"I am Sunday's child, a child of the sun; Her golden rays she wove into my throne, With her glow she wove my crown, It is in her light that I live". Empress Sisi
"But of all the followers of the hunt it was the Empres, with her radiant beauty, her fine seat on a horse and her wonderful figure, who was the cynosure of all eyes. Horses and the care of her figure were her two chief interests in life, and she carried her love of equestrianism so far that she even practised circus-riding in her private riding school at Gödöllő. Horses, too, furnished her favourite topic of conversation, and on one occasion my stepmother, who was no respecter of persons, after listening for some time to what the Empress had to say on the subject, dryly remarked "Est-ce que Votre Majesté ne pense qu’ aux chevaux?" History does not record Her Majesty’s answer, but I should imagine that the conversation, was brought to a speedy close!"
Sir George Buchanan "My mission to Russia: And other diplomatic memories"
We all know media loves to paint Elisabeth and her family as humble country people who lived in a modest state and were look down by the rest of their relatives for being "poor". But how did being "poor" looked like for the Ducal Wittelsbach? Well, let's look at their states! Yes, plural.
The most famous residence of the Ducal Wittelsbach was Possenhofen, a humble, small castle at the shore of Lake Starnberg that acted as the family's summer state.
This is said humble castle btw:
Ok, so if "humble" Possenhofen was just a summer residence, what was the main residence of Ducal Wittelsbach? Well, that would be Herzog Max Palais, a neoclassical three-story palace in Munich built for Duke Max between 1828 and 1830. In case you don't know, Elisabeth was born here!
Sadly, the palace was demolished and no longer exists today.
Was this all? Well, no! Because Duke Max also owned a hunting lodge called Unterwittelsbach near Aichach:
This castle acted as a sort of bachelor residence for Duke Max; neither his wife nor children were allowed to visit. Ironically, today Untterwittelsbach is known as the "Sisi Castle" and a museum about the empress works there.
Ok, this is it! Three castles! Pretty impressive for this alleged poor royal fam- KIDDING DID YOU REALLY THOUGHT THAT WAS IT?
You see, when Max bought Possenhofen he also bought another property at the shore of Lake Starnberg: Garatshausen Castle
Today the castle is owned by the Thurn und Taxis, and hosts a hospital and retirement residence.
Ok now we are done for real... with the castles Duke Max owned. Ludovika had her own castles too!
Ludovika inhereted from her parents two properties: Tegernsee Abbey (left) and Biederstein Castle (right) (disclaimer: Biederstein was actually two castles: the Old Castle built in the 18th century - pictured here in the 1890s - and the New Castle, built in the 1820s)
Tegernsee is the only property on this list that is still owned by the Wittelsbachs. Meanwhile Biederstein Castle was bombed during WW2 and no longer exists today.
Ok, so now for real real, that is it! I may be missing some property, but as far as I'm aware, Max and Ludovika owned these six residences (seven if we consider that Biederstein was two castles). Much for Sisi being a humble country girl right?
Letter from Baroness Mary Vetsera to her friend Hermine Tobbis, on her first meeting with Crown Prince Rudolf on November 5 of 1888:
Today you receive a blissful letter, because I was with him [Crown Prince Rudolf]; Marie Larisch [friend of the Vetseras and Rudolf's first cousin] took me along to do errands, then we went to “Adèle” to have ourselves photographed—for Him, naturally—and then we went behind the Grand Hotel again, where Bratfisch [Rudolf's coachman] was waiting for us. We buried our faces deep in our boas, and away we went at a racing gallop—to the [Hofburg] palace.—At a small iron door, an old manservant was waiting for us; he led us up through a number of dark staircases and rooms and finally stopped in front of a door and bade us enter. As we entered, a black bird, a kind of raven, flew at my head and a voice from the next room called out: “Please, Ladies, step in further, I’m here.” We went in, Marie introduced me, and we were soon deeply engaged in a Viennese conversation. Finally he said: “I must speak to the Countess alone” and went into another room with Marie. During this time, I examined everything: on his desk, there lay a revolver and a skull. I took the latter into my hand and peered at it from all sides. Suddenly he came back in and, quite startled, took it out of my hand. When I told him that I was not scared of him at all, he smiled. As we were leaving, he led us himself through a dark hall and to a staircase, and said to Marie: “Bring her to me again soon, please!”
You must swear to me to tell no one of this letter, neither Hanna [Mary's sister] nor Mama [Baroness Helene Vetsera], because if either of those two should ever hear of it, I would have to kill myself.
Arens, Katherine (2014). Belle Necropolis: Ghosts of Imperial Vienna
Pictured: Countess Marie Larisch (left) and Baroness Mary Vetsera (right). Mary dated this picture and gave it to her friend Hermine as a present, saying to her that "that was the first time I was at the Crown Prince's". Via Wikimedia Commons.
just out of general curiosity, has there ever been any reports about how sisi looked when she was older?
Hello! There are few but detailed descriptions are rare, usually people who met Elisabeth in her old age didn't comment on how she looked, out of respect I suppose. Brigitte Hamann in her biography of Elisabeth quotes two testimonies of people that saw the empress as an older woman:
Many observers noted the great disparity between legend and reality. One of these was Prince Alfons Clary- Aldringen, who saw the Empress in Territet when he was a small boy in 1896—1897. He and his sister were in the hills behind the hotel where both the Clary family and the Empress were staying. When they saw the black, slender figure of the Empress, the children blocked her path, “and lo and behold, because no adult was nearby, this time the Empress did not open her fan! My sister curtseyed, and I made my best bow; she smiled at us in a friendly way — but I was stunned, for I saw a face full of wrinkles, looking as old as the hills.”
When the children spoke to their grandmother of the encounter, she solemnly told them, “Children, do not forget this day, when you saw the most beautiful woman in the world!” Alfons Clary: “In response to my smart-aleck answer, ‘But, Grandmama, her face is all wrinkled!’ I received a hefty slap.”
(...) Only very, very few still knew the Empress during her final years. To accidental observers, encounters with her during this time were deeply disappointing. For example, the actress Rosa Albach-Retty saw the Empress and her lady-in-waiting. Countess Sztaray, in 1898 in a small country inn in Bad Ischl. Since Elisabeth’s true appearance was nowhere pictured, Retty did not recognize the ladies at once. One was “clearly in mourning, for with her black, high-necked dress she wore black laced boots and a black hat, its thick veil turned back over a broad brim.” It was the Empress. The other lady, younger and in light clothing. Countess Sztaray, briefly went into the inn, leaving Elisabeth alone at the table. Rosa Albach-Retty: “For seconds Elisabeth stared downward, then with her left hand she took out her dentures, held them sideways over the edge of the table, and rinsed them off by pouring a glass of water over them. Then she put them back in her mouth. All this was done with such graceful nonchalance, but most particularly at such lightning speed, that at first I could not believe my eyes.” (1986, p. 360)
For what I could find, the sources for these statements are memoirs published decades after the end of the monarchy - unsurprising that they describe the empress in such a graceless way. For instance, compare it to how Countess Irma Sztáray, Elisabeth's lady-in-waiting, describes in her memoirs, published in 1909, her first meeting with the empress in 1894:
With a beating heart, I stood with my companion at the corner of the villa. I immediately caught sight of Her Majesty walking. Under her large white parasol, the light fell on her loose, billowing hair, which enveloped her royal figure like a sparkling cape. Then she turned around. We approached, and I was introduced.
There was something about her that fascinated me. When her gaze, in which sadness could be read, fell upon me for the first time, I felt as if I had fallen under the spell of a supernatural being, and the painful feeling of my mediocrity, of my banality, invaded me. I don’t know if she noticed it, but the fact remains that she came to my aid with that gracious smile that bewitched you—and freed you. It was a truly unforgettable audience.
(...) My shyness melted like snow in the sun. I perceived the proximity of a great and beautiful soul who encouraged me, and even elevated me. Certainly, I had the impression that I would never reach her height of views, nevertheless I felt drawn, lifted up by her goodness. I guessed the force of her ascendancy over others, and immediately, from this first meeting, I placed my whole soul in her hands, by virtue of the irresistible attraction exercised by beings who aspire to elevated spheres. (2009, p. 30-31)
To be honest, I don't think any of these testimonies are particularly reliable, they're all from years after Elisabeth's death, and were written having in mind that there would be an audience reading them. So if I ever find a contemporary description of her I'll definitely share it!
Sources:
Hamann, Brigitte (1986). The Reluctant Empress: A Biography of Empress Elisabeth of Austria (translation by Ruth Hein)
Sztáray, Irma (2009). Mes années avec Sissi. Par la derniére dame d’honneur d’Elisabeth d’Autriche (translation by Michéle Valencia)
On this 24th of December, of course, there was nothing to indicate that the little person who was soon to see the light of day had an unusual life ahead of her. Nor was it a special service that the three ministers had to perform on Christmas Eve of all days in Duke Maximilian's palace in Ludwigstraße. It was merely a matter of certifying the birth of another member of the House of Wittelsbach, which was part of their official duties. The twenty-nine-year-old head of the house, Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria, became a father for the fourth time in these hours. Two sons and a daughter had already been given to him — although the second of his sons had died in his first year. Now his wife Ludovika was once again in labour. She had actually wanted to spend the hours of the gift-giving with her mother on this Christmas Eve, but her doctor had forbidden it. He suspected that the labour pains would begin on that very evening — and he was right.
The ministers had been waiting for over an hour when Ludovika — or Louise, as the twenty-nine-year-old was also called in the family circle - went through the final stage of her fourth delivery. The birth took place in Ludovika's “white boudoir”. For her emotional support, she was assisted by four women who were also her closest confidants: her mother, the widowed Queen Caroline of Bavaria; her former governess, the now Obersthofmeisterin Countess Auguste of Rottenhan; her half-sister Duchess Auguste of Leuchtenberg, twenty years her senior, who resided in the nearby Palais Leuchtenberg, and her daughter Eugenie, wife of the Hereditary Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen. Ludovika's two ladies-in-waiting kept themselves ready in the adjoining rooms. Their task was to be at the service of their mistress's high relatives as soon as they left the boudoir of the woman in childbirth.
Ludovika's appartment directly adjoined the ceremonial rooms of the ducal palace, which also included the reception salon with its mythological frescoes. The ministers waiting here assumed that the birth would not take much longer; otherwise they would not have been brought to the palace — especially on Christmas Eve. In cases like this, they were never notified after the first onset of labour.
Exactly one hour and thirteen minutes after the ministers arrived at the Palais, their wait came to an end: the second daughter of Duke Maximilian and Duchess Ludovika saw the light of day. Now the ministers were called to the boudoir of the duchess, where the midwife presented the newborn to them. The fact that Duchess Ludovika was resting on the chaise longue in her nightdress and dressing gown after the strains of childbirth and that neither her clothes nor her hair were in a condition to receive foreign visitors, indeed that a woman of royal blood never received or had to receive gentlemen in her boudoir anyway — all this was overlooked. After all, the court regulations had to be complied with. And these demanded that a newborn child be presented to the responsible high state officials immediately after birth. This was to ensure that a child whose name was entered on the birth certificate as a legitimate member of the House of Wittelsbach actually had the mistress of the house as its mother. Incidentally, this was also the reason why the ministers had to wait near the woman giving birth. The child's ducal origin and its rightful affiliation to the Wittelsbach dynasty were to be guaranteed beyond doubt. At least the duchess was spared the presence of official witnesses during the delivery. Unlike at the British royal court, Ludovika did not have to go through the intimate act of birth in front of the ministers, protected only by a kind of mobile screen that covered the lower half of the woman's body but exposed her upper body to the gaze of family strangers.
The official act of witnessing was done quickly. After seeing the baby and offering the obligatory congratulations, Sebastian Freiherr von Schrenk, Ludwig Ritter von Wiesinger and Freiherr von Gise left the boudoir. They noted in the birth protocol that another princess had been born to the House of Wittelsbach at exactly ten o'clock and forty-three minutes on the evening of 24 December 1837. They had thus fulfilled their duty and could hurry home to their families.
The newborn girl was given the name Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie. The godmother was an older sister of Ludovika — Elisabeth Ludovika of Prussia, who would become Queen of Prussia three years after the birth of her godchild. The little princess was given her second name, Amalie, in honour of her godmother's twin sister, later Queen of Saxony. Finally, the third name Eugenie referred to the cousin who had assisted Ludovika in her labour. Two days after her birth, Elisabeth was baptised in the collegiate church of St. Kajetan, the court church in Munich called “Theatinerkirche”.
Winkelhofer, Martina (2021). Sisis Weg: Vom Mädchen zur Frau – Kaiserin Elisabeths erste Jahre am Wiener Hof (Translation done by DeepL. Please keep in mind that in a machine translation a lot of nuance may/will be lost)
ON THIS DAY, IN 1837, DUCHESS ELISABETH AMALIE EUGENIE IN BAVARIA WAS BORN. She was the fourth child and second daughter of Duke Maximilian in Bavaria and his wife, Princess Ludovika of Bavaria. At 16 years-old she married her cousin Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria and became the second to last Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary.
Letter from Archduchess Sophie to her daughter-in-law Archduchess Margarethe, on the Christmas Eve of 1857:
December 28, 1857
… Christmas presents downstairs with my children [the Imperial couple and their daughter Archduchess Gisela] went much better than we could have expected after our painful loss [the death of the couple's first child, Sophie, on May], as our dear, now only child softened all the melancholy memories with her so kind friendliness and joy. When her father carried her into all the splendors, she looked around in silent amazement, then standing at her little table, she looked closely at every toy, held a stuffed puppy, which set a clockwork in motion and which wriggled on all its limbs, calmly in her little hand and played delicately, so calmly and joyfully with all her splendors. Once she shouted for joy, which is her habit when she is happy, and the next morning every time she saw all her beautiful things again in the next room, only a few of which she gets to play with every day, she shouted for joy again! - When her mother said she had to go to bed on Christmas Eve, she went gently, without reluctance. She only slipped two bracelets, which her beloved grandfather and I had given her, off her arms with difficulty, thinking she would have to leave them with the toys and wanted to give them to Sophie Esterhazy [Oberhofmeisterin of the Empress], but she kept them firmly in her hands and after a few bows she went her way in a friendly manner.
Praschl-Bichler, Gabriel (2008). Unsere liebe Sisi. Die Wahrheit über Erzherzogin Sophie und Kaiserin Elisabeth (Translation done by DeepL. Please keep in mind that in a machine translation a lot of nuance may/will be lost)
[Pictured: Litography of Archduchess Gisela, by Adolf Dauthage, 1860].
A year of separations and mourning, but he [King Francesco II of the Two Sicilies] found time to remember the birth, twenty-four months earlier, of his daughter, "that little Angel that God wanted to deprive me of".
Di Fiore, Gigi (2018). L'ultimo re di Napoli. L'esilio di Francesco II di Borbone nell'Italia dei Savoia
Family life actually existed only at Christmas time, when Grandmother Sophie gathered the family around her, including all her grandchildren. In her diary, Archduchess Sophie captured in her diary the “governing” game of the little archdukes during Christmas 1868: Rudolf appoints the five-year-old Franz Ferdinand, who is sitting in a big comfortable chair, to be King. He and all the others are the ministers. Now the Crown Prince approaches and asks: ‘What representatives do you wish to elect?’ Franz Ferdinand wants to get up, but he proceeds rather clumsily and falls down. Great merriment, but Rudolf says thoughtfully: ‘It is not a good omen when a king falls from the throne.’
Hamann, Brigitte (2017). Rudolf. Crown Prince and Rebel (translation by Edith Borchardt)
[Pictured: Archduchess Maria Annunziata with her sons, Franz Ferdinand and Otto, circa 1866 (left); Crown Prince Rudolf, circa 1867 (right). Via ÖNB.]
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