Elisabeth was born in Munich, Bavaria, as the second daughter of duke Max Joseph of the house of Wittelsbach. When Elisabeth was 15 years old, her aunt Sophie, mother of emperor Franz Joseph, decided to marry Franz Joseph to one of the two daughters of the house of Wittelsbach. Elisabeth and her older sister had to meet the 23-year-old emperor in Bad Ischl, where he decided to take his 15-year-old cousin Elisabeth to his wife.
Elisabeth,now 17 years old, gave birth to her first daughter Sophie soon followed by Gisela, the second daughter. Franz Joseph's mother decided that Elisabeth was too young to raise her children and took them away from her. When Sissi wanted to see the chlildren, she had to ask for permission. Franz Joseph was never able to contradict his mother until the emperor's daughters got very sick on a journey and Sophie, the oldest, died in Sissi's arms. Afterwards, he promised Sissi the regular contact to her children and the right to raise them. Soon afterwards, Sissi gave birth to crown prince Rudolf. However, after Sophie's death, the mother didn't show much interest in her children anymore and after Rudolf's death, Elisabeth decided to only wear black.
Later in Hungary, she gave birth to her youngest daughter, Marie Valerie. Marie Valerie was said to be Sissi's favorite child - the only she really took care of. They tried to spent as much time together as possible - one reason why Marie was called "the only one".
Throughout her lifetime, Elisabeth was obsessed with traveling. She spend more time traveling than taking care of political manners and hardly kept contact to her family at home. Marie Valerie was the only one who got to accompany her mother.
As she got older, the emperor's wife repeatedly suffered from various diseases. Accoring to Marie Valerie's diary, her mother more and more often talked about death. Sometimes she said how much she wanted to die, and that death is beautiful. Experts say that depression and mental diseases were genetically handed down in the house of Wittelsbach. This would also explain why Rudolf suffered from depression.
Also, Elisabeth became continually more obsessed with her beauty. In Marie Valerie's diary, one can read that Elisabeth frequently had her hair combed by one of her servants. When Elisabeth saw only one hair in the comb, she refused to eat for days. That's why the servants usually took the hair out of the comb before Elisabeth could see it. But even without any proof of lost hair, she frequently decided to go on diets. That's how she managed to keep her weight of less than 50 kg with a height of 172 cm. She was literally starving herself, which led to various edemata. Nevertheless, she wanted to keep her weight by hardly eating anything and working out everyday.
In 1898 Elisabeth was staying in Bad Nauheim to cure a heart disease. However, she left the city in a hurry without any package. On her way to a ship, she got stabbed in her heart by an anarchist called Luigi Lucheni. The wound was so small that nobody could see it and everyone thought he just punched her. She went on the ship, talked to some people about the incident and suddenly collapsed saying "what happened to me?". Soon afterwards she died in a hotel room.
I don't know what exactly is fascinating me so much about the life of this family. I think it's the fact that when you are a child you always think "wow, those princesses, and emperors..they had a great life..I'd like to be one too". Then you grow up and in school you only hear about the major events in history. You never really hear about the life's of those who were in charge. Marie Valerie's diary gives you the opportunity to dive into this world, and get a taste of what being an emperor, or his wife, daughter etc. really meant. Even though they had everything they wanted, their life's were more than miserable. Once you read about how desperate Elisabeth was, about the cold relationship between her and Franz Joseph, about how the children suffered under the pressure, you realize that this is the best proof that might and money can't make you happy.
-> I highly recommend this book to all of you who are interested in Sissi's life. Her daughter as a secret observer offers the best insight. :)