#archduchess erzsi of Austria

[foreverinthepagesofhistory]

My favorite photo of Archduchess Elisabeth “Erzsi” of Austria, Granddaughter of Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth of Austria, 1880s-90s 🤍✨🌸

[queenalexandraofdenmark]

❤️‍🔥

Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria aka Erzsi 

[royaltyandpomp]

THE CHILDREN

H.I.R.H. Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria , later Princess of Windisch-Gratz  (1883-1963)

[princessvictoriamelita]

Princess Stéphanie of Windisch-Graetz (April 4, 1909 in Ploskovice, Bohemia– May 29, 2005 in Uccle, Belgium) was the daughter of Prince Otro Weirand of Windisch-Graetz (1873–1952) and Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria (1883–1963), only child of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and Princess Stéphanie of Belgium. She was the great-grandchild of Emperor Franz-Joseph and Empress Elisabeth ('Sissi') of Austria. She was also the great-grandchild of King Leopold II of Belgium.

The New York Evening Post chronicled the crisis in her mother's household in August 1933:

"She (Erzsi) tried to bring up her children in this spirit, but apparently without success. Two of the sons left home, and Prince Ernest is now agent for a wine merchant, while Prince Francis Joseph is an attendant at an American gasoline filling station. Princess Stephanie left the house of her mother at the end of last year and went to Belgium, where she was accepted by the Belgium royal family".

Stéphanie married into the Belgian aristocracy, and her request for a dowry from her mother was flatly refused, kicking off a war of words in the international press. Erzsi claimed she hadn’t been invited to the wedding in Brussels, while Stéphanie claimed that she had refused to be invited:

"The [family] gave a statement to the papers that Princess Elisabeth Windisch-Grätz was neglecting her children because of her love affair with the Socialist functionary Petznek; that she owns a huge tenement house near the Vienna opera which brings her sufficient rent; moreover, that she inherited from Francis Joseph the estate at Schoenau, which she sold but that the proceeds were carefully invested. It was also asserted that, despite her Socialist views, she lives In great luxury In a villa in the Auhof Strasse in Vienna, surrounded by rare art treasure which represent a huge value".

Source: History Answers

[carolathhabsburg]

Archduchess Elisabeth, "Erzsi" of Austria, daughter of Crown Prince Rudolf and Princess Stephanie of Belgium. Late 1880s

[queenalexandraofdenmark]

Poor little Erzsi was only 5 when her father passed :(

Crown Prince Rudolf's goodbye letter to his wife Crown Princess Stephanie:

Dear Stephanie! You are rid of my presence and plague; be happy in your own way. Be good to the poor little girl [their five-years-old daughter Elisabeth] who is the only thing that remains of me. Give my last regards to all friends, especially Bombelles [his Oberhofmeister], Spindler [head of his secreatariat], Latour [his tutor], Wowo [his aya], Gisela [his sister], Leopold [Gisela's husband], etc., etc. I am going calmly to my death which alone can save my good name. Embracing you most warmly, your loving Rudolf

[european-royalties]

#OnThisDay 1st 📸 - Year 1778, Birth of Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, a younger brother of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French. He was a monarch in his own right from 1806 to 1810, ruling over the Kingdom of Holland (a French client state roughly corresponding to the current Netherlands). In that capacity he was known as Louis I. 2nd 📸 - Year 1883, Birth of Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria. the only child of Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria and Princess Stéphanie of Belgium, and a granddaughter of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and King Leopold II of the Belgians. She was known to the family as "Erzsi", a diminutive of her name in Hungarian. Later nicknamed "The Red Archduchess", she was famous for becoming a socialist and a member of the Austrian Social Democratic Party. #RoyalHistory #HistoryofRoyals #RoyalBirth #LouisBonaparte #LouisI #ArchduchessElisabethMarie #Monarchy #EuropeanRoyalties https://www.instagram.com/p/CTT3BFWv09C/?utm_medium=tumblr

[tiaramania]

I would like to ask you if we know something about the tiara that Empress Sissi wore as queen of Hungary,where is it etc,,,,Thank you!

I don’t know much about Empress Elisabeth’s jewels but here’s what I’ve been able to find out.  First of all, I’m going to assume you mean the tiara she wore in the photos taken by Emil Rabending to mark her coronation as Queen of Hungary in 1867.  Sissi wore a crown during the coronation ceremony but a tiara for the photographs. 

If the tiara was her personal property then it was probably sold after her death in 1898.  She directed for most of her jewels to be sold and the proceeds given to charity.  Any personal property that was not sold was inherited by her granddaughter, Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria known as Erzsi.  Below is a photo of Erzsi’s wedding gifts from when she married Prince Otto of Windisch-Grätzin 1902.  Included in the picture are 27 diamonds star made by Köchertand a bow-shaped brooch with a cross pendant that belonged to Sissi.  What doesn’t make sense to me is that if she inherited those jewels from her grandmother, why are they included in the wedding presents?  Where they held in trust until she married or were the sold in 1898 but they were bought by a family member who thought they would then make a good wedding gift for Erzsi?  Either way, the tiara in question is not in the photo which makes me think it was part of the jewels that were sold.

If the tiara was state property it should be in the Imperial Treasury at the Hofburg in Vienna.  I’ve never seen any pictures of tiaras or more decorative jewellery included in this collection so I don’t think the tiara was part of the Austrian crown jewels which brings us back to the tiara being sold after her death.

[foreverinthepagesofhistory]

🧁

🧁: which royal deserved better part 2

The children of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert: were terribly mistreated by Queen Victoria and their father died when they were very young

2. Grand Duchess Vera Konstantinovna: was mistreated because of a nervous disorder, was labeled as ugly, was denied by her own parents

3. Archduchess Elisabeth Marie “Erzsi” of Austria: her father killed himself when she was a small child, her family didn’t love her like they loved everyone else, had an unhappy marriage

4. Princess Viktoria “Moretta” of Prussia: lost her brother at a young age, denied her true love, married 2 assholes who treated her horribly and took all her money

Feel free to ask me this question again because sadly i got a lot more people that can fit into this category

Thank you for asking me questions!

[queenalexandraofdenmark]

CHERI CHERI LADYYYY😍

Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria (2 September 1883 – 16 March 1963) was the only child of Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria and Princess Stéphanie of Belgium, and a granddaughter of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and King Leopold II of the Belgians. She was known to the family as “Erzsi”, a diminutive of her name in Hungarian. Later nicknamed “The Red Archduchess”, she was famous for becoming a socialist and a member of the Austrian Social Democratic Party.

[archduchessofnowhere]

“He won't get me”: some of the rejected suitors of Archduchess Elisabeth Marie

I am in a good mood so I decided to finish up this post that I had on my drafts since months ago, when I read the memoirs of Archduchess Erzsi's English governess. While I thought the memoirs itself were kinda dull I did find very interesting tidbits of information. Today I'll talk about two of her (alleged) suitors.

Erzsi, being the granddaughter of the Emperor and the only child of the late Crown Prince was considered a candidate for many princes, like her cousin Albert, future king of the Belgians. Other one was Prince Eitel Friedrich of Prussia, the second son of Emperor Wilhelm II.

After the review there was a grand gala dinner at the Hofburg, and I went with the Archduchess to watch the Royalties from the musicians' gallery over the banqueting hall. The table was gorgeous with gold plate, and I find I wrote my mother, in an account of the banquet : “Our dear Emperor has a splendid appetite. The German Emperor, who sees everything, noticed our Archduchess up in the gallery and asked who she was. Upon being told, he asked our Emperor that she might come down after dinner and be presented. She is certainly growing remarkably pretty.”

Evidently Emperor Wilhelm II. found her so, as later he sent his second son to visit the Austrian Court with the intention of making a matrimonial alliance between him and the Archduchess. But he counted without the Archduchess, for when she saw the youth, she exclaimed : “Marry that boy! Never!” and forthwith retired to bed, from whence she refused to emerge until His Imperial Highness had shaken the dust of the Austrian Court from his Royal shoes, and taken his departure.

The girl seemed to had a flavor for drama. The governess doesn't talk about this potential marriage again, but I was a still curious so I made a quick search to see if I could dig something more about the subject and I stumbled with this news article from 4 June 1890 published in The Toronto Daily Mail:

THE AUSTRIAN CROWN.

London Truth says:—The information given in a St. Petersburg paper about the possibility of the German Emperor's second son, Prince Eitel, being raised to the imperial throne of Austria is not wholly unfounded. But the condition would be marriage with the Archduchess Eizabeth. She is his senior, but the difference is not great enough to be disparity when both reach years of discretion (...) Both the Emperor and Empress of Austria hate to the degree of loathing the Archduchess Stephanie, who is as good (or bad) as excluded from their presence. “No more unnappy couple exist,” says to me a circus friend of the Empress, from whom she hides no grief. But their misery would be far deeper if he Archduchess Stephanie were to shine forth again as coming Empress through a marriage with the feeble-brained heir-presumptive to the throne. Such a marriage would probably secure the succession to a child of Stephanie. Were Elizabeth declared heiress, as Maria Theresa was, with the support of William II., with the understanding that she was to marry his son, and were, by this arrangement, the sons of the Archduke Charles Louis to be cut out, Francis Joseph and the Empress Elizabeth would die happy.

First of all, the age gap between Eitel and Erzsi was... two months. In his favor. So already we can tell this article doesn't have the best sources. However it also tells us that at least the rumor of this union existed even years before the governess started working at court.

While there was speculation about the succesion after Rudolf's death, and his daughter's name came forward, there never seemed to have been a serious effort of naming her heiress (there was however an attempt to remarry Stephanie to archduke Franz Ferdinand... actual crackshipping); Franz Josef, always the traditionalist, preferred to name as heir the nephew he barely standed that to bend the succesion laws in favor of the girl that was his favorite grandchild. So this engagement seems to be more wishful thinking for people that hoped for the unification of Germany and Austria rather than a serious plan; perhaps Wilhelm did thought his son had a chance with the archduchess, but I doubt that Franz Josef would've liked to give his empire to the Germans in a silver plate. In any case, Erzsi's reaction to the prince ended this project before it even begun.

The other potential bridegroom only gets marginally mentioned in a letter from the governess to a friend of hers. The Governess doesn't date this letter but given the context it is from early May of 1898:

The Archduchess wishes me to assure you she is not fianceed with the King of Spain. Her expression is: “He won't get me;” and I don't think he will.

He didn't got her.

Again a very quick search made me came across with several news articles published in January/February 1898 that announced the engagement of the fifteen-years-old Erzsi with the twelve-years-old King Alfonso XIII of Spain. And again, this really seem to be nothing but rumors. I know nothing about Alfonso but I doubt there was any serious attempt to get him a bride while he was still a literal child; by the time he had reached majority, Erzsi was already married.

And that is all I have for today on this subject; If anyone has any information (specially if it's from better sources that memoirs published almost two decades after the events happened and gossipy news articles) about this potential unions please tell me!

[archduchessofnowhere]

Hello . Do you know if there are any books about Empress Sissi and her family on archive org? Thanks.

Hello! Sorry it took me so long, I was busy and then I got sick (not covid but still I was very tired to write anything). Luckily for us, the answers to this question is quite long! There are PLENTY of books about Sisi and her family on the archive!

Non-fiction in the public domain:

Some memoirs and near contemporany biographies that you can download for free!

Aus den letzten Jahren der Kaiserin Elisabeth, by Irma Sztáray. This book was written by the last lady-in-waiting of Sisi (literally, she's the one who accompanied Sisi to the trip in which she was assassinated), and it narrates the years Irma spent with the Empress, up to her death. It is however only in German (there are translations, but those aren't in the public domain). The upcoming movie Sisi und ich is based on this book.

My Past, by Countess Marie Larisch. The memoirs of Elisabeth's infamous niece who went down in history for being the go-between Crown Prince Rudolf and Mary Vetsera. Although all memoirs are written to put its subjects in the best light, Countess Larisch's are known for being heavily unreliable, since she goes above and beyond to paint herself as a victim who did nothing wrong, ever. And on top of that, she also just, straight up made stuff up. Still, she was Sisi's close confidant for many years so there probably are true facts in here also. And more importantly, many books do use this memoirs as well as her other works as sources, sometimes without even citing her or noting that she's not super trustable, so knowing what stories originate from here may worth the read.

I was to be Empress by Stephanie of Belgium. The memoirs of Elisabeth's daughter-in-law, in which she gives her version of her married life with Rudolf, her time as Crown Princess and the Mayerling affair. This book is high in my TBR list, because Stephanie was a much maligned figure on her time and I'm really curious about what she had to say about it. Fun? fact: Archduchess Erzsi, Stephanie and Rudolf's daughter, had this book banned in Austria.

My own affairs by Louise of Belgium. The memoirs of Stephanie's elder sister, whom also married into Austria and had a very scandalous life. There isn't much about Sisi here so it might not be of your interest, but after watching this video about Louise's life I've been dying to read it since it sounds like a legit good read? Also she and her husband were close friends with Rudolf, so she has some stuff to say about Mayerling.

Recollections of a Royal Governess. Written by the governess of Archduchess Erzsi, this book is full of anecdotes and stories about the Imperial family (although once again, there isn't much on the Empress herself). Not sure on how reliable it is, but it can be an interesting reading nontheless.

Maria Sophia, Queen of Naples: A Continuation of "The Empress Elizabeth", by Clara Tschudi. The first biography ever on Sisi's younger sister Marie. Here's my review on it.

BONUS:

Absolutely unreliable books that you may want to check for funsies only:

The secret of an empress, by Countess Zanardi Landi. In case you don't know, there was a woman that claimed for YEARS that she was Elisabeth's illegitimate daughter. No one believed her back then and no one believes her now - but before DNA tests you could claim being the long lost child of anyone and nobody could do anything about it. Said woman wrote a book on this; its contents are probably 95% made up, but in case you're curious about what she had to say, here it is.

Behind the Scenes at the Court of Vienna by Henri de Weindel. I skimmed through it and honestly it sounds fake, but hey who knows - maybe de Weindel was onto something. On the same vein of "hey this sounds kinda fake but maybe it isn't?" Princess Catherine Radziwiłł wrote some books about the Austrian court too (also in the public domain).

Non-fiction not in the public domain:

Books you can borrow and read for free, but not donwload. There are plenty so I'll just recommend the ones I've read.

The Reluctant Empress by Brigitte Hamann. Elisabeth's historiography in English it's kinda outdated, so Hamann's work from the 80s remains the most complete biography available (and it's overall still considered one of Elisabeth's best biographies). She does a really good research and covers many aspects of her life that sometimes don't recieve much attention (like her relationship with her siblings). However, as it is often noted, Hamann is also weirdly hostile towards Sisi, and many of her conclusions about her have a very noticeable negative bias. It's still very informative, just be prepared for this because it can be annoying.

Sissi ou la fatalité by Jean Des Cars. This is a very good a biography on Elisabeth. Des Cars has a more positive view on his subject and reading it after Hamann's gave me a more complete and nuanced picture of Sisi. My main criticism is that Des Cars isn't a historian but a journalist and it shows; his approach to his subject and investigation was very journalist-like. Also his prose is a bit dramatic so be prepared for that too lol. There isn't an English translation and on the Archive only the original in French is available.

Elizabeth, Empress of Austria by Egon Corti. This biography was groundbreaking when first published, Corti went through many primary sources unknown to the general public of the time and interviewed people that actually met Elisabeth. Although now it's considered outdated, to this day it's the backbone of any book on the Empress.

The Emperor and the Actress by Joan Haslip. This book covers the relationship between Franz Josef and actress Katharina Schratt, whose friendship (and maybe much more than that) lasted over twenty years. This book is fairly short and easy to read; personally FJ's relationship with Katharina is like the only thing about him that I find genuinely interesting and I loved learning more about it. Elisabeth was the first shipper of these two so she appears a lot too. For more books about FJ check his tag.

A LOT has been written about Elisabeth's brother and sister-in-law Archduke Maximilian and Princess Charlotte - the short lived Emperor and Empress of the Second Mexican Empire. Currently I'm reading The Crown of Mexico by Joan Haslip (available on the archive) and I'm quite enjoying it - although it does has some outdated language (specially when talking about the indigenous people from Mexico) and one random homophobic comment that's pretty gross. Other than that it's quite informative and easy to read, specially if you don't know much about the subject. I could not list all the works about them on the Archive, there's just a lot of non-fiction and fiction, as well as some memoirs of people that knew them and were in Mexico with them. I recommed going through their tags ([x][x]) or just looking up "Maximilian of Mexico" and "Carlota of Mexico" to see all that's available.

There are a couple of biographies on King Ludwig II of Bavaria, Elisabeth's cousin and friend. I woudn't know which one of these recommend to you, but you could start with Greg King's one, since I've read other works by him and they were good.

Fiction books:

There's plenty too! I can't recommend any of these tho, since the only fictional book about Sisi that I've read isn't here, so I'll just highlight the popular ones:

Elisabeth The Princess Bride by Barry Denenberg. The Royal Diaries seems to be every English speaker royal history nerd formative book series so I'm sure this one is beloved too.

The Accidental Empress and Sisi, Empress On Her Own, by Allison Pataki. This duology was published fairly recently and it's quite popular. The Sisi stans of Goodreads THRASHED these books tho, since apparently Pataki is very historically inaccurate.

The Fortune Hunter by Daisy Goodwin. Apparently it isn't very good either.

A Caged Bird by Maureen Fleming. Not a popular book at all, just highlighting it because this 30s novel it's in the public domain so you can download it (and because the first lines killed me).

These are just some books (and I haven't read many of them); the Archive is an amazing place because you can spend hourse searching and finding books and information. If you go to the tag you'll find even more books on Sisi (I couldn't fit all of them on the post), there are also some on Crown Prince Rudolf here. If there is someone in particular you are interested in and I haven't covered them here tell me and I see if I can find something!

I hope this answer helped you!

[archduchessofnowhere]

Struck with the realization that since Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria (aka Erzsi aka Crown Prince Rudolf's daughter) died in 1963 she could have watched the complete Sissi Trilogy

[archduchessofnowhere]

Yes, given how traumatic her first experiences as a mother were (when she was not even twenty!!) I'm not surprised at all that she ended being distant with Gisela and Rudolf. I always felt that she wanted to remain a child for a bit longer instead of marrying so young (after all she did told Valerie that getting married as child of fifteen was nonsense), and just wasn't ready for being a mother yet; meanwhile Valerie was the planned child that she had at thirty, a completely different situation. I guess it was easier for her start from zero with her youngest child rather than try to fix her relationship with her eldest. Luckily for Gisela she didn't need her, but yeah Rudolf had a lot baggage and sadly no one could nor was able to help him. Perhaps if Elisabeth had been more loving towards him things would've been a bit easier on him, but ultimately the kind of help he needed was simply out of his reach.

I have Valerie's diary but I've only read some sections here and there because I haven't got the time yet to fully digitalize it so I can translate it, but yes I was aware that she ended up becoming everything Elisabeth didn't want her to be. I guess that's what happens when you try to force your ideals on your child so hard: they end up rejecting them entirely.

And Erzsi's life was insane, she was born an archduchess, was the emperor's favorite grandchild and ended up becoming a socialist. Truly a journey. I haven't read too in depth about her but she basically spent her whole life doing whatever she wanted without caring about what people would think or say, and I feel that Rudolf would've been proud of her for that alone.

Do you know why Elisabeth of Austria could be so... mean, to Gisela and Rudolf? Like calling Gisela and her children a thin "sow" and her "piglets", and publicly referring to Marie Valerie as the "only one". I get that she wasn't very maternal and not everyone is made to be a mother, but that's just cruel. Also is it true that she had an instict to harm children, didn't visit Rudolf when he was seriously ill, and had to be pushed by Gisela's teacher to stand up against his abuse by his teacher?

Hello anon! Indeed Elisabeth's relationship with her eldest children was... complicated, and it's probably the most criticized thing about her. Even her most sympathetic biographers agree that she wasn't as loving to them as she was to Valerie (and then you have Brigitte Hamann who straight up implied that Elisabeth didn't love Gisela - a huge reach in my opinion). Mostly it is attributed to the fact that it was archduchess Sophie, her mother-in-law, the one that was in charge of the kids' raising, and that this made her grow cold towards them. I'd love to read what's the take about this from more recent revisionist works about Sophie, but I haven't been able to yet, so I can only talk about the way Elisabeth saw it: years after, when Valerie was born, she really did thought that her mother-in-law had “stolen” her eldest children. She told to her lady-in-waiting, Countess Maria Festetics, that “Now I know what happiness a child brings — now that I have finally had the courage to love her and keep her with me.” (1986, Hamann). Meaning that, in the 1870s, she truly felt that she hadn't been able to love and care for Gisela and Rudolf properly when they were little.

Of course this turned Valerie into her mother's favorite, which earned her the nickname of the “only child”. However Elisabeth (as far as I'm aware at least) never called her that; the nickname came from the Viennese society who scoffed at the Empress's clear preference for the daughter she was raising as a Hungarian. She did however say to Valerie that “it is you alone that I love”, which is very ouch towards literally everyone else in her life. This preferential treatment also earned Valerie her brother's resentment, Gisela, for her part, doesn't seem to have been bothered by this. Valerie was never close to Rudolf and their relationship was strained, but she did love her sister and wrote that she wished that one day she could be a wife and mother as good as her.

That she had an “instinct to harm children” is pure nonsense, her problem with her children is that she ignored them, but she never actively harmed them (or any other child, for that matter). I’d never heard of Elisabeth being forced to intervene to save Rudolf, in fact that she stepped out and stopped her son’s abuse was something that she seemed to have been proud of: “when I learned the reason for his [Rudolf’s] illness, I had to find a remedy; gathered up all my courage when I saw that it was impossible to prevail against this protégé of my mother-in-law, and told everything to the Emperor, who could not decide to take a position against his mother’s will — I reached for the utmost and said that I could no longer stand by — something would have to happen! either Gondrecourt [Rudolf’s abusive tutor] goes, or I go.” (1986, Hamann) The Emperor agreed, and Gondrecourt was dismissed. Elisabeth personally chose Colonel Josef Latour as Rudolf’s new tutor, who was highly unpopular at court because he wasn’t an aristocrat and had very liberal political ideas. Many tried to reach Franz Josef to make him get rid of Latour, but Elisabeth protected him and he kept his job. Latour was to become one of Rudolf’s closest friends, and they remained so until his death.

Lastly, about Elisabeth basically calling Gisela's children ugly, I will say in her defense (which isn't really a defense lol) that this didn't come from a particular dislike towards her eldest daughter: she just didn't like babies, period. In 1867 she wrote to Rudolf about her newborn niece Mädi, daughter of her sister Mathilde, that “the baby in her swaddling bands is not as revolting as babies so treated usually are. But near at hand it does not smell very nice”, and to her mother Ludovika she wrote that she liked the child best “when I neither see nor hear it, for, as you know, I cannot appreciate little babies.” (1936, Corti). Also I can't find the source right now so don't quote me on this but I'm sure that I read that when her granddaughter Erzsi, Rudolf's daughter, was born, she said that she thought the girl wasn't as ugly as little babies usually are. So her saying Gisela's babies looked like piglets is just in line with her thinking that little babies are ugly in general. Which hey, at least she didn't say it to the children's mothers' faces (all these comments come from her correspondence to other relatives), so there's that.

The site you linked to me doesn't quote any source, so I'm not sure where they got that information from: it definitely isn't in any of Elisabeth's main biographies. I'm not that acquainted with Rudolf's biographies tho, so if I ever come across something about that I'll let you know.

Also, your question wasn't a bother. I hope that you found my answer helpful!

[archduchessofnowhere]

Sunday, 19 November, was the festival of St Elizabeth of Hungary, Sisi’s patron saint. Sixty-three years ago that day a special envoy from Vienna had arrived in Munich with a diamond brooch, shaped like a bouquet, as a gift from Francis Joseph to the princess he was to marry in the spring; and other presents followed on each St Elizabeth’s Day of her life. This year her widowed husband heard Mass in his study, for he was not well enough to go down to the chapel. In the afternoon Katharina Schratt came to visit him from Hietzing, where she presided over a convalescent home for officers wounded at the Front. The ‘dear good friend’ talked of the past, and especially of the Empress. At times she found Francis Joseph too weak to follow her conversation or reply to her. As she left for the short walk back to her villa, Dr Kerzl asked her not to come back on Monday, as the Emperor needed a day of complete rest. By now the wings of death cast lengthening shadows on Schénbrunn.

Archduchess Marie Valerie was at the palace, intent on ensuring that her father received the Church’s full spiritual ministrations. Also with him was his granddaughter, Erzsi, the 36-year old Princess von Windischgraetz, whose company had cheered him in the lonely years after Mayerling and Geneva. He refused to be confined to bed: he coughed less if he sat upright, he said. Despite Kerzl’s pleas for rest and quiet, the Emperor was determined to continue with his daily tasks. Archduke Charles and Archduchess Zita visited Francis Joseph’s study shortly before midday on Tuesday, causing him passing concern because he had no opportunity to put on his military tunic before the Archduchess entered the room; he remained a stickler over conventions of dress. He commented on good reports he had received from the Roumanian Front, but his visitors were surprised to find him studying recruitment papers, even though his body temperature was 102°F (normal 98.4F), or 39.5C (normal 37°C). The work, however, was too much for him. In the early evening he admitted feeling extremely ill and he was persuaded to allow his valet, Eugen Ketterl, to help him to bed. But there was, he thought, much paperwork which still required his scrutiny and signature; perhaps it could wait for one more day. ‘Has Your Majesty any further orders?’, Ketterl asked before withdrawing. ‘Morgen fruh um halb vier Uhr’, a failing voice replied with indomitable insistence (“Tomorrow morning, at half past four’).

They were not, however, his last words. As Ketterl helped him sip some tea, the Emperor faintly mumbled one final question, ‘Why must it be just now?’ He was barely conscious when a Court chaplain administered the rite of extreme unction. Half an hour later a fit of coughing shook the frail body, and then all was silent. Emperor-King Francis Joseph I died at five minutes past nine in the evening of 21 November 1916, only one long corridor and eighty-six years from the room in which he was born.

Palmer, Alan (1995). Twilight of the Habsburgs: the life and times of Emperor Francis Joseph

ON THIS DAY, IN 1916, EMPEROR FRANZ JOSEF I OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY DIED. HE WAS THE LONGEST REIGNING AUSTRIAN AND HUNGARIAN MONARCH.

[wgabry]

Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria, aka Erzsi, was the only child of Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria and Princess Stéphanie of Belgium.