The newly engaged couple said their goodbyes on 31 August. For Elisabeth, the period between now and the wedding on 24 April would be one intense course of study on how to behave like an Empress. Her education until now had been relatively informal, and she desperately needed to learn French and Italian as soon [read more]
Read part two here. On 24 April 1854, Elisabeth married Franz Joseph, and the family was catapulted to fame. Elisabeth wore a gown of white and silver, strewn with myrtle blossom and an opal and diamond crown. She was led up the aisle by her mother and her soon-to-be mother-in-law. At the end of the [read more]
Read part one here. By May 1834, Ludovika’s worried mother wrote to her daughter Amalie that Ludovika had become apathetic. One month earlier, she had given birth to her first daughter – named Helene. She had been one of a pair of twins, but Ludovika had miscarried the other twin earlier. Her husband had been [read more]
Princess Ludovika of Bavaria was born on 30 August 1808 in the Munich Residenz as the daughter of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and his second wife, Caroline of Baden. She was the half-sister of King Ludwig I of Bavaria. Her birth was complicated, and it had already not been an easy pregnancy for [read more]
On 18 August 1853, a 15-year-old girl changed Austrian history when she became the fiance of her 23-year-old first cousin, Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. Princess Elisabeth, Duchess in Bavaria, was a shy girl who had grown up relatively carefree and without much care for protocol. Her mother, Ludovika, had already been searching for [read more]
On 23 April 1854, Elisabeth made her solemn entrance into Vienna ahead of her wedding. This began at the Favorita Palace (known as the Theresianum nowadays), which was hardly ever used. The ritual dressing for the event took several hours, and family members gathered at the palace for the ceremonial entrance. It wasn’t until the [read more]
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