In 1858 Sisi finally gave birth to Rudolf. She started to miss meals and would spend days on prolonged fasts eating as little as possible. Sisi fell into a deep depression which affected her relationship with her husband and Gisela. Gisela recovered quickly but two year old Sophie died. Tragedy followed the publication of the pamphlet when the two little archduchesses became ill, possibly with typhus.
Sisi had apparently persuaded Franz Josef to show mercy toward some political prisoners. Sophie was disappointed at the lack of a male heir but was also angry about Sisi’s increasing influence on the emperor.
Princess Sophie was probably responsible for the pamphlet. For as she can never hope to be looked on kindly here, and must always expect to be sent back whence she came, so will she always seek to win the King by other than natural means she will struggle for position and power by intrigue and the sowing of discord, to the mischief of the King, the nation, and the Empire…’ If the Queen is so fortunate as to provide the State with a Crown-Prince this should be the end of her ambition – she should by no means meddle with the government of an Empire, the care of which is not a task for women… If the Queen bears no sons, she is merely a foreigner in the State, and a very dangerous foreigner, too. ‘…The natural destiny of a Queen is to give an heir to the throne. Rumours started to spread and in 1857 a vicious pamphlet was printed a copy of which was left on Sisi’s desk. Even though she had only been married for three years the lack of a male heir was considered a great shame for the royal family for which Sisi was blamed. In 1856 Sisi gave birth to a second daughter whom Princess Sophie also removed from her mother’s care. She named the child after herself and refused to allow Sisi to have any part n the child’s upbringing. In 1855 Sisi gave birth to a daughter whom the Princess Sophie took into her own care. Within weeks of her marriage it became apparent that Sisi was deeply unhappy at the Austrian court she was nervous and depressed and found her court duties extremely stressful. Franz Josef defied his mother’s wishes and the initial relationship between Sophie and Sisi was somewhat stained. The marriage was arranged by Franz Josef’s mother, Princess Sophie, although it had originally been intended that Franz Josef would wed Sisi’s elder sister Helena. Elisabeth of Austria, born on the 24th December 1837 was the wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I, and Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary.īorn into Bavarian royalty, Elisabeth, known as Sisi, married Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria in 1854 when she was only sixteen years old.
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