Empress Elisabeth of Austria (December 24, 1837 – September 10, 1898), born Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie and famously nicknamed Sisi (or Sissi)note , was the wife of King Franz Joseph I of the Austrian empire, as well as Queen of Hungary after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise.
Elisabeth was born a duchess of Bavaria. Her father, Duke Maximilian Joseph of the House of Wittelsbach, was reputedly eccentric and Sisi and her siblings were raised unconventionally. In 1853, Archduchess Sophie planned to marry her son Franz Joseph to Elisabeth's older sister Helene. At their meeting, Franz was taken with Elisabeth instead, and the two were betrothed after only a few days. They married eight months later and Elisabeth came to court.
However, the new empress's freer childhood made her a poor fit for the customs and etiquette of the Habsburg court, and she developed a famously fractious relationship with her mother-in-law that worsened the longer Elisabeth took to bear a male heir. After bearing two daughters, she eventually gave birth to Rudolf in 1858 (who was his own can of worms, see below). Sophie took charge of rearing Elisabeth's children, which did not improve her relationship with the Empress. Sisi became ill after this and took the excuse to flee the court and would continue to shirk her royal duties for the rest of her life; despite their famed love match, her marriage to Franz Joseph never quite returned to what it initially was.
She was a renowned beauty, famous for her height, long brown hair, and fashions. Elisabeth took great care to maintain her appearance and rigorously followed diet and exercise routines. A horse girl turned it girl, Sisi maintained her love of horse-riding into adulthood, and several portraits depict her astride a steed. Pamphlets produced during the time reported often on Sisi's habits, travels, and routines, increasing her notoriety among her subjects and the rest of Europe.
In 1889, Rudolf died in a murder suicide with his young mistress in what would be known as the Mayerling incident. This loss was one of many family members Elisabeth had lost in succession, and she sank into melancholy and never recovered.
The Empress was assassinated in 1898. She was traveling in Geneva, Switzerland, when Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni had been hoping to merc Philippe, Duke of Orleans. Lucheni missed the guy and decided any dead monarch would do, and snuck up on Elisabeth and fatally stabbed her.
Because of all this (her unconventional childhood, romantic but troubled marriage, great beauty, fame, and assassination) Elisabeth's story and her complex inner life, particularly her attempts to maintain her beauty, identity, and independence in a less-than-fairytale marriage, are commonly portrayed and romanticized in historical fiction.
Portrayals in media:
Film
- Played by Lil Dagover in the 1931 biopic Elisabeth Of Austria.
- Played by Grace Moore in the 1936 comedy The King Steps Out.
- Famously played by Romy Schneider in a trilogy of films by Ernst Marischka: Sissi and its two sequels Sissi the Young Empress (1956) and Sissi: Fateful Years of an Empress (1957).
- Played by Ava Gardner in the 1968 depiction of the Mayerling incident, Mayerling.
- Schneider would reprise the role of Sissi in 1972's Ludwig, about the woman's cousin Ludwig II of Bavaria.
- The 2022 film Corsage stars Vicky Krieps as an older and more jaded portrayal of the Empress.
- One of two leads in the 2023 black comedy Sisi & I, played by Susanne Wolfe.
Literature
- Features briefly in Flashman and the Tiger at a ball.
- One installment of The Royal Diaries, Elisabeth, the Princess Bride, centers around her youth.
- She goes as King Incognito in Sissi In Ireland.
Live-Action TV
- Cristiana Capotondi plays her in the 2009 biopic two-part miniseries Sisi.
- She's played by Dominique Devenport in the 2021 biopic miniseries Sisi.
- Played by Devrim Lingnau in the 2022 period drama The Empress, about her early marriage.
- The first episode of Fall of Eagles depicts her early marriage, and the fourth depicts the Mayerling incident.
Theatre
- She is the subject of the musical Elisabeth, which features her as haunted by death throughout her life.
- The Jean Cocteau play L'Aigle à deux têtes is partially inspired by Sisi's assassination. It would be adapted into The Eagle With Two Heads, also by Cocteau, and The Mystery Of Oberwald.
- Mayerling, a ballet about her son's death, features her as a supporting character.
- She's a supporting character in Ephemeral Love (also called Mayerling) a musical by the Takarazuka Revue about her son's death.
Western Animation
- The cartoon Princess Sissi is loosely based on her early marriage.
