ELISABETH OF BAVARIA

:
★ ''This article is about Elisabeth "Sis(s)i" von Wittelsbach, the empress consort of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria:''
:
★ ''See Empress Elisabeth (disambiguation), Elisabeth of Austria and Elisabeth von Wittelsbach for women with similar names.''
:
★ ''For other uses of "Sissi", see Sissi (disambiguation)''
Elisabeth in a riding habit, from ''Vanity Fair'', 1884.

Memorial of Elisabeth in Funchal, Madeira.

'Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie, Duchess in Bavaria', Princess of Bavaria, (December 24, 1837September 10, 1898), of the House of Wittelsbach, was the Empress consort of Austria and Queen consort of Hungary due to her marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph. Her father was Maximilian Joseph, Duke in Bavaria and her mother was Ludovika, Royal Princess of Bavaria; her family home was Possenhofen Castle. From an early age, she was called 'Sisi' (or 'Sissi' in films and novels) by family and friends.

Contents
Her life
Assassination
The myth
In literature, film, television & theater
In music
Ancestry
Literature
External links

Her life


She was born in Munich, Bavaria. Elisabeth accompanied her mother and her 18-year-old sister, Helene, on a trip to the resort of Bad Ischl, Upper Austria [1], where they hoped Helene would attract the attention of their cousin, 23-year-old Franz Joseph, then Emperor of Austria. Instead, Franz Joseph chose Elisabeth, and the couple were married in Vienna on the 24th of April 1854. Elisabeth later wrote that she regretted accepting this marriage for the rest of her life.
Elisabeth had difficulty adapting to the strict etiquette practiced at the Habsburg court. Nevertheless she bore the Emperor three children in quick succession: Archduchess Sophie of Austria (1855–1857), Archduchess Gisela of Austria (1856–1932), and the hoped-for crown prince, Rudolf (1858–1889). A decade later, Archduchess Marie Valerie of Austria (1868–1924) followed. Elisabeth was denied any major influence on her own children's upbringing, however — they were raised by her mother-in-law Sophie, and soon after Rudolf's birth the marriage started to deteriorate, undone by Elisabeth's increasingly erratic behaviour.
To ease her pain and illnesses, Elisabeth embarked on a life of travel, seeing very little of her offspring, visiting places such as Madeira, Hungary, England, and Corfu, where she commissioned the building of a castle which she called ''Achilleion '' — after her death the building was sold to the German Emperor Wilhelm II. She not only became known for her beauty, but also for her fashion sense, diet and exercise regimens, passion for riding sports, and a series of reputed lovers. She paid extreme attention to her appearance and would spend most of her time preserving her beauty. Her diet and exercise regimens were strictly enforced to maintain her 20-inch (50 cm) waistline and reduced her to near emaciation at times (symptoms of what is now recognized as anorexia). One of the few things she would eat was raw veal meat juice squeezed from her juice press. Some of her reputed lovers included George "Bay" Middleton, a dashing AngloScot who was probably the father of Clementine Ogilvy Hozier (Mrs. Winston Churchill). She also tolerated, to a certain degree, Franz Joseph's affair with actress Katharina Schratt.
Kaiserin Elisabeth, by Franz Xaver Winterhalter

National unrest within the Habsburg monarchy caused by the rebellious Hungarians led, in 1867, to the foundation of the Austro–Hungarian double monarchy, making Elisabeth Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary. Elisabeth had always sympathized with the Hungarian cause and, reconciled and reunited with her alienated husband, she joined Franz Joseph in Budapest, where their coronation took place. In due course, their fourth child, Archduchess Marie Valerie was born (1868–1924). Afterwards, however, she again took up her former life of restlessly travelling through Europe, decades of what basically became a walking trance.
The Empress also engaged in writing poetry (such as the "Nordseelieder" and "Winterlieder", both inspirations from her favorite German poet, Heinrich Heine). Shaping her own fantasy world in poetry, she referred to herself as Titania,
Shakespeare's Fairy Queen. Most of her poetry refers to her journeys, classical Greek and romantic themes, as well
as ironic mockery on the Habsburg dynasty. In these years, Elisabeth also took up with an intensive study of both ancient and modern Greek, drowning in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. Numerous Greek lecturers (such as Marinaky, Christomanos, and Barker) had to accompany the Empress on her hour-long walks while reading Greek to her. Her Greek genealogical roots are presented in Greek pedigree of Empress Sisi. According to contemporary scholars, Empress Elisabeth knew Greek better than each of the Bavarian Greek Queens in the 19th century.
In 1889, Elisabeth's life was shattered by the death of her only son: 31-year-old Crown Prince Rudolf and his young lover Baroness Mary Vetsera were found dead, apparently by suicide. The scandal is known by the name ''Mayerling'', after the name of Rudolf's hunting lodge in Lower Austria.
After Rudolf's death, the Empress continued to be a myth, a sensation wherever she went: A long black gown that could be
buttoned up at the bottom, a white parasol made of leather and a brown fan to shun her face from curious looks became the
trademarks of the legendary Empress of Austria. Only few snapshots of Elisabeth in her last years are left, taken by photographers who were lucky enough to catch her without her noticing. The moments Elisabeth would show up in Vienna and see her husband were rare. Interestingly, their correspondence increased during those last years and the relationship between the Empress and the Emperor of Austria had become platonic and warm. On her imperial steamer, Miramar, Empress Elisabeth traveled restlessly through the Mediterranean. Her favorite places were Cap Martin at the French Riviera, where tourism had only started in the second half of the 19th century, Lake Geneva in Switzerland, Bad Ischl in Austria, where she would spend her summers, and Corfu. More than that, the Empress had visited countries no other sovereign had seen at the time: Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Malta, Greece, Turkey and Egypt. Traveling had become the sense of her life but also an escape from herself.
Assassination

On September 10, 1898, in Geneva, Switzerland, Elisabeth, aged 60, was stabbed to death in the heart with a needle file by a young anarchist named Luigi Lucheni, in an act of propaganda of the deed. Bleeding to death from a puncture wound to the heart, Elisabeth's last words were "What happened to me?" Reportedly, her assassin had hoped to kill a prince from the House of Orléans and, failing to find him, turned on Elisabeth instead as she was walking along the promenade of Lake Geneva about to board a steamship for Montreux with her lady-of-courtesy, Countess Sztaray. As Lucheni afterward said, "I wanted to kill a royal. It did not matter which one."
Arms of Empress Elisabeth of Austria

The empress was buried in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna's city centre which for centuries served as the Imperial burial place.

The myth


Monument of Elisabeth of Bavaria (Sisi) in Szeged, Hungary.

While Elisabeth's role and influence on Austro-Hungarian politics should not be overestimated (she is only marginally mentioned in scholarly books on Austrian history), she has undoubtedly become a 20th century icon, often compared to Diana, Princess of Wales. She was considered to be a free spirit who abhorred conventional court protocol. She has inspired filmmakers and theatrical producers alike.
In the 1980s, Brigitte Hamann, a historian renowned for her book on Hitler's early years in Vienna (see bibliography), wrote a biography of Elisabeth, again fuelling interest in Franz Joseph's consort.
Tourism has profited enormously from the renewed interest in Elisabeth and vice versa, both in Austria and abroad. Apart from the usual souvenirs such as T-shirts and coffee mugs, visitors are eager to see the various residences Elisabeth frequented at different points in her life. These include her apartments in the Hofburg and the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, the imperial villa in Ischl, the in Corfu, Greece that she built in 1890, soon after her son's tragic death, and her summer residence in Gödöllő, Hungary.
Elisabeth loved Hungary far more than Austria and surrounded herself with Hungarian ladies-in-waiting, being particularly close to Marie Festetics and Ida Ferenczy. She insisted that her attendants speak Hungarian, which she herself spoke fluently. One of her closest friends, and a reputed lover, was Count Andrassy who later became Emperor Franz-Joseph's Foreign Minister. Elisabeth's attachment to Hungary benefitted the Empire because the Hungarian people returned the attachment. They considered her the only Habsburg they trusted. Her flagrant and well-known preference for Hungary mollified the Hungarians while antagonizing the Viennese, who were seething with resentment over Habsburg arrogance, and solidified the Empire. There are several sites in Hungary named after her, most famously the Erzsébet híd (Elisabeth Bridge) in Budapest.

In literature, film, television & theater


In the German-speaking world, her name will forever be associated with a trilogy of romantic films about her life directed by Ernst Marischka starring a young and still unknown Romy Schneider in the title role:

★ ''Sissi'' (1955)

★ ''Sissi — die junge Kaiserin'' (1956) (''Sissi — The Young Empress'')

★ ''Sissi — Schicksalsjahre einer Kaiserin'' (1957) (''Sissi — Fateful Years of an Empress'')
The three films, now newly restored, are shown every Christmas on Austrian and German TV and have done much to create the myth surrounding Elisabeth. It may be assumed that for the average Austrian and German these films are the only source of knowledge as far as Elisabeth's life is concerned. A condensed version dubbed in English was published under the title ''Forever My Love''.
Romy Schneider loathed the role, claiming "Sisi sticks to me like glue." Later she was able to achieve a sort of satisfaction, appearing as a much more realistic and fascinating Elisabeth in Luchino Visconti's ''Ludwig'' a 1972 movie about Elisabeth's cousin, Ludwig II of Bavaria. A portrait of herself in this film was the only one of her roles she had displayed in her home.
Ava Gardner also played the Empress in the 1968 film "Mayerling" (Omar Sharif and Catherine Deneuve played the doomed lovers). She too, had one sole film portrait of herself on display in her home. It was from the aforementioned film.
She was the subject of a 1991 German movie called ''Sisi/Last Minute'' (original '''Sisi und der Kaiserkuß''' "Sisi and the kiss of the Emperor"). The movie starred Vanessa Wagner as Sisi, Nils Tavernier as Emperor Franz Joseph and Sonja Kirchberger as Nene.[1]
In 1974, Elisabeth was portrayed in the British television series ''Fall of Eagles'' by Diane Keen (as the young Elisabeth) and Rachel Gurney (as Elisabeth at the time of Prince Rudolf's death).
In 2007, Takarazuka Revue Company performed a large musical version of her life.
In one of the episodes of the Austrian TV show, Kommissar Rex (1994), about a police dog who always solves his owner and police inspector cases, the myth of Sissi is shown under the influence of her legacy in a young woman who often sneaks into a palace where Sissi lived and starts acting like her, during the night, when the museum is closed. This includes riding in the park, using hair ribbons similar to the ones Elisabeth was known for using and even sleeping in the Empress' bed, dressed in vintage nightwear, after had brushed her hair the Sissi way, separating it in two parts spread over the pillow, so that the strings won't be messed up by the morning. All this, of course, using Sissi's old brush. This episode is the 13th of Season 5 of the show (and the last from that season), is called "Sissi" and originally aired on 22 April 1999. The empress-obsessed character's name is Marion and she is played by actress Marion Mitterhammer.

In music


Main articles: Elisabeth (Musical)

Fritz Kreisler composed a comic opera 'Sissi', which premiered in Vienna in 1932. The libretto was written by Ernst and Hubert Marischka.
In 1992, the musical ''Elisabeth'' premièred at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, Austria. Written by Michael Kunze (libretto, lyrics) and Sylvester Levay (music) it has also been produced successfully in Hungary, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland and in Japan.
In the film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera" , the character Christine is wearing a gown inspired by a portrait of Elizabeth of Bavaria by Franz Xavier Winterhalter during her opera debut when she performs the song "Think of Me".
French ballet dancer Sylvie Guillem appeared to great acclaim at the Paris Opera Ballet in a piece titled "Sissi Imperatice" , choreographed by Maurice Bejart.
Kenneth MacMillan's ballet, ''Mayerling'', has a role for Elizabeth.

Ancestry



Literature


Sisi's desk at the Achilleion


Brigitte Hamann: ''The Reluctant Empress: A Biography of Empress Elisabeth of Austria'' (Knopf: 1986) (ISBN 0-394-53717-3) (410pp.).

★ Brigitte Hamann: ''Sissi, Elisabeth, Empress of Austria'' (Taschen America: 1997) (ISBN 3-8228-7865-0) (short, illustrated).

★ Barry Denenburg: ''The Royal Diaries Elisabeth, The Princess Bride''

★ Konstantin Christomanos: ''Diaries'' (''Tagebuchblaetter'', several editions in Modern Greek, German, French)

★ Matt Pavelich: ''Our Savage'' (Shoemaker & Hoard: 2004) (ISBN 1-59376-023-X) (270pp.).

★ Nicole Avril: ''L'impératrice'', Paris, 1993

★ Matteo Tuveri: ''Specchi ad angoli obliqui. Diario poetico di Elisabetta d’Austria'', Aracne Editrice, Roma, 2006 (ISBN 88-548-0741-9)

★ Matteo Tuveri: ''Tabularium. Considerazioni su Elisabetta d'Austria'', Aracne, Roma, 2007 (ISBN 978-88-548-1148-5)

External links



Elisabeth website

[2] Empress Elisabeth

★ ''Sissi'' movies at IMDb:



















This article provided by Wikipedia. To edit the contents of this article, click here for original source.

psst.. try this: add to faves