When the future Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria was born in 1830, he was third in the line of succession. His grandfather was Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor (Francis I, Emperor Austria from the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806) and his uncle Ferdinand, who had an intellectual disability and suffered from [read more]
On 4 November 1824, Princess Sophie of Bavaria married Archduke Franz Karl of Austria, the third son of Emperor Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor and Princess Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily. Her family had been reluctant, and Sophie’s sister wrote, “They say he is educated, but he is not at all to the Queen’s [read more]
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 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]
Read part two here. In October 1888, Stéphanie returned from a trip to Greece. She wrote in her memoirs, “But I was horrified as soon as I set eyes on the Crown Prince. His decay was so greatly advanced as to have become conspicuous. He was frightfully changed; his skin was flaccid; his eyes were [read more]
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