Empress Sisi: An Imperial Casualty? History & Facial Re-creations | Royalty Now

hello everyone and welcome back to royalty now Empress was known throughout 19th century Europe for her legendary Beauty but behind the glamour was a complex woman whose Goodwill and eccentricity would Garner her the love of thousands and the hate of a few today we'll tell Sissy's story and then of course reveal some Recreations of her appearance so let's go ahead and get started Duchess Elizabeth amaly eujin nicknam was born in Munich in the Kingdom of Bavaria on the 24th of December 1837 she was the third of seven children born to her father Duke Maximillian Joseph and her mother princess ludovica although her family was of high nobility Sissy's upbringing was pretty unconventional at least compared to other royal families instead of lessons and etiquette or languages the children were allowed to enjoy themselves playing together and Hiking through the Bavarian Countryside when learned to ride horseback she became obsessed and throughout the rest of her childhood and into her tees a free spirited nature began to Blossom in the young Elizabeth in 1853 Sissy's older sister Helena received a party invitation from their aunt Arch Duchess Sophie the overbearing mother of the newly crowned emperor of Austria France Joseph I it was a tempting invitation although fr and Helena had never met it was clear to everyone involved that Arch Duchess Sophie was playing Matchmaker princess Luda Helena and would all make the journey together but on the way there their luggage which contained luxuriously colored summerdresses meant to Dazzle at the Habsburg Court were separated from their coach they were forced to make an emergency stop with their Aunt Teresa but Teresa was in mourning and only had black dresses to spare on August 16th 1853 Helena was presented to the Emperor of Austria wearing all black Helena who had a natural dark coloring and was already quiet and serious looked very auster in her dress when the emperor's gaze wandered to the beautiful Lively auburn-haired woman behind Helena he fell in love instantly just 2 days later he would ask Elizabeth to marry him his mother so sopie was outraged she had had other plans for her son Arch Jess Sophie was an incredibly domineering person bullying and terrorizing everyone she had to until she got her way and this act of Disobedience by her son France would not go unpunished but it would be who would feel her anger most harshly the couple were married on April 24th 1854 and barely more than strangers to each other and fr moved into the family's Summer Palace together in beautiful Upper Austria within only a few months they learned that was pregnant and 10 months after their wedding gave birth to their first child but she would be instantly robbed of any Joy by her mother-in-law who immediately took the baby from her Sophie would name the infant child after herself without even Consulting Elizabeth and took charge of all her care not even allowing to breastfeed her when would protest Sophie would tell her that she was nothing but a silly young mother a little more than a year later would give birth to a second daughter again Sophie would take this baby under her Complete Care and name her gizela with two pregnancies and two daughters gossip began to swirl around the court about Elizabeth's usefulness one morning walked in to find a pamphlet on her desk with the following words underlined the natural Destiny of a queen is to give an heir to the throne if the queen is so fortunate as to provide the state with a Crown Prince this should be the end of her ambition if the queen Bears no Sons she is merely a foreigner in the state and a very dangerous Foreigner too for as she can never hope to be looked on kindly here and must always expect to be sent back whence she came the barely Veiled Threat felt like a punch in the gun to she could only guess who would be conniving enough to do something like this feeling depressed and stifled was able to convince her husband to take her and the children to Hungary away from court and her mother-in-law the trip would be the first time since their marriage that the couple would be without the pressure of the Fishbowl that was the Habsburg court and finally be alone together she would fall in love with Hungary with its beauty reminding her of her childhood its people welcomed her with open arms something she had never felt in Austria the hungarians had a free spirited and rebellious nature just as she once did plus Arch Duchess Sophie hated them which made love them even more would become so enthralled with Hungary that she would learn their language hoping to form a deeper bond with the people this single trip would go on to influence the rest of Elizabeth's life in both good and tragic ways on the way home back to Austria both of Elizabeth's daughters suddenly got sick gizela her youngest daughter was able to recover quickly but her eldest Sophie was only getting worse and worse on May 29th 1857 Sophie died at just 2 years old when her mother-in-law Arch judges Sophie heard the news she immediately blamed for the child's death Elizabeth would have a mental breakdown undoubtedly hearing Sophie call her a silly young mother over and over in her head and for the remainder of 1857 Empress would fall into an incredibly intense depression no longer having the energy to protest against her youngest daughter being raised by the arch Duchess was clearly deeply unhappy at court it was reported that she slept very poorly often staying a blate to soothe her nerves with cigarettes or reading I wonder how different the lives of people from the past could have been how much better their state of mind if they were sleeping well today's sponsor is beam the Revolutionary night cap that's filled with the highest quality all natural sleep promoting ingredients I struggle sometimes with feeling wired at night if it's been a long day or there's just a lot going on in my mind when I replace my nighttime cup of tea with a dream powder my favorite is the chocolate peanut butter I noticed how quickly my body and mind relax within 30 minutes I'm ready for bed I fall asleep fast and then wake up with no grogginess which is so much better than other sleep aids I've also watched my husband who is notorious in our house for having sleep issues take it and fall asleep almost immediately and don't just take my word for it beam conducted a double blind Placebo study that showed that dream is clinically proven to improve your sleep if you're skeptical like I was that a little drink powder could change your sleep forever why don't you try Beam for yourself and see for a limited time you can get up to 35% off Beam with our code RNs when you go to shop beam.com RNs or scan the QR code that's shop beam.com RNs it would take months before felt any better but soon she would receive news that filled her with hope in December of 1857 became pregnant a third time and the the Court held its breath to see if it would be a prince 8 months later Elizabeth would give birth to her third child a boy named Rudolph Fran Carl Joseph 101 gun salute was used to announce the news and celebrations around the court began with the birth of an air Empress Sissy's popularity at court skyrocketed overnight but the feelings weren't Mutual she just couldn't forget how horribly she'd been Creed until now if she had influence all of a sudden she would use it on the things she cared about Hungary and Austria had been an odd since the Austrian Empire drove out the Ottomans in 1699 and absorbed the Hungarian region but over the last 150 years Austria had struggled to govern over Hungary and its People hungary's latest resistance had begun in 1848 when revolutions broke out all over the Austrian Empire with the rise of liberalism m in Europe although hungary's bid for Independence ultimately failed it did give its people a new identity and pride in their own Nation but Austria now ruled Hungary with an iron grip the revolution led to strict and ruthless consequences France Joseph would terminate hungary's Constitution and make himself the supreme ruler of its people he also changed its official language to German and censored Hungarian history in favor of the Austrian narrative although she was the Empress of Austria was an empathetic and liberal-minded woman and she would use her influence to try to help the Hungarian people that she had grown to love but her husband France Joseph was staunchly conservative and was also influenced by his even more conservative mother in 1860 Italy defeated Austria in their own war for independence and it became clear to nearly everyone in Europe that Austria was wasn't the PowerHouse it used to be if Frans wanted to save Austria from certain ruin he would have to get over himself it was around this time that met a Hungarian count named Gula andrai now fluent in Hungarian she would try to become the mediator between Austria and Hungary I have just had an interview with andrasi he set forth his views clearly and plainly I quite understood them and arrived at the conclusion that if you would trust him and trust him entirely L we might still be saved not only hungry but the monarchy too if you say no nothing will remain to me but the Consciousness that whatever may happen I shall be able to say honestly to our son Rudolph one day I did everything in my power your misfortunes are not on my conscience but even through her begging and pleading fron would not budge although she was only 22 had already gone through so so much for months she'd been distracting herself with politics and negotiations but now that that had fizzled out seemed to have a bit of an identity crisis was she worthless now that she had given the king an heir in order to feel control over something in her life began to obsessively exercise and starve herself in October of that year Elizabeth developed a cough and doctors feared that she might have tuberculosis to make things worse rumors began to spread that her husband had taken a mistress Elizabeth would use the rumor as an excuse to leave the palace alone without her children or her husband for the next 6 months she would spend the winter in Madera off the coast of Morocco the Sea Air and the freedom of living alone made the empress feel better instantly and that spring she was able to return back to the Palace in Vienna with a clean bill of health but after only 4 days back at court she once again began coughing hardly slept and woke up to a fever her doctor again recommended that she take leave this time to the island of Corfu where her health again improved dramatically but every time she went back to Vienna to her mother-in-law to her passionless marriage to her structured duties as empress and her children she got sick again beyond that Vienna was beginning to feel like a hostile place to be she had always been the subject of vicious Court gossip which made fun of her admittedly quirky personality and she never acted how they thought an empress should was this strong willed Empress who loved to swim naked in the sea pop in on unsuspecting country women for a bottle of milk and later got an anchor tattoo on her shoulder and grease to represent her love of the sea outside of the castle was becoming incredibly famous throughout Europe crowds would gather outside the palace hoping to just catch a glimpse of the woman that some were beginning to call the most beautiful woman alive over the next 2 years she would spend most of her time outside of Vienna but by late 1862 Elizabeth would return for her son Rudolph's fourth birthday party and France Joseph told her that he wanted another so Elizabeth began to avoid him she would take long walks for hours at a time or say she wasn't feeling well to avoid doing the deed in reality Empress Sissy's reason for not wanting another child was simple she was afraid of losing her beauty although she was just as beautiful as ever Empress became obsessed about her appearance developing a toxic relationship with food and exercise standing at 5'8 never weighed more than 110 lb and was known throughout Europe for her insanely small weight waist measuring at only 16 in for most of her life in fact she actually developed a quote horror of fat women something that she passed down to her youngest daughter who was terrified when as a little girl she first met Queen Victoria Sissy's diet was pretty strange too she was often disgusted by meat so her diet usually consisted of only milk and eggs accompanied occasionally with the juice of a half raw beef steak that was squeezed into a thin soup she would spend hours exercising daily riding horseback or walking and demanded that a gym be built in any Palace she stayed in her hair was another vanity falling almost to her ankles she had dark chestnut hair cared for in a 3-hour daily routine if any hairs fell out in the middle of the process she demanded that each hair be collected and presented to her for inspection in a small silver bowl once a week her schedule was cleared to accommodate washing in it would sit for hours as her hair was washed with a mixture of conac and eggs was very particular about portraits of herself during the mid 1860s we have these two portraits of her the winter halter portrait and the gorg ra portrait where she's in her late 20s she was also photographed right at the time that the innovation of portrait photography was becoming commonplace we can see she has a bit of an enigmatic face she looks a little different in each image but her defining features are of course her beautiful dark eyes and unique lips making it easy to see why France Joseph fell in love with her at first sight in 1866 France Joseph suffered an embarrassing loss to the prussians and behind the scenes his Empire was on the verge of collapse after years of avoiding another pregnancy Elizabeth suddenly had a change of heart in 1867 but she told friends joose Joseph that her feelings could easily change depending on how he dealt with the crisis of his Empire that same year Austria and Hungary agreed to create a United Empire which would end military rule in Hungary and restore its Constitution and in return France Joseph and would be named king and queen of Hungary a little less than a year later her fourth child was born in a palace outside of Budapest this time no one would take her child away from her Elizabeth would name this daughter Marie Valerie and all of her repressed maternal instincts seemed to finally flourish she became obsessed with this new baby with some courtiers even referring to Marie Valerie as Elizabeth's only child because of how much more attention she paid to her than the others now I personally don't think that this is fair given that not only did Arch judges Sophie take her other children away at Birth but also horribly shamed her as a mother during during the most traumatic period of her life she still loved her children deeply but their relationship was complicated through it all France Joseph is said to have passionately loved even through the hard times even through all her complexity and her strangeness she was still the woman he fell in love with at First Sight although most historians don't believe that returned his feelings she still at the very least felt a warm friendship with France Sissy's young daughter kept her busy for a few years but she began to eventually need her less and less Elizabeth's mind once again began to wander she was Restless she began to travel outside of Vienna more and more often until she rarely stayed at court at all over the course of years traveled all over the Mediterranean she also traveled to Morocco Algeria Malta turkey and Egypt becoming an iconic figure throughout Europe her adventurous Spirit stopped her from staying anywhere too long she said if I arrived at a place and knew that I could never leave it again the whole stay would become hell despite being Paradise she continued traveling through Greece falling in love with the island and its people after reading about Achilles in The Iliad she's reported to have at least 10 companions that traveled with her nearly all of which were Greek men in their mid 20s the only outlier was her therapist a Swedish man who she also occasionally wrote romantic poetry about unfortunately for her Carefree life of leisure and travel was about to take a tragic turn on January 29th 1889 Elizabeth was in Vienna for a family dinner party she was leaving for Hungary soon and wanted to spend some quality time with all of her now adult children but in the middle of dinner her son and Heir Rudolph abruptly excused himself apparently he had an early morning at the Imperial hunting lodge ahead of him but a shocking twist of fate was about to hit the family that next morning Rudolph would be found dead alongside his mistress Mary vetera in an apparent murder suicide packed the reasons why they did this are sort of clouded but it's thought that Rudolph had felt guilty about giving his wife syphilis and then Mary vetsera refused to live without him Elizabeth was Shattered by her son's death plunging her into a sadness like never before during the coming years her older sister Helena would pass away followed by her mother then her younger sister in a tragic fire would wear black for the rest of her life eventually she would resume her travels in Europe which seemed to be the only thing that distracted her from her Melancholy in 1898 Elizabeth traveled to Geneva Switzerland under an alias but someone at her hotel had recognized her and leaked the news to the Press on September 10th Elizabeth began one of her famous long walks at 1:35 p.m. 25-year-old Luigi leeni approached and attempted to peer under her white umbrella he then stumbled into the empress stabbing her in the chest with a sharpened needle file the meeting was so Swift that her Entourage assumed the man had simply bumped into her and they continued to walk but soon had collapsed what has happened she asked when a passing man helped her up he asked her if she was in pain she replied with a simple no and then lost Consciousness by the time medical help reached her she was gone when France Joseph heard the news of his wife's death he was distraught thinking that she had taken her own life it was only later when a detailed message of her assassination was sent that he finally learned what had happened her assassin Luigi was arrested the next day he was initially presumed insane for killing Elizabeth who was known to be a good and charitable woman in reality he was an anarchist that had missed his opportunity to assassinate a French Pretender to the throne who had left Geneva earlier that same day wanting to spill some Imperial blood he went after after he had learned that she was in town from the newspaper leak all over Hungary pictures of were framed on desks and grand pianos and there was an outrage in Hungary when her coffin only read Empress of Austria until they hastily added and queen of Hungary was an unlikely free spirit sadly confined to a court life she was never fit for today she's an almost cult-like figure in Austria and Hungary known for her love of Ordinary People her fight for Hungarian representation and just like she always wanted her legendary Beauty has been immortalized Untouched by age and Forever Young since we've already talked about Sissy's appearance let's get into the Recreations in order to appear eternally youthful didn't allow photographs to be taken of herself after the age of 30 and although she lived to six her last official portrait was made when she was 42 I brought to Life by compositing images of her over time I wanted to make her look more like the photographs of course which vary slightly from these stylized painted portraits so let's take a look at my Recreations of the beautiful Empress [Music] now [Music]

Channel: Royalty Now Studios

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Keywords: real face of, what historical figures would look like, true face of, true faces of, real faces of historical figures, true faces of historical figures, what historical figures would look like today, royalty now, roylaty now, history documentary, history, facts, empress sisi, beautiful history, most beautiful, real face of empress sisi, real face of sisi, sisi real face, empress sisi facts, empress sisi bio, how beautiful was empress sisi, most beautiful women in history

Id: kjFgzLGr3Gc

Length: 24min 14sec (1454 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 17 2024