Oh, Dear Not Another Elisabeth!
Yes, there are many Elisabeth’s and Elizabeth’s, but this is my favorite Elisabeth and most memorable to me. She was Empress Elisabeth of Austria. But she wasn’t just an empress, there have been many empresses, Elisabeth was a rebel and an idealist in her own home. She was a rebel for the Hungarian people, who were under the rule of the Austrian Empire at the time, her empire. Empress Elisabeth was also a poet and a musician, which was another great accomplishment that made her different. That is what made her stand out from the rest of the other Austrian Empresses.
Elisabeth Amelia Eugenie (or Elizabeth Amalie Eugenie, spelling is various), was Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary (December 24, 1837 - September 10, 1898). She was born as Princess of Bavaria to Duke Maximillian Joseph and Duchess Ludovika (who was the daughter of the Bavarian king, making her the princess royal of Bavaria) in Bavaria, Germany. Her Family name was Wittelsbach. She was nicknamed "Sisi (Sissi)" at a young age, the reason unknown. Elisabeth had about eight siblings, who also had nick names like she did.
At the age of 16, she married the Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria, and later on they had four children. It was a fairy-tale wedding that seemed to lead to a fairy-tale life, but it didn’t happen that way. The new Empress Elisabeth had many difficulties. It was mostly the Archduchess Sophie, the new mother-in-law, who was very mean to Elisabeth. The Archduchess Sophie constantly watched Elisabeth in case she did something wrong so that she could pounce on her. Her own husband didn’t even stand up for her. He took his mother’s side. Elisabeth often found herself alone and isolated, so she turned to her poetry once more. Elisabeth hated the Viennese Court rules and started to ignore them, making everyone mad. She was so stricken with illness from the weather of Vienna and the way she was treated that she had to get away. So, for a while Elisabeth went anywhere as long as it wasn’t Vienna, Austria.
Elisabeth and Franz Joseph had three daughters, Sophie, Marie Valerie, and Gisela, and their son was the crown prince Rudolf, but sadly he never became emperor of Austria. During the childhood of her children, Elisabeth wasn’t allowed to raise her children; it was the Archduchess Sophie raised her grandchildren. In fact, Elisabeth’s first daughter was named by Sophie, which you can basically tell. By the time Elisabeth had her fourth child, Marie Valerie, after she had returned from traveling, she fought to have the control of her children and won that privilege.
Elisabeth’s desire for freedom and liberal ideas, ideas that Franz Joseph and Archduchess Sophie didn’t share with Elisabeth, won the Hungarian people. She learned their language, their history, and their literature. What she felt was what the Hungarians wanted, to have a republic instead of a monarchy. The Hungarians loved Elisabeth and finally made her their Queen in 1867, Franz Joseph becoming King of Hungary only because he was Elisabeth’s husband.
Elisabeth was very sad when her son Rudolph killed himself and killed his mistress, at the age of 31. There have been various ideas of why Rudolph had killed himself, but the truth has never been known. Since then to her death the only color she wore was black. One day in Switzerland, September 10, while Elisabeth and one of her ladies-in-waiting were shopping, she was stabbed to death with a file in a pointless act, by the assassin Luigi Lucheni because he didn’t get to kill the victim he had wanted, and killed the next royal that he could find.
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