Obscure Book of the Day: Emperor Franz Josef and Empress Elizabeth

The twenty-fourth in the “Royal Romances: The Love Affairs that Shaped History” tells the tale of Austrian Emperor Franz Josef and his wife/cousin, the Empress Elisabeth. Their story is…well…ummm…not too pleasant.


Let’s start at the beginning (sort of). Franz Josef I was born in 1830 in the Schönbrunn Palace (which I best know, really, in the context of Britain’s Queen Mary who was a guest there a few times) in Vienna. Franz was the oldest son of Archduke Franz Karl (the youngest son of Holy Roman Emperor Francis II), and Princess Sophie of Bavaria.

Now, what else was going on in Austria-Hungary at the time? Anyone remember the Emperor Ferdinand? He was considered, for lack of a better term, “weak minded.” And, to be honest, the Archduke Franz Karl was considered rather lazy and shy. So, a lot fell on Franz Josef’s shoulders very early in his life. Of course, his mother, Sophie, was incredibly overbearing, and as soon as Franz Josef was old enough, all he heard was, and I paraphrase, “Get married would ya? Look how pretty your cousins are!” Sophie wanted heirs and she wanted them NOW. Franz Josef’s mother favored her sister’s eldest daughter as the best bride for her son, you know, as one does. But, Franz considered the younger of his cousins, Elisabeth, to be the more attractive. Sophie—she was not pleased. Elisabeth of Bavaria was not considered gentile enough for court life. However, she relented and Franz Josef and Elisabeth married.

(By the way, I have had to retype the name Josef each time now. After 37 years of writing my own name, I naturally go for the “ph.” Long live the digraph!)

So, Franz Josef and Elizabeth marry, and, they don’t really get along. It seems Sophie was right, Elisabeth was not cut out for court life. Lots of arguments ensued. Then, they lost a child. They, would later lose their only son to a reported, but questioned, “suicide.” Elisabeth grew distant and spent as little time at home as possible, focusing on her great passion for fashion. And, then, to top it all off, the Empress Elisabeth was stabbed to death in 1898 by an Italian anarchist, Luigi Lucheni. And, that was that.

Later, Franz Josef claimed that, “"You will never know how much I loved this woman." I don’t think anyone really believed it, but that’s what he supposedly claimed after Elizabeth’s assassination.

And, so, let’s take a look at the book…