Elisabeth of Bavaria

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For Queen Elisabeth of Belgium, also born Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria, see Elisabeth of Bavaria (1876–1965).
Elisabeth of Bavaria
Elisabeth as the Queen of Hungary.
Empress consort of Austria;
Queen consort of Hungary and Bohemia
Tenure 24 April 1854 – 10 September 1898
Coronation 8 June 1867 (Hungary)
Spouse Francis Joseph I of Austria
Issue
Archduchess Sophie
Archduchess Gisela
Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria
Archduchess Marie-Valerie
House House of Habsburg-Lorraine
House of Wittelsbach
Father Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria
Mother Princess Ludovika of Bavaria
Born 24 December 1837(1837-12-24)
Munich
Died 10 September 1898 (aged 60)
Geneva

Elisabeth of Bavaria (24 December 1837 – 10 September 1898) was Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia[1] as spouse of Francis Joseph I. From an early age, she was called “Sisi” by family and friends.

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 an historical icon. Elisabeth was considered to have been a free spirit who abhorred conventional court protocol; she has inspired filmmakers and theatrical producers alike.

Contents

[edit] Duchess in Bavaria

She was born in Munich, Bavaria as Duchess Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie in Bavaria. She was the fourth child of Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria and her mother was Princess Ludovika of Bavaria. Her family home was Possenhofen Castle.

The young Elisabeth (right) and her sister Helene

Elisabeth accompanied her mother and her 18-year-old sister, Duchess Helene, on an 1853 trip to the resort of Bad Ischl, Upper Austria, [2] where they hoped Helene would attract the attention of their maternal first cousin, 23-year-old Francis Joseph, then Emperor of Austria. Instead, Francis Joseph chose the 15-year old Elisabeth, and the couple were married in Vienna at St. Augustine's Church on 24 April 1854.

[edit] Queen and Empress

Coronation of Francis Joseph and Elisabeth as King and Queen of Hungary

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). In 1860, she left Vienna after contracting a lung-disease which was presumably psychosomatic.[citation needed] She spent the winter in Madeira and only returned to Vienna after having visited the Ionian Islands. Soon after that she fell ill again and returned to Corfu.[citation needed]

National unrest within the Habsburg monarchy caused by the rebellious Hungarians led, in 1867, to the foundation of the Austro–Hungarian double monarchy. Elisabeth had always sympathized with the Hungarian cause and, reconciled and reunited with her alienated husband, she joined Francis Joseph in Budapest, where their coronation took place. Following the imperial couple's reconciliation, Elisabeth gave birth to their fourth child, Archduchess Marie Valerie (1868–1924). Afterward, however, she again took up her former life of restlessly travelling through Europe.[citation needed] Elisabeth was denied any major influence on her older children's upbringing; they were raised by her mother-in-law and aunt Princess Sophie of Bavaria, who often referred to Elisabeth as a "silly young mother.[3]"

Elisabeth with diamond stars in her hair, 1865, by Franz Xaver Winterhalter

Elisabeth embarked on a life of travel, seeing very little of her offspring, visiting places such as Madeira, Hungary, England and Corfu.[citation needed] At Corfu, she commissioned the building of a palace which she called the Achilleion, after Homer's hero Achilles in The Iliad. After her death, the building was purchased by German Emperor Wilhelm II.[citation needed]

She became known not only for her beauty, but for her fashion sense, diet and exercise regimens, passion for riding sports, and a series of reputed lovers.[citation needed] She paid extreme attention to her appearance and would spend most of her time preserving her beauty.[citation needed] She often shopped at Antal Alter, now Alter és Kiss, which had become very popular with the fashion-crazed crowd, as described by the famous 19th-century writer Richard Rado:

“Everyone, from the most wealthy, to the upper middle class… almost every woman visited the shop. The shop's name even extended beyond the country’s borders… Elizabeth of Austria-Hungary (Sisi), wife of Francis Joseph I and Queen of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, was also among its clients.

[citation needed]

Her diet and exercise regimens were strictly enforced to maintain her 20-inch (50 cm) waistline and reduced her to near emaciation at times (symptoms of what is now recognised as anorexia).[citation needed]

One of her alleged lovers was George "Bay" Middleton, a dashing Anglo–Scot who was probably the father of Clementine Ogilvy Hozier (the wife of Winston Churchill). She also tolerated, to a certain degree, Franz Joseph's affair with actress Katharina Schratt.

The Empress also wrote poetry (such as the "Nordseelieder" and "Winterlieder", both inspirations from her favorite German poet, Heinrich Heine). Shaping her own fantasy world in poetry, she referred to herself as Titania, Shakespeare's Fairy Queen. Most of her poetry refers to her journeys, classical Greek and romantic themes, as well as ironic mockery on the Habsburg dynasty. In these years, Elisabeth also took up with an intensive study of both ancient and modern Greek, immersing herself in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. Numerous Greek lecturers (such as Marinaky, Christomanos, and Barker) had to accompany the Empress on her hour-long walks while reading Greek to her. According to contemporary scholars, Empress Elisabeth knew Greek better than any of the Bavarian Greek queens in the 19th century.

Elisabeth 1864
by Franz Xaver Winterhalter

In 1889, Elisabeth's life was shattered by the death of her only son: 30-year-old Crown Prince Rudolf and his young lover Baroness Mary Vetsera were found dead, apparently by suicide. The scandal is known as The Mayerling Incident, after the name of Rudolf's hunting lodge in Lower Austria.

After Rudolf's death, the Empress continued to be an icon, a sensation wherever she went. A long black gown that could be buttoned up at the bottom, a white parasol made of leather and a brown fan to hide her face from curious looks became the trademarks of the legendary Empress of Austria. Only a few snapshots of Elisabeth in her last years are left, taken by photographers who were lucky enough to catch her without her noticing.

The moments Elisabeth would show up in Vienna and see her husband were rare. Interestingly, their correspondence increased during those last years and the relationship between the Empress and the Emperor of Austria had become platonic and warm. On her imperial steamer, Miramar, Empress Elisabeth travelled restlessly through the Mediterranean. Her favourite places were Cap Martin on the French Riviera, where tourism had only started in the second half of the 19th century, Lake Geneva in Switzerland, Bad Ischl in Austria, where she would spend her summers, and Corfu. More than that, the Empress had visited countries no other northern royal went to at the time: Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Malta, Greece, Turkey and Egypt.

[edit] Assassination

Luigi Lucheni

On 10 September 1898, in Geneva, Switzerland, Elisabeth, aged 60, was stabbed in the heart with a sharpened file by a young anarchist named Luigi Lucheni, in an act of propaganda of the deed. She had been walking along the promenade of Lake Geneva about to board steamship Genève for Montreux with her lady-of-courtesy, Countess Sztaray, when she was attacked. She boarded the ship, unaware of the severity of her condition. Bleeding to death from a puncture wound to the heart, Elisabeth's last words were, "What happened to me?" The strong pressure from her corset had kept the bleeding back until the garment was removed.

Reportedly, her assassin had hoped to kill a prince from the House of Orléans and, failing to find him, turned on Elisabeth instead. As Lucheni afterward said, "I wanted to kill a royal. It did not matter which one."

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

[edit] Legacy

Arms of Empress Elisabeth of Austria

In 1988, historian Brigitte Hamann wrote The Reluctant Empress, a biography of Elisabeth, again fuelling interest in Franz Joseph's consort (see bibliography). Unlike the previous portrayals of Elisabeth as a one-dimensional fairy tale princess, Hamann portrayed her as a bitter, unhappy woman full of self-loathing and various emotional and mental disorders, who spent her entire life searching for happiness, but in the end dying a broken woman who never found it, which opened up various new facets to the legend of Sisi.

Tourism has profited enormously from the renewed interest in Elisabeth, 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 Elisabeth frequented at different points in her life. These include her apartments in the Hofburg and the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, the imperial villa in Ischl, the Achilleion in Corfu, Greece that she built in 1890, soon after her son's death, and her summer residence in Gödöllő, Hungary.

Empress Elisabeth Western Railway commemorative coin

Elisabeth loved Hungary far more than Austria and surrounded herself with Hungarian ladies-in-waiting, being particularly close to Marie Festetics and Ida Ferenczy. She insisted that her attendants speak Hungarian, which she herself spoke fluently. One of her closest friends was Count Andrássy, who later became Emperor Franz-Joseph's Foreign Minister. Elisabeth's attachment to Hungary benefitted the Empire because the Hungarian people returned the attachment but also antagonized the Viennese and the Czechs of Bohemia. There are several sites in Hungary named after her, two of Budapest's districts, Erzsébetváros and Pesterzsébet, and most famously, Elisabeth Bridge.

Empress Elisabeth and the Austrian Western Railway named after her were recently selected as a main motif for a high value collectors' coin: the Empress Elisabeth Western Railway commemorative coin. The reverse shows a view of the passenger hall of the first Vienna West Railway Station. The style of this building was inspired by Romantic Historism. On the right of the coin, the statue of the Empress Elisabeth can be seen. This statue still stands today in the station.

[edit] In literature and drama

In the German-speaking world, Elisabeth's name is often associated with a trilogy of romantic films about her life directed by Ernst Marischka and starring a teenage Romy Schneider:

The three films, now newly restored, are shown every Christmas on Austrian, German and French TV and have done much to create the myth surrounding Elisabeth. A condensed version dubbed in English was published in 1962 under the title Forever My Love, and in 2007, the three German films were released with English subtitles as The Sissi Collection.

Schneider loathed the role, claiming, "Sissi sticks to me like porridge (Griesbrei)." Later she was able to achieve a sort of satisfaction, appearing as a much more realistic and fascinating Elisabeth in Luchino Visconti's Ludwig, a 1972 movie about Elisabeth's cousin, Ludwig II of Bavaria. A portrait of herself in this film was the only one of her roles Schneider displayed in her home.

Ava Gardner also played the Empress, in the 1968 film Mayerling. (Omar Sharif and Catherine Deneuve played the doomed lovers.) Ava had a single film portrait of herself on display in her home from this film.

Monument of Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary (Sisi) in Szeged, Hungary.

She was the subject of a 1991 German movie called Sisi/Last Minute (original Sisi und der Kaiserkuß, "Sisi and the emperor's kiss"). The movie starred French actress Vanessa Wagner as Sisi (this - the original - spelling of the name was used), Nils Tavernier as Emperor Franz Joseph and Sonja Kirchberger as Nene.[4]

In 1974, Elisabeth was portrayed in the British television series Fall of Eagles by Diane Keen (as the young Elisabeth) and Rachel Gurney (as Elisabeth at the time of Prince Rudolf's death).

In 1936, Columbia Pictures released The King Steps Out, a musical comedy inspired by Elisabeth. The film was directed by Josef von Sternberg, with music by Fritz Kreisler and starring the opera diva Grace Moore and Franchot Tone.

Her story also became part of a children's book series, The Royal Diaries: Elisabeth, The Princess Bride.

Elisabeth's heavily fictionalised younger years are portrayed in a 1997 children's series, Princess Sissi.

She appears as a significant character in Gary Jennings' 1987 novel Spangle. The novel concerns (in part) a circus traveling through Europe at the close of the 1800s, and her depiction concerns the historical Elisabeth's interests in circuses and daredevil riding, and to a lesser degree her diet and beauty regimen.

In one of the episodes of the Austrian TV series Kommissar Rex, (1994) about a police dog who always solves his police-inspector owner's cases, the myth of Sissi is shown under the influence of her story on a young woman who often sneaks into a palace where Sissi lived and starts acting like her during the night, when the museum is closed. This includes riding in the park, using hair ornaments similar to the ones Elisabeth was known for, and sleeping in the Empress's bed while dressed in vintage nightwear, with her hair styled liked Sissi's (separating it in two parts spread over the pillow so that the strands wouldn't be mussed by morning). This episode, the thirteenth of Season 5 of the show (and the last from that season), is called "Sissi" and originally aired on 22 April 1999. The empress-obsessed character's name is Marion, and she is played by actress Marion Mitterhammer.

In 2007, German comedian and director Michael Herbig released a computer-animated parody film of Sissi's character under the title Lissi und der wilde Kaiser (lit.: "Lissi and the Wild Emperor"). It is based on his Sissi parody sketches featured in his TV show Bullyparade.

[edit] In dance and music

Fritz Kreisler composed a comic operetta Sissi, which premiered in Vienna in 1932. The libretto was written by Ernst and Hubert Marischka, with orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett.[5]

In 1992, the musical Elisabeth premièred at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, Austria. Written by Michael Kunze (libretto, lyrics) and Sylvester Levay (music), this is arguably the darkest portrayal of the Empress' life; portraying Elisabeth as bringing a physical manifestation of death with her when she joined the imperial court, thus destroying the Habsburg dynasty. The leading role in the premiere was played by Pia Douwes of the Netherlands. It has also been produced successfully in Hungary, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland and in Japan, with Douwes also again performing the role of Sissi in the Netherlands, Berlin, Essen and Stuttgart.

In the film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, the character Christine is wearing a gown inspired by a portrait of Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary by Franz Xavier Winterhalter during her opera debut when she performs the song "Think of Me".

French ballet dancer Sylvie Guillem appeared to great acclaim at the Paris Opera Ballet in a piece titled Sissi Imperatice, choreographed by Maurice Bejart.

Elisabeth has a featured role in Kenneth MacMillan's ballet, Mayerling including a pas de deux with her son Prince Rudolf, the central character in the ballet; and a notable pas de six with five male partners, Bay Middleton and four Hungarian officers, friends of her son.

Dutch singer Petra Berger's album Eternal Woman includes "If I Had a Wish", a song about Elisabeth.

[edit] Issue

Children Birth Death Notes
Sophie Friederike Dorothea Maria Josepha 5 March 1855 29 May 1857 Died in childhood.
Gisela Louise Marie 12 July 1856 27 July 1932 Married, 1873 her second cousin, Prince Leopold of Bavaria; had issue.
Rudolf Francis Charles Joseph 21 August 1858 30 January 1889 Died in the Mayerling Incident
Married, 1881, Princess Stephanie of Belgium; had issue.
Marie Valerie Mathilde Amalie 22 April 1868 6 September 1924 Married, 1890 her second cousin, Archduke Franz Salvator of Austria-Tuscany; had issue.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Britannica Online Encyclopedia
  2. ^ AEIOU - Das österreichische Kulturinformationssystem
  3. ^ Martyrdom of an Empress, (C) 1899 Harpers
  4. ^ Sissi und der Kaiserkuß at the Internet Movie Database
  5. ^ "Orchestrator on His Own", Time, 12 December 1932.

[edit] References

Sissi's desk at the Achilleion
  • Nicole Avril: L'impératrice, Paris, 1993
  • Konstantin Christomanos: Diaries (Tagebuchblätter, several editions in Modern Greek, German, French)
  • Barry Denenburg: The Royal Diaries: Elisabeth, The Princess Bride
  • Brigitte Hamann: The Reluctant Empress: A Biography of Empress Elisabeth of Austria (Knopf: 1986) (ISBN 0-394-53717-3) (410pp.).
  • Brigitte Hamann: Sissi, Elisabeth, Empress of Austria (Taschen America: 1997) (ISBN 3-8228-7865-0) (short, illustrated).
  • Ann Nibbs: The Elusive Empress (Youwriteon.com: 2008) (ISBN 978-1849231305) (372pp).
  • Matt Pavelich: Our Savage (Shoemaker & Hoard: 2004) (ISBN 1-59376-023-X) (270pp.).
  • Matteo Tuveri: Elizabeth of Austria: A Beauvoirian perspective, Simone de Beauvoir Studies, Volume 24, 2007-2008, Published by the Simone de Beauvoir Society (CA - U.S.A.)
  • Matteo Tuveri: Sissi: Myth and history, Journal Eco delle Dolomiti, Pinzolo (TN), Italy.
  • Matteo Tuveri: Sissi becomes Lissy, L'Unione Sarda, 6 gennaio 2009, p. 40, Cagliari
  • Matteo Tuveri: Specchi ad angoli obliqui. Diario poetico di Elisabetta d’Austria, Aracne Editrice, Rome, 2006 (ISBN 88-548-0741-9)
  • Matteo Tuveri: Tabularium. Considerazioni su Elisabetta d'Austria, Aracne, Rome, 2007 (ISBN 978-88-548-1148-5)

[edit] External links

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[edit] Ancestry

Elisabeth of Bavaria
Born: 24 December 1837 Died: 10 September 1898
Austro-Hungarian royalty
Preceded by
Maria Anna of Sardinia		 Empress consort of Austria
Queen consort of Hungary
Queen consort of Bohemia
1854 – 1898		 Vacant
Title next held by
Zita of Bourbon-Parma
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisabeth_of_Bavaria"