Empress Elisabeth of Austria, affectionately known as “Sisi”, had a life that began as a romantic fairy tale but evolved into a tale of profound tragedy. Her marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph I began on April 24, 1854, after he fell madly in love with the 16-year-old Bavarian duchess.
However, the union was marked by immediate struggles, as Sisi was completely unprepared for the suffocating, strict etiquette of the Habsburg court and frequently clashed with her overbearing mother-in-law. The pressures of court life and the tragic death of her firstborn daughter in 1857 drove Sisi into deep melancholy. Though she gave birth to an heir, Crown Prince Rudolf, in 1858, the later suicide of Rudolf in 1889 completely shattered her. For the rest of her life, a grieving Sisi withdrew from public duties and spent her time traveling.
Her restless life was ultimately cut short on September 10, 1898, in Geneva, Switzerland, when she was assassinated by Luigi Lucheni, an Italian anarchist who fatally stabbed her in the chest with a sharpened file.
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