Biography

© Schloss Schönbrunn Kultur- und Betriebsges. m. b. H.

24 December 1837	Elisabeth Amalia Eugenia is born in Munich, the third child of Duke Maximilian in Bavaria and Duchess Ludovika. Altogether the couple had eight children.
18 August 1853	While staying in Bad Ischl, the young emperor Franz Joseph asks for the hand in marriage of his fifteen-year-old cousin Elisabeth on his 23rd birthday.
24 April 1854	The couple are married in the Church of St. Augustine in Vienna.
5 March 1855	Birth of the couple's first child. The baby girl is named Sophie, after Franz Joseph's mother.
12 July 1856	Birth of the couple's second daughter, Gisela.
29 May 1857	During a visit to Hungary both children fall ill. The two-year-old Sophie dies in her mother's arms.
21 August 1958	Birth of the couple's third child, the longed-for son and heir. The crown prince is named Rudolf, after the progenitor of the dynasty.
Late November 1860	Following a severe mental and physical crisis, Elisabeth embarks for the island of Madeira to recuperate. Many more journeys were to follow.
August 1862	After an absence of almost two years the empress returns to the court at Vienna. She starts to question the conventions of dynasty and court, giving priority to her personal interests.
February 1863	Elisabeth learns Hungarian with great application and success.
November 1864	The Hungarian noblewoman Ida von Ferenczy is appointed as Her Majesty's Reader, eventually becoming one of the empress's closest confidantes.
27 August 1865	The empress issues her 'Ischl Ultimatum' to the emperor, demanding the right to determine her children's upbringing and her own place of residence.
8 January 1866	Elisabeth first meets Gyula Andrássy, later prime minister of Hungary. A close friendship develops, with the result that the empress takes a growing interest in Hungarian affairs. Her support for the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 is among the very few instances of Elisabeth's political ambitions.
8 June 1867	Franz Joseph and Elisabeth are crowned King and Queen of Hungary in the Matthias Church in Budapest. Schloss Gödöllö is placed at the royal couple's disposal as a summer residence.
22 April 1868	Elisabeth gives birth to her fourth child, Marie Valerie, in Budapest. Mother and daughter enjoy a very close relationship.
20 April 1873	Her eldest daughter Gisela marries Prince Leopold of Bavaria in Vienna. Elisabeth's first grandchild is born in 1874 and is named after her grandmother.
December 1873	Emperor Franz Joseph celebrates 25 years on the imperial throne.
11 September 1875	Acclaimed as one of the most accomplished horsewomen of her time, the empress suffers a serios riding accident in Sassetôt in Normandy.
March 1876	Elisabeth rides to hounds for the first time in England. She develops a great passion for this form of sport.
April 1879	The imperial couple celebrate their silver wedding anniversary. The event is marked with much pomp by a large-scale pageant on Vienna's Ringstrasse staged by the painter Hans Makart.
10 May 1881	Crown Prince Rudolf marries Stepnaie of Belgium. Despite the couple's ionital affection for each other, the marriage becomes inharmonious due to their extremely different characters. Elisabeth's relationship with her daughter-in-law is marked by disdain.
March 1882	Elisabeth returns from her last visit to England for hunting. Soon afterwards she gives up riding for good, turning instead to long walks, hiking and fencing.
2 September 1883	Birth of the only child of Rudolf and Stephanie, Archduchess Elisabeth. The baby girl is named after her grandmother but within the family is called by her Hungarian nickname "Erzsi".
February 1885	Elisabeth begins to write the cycle of poems "Nordsee Lieder" (Songs of the North Sea").
October 1885	A long journey to the Orient takes the empress to Greece, inspiring her with an intense and enduring interest in Greek culture.
January 1887	Ehe empress writes the cycle of poems entitled Winter Lieder ("Songs of Winter").
February 1888	She starts her third cycle of poems entitled Vermischte Gedichte (Miscellaneous Poems"), but abandons it unfinished in November.
November 1888	The empress decides to have a villa built on Corfu and begins to leand Modern and Ancient Greek.
30 January 1889	Her only son and heir to the throne Crown Prince Rudolf kills himself, having first shot his mistress Mary Vetsera in a suicide pact in Mayerling. Deeply depressed, the empress starts to travel restlessly and from this time on only wears mourning when she appears in public on official occasions.
31 August 1890	Her youngest daughter Marie Valerie marries Archduke Franz Salvator of Austria, who was from the collateral Tuscan branch of the dynasty, in Bad Ischl.
1896	Elisabeth spends the winter months in the Mediterranean. She now rarely spens time in Vienna, Ischl or at Gödöllö.
March / April 1896	The empress makes a final visit to Corfu and considers selling the Achilleion, the villa she had commissioned.
May / June 1896	The empress makes what is destined to be her final public appearance during the Hungarian millennial celebrations.
10 September 1898	During a private visit to Switzerland the empress is assassinated on the lakeside promenade in Geneva by the anarchist Luigi Lucheni.
17 September 1898	The empress is ceremonially interred in the Imperial Crypt of the Curch of the Capuchin Friars in Vienna.