Empress Elisabeth "Sisi" of Austria

Queens of Europe Empress Elisabeth of Austria Empress Elisabeth of Austria was a woman of great beauty and gentleness she was renowned for her compassion for the common people as well as the minion justices and tragedies that befell her Elisabeth was called [ __ ] by her family she was born on Christmas Eve 1837 the fourth of ten children born to Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria and Princess Luna Vica the half-sister of King Ludwig the first of Bavaria unlike most Royals [ __ ] had a happy childhood she and her siblings were raised informally and enjoyed a great deal of freedom [ __ ] often skipped her lessons to go riding in the countryside and met with local peasants with her liberal and eccentric father she was a sweet and shy girl and grew into an exquisitely beautiful teenager with long chestnut brown hair meanwhile in Austria the 24-year old Emperor Franz Josef needed a wife his domineering mother Archduchess Sophia who was often called the only man in the Hofbrau palace decided that she would prefer a nice rather than a stranger as a daughter-in-law she invited her sister Lou devika and her eldest daughter Helena to meet them at a spa resort [ __ ] accompanied her mother and older sister the Bavarian ladies had to change coaches several times on the journey they arrived late and their luggage had been lost in route the ladies had no chance to change or freshen up before their royal presentation and as they had been in mourning for an aunt they were dressed in black and were not looking or feeling their best while black did not suit eighteen-year-old Helen as colouring it made her younger sister look all the more striking Archduchess Sophia pushed her son off with his intended Helena but the pair were ill at ease together and didn't hit it off Franz Josef was far more intrigued by the fifteen-year-old [ __ ] Sophia expected her son to follow her wishes and propose to Helena but he refused and said that he would marry Elizabeth or never marry at all Sophia decided that one nice was as good as another and the couple were Wed in Vienna on the 24th of April 1854 Franz Josef adored his young bride but she was miserable in Vienna after a relaxed and beatific childhood she found the rigidly formal Court stifling she was still very much a child emotionally dependent on her parents and not yet ready for the demanding role of a wife and Empress she began suffering health problems within weeks she had coughing fits and was often anxious and frightened Elizabeth gave birth to her first child just ten months after the wedding her mother-in-law Archduchess Sophia named the baby after herself without consulting Elisabeth worse still she snatched the child away from her mother taking complete charge of her upbringing and refusing to let Elizabeth breastfeed or otherwise care for her beloved child Elizabeth fell pregnant again and gave birth to a second daughter the following year who was again snatched from her by Sophia the Archduchess ignored Elizabeth's pleading to be allowed to be with her children and called her a silly young mother Elizabeth begged her husband to intercede but he would not upset his mother Sophia also left a pamphlet on Elizabeth's desk which basically said that a queen who failed to produce a male heir was worthless and should be cast off in 1857 the 19 year old Elizabeth her husband and their two small daughters went on holiday to Hungary Elizabeth undoubtedly elated to be away from court and the psychological torture of her wicked mother-in-law fell deeply in love with the country and its people Hungary at the time was part of the Austrian Empire and was seen as a romantic and wild frontier only a decade earlier Hungarians had rebelled against their rulers in Austria but had been repressed the Empress was captivated by the country and sympathized with the plight of its people but tragedy interrupted their tranquil holiday both daughters fell ill with diarrhea one-year-old Gisela recovered but two-year-old Sophia weakened and died in her mother's arms the loss of her child pushed Elizabeth already prone to melancholy into a deep depression she returned to court in Vienna in lower spirits than she had ever been before Archduchess Sophia said that the baby's death was proof that Elizabeth was an unfit mother while her husband and mother-in-law generally brushed off her overwhelming sadness her own mother at least was very concerned about her well-being she hopes that another baby already on the way might help Elizabeth recover in 1858 Elizabeth gave birth to Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria with a male heir finally delivered the Empress was able to enjoy a more secure and slightly more powerful position at court but she wasn't much happier Franz Joseph was still passionately in love with his wife but she did not return his feelings he was a boring and unimaginative man politically reactionary and completely dependent on the advice of his mother he tried to tempt her into a more domestic life with him but she was not interested and now that she had provided him with an heir she began to avoid sex with him she instead threw herself into reading history philosophy literature and learning languages including Hungarian which scandalized the Austrian Court she developed a great passion for the work of poet and radical political thinker heinrich heine and wrote numerous poems emulating his style in them she referred to herself as titania Shakespeare's fairy queen from A Midsummer Night's Dream Elizabeth became obsessed with her health and beauty as this was one of the few aspects in her life over which she had any control she was 5-8 unusually tall for a woman of the time and she maintained her weight at or under a hundred and ten pounds for the rest of her life she exercised excessively she had a gymnasium equipped in every castle the family frequented and even had mats and balance beams installed in her bedroom she frequently went horseback riding for hours at a time Elizabeth dieted constantly usually consuming only raw beef juice milk and eggs and often refusing to eat it all for days at a time she also wore a tight laced corset and at a particularly low time in her life had a waist that was only 16 inches in circumference today she would undoubtedly have been diagnosed with anorexia she developed a horror of overweight women and transmitted this attitude to her youngest daughter who was terrified when as a little girl she first met Queen Victoria Elizabeth preferred to dress in simple monochromatic clothes and wore very little makeup to show off her natural beauty she employed a former theatre hairdresser who spent three hours a day combing and braiding her ankle legs chestnut brown hair into elaborate styles at the end of each session he had to present the disapproving Empress with any hairs that had fallen out her tresses were washed every two weeks in a concoction of eggs and cognac and on a washing day Elizabeth canceled all other obligations she spent these many hours reading and learning Hungarian by this time her son Rudolf was four he was sensitive like his mother but his grandmother Archduchess Sophia insisted on a military education Elizabeth openly rebelled against this plan wanting to protect her son from this harsh upbringing but she lost the fight after years of struggling with Sophia and being struck down at every turn Elizabeth had had enough her health was in tatters and her physicians ordered her to get away from court for rest and relaxation she jumped at the chance and spent the winter in Portugal while away from the strains of court her health improved markedly but on her journey home she suffered a severe migraine and fits of vomiting she left again at the earliest opportunity this time for the Greek island of Corfu which became a favorite destination she spent the next several years avoiding her husband and traveling outside of Austria as much as she could but she did have one pet cause that kept her coming back to Franz Josef she loved the Hungarian people and championed their cause to the emperor she became friends with hungarian politician count lula and russia and it was rumoured that the two were lovers in 1867 elisabeth conveniently decided that she wanted a fourth child and returned to france joseph´s bed but her true intentions were to forge a peace between austria and hungary hungarians were champing at the bit for another revolution while many in vienna wanted to crush the rebel nation Elizabeth managed to get both sides to the table and secured the austro-hungarian compromise of 1867 which established the dual monarchy of austria-hungary Hungary now had their own Parliament but the two countries worked in tandem regarding defense and Foreign Relations Aundre she was elected Prime Minister friends Joseph and Elizabeth were crowned king and queen of Hungary in June they were presented with the country residence outside Budapest which Elizabeth made her primary residence for the next several years there she gave birth to her fourth and final child Maria Valery who was dubbed the Hungarian child Elizabeth was determined to bring up this child on her own away from her mother-in-law she poured all of her repressed maternal feelings on her young daughter nearly smothering her in 1872 Archduchess Sophia died finally leaving Elizabeth in peace Elizabeth was deeply in pathetic and took an interest in the care and treatment of those with mental illness I'm sure she could also relate to their plight to some degree when her husband asked her what she would like for her Saints day she listed a young tiger a medallion but a fully equipped lunatic asylum would please me most as she aged her obsession with preserving her beauty deepened she experimented with countless facial creams and tonics and had a rigid daily skin care regime she took a cold shower every morning which aggravated her arthritis and an olive oil bath every evening she also slept with a leather facemask filled with crushed strawberries or reveal at age 32 as she decided that she did not want her public image of eternal beauty to ever change so she never again sat for another portrait and refused to allow her photograph to be taken in 1889 her thirty year old son Rudolph and his 17-year old mistress Baroness Mary vet Sara were found dead in his hunting lodge the deaths were a result of either a murder-suicide or a suicide pact Elizabeth was devastated and wore black for the rest of her life the scandal increased public interest in the elusive Empress much to her distress her relationship with Franz Josef had improved after his mother's death and they maintained a warm friendship he often expressed hopes that she would stay with him in Vienna but she preferred to escape her sorrows by continuing to travel she liked to remain incognito and avoid meeting foreign Royals as much as possible in 1898 the 60-year old Empress was visiting Geneva Switzerland she and her lady-in-waiting countess Emma went for a walk along the lake to catch a steamship while on the promenade a young man approached them and attempted to peer under Elizabeth parasol he stumbled into the women and then took off the empress collapsed and was helped aboard the steamship by Emma and a coachman once on board Airmen noticed a small red stain of spreading on Elizabeth's blouse the young man had been an Italian anarchist whose original plan was to assassinate the Duke of Orleans but when he left the city early any royal would do and Elizabeth became the new target she had been stabbed in the chest with a 4-inch needle file Elizabeth briefly regained consciousness and Irma's if she was in pain to which she replied no what happened she then drifted out again and never returned her body was brought back to Vienna the place she had been trying to escape for decades the inscription on her coffin read Elizabeth Empress of Austria and when her beloved hungarians complained and the queen Hungary was hastily added her love of the common people and her blameless life caused an outpouring of grief and disbelief at her assassination her will stipulated that most of her jewels be sold and the money given to charity Elizabeth had been Empress of Austria for 44 years her friend poet Carmen Sylva wrote her death was beautiful calm and great within the sight of beloved great nature painless and peaceful only to the world did it seem horrific if you enjoyed this video please like subscribe comment your thoughts and check out my other royal history videos if you really want to help please consider supporting me on patreon a link is in the description thank you for watching

Channel: Lindsay Holiday

Views: 492,267

Rating: 4.9423242 out of 5

Keywords: queen, princess, history, documentary, royal family, royalty, sex, the crown, scandal, royal wedding, feminist, bbc history, teenage, european history, germany, empress, empress elisabeth of austria, bavaria, austria hungary, austro-hungarian empire, hungary, hungarian history, vienna, austria, Hofburg Palace, victorian, 1800s, 19th century, anarchist, assasination, murder, emperor franz joseph, princess diana, sisi of austria, archduchess sophia of austria, Rudolf, beauty regime

Id: PiYVXDMcQyQ

Length: 14min 10sec (850 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 04 2020