Elizabeth

Kaiserin Elisabeth von Osterreich

Elisabeth was born on December 24, 1837 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany and was assassinated on September 10, 1898 in Geneva, Switzerland by an Italian anarchist, Luigi Luccheni. 

Elisabeth was the daughter of the Bavarian duke Maximilian Joseph.  In august 1853, she met her cousin Francis Joseph, then aged 23, who quickly fell in love with the 15-year old Elisabeth, who was regarded as the most beauti-ful princess in Europe.  Empress consort of Austria from April 24, 1854, when she married the emperor Francis Jo-seph I.  She was also queen of Hungary (crowned June 8, 1867) after the Austro-Hungarian Ausgleich, or Compro-mise.  Soon after their marriage, she showed a neurotic restlessness that may have been derived from her Wittels-bach ancestors.  Generally popular with her subjects, she offended Viennese high society by her impatience with the rigid etiquette of the court. 

The Hungarians admired her, especially for her endeavors in bringing about the Compromise of 1867.  She spent much time at Gödöllö, north of Budapest.  Her enthusiasm for Hungary, however, affronted German sentiment within Austria.  She partly assuaged Austrian feelings by her care for the wounded in the Seven Weeks’ War of 1866.   

The only son born of the union was Rudolf, Erzherzog Und Kronprinz Von Ōsterreich, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, whose reformist and liberal ideas were stifled by his conservative father.  Frustrated in his designs for having himself crowned king of Hungary and unhappy in his marriage, he fell into despondency.  In the morning of January 30, 1889, he and the baroness Maria Vetsera, with whom he had begun relations in October 1887, entered into a suicide pact and were found shot dead in a hunting lodge at Mayerling, a village on the Schwechat River in eastern Lower Austria.

Upon Rudolph’s death, his uncle Charles Louis became heir to the throne.  When Charles Louis died in 1896, his son Francis Ferdinand became the heir and his assassination in Sarajevo, of course, led to World War I, Hitler’s rise and World War II. 

The suicide of her only son, the crown prince Rudolf, was a shock from which Elisabeth never fully recovered.  During a visit to Switzerland in 1898, she was mortally stabbed and died on September 10, 1898.

Elisabeth was a very popular princess even before she became queen of Hungary and was considered the most beautiful of the European princesses.  Unfortunately, the German population of Austria didn’t care for her.

Prepared from material in the Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite 2004 CD, edited by the author.

December 2004
LFC