The life of women after the monarchy has not always been easy. The rigidity of the courtesan label crushes the free spirits. Those who are accustomed to obeying function in a scheme where they are mere symbols of power. So today, we will speak of Elizabeth of Bavaria, Sisi the horse lover empress.
The nobility has always been associated with horses and horseback riding. Let’s remember Queen Elizabeth II of England and her passion for horses.
From the beginning the family of her future consort, the emperor Franz Joseph I, and his own family, knew that Elizabeth of Bavaria was not ready to be an empress.
But at the whim of the emperor Franz Joseph, I could not be denied anything. A man in love who had no time to attend to his own wife and left her in the hands of the suffocating rules of the royal courts.
One of the curiosities that all her personality has been that she was raised in the countryside, on the shores of the Starnberger See. This semi-rural area, full of nature, animals, and freedom, molded its way of acting and thinking. Changing the shores of the Starnberger Lake by the Hofburg Palace in Vienna was her penance and her condemnation.
The free spirit of Elizabeth of Bavaria, Sisi the horse lover empress, was imposed at times. However, but the courtier protocol and certain events ended up weakening their will and depressing it.
Today we will know as Elizabeth of Bavaria, Sisi the horse lover empress, lived in advance to their time loving the horses.
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Elizabeth of Bavaria, Sisi the horse lover empress
Born in Munich in December 1837, Elizabeth of Bavaria, nicknamed Sisi, was always a horse lover person. Her aunt was Elizabeth from Bavaria and Queen of Prussia due to her marriage to Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia (known in Spanish as Federico Guillermo IV). Her name was put as a way of honoring her aunt, which only 4 years later became the queen consort of Prussia.
Its origins already foreshadit a position in the nobility. However, who was being prepared for court and marriage with Franz Joseph I was her eldest sister, Helene. Helene was a disciplined, very religious, discreet young woman, attributes that made her perfect for marriage and Austrian courts.
However, little Sisi’s depression by a love disappointment made her enter the journey at the last minute. The cousin I had known as an 11-year-old girl had become a very beautiful 15-year-old lady. Since then, Franz Joseph I fell in love and there would be nothing that would change that.
However, both by her temperament, rebellious and free, and for her upbringing, Sisi was not ready for the European courts.
But let’s see who was Elizabeth of Bavaria, known as Sisi, the future horse lover empress, at the age of 15.
Bavarian’s Sisi, a free-born young girl
Elizabeth of Bavaria, Sisi, was an empress who grew away from the courts and was not prepared for it. He grew up in Munich at the Herzog Max Palace with no limited freedom or limited by his parents.
In addition, Elizabeth of Bavaria, Sisi, used to spend summers in the castle of Possenhofen, in front of the lake of Starnberg. This became the favourite home of the family and especially of Sisi.
The surroundings of the Castle of Possenhofen were full of nature and animals. It was there that from an early age he met and loved the horses, love that would last for his whole life.
It was a difficult student who did not want to learn French that at that time was the language of the European courts and the nobility. The English language if he mastered it, though it cost him enough.
With the music he had no affinity and hated the piano. However, drawing and poetry if they aroused their interest and demonstrated great skill. Where creativity showed its face, there was Sisi of Bavaria.
But where she really stood out was in the care of her physical appearance. Sisi was cared for with a protein-based diet and with a lot of physical exercise. In that exercise, she highlighted the long walks, taking her dogs for the palace and riding a horse.
For some people, the princess only ate healthy, walked, and rode on horseback. She had multiple horses which she often rode and used as a physical exercise.
Her love for the animals, the classical culture, and the Hungarian cause, made her very peculiar, and earned her the rejection of the court. However, this also earned her the love of the people.
The Princess Diana of Wales is the Austro-Hungarian Empire
With only 16 years Elizabeth of Bavaria became the wife of Franz Joseph I, and the Empress of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The rigid protocol of the Austrian court was to diminy his freedom and his will. Archduchess Sophie, her mother-in-law, oversaw the upbringing of her first daughter Sophie, as Sisi was considered incompetent to raise her.
However, with the birth of his second daughter Gisele, she regain the will to take over her daughters. There began a moment of joy that would soon dissolve.
On a trip to the provinces of Hungary, to which his mother-in-law was opposed, the archduchess Sophie, her little daughter Sophie would die of dysentery because of the lack of health.
This collapsed the will that remained of Sisi and ended up giving up Gisele’s upbringing to his mother-in-law.
No doubt, many parallels with the life of Princess Diana of Wales. A girl who was not ready for the hardness of the cuts and an old-fashioned system that did not know how to adapt.
The end of the empire occurred shortly after, and perhaps what happened with Sisi was an alert for the monarchy who decided to ignore it. Adapt or disappear… And who was in tune with the times really was Elizabeth of Bavaria, Sisi the emperor lover of the horses and perhaps the equivalent of “Princess Diana of Wales” of Austria.