Elisabeth de Wittelsbach

Elisabeth Amélie Eugenie de Wittelsbach (born the December 24th 1837 with Munich and deceased the September 10th 1898 with Geneva) was empress of Austria (1854 - 1898) and crowned queen of Hungary (1867 - 1898), born duchess in Bavaria, wife of the emperor François-Joseph I {{er}}. She is universally known under the nickname of Sissi .

Biography

Duchess in Bavaria

Elisabeth Amélie Eugenie de Wittelsbach, known as Sissi , is born Sunday December 24th 1837 in a palate from Ludwigstrasse with Munich. The infant has already a tooth - just like Napoleon i - what is perceived like a sign of chance. It is the third child and the second girl of the duke Maximilien of Bavaria and of the princess born Ludovica of Bavaria. The duke, usually called " Max" , is the chief of the branch junior by the Wittelsbach and the duchess Ludovica, the girl junior by the king de Bavière Maximilien I {{er}} Joseph and by the princess born Caroline of Bade.

The child receives the first name of Elisabeth in the honor of his godmother and maternal aunt, the queen of Prussia, born princess royal of Bavaria (1801-1873). The other sisters of its mother are the princess of Leuchtenberg marries of the adoptive son of the Emperor Napoleon i, the queens of Saxony and the Archiduchesse Sophie, sister-in-law of the emperor Ferdinand Ier of Austria. As for his maternal uncles, the crown prince Maximilien is an intellectual and prince Charles Theodore lives with the variation of the court having preferred to rather marry the woman commoner of his choice than a member of a princely family. The father of " Sissi" was only sons and his/her father the duke Pie, deeply misanthropist, husband of the girl of the duke of Arenberg, also died in 1837.

The small Elisabeth grows the winter with Munich, and the summer and as soon as possible with Possenhofen, known as Possi . Raised unconstrained nor manners, it is impassioned of horsemanship, Poésie and adores to go for long walks in Forêt.

Empress of Austria

In August 1853, the Emperor François-Joseph of Austria festival its twenty-third birthday in the imperial residence of summer of Ischl. It is on this occasion that it must officially become engaged to his German cousin the duchess Helene of Bavaria, older sister of Elisabeth. But it is of " Sissi" of which the young sovereign éprend. With surprised her mother the archduchess Sophie of Austria, it announces the August 19th her intention to marry the young person Sissi , hardly sixteen years old, disturbed by the loss of its first love, a dead teenager of disease.

The marriage is celebrated the April 24th 1854 in Vienna (Austria). The first years of the marriage seem happy, giving to the couple two girls and a son. The relations between Elisabeth and her mother-in-law and aunt, the Sophie archduchess, were often stormy. The two women could not include themselves/understand and well beyond the traditional family conflict there was between her the ditch of two visions different from the duties of sovereign then two political designs different from the future of Austria. Sophie had sacrificed without complaining the hopes about a romantic young girl, accepting her destiny of princess married in spite of it which it considered completely acceptable.

Contrary to the legend, Sophie had not been disappointed a choice of Elisabeth. She assessed the personal qualities of them and she liked it. Moreover, on the dynastic and diplomatic level, a duchess of Bavaria was worth some well another, essence being to find allies within the Germanic Confédération to counter the ambitions of the kingdom of Prussia. At the beginning, the ambitions of Sophie and François-Joseph went on the Anne princess of Prussia but the government of Berlin opposed it for better preserving its freedom to maneuver vis-a-vis Austrian preeminence. The archducal “couple” turned then to the royal family of Saxony but the young emperor did not have the clash to like the Sidonie princess who éprit of one of his/her Hungarian cousins already widowed and mother of a little girl. The archduchess, who had a cooking memory of the Hungarian revolution - supported by the brother of the young archduchess, chief of the Hungarian branch - there was opposed and empowered woman, made marry the widowed archduchess - who also prénommait Elisabeth - by an Austrian cousin of the branch of Teschen. She folded back herself, in cause of despair on one of her nieces of the ducal branch of her house. It was the least bad party to be taken.

The Sophie archduchess reproached her daughter-in-law for refusing to sacrifice her private life, placing her personal life and her tastes with the top of the duties of her load. Intelligent, sensitive and cultivated, having sacrificed her life, her ambitions and her loves with a union certainly prestigious but with a man without glare, Sophie could not include/understand nor to admit that the young empress refused to be sovereign and preferred Elisabeth being. Neither the city nor the Court of Vienna loved Elisabeth whose contempt for its capital and its institutions was known of all. Ironically a newspaper contained one day of January 1st: “We thank Your Majesty for having condescended to spend four days to Vienna this year! ”.

She did not refuse however any the financial advantages of her position. She spent without counting on toilets, horses, crews and journeys. François-Joseph paid all his expenditure without never making him the reproach of it. In 1875, to died of the Emperor Ferdinand Ier, who had abdicated in his favor in 1848, François-Joseph gave to Elisabeth of the important sums taken on this considerable heritage because it had preserved the possession of all the prerogatives of the late one. Elisabeth placed the aforementioned sums to Switzerland. They were then divided between its heirs with his death.

Its beauty, which it maintained excessively, having admitted some to him being able, was unanimously admired and celebrated. Its equestrian aptitudes were also remarkable. She was regarded as the best riding one of her time.

Sovereign patient

In 1860, Elisabeth, suffering of a ceaseless cough (probably of psychological origin), chooses to go to Madeira to take again forces there. Cured, it consequently does not cease travelling everywhere in Europe, in particular in Hungary, Greece… Indeed, disparaged by her aunt and mother-in-law, the Sophie archduchess who deals with the education of her children, choked by the rigid protocol of the Court of Vienna, despaired, Elisabeth deserted the palate which it names “her gilded prison”. Notwithstanding, if Elisabeth did not have the right to educate her the first three children (the first, Sophie, died very young person) but knew to intervene when was needed it, for example for the choice of the tutor of the archduke heir Rodolphe).

Moreover, to avoid taking weight, Sissi compelled itself to consume only gravy, very nutritive substance but absolutely feeling reluctant with the palate, development to fill the food needs for the too poor workmen to buy the normal food of the markets. The empress was obsessed so much by the fear of growing bigger - it however weighed only one frail 41 kilos for 1m72- that some regard it a posteriori as suffering of Anorexia nervosa. Its anorexia, one knows was perhaps due to it now to the fact that, until the end of its life, the sovereign one was regularly made injections of cocaine, product which was stigmatized much less than now, not far from this time professor Sigmund Freud itself often made use of it.

Queen of Hungary

The June 8th 1867, Elisabeth, impassioned by the Hungary, its language and its people, is crowned queen of Hungary at the sides of her husband. Elisabeth thus becomes Erzsébet , sovereign liked, admired, acclaimed, celebrated and adulated by the people Magyar. This one offers the to him castle of Gödöllö which is located at about thirty kilometers of Budapest. Gödöllö is the only true place where it feels at it (contrary to the palate of Vienna). It will go there very often.

The political role of Elisabeth in the development of the Austro-Hungarian compromise, without to have been determining, is undeniable. At least in the influence which it had at François-Joseph to overcome his loathing with respect to the Magyars and that of the latter against their king. The repression of the Hungarian revolution of 1848 had left all the more deep traces of bitterness in the elites and the Hungarian people which it had been necessary that François-Joseph calls upon the Russian troops to restore the order.

In 1868, Elisabeth gives rise to its fourth child, the archduchess Marie-Valerie, whom it raises itself this time.

Sovereign ravaged

In a few years, successive deaths of his Sophie oldest daughter (then two years old), of his cousin the king Louis II of Bavaria, found drowned in the Lake Starnberg, of his father the duke Maximilien de Wittelsbach, of his only son the archduke Rodolphe with Mayerling, of his friend the count Gyula Andrássy, of his sister the duchess Sophie Charlotte de Wittelsbach burned alive in sadly celebrates fire of the Bazar of Charity, and of her mother the duchess Ludovica of Bavaria, plunge Elisabeth in a pain and a melancholy indescribable.

Assassinated empress

The September 10th 1898, it is assassinated with Geneva, while leaving the hotel Beau Shore of Geneva, by an anarchistic Italian, Luigi Luccheni (26 years) which wants to kill a European prince at all costs. The anarchist puts himself then in faction close to the hotel Beautiful-Shore where the empress is descended. To 13:35, this one leaves to the arm its lady's companion. Passing close to the young man, the empress receives what she believes being a punch and stumbles. The murderer, who has just stabbed it by means of a file (exposed in Vienna in a museum dedicated to the empress), escapes but is challenged a few meters further. The empress nevertheless makes a point of taking the boat, which it does with sorrow, loser knowledge once on board. By opening its blouse, its lady's companion observes a negligible red point with the top of the left center. Brought back in its apartments, she dies in the arms of Fanny Mayer, the wife of the owner of the hotel.

Family

Parents

Maximilien Joseph (1808 - 1888), duke in Bavaria. He married (1828) the Ludovica princess of Bavaria (1808 - 1892).
Marie Ludovica Wilhelmine (1808 - 1892), duchess in Bavaria, born princess of Bavaria.

Brothers and sisters

Louis Guillaume (1831 - 1920), duke in Bavaria. He morganatiquement married (1859) the actress Henriette Mendel (1833 - 1891), titrated baroness of Wallersee, then again morganatiquement (1892) Barb Antonie Barth (1871 - 1956), titrated baroness of Bartolf (divorce 1913). It renonça with its rights to marry Henriette Mendel.
Helene Caroline Therese known as Tit (1834 - 1890), princess of Turn and Taxis, born duchess in Bavaria. She married (1858) prince Maximilien de Tour and Taxis (1831 - 1867).
Charles Theodore known as Gackel (1839 - 1909), duke in Bavaria. He married (1865) the Sophie princess of Saxony (1845 - 1867), then (1874) the infante Marie-Jose of Portugal (1857 - 1943).
Marie Sophie Amélie (1841 - 1925), queen of Deux-Siciles, born duchess in Bavaria. She married (1859) the king François II of Deux-Siciles (1836 - 1894).
Mathilde Ludovica known as Sparrow (1843 - 1925), Trani countess, born duchess in Bavaria. She married (1861) prince Louis of Deux-Siciles (1838 - 1886), count de Trani and brother of the husband of Marie.
Sophie Charlotte Auguste (1847 - 1897), duchess of Alençon, born duchess in Bavaria. She married (1868) prince Ferdinand of Orleans (1844 - 1910), duke of Alençon.
Maximilien Emmanuel known as Mapperl (1849 - 1893), duke in Bavaria. He married (1875) the Amélie princess of Saxony-Cobourg-Gotha (1848 - 1894).

Children

Sophie Frederique Dorothée Marie Josèphe (1855 - 1857), archduchess of Austria.
Gisele Louise Marie (1856 - 1932), princess of Bavaria, born archduchess of Austria. She married (1873) prince Léopold of Bavaria (1846 - 1930).
Rodolphe François Charles Joseph (1858 - 1889), archduke of Austria and crown prince to the Austro-Hungarian empire. He married (1881) the Stéphanie princess of Belgium (1864 - 1945).
Marie Valerie Mathilde Amélie (1868 - 1924), archduchess of Austria-Tuscany, born archduchess of Austria. She married (1890) the François-Salvator archduke of Austria-Tuscany (1866 - 1939).

See too

Monarchy Austro-Hungarian

External bonds

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