empress,' which takes viewers through the early years of Elisabeth and Emperor Franz Joseph's marriage. ‘Corsage’ (2022) is the latest film about Elisabeth, starring Vicky Krieps, which highlights her rebellious streak after age 40.
Sources: (Austria.Info) (Ranker) (Tatler) (The Guardian)
See more: Get to know the late Queen's scandalous younger sister, Princess Margaret
Empress Elisabeth of Austria was a powerful monarch of the 19th century who was known for her remarkable beauty, and for being one of the first major female celebrities to suffer under the eye of the media. Known as the most beautiful woman in the world, Elisabeth never felt fulfilled in her life of rules and rituals of the strict Austrian court, and instead she became known for her rebellion, her frequent travels, and her iconoclastic behavior.
She lived an incredible yet tortured life, where she was loved in spades but was always trying to outrun a deep melancholy through her various adventures away from her duties as a wife and mother, and ultimately she was killed at the hands of an anarchist. Films, TV series, books, and biopics are still racing to tell her story, and there are indeed many aspects that are quite cinematic.
Intrigued? Click through to learn more about the tragic true story of the free-spirited Sisi's life.
The tragic true story of free-spirited Empress Elisabeth
Here’s why everyone wants to tell Sisi’s story
LIFESTYLE History
Empress Elisabeth of Austria was a powerful monarch of the 19th century who was known for her remarkable beauty, and for being one of the first major female celebrities to suffer under the eye of the media. Known as the most beautiful woman in the world, Elisabeth never felt fulfilled in her life of rules and rituals of the strict Austrian court, and instead she became known for her rebellion, her frequent travels, and her iconoclastic behavior.
She lived an incredible yet tortured life, where she was loved in spades but was always trying to outrun a deep melancholy through her various adventures away from her duties as a wife and mother, and ultimately she was killed at the hands of an anarchist. Films, TV series, books, and biopics are still racing to tell her story, and there are indeed many aspects that are quite cinematic.
Intrigued? Click through to learn more about the tragic true story of the free-spirited Sisi's life.