![]() ![]() The couple were married eight months later in Vienna, at the Augustinerkirche, on 24 April 1854. Five days later, their betrothal was officially announced. ![]() He did not propose to Helene, but instead, he defied his mother and informed her that if he could not have Elisabeth, he would not marry at all. Helene was a pious, quiet young woman, and while she and Franz Joseph felt ill at ease in each other's company, he was instantly infatuated with her younger sister. While black did not suit eighteen-year-old Helene's dark coloring, by contrast, it made her younger sister's blonder looks more striking. On their way to Bad Ischl, they visited Leopoldskron Palace where the Queen Dowager of Bavaria was in mourning for her brother Georg so they were dressed in black and unable to change to more suitable clothing before meeting the young Emperor. They arrived late as the Duchess, prone to migraines, had to interrupt the journey the coach with their gala dresses never did arrive. The then fifteen-year-old Sisi accompanied her mother and sister, and they traveled from Munich in several coaches. ĭuchess Ludovika and Helene were invited to journey to the resort of Bad Ischl, Upper Austria to receive his formal proposal of marriage. Although the couple had never met, Franz Joseph's obedience was taken for granted by the Archduchess, who was once described as "the only man in the Hofburg" for her authoritarian manner. In 1853, Archduchess Sophie, the domineering mother of 23-year-old Emperor Franz Joseph, preferring to have a niece as a daughter-in-law rather than a stranger, arranged a marriage between her son and her sister Ludovika's eldest daughter, Helene ("Néné"). "Sisi" and her siblings grew up in a very unrestrained and unstructured environment she often skipped her lessons to go riding about the countryside. The family's homes were the Herzog-Max-Palais in Munich during winter and Possenhofen Castle in the summer months, far from the protocols of court. Maximilian was considered to be rather peculiar he had a love of circuses and traveled the Bavarian countryside to escape his duties. Her tenure of 44 years was the longest of any Austrian empress.Įlisabeth (age 11), her brother Karl Theodor, Duke in Bavaria (age 9), and their dog "Bummerl" at Possenhofen Castle (1849)īorn Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie on 24 December 1837 in the Herzog-Max-Palais in Munich, Bavaria, she was the third child and second daughter of Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria and Princess Ludovika of Bavaria, the half-sister of King Ludwig I of Bavaria. ![]() While travelling in Geneva in 1898, Elisabeth was stabbed in the heart by an Italian anarchist named Luigi Lucheni. Elisabeth also developed a restrictive diet and she wore extremely tightlaced corsets to keep her waist very small. She was obsessively concerned with maintaining her youthful figure and beauty. The palace featured an elaborate mythological motif and served as a refuge, which Elisabeth visited often. In 1890, she had the palace Achilleion built on the Greek island of Corfu. She withdrew from court duties and travelled widely, unaccompanied by her family. The death of Elisabeth's only son and his mistress Mary Vetsera in a murder–suicide at his hunting lodge at Mayerling in 1889 was a blow from which the Empress never recovered. She came to develop a deep kinship with Hungary and helped to bring about the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary in 1867. As a result, she would often visit Hungary for its more relaxed environment. The birth of a son to the imperial couple, Crown Prince Rudolf, improved Elisabeth's standing at court, but her health suffered under the strain. Early in the marriage, she was at odds with her mother-in-law, Archduchess Sophie, who took over the rearing of Elisabeth's daughters, one of whom, Sophie, died in infancy. The marriage thrust her into the much more formal Habsburg court life, for which she was unprepared and which she found uncongenial. Elisabeth (born Duchess Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie in Bavaria 24 December 1837 – 10 September 1898), nicknamed Sisi (also spelled Sissi or Sissy), was Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary from her marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph I on 24 April 1854 until her assassination in 1898.Įlisabeth was born into the royal Bavarian House of Wittelsbach but enjoyed an informal upbringing before marrying Emperor Franz Joseph I at the age of sixteen. ![]()
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