Born into the royal Bavarian House of Wittelsbach and nicknamed ‘Sissi’, Elisabeth enjoyed an informal upbringing, where her hands-on mother and father raised her to explore the countryside and enjoy creative musings. The young Sissi wed Emperor Franz Joseph I at the age of 16; a marriage that thrust her into formal Habsburg court life, for which she was unprepared and found unpleasant. Eccentric and educated in the values of creativity and adventure, the dullness of royal life was no match for Sissi. In an act of defiance, the empress took up smoking (ironic, considering her fear of ageing), riding and gymnastics, which caused her to become a victim of gossip.  

The Hon. Mary Roche retrained as a teacher and wrote a biography of her father, the 4th Baron Fermoy

By Stephanie Bridger-Linning

Considered beautiful in her day, the royal’s good looks and elegant features were often credited with retaining a public interest in the Austrian court. Elisabeth's mother-in-law, the infamous Archduchess Sophie, once wrote of Sissi, ‘It is the Empress who attracts them all. For she is their joy, their idol’. 

Romy Schneider in: Sissi – Fateful Years of an Empress  

However, the young empress suffered from an eating disorder and severe depression (or ‘melancholy’ as it was dubbed in the 19th century) as a result of a lack of stimulation from palace life. In addition to a vigorous exercise regime, the empress practised several demanding beauty routines, one of which included a three-hour hair ritual. Even after four pregnancies, Elisabeth kept her weight extremely low. Pressure to maintain her good looks took its toll on the young royal, who was described as being ‘graceful, but too slender’ and ‘extremely unhappy’ by fellow courtiers. Later in her life, the empress would go through further tragedy with the loss of her only son, Rudolph, to a murder-suicide in 1889.