Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary - the Diana of the 19th Century?

Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie Hapsburg, empress, wife, and mother. Her fashion sense was obsessively copied by the public. Her hairstyles were flawless. Her pictures were in every newspaper. She was thought to be the most beautiful woman of her time.

But she was deeply unhappy. She wrote melancholic poetry starting on her honeymoon (that’s a bummer), was emotionally imprisoned by her overbearing in-laws, had an eating disorder, obsessed about her appearance, and died a tragic death. Elisabeth, it seems, was Diana before being Diana was cool.

She was the second-to-last Empress of a dynasty that reigned over much of Eastern Europe for over 800 years. She possessed remarkable intelligence and political savvy and recognized the trend of world politics toward republicanism. She died a decade and a half before her continent would erupt in war after the assassination of her husband’s heir. Her passing is thought to have figuratively deprived the Hapsburgs of the last jewel in their ancient political crown.

Let’s take a closer look at this woman – an empress, an icon and an historical emblem of the uneasy time period she lived in.

Elisabeth met her future husband at a family reunion/blind date (family functions were basically singles mixers for European royals in the 19^th century). In 1853 Elisabeth’s mother, Duchess Ludovika of Bavaria, was invited by her aunt, the Dowager Empress of Austria-Hungary, to Bad Ischl. The Dowager Empress was anxious for her son, the 23-year-old Emperor Franz Josef, to marry his female cousin. Only Elisabeth wasn’t the female cousin. It was her older sister Helene who was intended for the Emperor, and 15-year-old Elisabeth was along for moral support.

It is reported that Franz Josef took one look at his lovely younger cousin and lost all interest in Helene. His mother and advisors could not dissuade him: he told them he would have Elisabeth or no one at all. Elisabeth consented to marry him the day after they met. It was a whirlwind; one imagines she barely had time to catch her breath, and historians can only imagine the pressure put on her by her aunt and mother. The next year she became his Empress Consort and the ruler of 50 million people.

She was sixteen.

Elisabeth was renowned for her compassion. She reserved special concern for the poorer classes of her husband’s empire, especially those in her beloved Hungary. The only person she could not love, by all reports, was herself.

Elisabeth objectified her body but had an alarming lack of self-esteem. She (along with the rest of Europe) idolized her luscious floor-length hair. She once said: “I am a slave to my hair.” She cared for it obsessively and refused to leave her chambers if her preferred hairdresser, Franziska Feifalik, was ill or unavailable. She had her tresses washed in a mixture of cognac and eggs, a time-consuming process that required the cancellation of all her engagements for that particular day. Woe to the diplomat who wished to see Her Imperial Majesty on a bad hair day - she would isolate herself from visitors.

Elisabeth weighed herself up to three times a day and practiced extreme portion control to maintain her famous 20-inch waist (most thighs aren’t that small!). She often went on bizarre diets to lose weight, living on half-cooked meat and milk for days at a time. It is commonly believe that she purged many of the meals she did consume (meaning that she suffered from a vicious overlap of the two most common eating disorders of today, anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa). She suffered from anemia and often had to escape the imperial palace at Schönbrunn for stints at various spas and health retreats across Europe. Various excuses were made for her at court, although of course through vicious gossip all the nobility knew the real reason.

She had a great passion for horseback riding that oftentimes became an obsessive habit to control her weight. She often took 8-hour horse rides. The Empress installed a modern gymnasium with dumbbells and other apparatuses to facilitate her fanatical exercise regime. Outdoors she went on power walks. She reportedly harbored such a vocal dread of growing fat that her youngest daughter was traumatized upon first meeting Queen Victoria (who had succumbed to morbid Hanoverian obesity).

Elisabeth’s frantic desire for control over her body and appearance probably stemmed from the lack of control she had over every other area of her life. She gave birth to her first child less than a year after her marriage, when she herself was still very much a child. The baby was named Sophie by Elisabeth’s mother-in-law and aunt, the Dowager Empress, who isolated the child from her mother. Elisabeth was not allowed to be alone with Sophie, to breasfeed her, or to make any decisions regarding her care. Sophie died at the age of two.

Her other two children were born soon after. Crown Prince Rudolf and Archduchess Gisela were also swiftly removed from her care by the domineering Dowager Empress, who ruled supreme in the Imperial household.

There is substantial evidence to show that Elisabeth was alarmed and uncomfortable with the technicalities of conception and childbearing, and after Gisela’s birth the Emperor and Empress did not have a child for another ten years.

If not for Elisabeth's youngest daughter, Marie-Valerie, it’s possible that Austria-Hungary would never have existed.

How do we say this delicately? Elisabeth was uncomfortable with physical intimacy, and her husband’s frustration with this was widely known in court (these aversions are now known to be common among women suffering from eating disorders). Hungary had staged a revolution in 1848 to throw off Hapsburg control, but the country was in turmoil by 1867. Franz Josef was reluctant to negotiate a reconciliation with the country but Elisabeth was fiercely in favor of the move (she had great love for Hungary and spoke the language; the subjects there were fond of her). Long story short: Franz Josef authorized the readmission of Hungary into the Empire, he and Elisabeth were crowned King and Queen of Hungary, and…nine months later, there’s a new Archduchess.

The circumstances raised eyebrows at court. Because of his wife’s frigidity, Franz Josef had carried on many extramarital affairs. But he had never overcome his adolescent adoration of Elisabeth, and her personal feelings (and the leverage they carried with the Emperor) were instrumental in the reunification.

Elisabeth emphatically contained control over this last child and was completely infatuated with her, often to the exclusion of her other children. Marie-Valerie was sometimes referred to as “The Only Child.” Elisabeth chose to have her last baby in Hungary, a move which clearly signals an emerging individuality and a strengthening of her will.

Elisabeth's only son Crown Prince Rudolf and his mistress were found dead at his hunting lodge in Vienna (the 2006 film The Illusionist dramatizes and re-interprets this event). Murder-suicide was the conclusion. Elisabeth was unable to fully recover from this loss and never emerged from full mourning.

Elisabeth’s death was premature, senseless, and entirely shocking - not unlike Diana's. She was walking down the street in Geneva with a lady-in-waiting in 1898 when a disturbed anarchist, Luigi Lucheni, assaulted her with a four-inch file. He had been intent upon assassinating one of the members of nobility who were often vacationing in Geneva. He admitted to not knowing who Elisabeth was when he stabbed her.

Elisabeth and her companion had been en route to board their steamer home. The famous tightness of her laces stanched the bleeding long enough for her to reach the steamer. The wounds were fatal. Her last words: “What has happened?” An interesting epitaph for a woman who had been confused and frustrated by life since her ascension to a major European throne while still a young teenager.

She was buried with the rest of the Hapsburgs at the Church of the Capuchins. Her heart was cut out and housed at the church where she married Franz Josef.