The private life of Elizabeth, Empress of Austria

the long version

At sixteen this innocent and beautiful girl fell in love with her cousin Franz Joseph, hand young Emperor of Austria. It was a romance that delighted all of Austria. Elizabeth was married like a fairy-tale princess to one of the richest and most important kings on earth. Her subjects adored her. Men worshipped her beauty and charm. Yet Elizabeth's heart was soon troubled. The rigid court etiquette was stifling the wild rose of Bavaria and turning her into a hothouse flower. Her mother-in-law dispised and dominated her. Her husband's indiscreet affairs were the scandal of Vienna. But Elizabeth's spirit would not be broken. When her glamorous and dramatic life ended in a flaming climax of suicide and assassination, her husband said, " There is no other such woman on earth."