Golden Fleece: The Story of Franz Joseph and Elizabeth of Austria, Harding - B +
In the summer of 1853, a Bavarian princess traveled to Austria where her sister, Sophie, the Empress Dowager, was her host. The two sisters intended for Helene of Bavaria to become affianced to Emperor Franz Joseph. When the young emperor set his eyes on Elizabeth, Helene's younger sister, he concluded otherwise. He fell for Sisi, an impetuous, stunningly beautiful, and rambunctious free spirit, and decided that she would be his bride. Before half of Europe's royalty, they wed on April 24, 1854. Sisi and her imperious mother-in-law were immediately at loggerheads. The sixteen-year-old empress was soon pregnant, but the birth of a girl, Sophie, was not enough to satisfy her mother-in-law. Another daughter, Gisela, followed a year later. The Empress Dowager took complete charge of both girls, and when the emperor realized that Sophie barely knew him or her mother, he insisted that the Empress Dowager relinquish control of his children.
About this time, Franz Joseph learned that his Italian possessions were being grossly mismanaged and concluded that he would travel there to rectify matters. He decided to bring his wife and baby Sophie with him. Initially, the trip was a dismal failure, for at every turn he was met by the quiet hostility of the Italian people. In Venice, Elizabeth convinced him to pardon the political prisoners and return confiscated lands to their owners. He did the same in Milan, removed the administration of the reactionary Field Marshal Radetzky, and announced that his brother Maxi would become consul. Although he did not stave off the Italian desire for independence, he had made a very positive impression. He decided it would be best to try hands-on diplomacy in Hungary as well. He, Elizabeth, and the two girls headed to Budapest. The trip was a success from the beginning, as Elizabeth honored the Magyar language and customs, but turned tragic when baby Sophie died of fever.
To the joy of the empire, Sisi delivered a boy in August, 1858. Rudolf was now the heir. A year later, the Italians, with French backing, provoked the grossly unprepared Austrian army into war. Franz Joseph was equally incapable of managing the diplomacy. The Austrians' military equipment was so outdated that Napoleon III said, "It is a wonder they don't wear powdered wigs" into battle. While the Austrian army lost every battle with Franz at the front, Sisi and the Dowager battled over the children in Vienna. Failure was absolute and Franz signed away Lombardy.
He returned home to the never-ending conflict between his mother and wife, and this time, sided with the Dowager. Elizabeth became so upset she left home three times for Madeira, Corfu, and Venice. She exercised and starved herself to wraith-like status and ill-health. Her mother convinced her to come north, and she returned to Vienna to become "a model wife-mother-sovereign." This idyll would be short-lived as two crises for the family were brewing. Maximilian and his wife Carlota sailed to Mexico to become its emperor and empress. And when a pan-Germanic conference was called in Frankfurt to explore further ties, the Prussians, under Bismarck, did not attend.
Otto von Bismarck sought to provoke war to provide Prussia the opportunity to become paramount in Germany. His first victim was Austria, which he forced into a one-week humiliation in April 1866. One consequence was the resurrection of Hungary's demand for a parliament and a constitution. Franz sent Elizabeth to Budapest, and she encouraged Franz to acquiesce. He agreed and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with Franz as emperor of the dual monarchy was established. The royal couple's trip to Budapest for their coronation was an absolute triumph. But June 1867 saw the end of Maximilian's ill-fated venture when he was executed by the Mexicans. When Elizabeth delivered her fourth child, Valerie, she did so at her castle in Hungary and worked assiduously to keep her mother-in-law at bay.
In 1870, Napoleon III sealed his fate by declaring war on Prussia over the relatively unimportant matter of the Spanish succession, and in turn, quickly lost a war, his throne and Alsace-Lorraine. Franz wisely declared neutrality. Two years later, the Dowager Empress died with Elizabeth at her side. Franz thought that an exposition would lighten the mood in Austria, and Vienna hosted a successful one in 1873. At the same time, Elizabeth was an ambitious horsewoman who endlessly traveled to ride in England, Ireland, and Hungary. Her extravagances offended the Austrians, who never loved her as the rest of the continent did. As she turned forty, she saw "the first signs of physical decline, which in a woman of her pride amounted to torture." She began to travel Europe seeking the fountain of youth. She began to speak of suicide.
In 1881, the Crown Prince was married to Princess Stephanie of Belgium in an arranged and disastrous union. The slowly-developing bride was barely out of puberty and had no concept of what her marital obligations were. Rudolf returned to the cabarets of Vienna. After a few years, matters improved and Stephanie gave birth to a daughter. At the palace, Elizabeth began to further drift off as so many of her family had𑁋the Wittelsbachs had a history of mental illness. Franz continued to indulge her to no avail. "She remains history's most glaring example of a woman spoiled by a man's sheer kindness. The greater Franz's patience with her, the more insufferable she became."
Undoubtedly, the low point of their lives, and likely Franz's sixty-eight-year reign, came in January, 1889. The year before, Rudi gave up on his loveless marriage to his barren wife and took up with the teenaged Baroness Vetsera. When the Pope denied his request for an annulment, Rudi asked his father if he could renounce the throne. Franz was one of the most duty-conscious monarchs of all time, and he told his son that he had to give up the Baroness and fulfill his duty to the dynasty. The following night, Rudi and Marie committed a dual suicide. Rudolf left letters of explanation for his loved ones. None were addressed to Franz. His letter to his mother said, "I ask my father's forgiveness, knowing full well I was not worthy of being his son." Elizabeth never recovered. She again began her endless travels, once again leaving Franz at home. "Always a truant she had failed as an empress and mother. She now failed as a wife." Her mental and physical health continued to deteriorate for the next decade. On Sept. 10, 1898, she was waiting for the ferry in Geneva when an Italian anarchist assassinated her.
For Franz, the final agony came in 1914 when the Archduke, against his orders, traveled to Sarajevo and was assassinated. Franz thought the resulting Astro-Hungarian ultimatum was too much but, at eighty-four, allowed his ministers to decide. No one envisioned the conflagration that followed. Franz Joseph passed away quietly in November, 1916.
This book is excellent, even though so much time is spent on the squabbles between Elizabeth and Sophie, and it was written in the somewhat florid and flowery language in 1937. Elizabeth has universally been described as one of the most beautiful woman in Europe in the 19th century. With that beauty came the curse of mental instability. Franz Joseph adored her and comes off as a well-meaning, very decent man who was likely in over his head. I have been fascinated by the Hapsburgs since reading a history of the era on my first trip to Europe, to Austria in 1987. The author posed the idea that in the decades since the end of the dynasty, things have not gone very well for Central Europe. Under Franz Joseph, the multi-lingual and cultural lands had been relatively free and prosperous. The ensuing seventy years saw revolution, poverty, Nazi Germany, the Holocaust, and occupation by the Soviets.
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