Empress Elisabeth of Austria

Elisabeth
Empress Elisabeth in 1867
Empress consort of Austria Queen consort of Hungary (more...)
Tenure	24 April 1854 – 10 September 1898
Coronation	8 June 1867, Budapest
Queen consort of Lombardy-Venetia
Tenure	24 April 1854 – 12 October 1866
Born	Duchess Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie in Bavaria (1837-12-24)24 December 1837 Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria
Died	10 September 1898(1898-09-10) (aged 60) Geneva, Switzerland
Burial	17 September 1898 Imperial Crypt
Spouse	Franz Joseph I of Austria ​ ​ (m. 1854)​
Issue	Archduchess Sophie Gisela, Princess of Bavaria Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria Archduchess Marie Valerie
Names Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie
House	Wittelsbach
Father	Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria
Mother	Princess Ludovika of Bavaria
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Elisabeth (born Duchess Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie in Bavaria; 24 December 1837 – 10 September 1898), nicknamed Sisi or Sissi,^[1] was Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary from her marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph I on 24 April 1854 until her assassination in 1898.

Elisabeth was born into the Ducal royal branch of the Bavarian House of Wittelsbach but enjoyed an informal upbringing before marrying her first cousin, Emperor Franz Joseph I, at 16. The marriage thrust her into the much more formal Habsburg court life, for which she was unprepared and which she found suffocating. Early in the marriage, she was at odds with her mother-in-law, who was also her maternal aunt, Archduchess Sophie, who took over the rearing of Elisabeth's daughters, one of whom, Sophie, died in infancy. The birth of a son, Crown Prince Rudolf, improved Elisabeth's standing at court, but her health suffered under the strain. As a result, she would often visit Hungary for its more relaxed environment. She came to develop a deep kinship with Hungary and helped to bring about the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary in 1867.

The death of Elisabeth's only son and his mistress Mary Vetsera in a murder–suicide at his hunting lodge at Mayerling in 1889 was a blow from which the Empress never recovered. She withdrew from court duties and travelled widely, unaccompanied by her family. In 1890, she had the palace Achilleion built on the Greek island of Corfu. The palace featured an elaborate mythological motif and served as a refuge, which Elisabeth visited often. She was obsessively concerned with maintaining her youthful figure and beauty, developing a restrictive diet and wearing extremely tightlaced corsets to keep her waist looking very small.

While travelling in Geneva in 1898, Elisabeth was fatally stabbed in the heart by an Italian anarchist named Luigi Lucheni. Her tenure of 44 years was the longest of any Austrian empress.