WEBVTT - Empress Sisi's Beating Heart 0:00:01.000 --> 0:00:04.160 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:08.760 and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minky. Listener discretion is advised. 0:00:20.960 --> 0:00:27.280 On September, the streets of Geneva bustled with their normal 0:00:27.400 --> 0:00:32.280 Sunday fare. Families strolled down the waterfront along the western 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:36.360 bank of Lake Geneva, ready to spend the afternoon lounging 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:40.559 on park benches that overlooked the snowy caps of the Alps. 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:44.919 In the distance. Among the crowd, two women were walking 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:48.800 down the Quadumant Blanc to board a steamship set for 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:53.640 the nearby Swiss city of montrou from Afar. Nothing about 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:58.600 the pair was particularly remarkable. They were well dressed, one 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:02.560 in a light, modest dress, while the other was draped 0:01:02.800 --> 0:01:07.119 dramatically in black fabric from head to toe, the soul 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:11.080 exception being the white parasol that she held low above 0:01:11.120 --> 0:01:14.680 her head. But as the two women ascended the gangplank, 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:20.000 muffled whispers and subtle pointing fingers began pointing out the 0:01:20.080 --> 0:01:25.520 cracks in their otherwise unremarkable facade. The taller of the 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:28.959 two women, the one in black, held her fan tight 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:33.319 enough for her knuckles to strain against the fabric. Her dress, 0:01:33.520 --> 0:01:39.200 while undoubtedly expensive, was speckled with dust only somewhat hastily 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:43.480 wiped away. Her companion in the light colored dress talked 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:46.880 to her in hushed tones, scanning her body with an 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:51.840 expression of deep concern. As the ship left the port, 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:55.880 the whispers continued to spread across the deck, like smoke 0:01:56.160 --> 0:02:01.640 trapped under glass. Tendrils slowly expanded until they clouded everything 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:05.080 else in sight. Did you see what happened down there? 0:02:05.560 --> 0:02:08.440 That man came out of nowhere? He pushed that woman 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:11.160 in the fancy black dress to the ground. Who would 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:14.880 do such a thing? But all of the whisper stopped 0:02:15.320 --> 0:02:18.800 when the woman in black collapsed on the ship's deck. 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:23.600 A moment of deafening silence gave way to a flurry 0:02:23.639 --> 0:02:27.560 of panicked bodies, searching desperately for aid, but the ship 0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:30.240 had already cast off into the harbor, and there was 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:35.079 no doctor on board. With shaking hands, the woman's companion 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:38.320 in white quickly cut open the woman's corset to help 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:41.840 her breathe, only to pull back in horror when she 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:46.959 found a small brown stain spreading across the woman's chest. 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:52.280 For Going any last attempts at anonymity. The woman in white, 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:56.920 the Countess are, called for the captain and demanded that 0:02:57.040 --> 0:03:00.280 he turned the ship back to port. When as for 0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:03.840 a reason why, the prominent noble lady told the captain 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:08.200 with all the remaining poise she had, that Elizabeth, the 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:16.120 Empress of Austria, had been stabbed. Officially, the Empress was 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:19.480 not in Geneva at all. She had been traveling under 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:23.680 the pseudonym Countess von Hohenems during her excursions for the 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:27.440 sake of privacy as well as safety. There had been 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:32.360 increased reports of assassination attempts on European monarchs in recent years, 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:35.600 and since the Empress refused to travel with a guard, 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:40.480 a gnome de geer was necessary for her travels. However, 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:44.160 just the previous day, a newspaper in Geneva had caught 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:48.200 wind of the ruse and published the Empress's whereabouts in 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:51.320 an article that found its way into the hands of 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:56.760 an Italian anarchist named Luigi Licheni. The following day, the 0:03:56.840 --> 0:04:01.520 man sat stationed outside the Empress's hotel, a needle file 0:04:01.840 --> 0:04:04.640 hidden in the right sleeve of his coat as he 0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:09.040 waited for his moment to strike back aboard the ship. 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:12.640 The crew hastily scrambled to assemble a stretcher out of 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:16.680 spare oars and sails, while the captain slowly turned the 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:21.640 ship back to shore. On the deck floor, Elizabeth briefly 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:25.280 breached through the surface of consciousness and reached for her 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:29.800 lady in waiting. Are you in pain, the countess asked, no, 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:34.200 The Empress replied weakly. The attack had been so sudden, 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:38.880 the assailant vanishing so quickly, that Elizabeth had been unaware 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:43.440 that she had been stabbed at all. The autopsy would 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:47.840 later reveal Lucheni's weapon had pierced clear through the Empress's heart, 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:52.520 and although her famously tight corset had staunched the bleeding 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:55.840 long enough for the Empress to board the ship without 0:04:55.960 --> 0:04:59.880 constant pressure on the wound, her heart began pumping blood 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:04.840 freely into her chest. From where she lay, Elizabeth stared 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:08.040 up at the sky, the same sky she used to 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:11.919 spend hours playing under as a child, the sky she's 0:05:11.960 --> 0:05:14.920 so often wished she could run under instead of being 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:19.080 trapped behind palace walls, And as her heart beat its 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:22.600 way ever closer to death, she used her last moments 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:26.960 of consciousness to ask a simple question, a question she 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:30.800 had no doubt asked herself countless times throughout her life. 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:37.960 What has happened? I'm Dana Schwartz and this is noble Blood. 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:45.320 One quick warning just before we begin. This episode does 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:48.640 delve into a discussion about eating disorders, and so if 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:52.120 you're specifically sensitive to that sort of content, this might 0:05:52.120 --> 0:06:01.080 not be the episode for you. Embrace Eliza Bith of Austria, 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:04.080 who was known to her friends and family as Ceci, 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:08.920 never wanted to make history. She was born Elizabeth Amlay 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:14.800 Eugenie on Christmas Eve eighteen thirty seven to her parents, 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:20.839 Princess Ludvika of Bavaria and Duke Maximilian Joseph. Princess Ludvika 0:06:21.120 --> 0:06:24.320 was the sixth child of her father, the King of 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:29.080 Bavaria's second marriage, while Duke Maximilian was only a member 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:32.360 of a junior branch of the royal House of Wittelsbach 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:35.479 and so Ceci was born as a child into a 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:39.800 family with no formal ties to daily court life. That 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:42.360 normally would have allowed her to live a life without 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:46.680 the pressures of court, but her father took that casualness 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:52.120 one step further. In history texts, the characterizations of Duke 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:57.680 Maximilian range from childlike to eccentric, but to summarize him 0:06:57.720 --> 0:07:00.919 in the simplest of terms, the Duke to play the 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:03.919 part of the cool dad. He had a love of 0:07:04.040 --> 0:07:08.479 circuses and Bavarian folk music, and according to a self 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:11.760 published account of his time traveling in Egypt, he had 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:15.920 apparently ordered his servants to yodel while climbing the Great 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:19.320 Pyramids as if they were traversing through the Swiss Alps. 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:22.640 When the Duke was home, he would often sneak his 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:25.480 children out of their lessons so they could play with 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:30.000 the local peasant children around Postenhoffen Castle, and so Ceci 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:34.280 and her siblings spent their summers riding horses, swimming and 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:37.880 hiking across the Bavarian countryside, like a troop of Von 0:07:37.960 --> 0:07:44.920 Trapped children, minus the Nazis and leader hosen made of curtains. Unfortunately, though, 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:47.520 this is about the time I should remind you that 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:51.440 this is a podcast called Noble Blood, and from here 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:55.920 Cecy's life begins to take some dark turns. But to 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:59.360 fully appreciate cc story, we need to zoom out a 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:02.680 little bit and understand the context for what Europe was 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:06.680 going through in the middle of the nineteenth century. Now, 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:10.160 it would be impossible for me to summarize the events 0:08:10.280 --> 0:08:14.120 leading up to the mass political upheavals in eighteen forty eight, 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:18.320 all across Europe a series of collective and individual events 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:21.520 on a dozen different fronts. They are often lumped together 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:26.320 in Encyclopedia entries under the Revolutions of eighteen forty eight, 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:30.400 but for the purposes of this episode, here's what you 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:34.160 need to know. In the wake of the Industrial Revolution, 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:39.080 most of the jobs of the peasant working classes became obsolete. 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:44.880 Artisans were replaced with machinery, and poverty, combined with urbanization, 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:49.199 made tensions between the upper class, who wanted to preserve 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:52.160 their power and didn't want to be reminded that poor 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:56.640 people still existed, and the lower class, who wanted to 0:08:56.679 --> 0:09:00.080 be given basic human rights and be represented by a 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:03.600 government who actually cared for their well being, rose to 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:07.200 a boiling point. All of this was occurring in a 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:10.640 climate in which the old ideas of the divine rights 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:14.479 of the monarchy were beginning to seem a little obsolete. 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:20.719 The legal and symbolic power of kings across Europe was dwindling. 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:25.280 Naturally in response, to the demands of the working class. 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:31.280 The Austrian government restricted freedom of speech, gatherings of university fraternities, 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:36.480 and then demanded absolute loyalty to the Austrian government. As 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:39.640 you can probably imagine, this didn't go well with the 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:44.120 working class, and after a series of appointments and resignations 0:09:44.160 --> 0:09:48.920 following the resignation of the Foreign Minister Prince Metirik, Emperor 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:53.160 Ferdinand the First of Austria was forced to abdicate the throne. 0:09:54.679 --> 0:09:57.040 The next in line for the throne was a man 0:09:57.200 --> 0:10:01.959 named Archduke Franz Carl, who, at the urging of his wife, 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:05.079 would renounce his claim to the throne so that their son, 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:10.320 Friend Joseph, would become the new Emperor of Austria. Let 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:14.320 me say that one more time. Archduke Franz Carl gave 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:17.959 up the opportunity to be the Emperor of Austria because 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:22.120 his wife, Archduchess Sophie told him that he should take 0:10:22.160 --> 0:10:25.000 a step back and let their son ascend to the throne. 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:30.359 Convincing her husband to renounce his title maybe the easiest 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:34.240 way to characterize what type of person that the Archduchess was. 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:37.960 Sophie knew that her husband would be a poor ruler. 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:41.000 But more than that, she knew that even though she 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:44.480 would technically be the Empress, she would be giving up 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:47.600 all of the power that she actually had over the 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:51.400 Empire in exchange for a symbolic crown. But if her 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:54.440 son were appointed, she would miss out on the title 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:58.280 of empress, But behind the scenes, her eighteen year old 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:01.720 emperor's son would be asking her counsel on all of 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:06.439 the important government matters. Sophie would hold more power pulling 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:11.840 the strings than being the party throwing marionette, and so 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:17.240 the young Emperor and his mother ascended the Austrian throne. 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:24.800 By eighteen fifty three, five years later, the Hungarian uprisings 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:28.079 had been long since quelled thanks to assistance from Russia, 0:11:28.440 --> 0:11:32.679 but the approval of the young Emperor remained staggeringly low. 0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:37.520 His indecision and ultimate refusal to offer aid to Russia 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:40.960 amidst the outbreak of the Crimean War left him in 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:45.800 murky territory internationally and on the home front, the working 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:49.440 people of Hungary had not forgotten their grievances against the 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:53.520 emperor just because a few years had passed. All in all, 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:58.440 it was obvious that Emperor Franz Carl needed a pr makeover, 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:02.440 and even that the young emperor was twenty three years 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:05.960 old and still single, the easiest way to fix his 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:09.760 image would be turning to an answer that still bolsters 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:14.920 royal approval ratings today, they would have a royal wedding. 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:22.599 After careful consideration, the Archduchess Sophie decided that aligning Austria 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:26.640 with another connection to Bavaria was the right step forward 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:30.880 for the Empire. That connection in question would take the 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:36.360 form of her sister Ludovica and Ludvika's eldest daughter Helene. 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:40.679 And this is how we find our way back to Cecy, 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:45.400 who in August eighteen fifty three found herself packed into 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:48.640 a carriage between her older sister and her mother and 0:12:48.840 --> 0:12:53.040 route to Austria's imperial summer residence in body Chel to 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:58.640 confirm the engagement between Helene and Emperor Franz Carl. With 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:01.479 her older sister in age to the man in charge, 0:13:01.720 --> 0:13:05.680 the young Elizabeth, then fifteen years old, was being brought 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:09.200 along to be presented as a possible match for the 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:14.240 Emperor's younger brother, Archduke Carl Ludwig. After all, why not 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:17.320 try to marry two of your daughters into royalty instead 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:22.280 of just the one, but that plan would quickly dissolve 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:27.120 into chaos the moment that Emperor Franz Joseph caught a 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:32.480 sight of young cc From here, historians have a few 0:13:32.559 --> 0:13:38.199 differing opinions as to what exactly happened next. Some historians 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:42.120 described the meeting of Franz Joseph and the young Duchess 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:47.839 Elizabeth as an almost disneyesque fairytale romance. The way this 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:52.240 version goes, the young Emperor spot a beautiful young woman 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:56.040 running freely in a meadow, having stopped her carriage to 0:13:56.120 --> 0:14:00.640 pick wild flowers. The Emperor sees this girl, her long, 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:05.679 dark blonde hair running in soft waves down past her shoulders, 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:09.720 and he falls instantly in love, only to then come 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:13.640 to realize later that the young woman was actually the 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:18.400 younger sister of his would be betrothed all along. In 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:23.320 another telling, Princess Ludovica suffered from a terrible migraine that 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:27.120 delayed their journey, a headache made worse by the fact 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:30.480 that when they did finally arrive in Friends Joseph's court, 0:14:30.640 --> 0:14:34.800 albeit a bit tardy, their luggage had not, meaning that 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:37.520 they had to meet the Emperor wearing what they had 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:40.920 traveled in. That would have been bad enough, but the 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:44.560 trio was dressed all in mourning for an aunt who 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:47.960 had recently passed away, And so the three women met 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:52.680 the Emperor while wearing black conservative dresses, certainly not the 0:14:52.720 --> 0:14:57.200 gowns that were specifically made to impress royalty. And while 0:14:57.240 --> 0:15:00.640 the black maid, Helene, with her dark brown air, look 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:04.880 pale almost to the point of being sickly, Elizabeth's dark 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:08.760 blonde hair and youthful complexion was said to have glowed 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:13.240 in comparison. But regardless of which of the versions of 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:17.320 the first meeting between Franz Joseph and Cecy actually happened, 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:22.680 the results were indisputable. Elizabeth, the younger sister, was the 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:28.240 Emperor's clear choice for a bride. Sophie, the Emperor's mother, 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:32.280 recounted an exchange with her son in her diary. She 0:15:32.360 --> 0:15:35.720 had asked, don't you think that Helene is clever? That 0:15:35.760 --> 0:15:39.880 she has a beautiful and slender figure. Obviously she was 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:46.040 desperately trying to salvage what was left of the planned engagement. Well, yes, 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:50.240 a little grave and quiet, certainly pleasant and nice, yes, 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:55.920 But cc the Emberor's tone brightened after just speaking her name. Cecy. 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:59.960 Such loveliness, such exuberance like a little girl's, and yet 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:06.560 so sweet. Predictably, arch Duchess Sophie was livid. She had 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:11.240 arranged a perfectly suitable marriage with Helene, the obedient daughter 0:16:11.320 --> 0:16:14.800 of her timid sister, who was almost guaranteed to do 0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:20.240 anything the Archduchess asked of her. But Elizabeth. Elizabeth was young, 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:24.720 only fifteen. She had not been given the proper schooling 0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:28.960 to be an empress. She was a headstrong, freethinking young 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:33.520 woman who rode horses instead of attending lessons. She did 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:37.680 not fit into the carefully carved space Sophie had whittled 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:43.600 into her master plan for her son's reign in the 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:47.640 years to come. Cc and the Archduchess would rarely agree 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:52.040 on anything, but in this decision they were both equally troubled. 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:55.720 Elizabeth could not imagine what the Emperor had seen in 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:58.400 her that would make him choose her over her sister, 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:03.680 But beyond that, she could see the writing on the wall, ironically, 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:07.800 the same thing Archduchess Sophie herself had realized when she 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:10.640 convinced her husband to see the throne to their son. 0:17:11.520 --> 0:17:15.280 Becoming an empress was in honor, to be sure, but 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:18.159 not the life that a smart woman would choose for 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:23.480 herself if her goal was happiness. To her aunt and 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:28.600 future mother in law, Sophie Cecy lamented quote, I love 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:32.600 the Emperor so much if only you were not the Emperor. 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:37.440 The young Elizabeth knew that in accepting Franz Joseph's proposal, 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:41.840 she was accepting an entirely new way of life, one 0:17:41.920 --> 0:17:45.199 without the anonymity or freedom that she had been allowed 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:51.320 during her childhood in Possenhofen. But ultimately there was no choice. 0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:54.600 In the words of her mother, who I imagine was 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:57.800 just relieved that one of her daughters had proved suitable, 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:04.480 one does not send the Emperor of Austria packing. If 0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:07.159 there was a honeymoon phase for the happy couple, it 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:12.040 didn't last long. Almost immediately Elizabeth was put into lessons, 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:16.399 each second of her day meticulously planned and accounted for 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:21.840 as she was quickly brought into the fold of Austrian aristocracy. 0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:24.240 In the movie version, this would be the moment that 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:28.119 we get a quick montage sequence cutting between her awkwardly 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:31.159 balancing books on her head and earning a light slap 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:33.520 on her wrist for using the wrong spoon during a 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:38.439 salad course. But unfortunately for Elizabeth, her life was not 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:43.399 a coming of age romantic comedy. Instead, her lessons consisted 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:46.479 of unlearning the parts of her childhood that she had 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:50.320 valued the most. She was no longer allowed to associate 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:54.359 with peasants or servants, no longer allowed to ride freely 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:58.480 across the grounds. She was taught the latest dances in court, and, 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:02.880 after a not so subtle remark made by the Archduchess, 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:05.879 her new mother in law, a tutorial on how to 0:19:06.040 --> 0:19:11.360 properly brush her teeth. Friends. Joseph, her new husband, remained 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:14.439 head over heels for his new bride, but he had 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:19.040 an empire to run, and Elizabeth found herself increasingly alone 0:19:19.200 --> 0:19:22.200 in a palace that felt more like a museum than 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:27.120 a home. The Archduchess hounded her every move, forbidding her 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:31.720 to confide in anyone about her homesickness or her growing depression. 0:19:32.480 --> 0:19:36.800 After all, no one could know that the sovereign was unhappy. 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:41.800 In a poem dated just weeks after their wedding, seventeen 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:46.040 year old Elizabeth wrote, quote, oh had I but never 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:50.199 left the path that would have led me to freedom, 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:54.160 I have awakened in a dungeon with chains on my hands. 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:59.200 She became resentful of her new family. She was treated 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:01.320 more like a child old than a spouse. When it 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:05.520 came to diplomatic matters. She was otherwise ignored unless she 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:10.919 needed to be paraded around court. Cecy's depression only worsened 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:15.760 upon the realization of another complication. Barely a month after 0:20:15.800 --> 0:20:22.720 the wedding, she was pregnant. The country was overjoyed, a 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:27.040 new air, a new hope for Austria, But as Elizabeth's 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:32.880 stomach grew, the light inside her diminished. As difficult as 0:20:32.920 --> 0:20:36.320 the early months of pregnancy typically are for any new mother, 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:40.879 Cecy had the compounded stress of representing a nation to 0:20:41.040 --> 0:20:45.000 add to the morning sickness. The more she began to show, 0:20:45.480 --> 0:20:50.440 the more Archduchess Sophie forcibly paraded Elizabeth to the public. 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:54.880 Having seemingly lost the freedom even to control her own body, 0:20:55.200 --> 0:20:59.119 Elizabeth grew exasperated with her mother in law, complaining to 0:20:59.200 --> 0:21:02.400 a lady in way quote, she dragged me out into 0:21:02.440 --> 0:21:04.760 the garden and declared that it was my duty to 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:07.520 show off my stomach so that people could see that 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:11.919 I really was pregnant. It was awful. Instead, it seemed 0:21:11.920 --> 0:21:14.760 to me a blessing to be alone and able to weep. 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:19.879 The commoners continued to love the humble young Empress, but 0:21:19.960 --> 0:21:24.800 among the aristocracy, Austria Shining Star was losing her luster. 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:29.679 But they had once thought of as charming, devolved into 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:34.119 ill mannered or even simple minded, as the court lost 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:39.120 patience with each of Elizabeth's social blunders. Producing an heir 0:21:39.240 --> 0:21:42.639 to the throne may have given Elizabeth some political sway 0:21:42.720 --> 0:21:47.200 over those in court, but in March eighteen fifty CC 0:21:47.400 --> 0:21:51.399 gave birth to a daughter. The child had barely left 0:21:51.440 --> 0:21:55.840 her body before Elizabeth was cast aside. Again. Elizabeth was 0:21:55.920 --> 0:21:58.840 even denied the right to name her own child. The 0:21:58.920 --> 0:22:04.119 responsibility was instead taken up by arch Duchess Sophie, who, 0:22:04.200 --> 0:22:13.040 after careful consideration, named the little baby Sophie. To absolutely 0:22:13.240 --> 0:22:16.960 no one's surprised the arch Duchess didn't end her control 0:22:17.080 --> 0:22:21.800 there before little Sophie was even born. Elizabeth's mother in 0:22:21.880 --> 0:22:25.240 law had arranged for the nursery to be placed directly 0:22:25.280 --> 0:22:29.200 adjacent to her apartments, so that if the Empress wanted 0:22:29.240 --> 0:22:31.840 to visit her own daughter, she would have to do 0:22:31.920 --> 0:22:35.880 so through her mother in law. Just a little over 0:22:35.920 --> 0:22:39.960 a year later, Elizabeth gave birth to her second daughter, Gisella, 0:22:40.480 --> 0:22:43.800 and for the second time the heads at court saw 0:22:43.840 --> 0:22:48.800 a daughter and it turned away in disappointment. The desperation 0:22:48.920 --> 0:22:52.040 for an heir to the Austrian throne was great, and 0:22:52.119 --> 0:22:57.560 Elizabeth was feeling the burden tenfold. It's rumored that after 0:22:57.600 --> 0:23:01.879 the birth of Gisella, a pam flit mysteriously made it 0:23:01.960 --> 0:23:07.280 onto CC's bedside table, outlining the importance of providing an 0:23:07.280 --> 0:23:11.080 heir to the nation and the perilous position that she 0:23:11.080 --> 0:23:14.680 would be in if she were unable to perform her duties. 0:23:15.520 --> 0:23:19.080 It was never confirmed where the pamphlet came from, but 0:23:19.160 --> 0:23:22.560 all signs pointed to a certain mother in law, the 0:23:22.600 --> 0:23:26.120 woman who held the key to see C's children's nursery. 0:23:27.760 --> 0:23:32.800 Emperor Franz Joseph, being accustomed to his mother's specific breed 0:23:32.920 --> 0:23:37.439 of tyranny, didn't see any issues in any of Elizabeth's grievances. 0:23:38.320 --> 0:23:41.160 Cecy had been brought up in a world where status 0:23:41.200 --> 0:23:45.760 had remained an abstract concept. But to Franz Joseph, whose 0:23:45.840 --> 0:23:48.119 mother had raised him to be ready to lead a 0:23:48.200 --> 0:23:52.480 nation by the age of eighteen. Titles and power were 0:23:52.560 --> 0:23:56.160 in all too reel part of his world. They were 0:23:56.359 --> 0:23:59.840 his world, the very structure that held his reality a 0:24:00.040 --> 0:24:04.960 oft Cecy's complaints were as abstract to him as wanting 0:24:05.040 --> 0:24:09.520 to spend childhood summers befriending local peasant children around posting 0:24:09.600 --> 0:24:13.400 off in castle. So rather than offer any real solutions, 0:24:13.920 --> 0:24:17.960 Emperor Franz Joseph reminded his wife of duties that she 0:24:18.000 --> 0:24:22.080 could be fulfilling for the country. In one letter, he wrote, quote, 0:24:22.280 --> 0:24:25.000 I beg you for the love you bear me. Pull 0:24:25.080 --> 0:24:30.080 yourself together, show yourself in the city, sometimes visit institutions. 0:24:30.640 --> 0:24:32.840 You have no idea what a great help you can 0:24:32.880 --> 0:24:36.080 be to me in this way. It will put heart 0:24:36.320 --> 0:24:39.040 into the people in Vienna and keep up the good 0:24:39.080 --> 0:24:43.880 spirit I require so urgently and so c. C. Did. 0:24:44.720 --> 0:24:48.120 The Austrian public fell more in love with their empress 0:24:48.400 --> 0:24:51.160 as she used her free time to visit the hospitals 0:24:51.200 --> 0:24:55.360 of wounded soldiers and donate to institutions for the mentally ill. 0:24:56.160 --> 0:25:00.680 The court quietly disapproved of her new social ventures, as 0:25:00.720 --> 0:25:04.160 they all but eliminated her distance from the peasant classes, 0:25:04.640 --> 0:25:07.159 but their scrutiny did not burn as badly as it 0:25:07.200 --> 0:25:11.359 had from within the palace walls. It was also during 0:25:11.400 --> 0:25:15.879 this period, though, that Elizabeth's obsession over her appearance would 0:25:15.880 --> 0:25:19.800 begin to take a clear hold over her life. Cecy 0:25:19.880 --> 0:25:25.280 had always been slender, accentuated further by her height five eight, 0:25:25.680 --> 0:25:28.920 especially tall for a woman at the time, but after 0:25:29.040 --> 0:25:33.120 the birth of her first child, Elizabeth began to regularly 0:25:33.200 --> 0:25:37.920 practice what she called quote starvation cures to bring her 0:25:37.920 --> 0:25:42.119 weight down to what she considered a normal quote unquote 0:25:42.600 --> 0:25:48.480 one hundred and ten pounds. In addition to her extreme 0:25:48.720 --> 0:25:53.000 diet and exercise during the periods in between her pregnancies, 0:25:53.359 --> 0:25:57.880 Elizabeth also took up the practice of tight lacing, which, 0:25:58.320 --> 0:26:01.600 as it sounds, can sit of tying the laces of 0:26:01.640 --> 0:26:05.000 her corset so tightly that the Empress would be short 0:26:05.000 --> 0:26:09.200 of breath. The term anorexia as we know it would 0:26:09.200 --> 0:26:13.960 not be coined until eighteen seventy three, but Elizabeth's consistent 0:26:14.200 --> 0:26:18.920 fasting and almost compulsive need to exercise has often led 0:26:18.920 --> 0:26:24.320 to posthumous diagnoses that would indirectly come to similar conclusions. 0:26:24.520 --> 0:26:30.080 In one instance, her quote starvation diet exacerbated her already 0:26:30.080 --> 0:26:35.200 declining health until she was diagnosed with quote green sickness 0:26:35.600 --> 0:26:40.880 otherwise known as anemia, which left her constantly exhausted. One 0:26:40.920 --> 0:26:44.919 physician would note, quote in the otherwise healthy woman, I 0:26:44.960 --> 0:26:49.600 found fairly pronounced swelling, especially in the ankles. He would 0:26:49.640 --> 0:26:53.119 go on to describe her condition as something rare for 0:26:53.160 --> 0:26:56.080 a woman of her position, as it had not become 0:26:56.600 --> 0:27:01.040 quote regrettably notorious until the war. He called it a 0:27:01.200 --> 0:27:07.120 deema of hunger. From such a young age, Cecy faced 0:27:07.280 --> 0:27:11.240 scrutiny of her body on a global scale. After all, 0:27:11.280 --> 0:27:14.480 at the age of fifteen, her life was forever changed 0:27:14.560 --> 0:27:17.760 after the Emperor of Austria was moved more by her 0:27:17.840 --> 0:27:20.879 beauty than that of her sister. As soon as she 0:27:21.000 --> 0:27:24.199 moved into the Imperial Palace in Vienna, all of the 0:27:24.320 --> 0:27:28.000 freedoms Cecy had grown up and joying were suddenly taken 0:27:28.040 --> 0:27:31.600 away from her, and she was reinforced over and over 0:27:31.680 --> 0:27:34.320 again by those around her with the idea that she 0:27:34.440 --> 0:27:37.639 served the nation not with her thoughts or ideas, but 0:27:37.800 --> 0:27:42.600 with her beauty, how she appeared to the people. And 0:27:42.760 --> 0:27:48.000 again not to provide a posthumous diagnosis or psychoanalysis, because 0:27:48.359 --> 0:27:52.679 I find that largely unhelpful but personally, I can imagine 0:27:52.720 --> 0:27:56.359 that the Empress found small comfort in her ability to 0:27:56.400 --> 0:28:00.359 control one tiny piece of her existence when she was 0:28:00.440 --> 0:28:06.600 so powerless everywhere else in her life. Elizabeth's obsession with quote, 0:28:06.920 --> 0:28:12.439 health and beauty would unfortunately only compound over time, But 0:28:12.560 --> 0:28:15.160 after it became evident that she was pregnant with her 0:28:15.200 --> 0:28:18.880 third child, she was forced to stop her excessive diets 0:28:18.920 --> 0:28:22.840 and tight lacing, at least for the time being. To 0:28:22.920 --> 0:28:27.000 her family, this pregnancy was welcome in more ways than one. 0:28:27.280 --> 0:28:31.159 In a letter from CC's mother to the Archduchess, Ludvika 0:28:31.320 --> 0:28:35.800 confided that, in regards to CC's tight lacing quote, c 0:28:36.040 --> 0:28:39.920 C has now become so reasonable and conscientious about lacing 0:28:39.960 --> 0:28:43.920 and tight clothes, a matter that always worried and bothered me. 0:28:44.560 --> 0:28:47.480