#kaiserin zita of austria

[archduchessofnowhere]

what you think sissi was lady diana in 19th century

Hello anon! I actually already talked a bit about this in another ask, but basically no, I don't think so. However, instead of repeating why I don't agree with it, I decided to do something different: look up one of the "Sisi was like Princess Diana" articles and do a counter argument. Just for funsies.

The first article that popped up when I googled "princess diana empress elisabeth" was this one from Vanity Fair, written by Nell Scovell and published in 2015. The main purpose of the article is to boost Allison Pataki's novel about Elisabeth "The Accidental Empress" that I believe was also published around that time. All the quotes going forward are from said article.

Allison Pataki’s latest historical novel, The Accidental Empress, makes a compelling argument that Sisi (as the last Habsburg Empress was known) belongs in the exclusive clique that includes Anne Boleyn, Marie Antoinette, and Princess Diana.

First I'm gonna be extremely annoying and point out that she was the second-to-last empress of the Habsburg empire (herself being born a Wittelsbach). The last empress was Zita of Bourbon-Parma. Second, the only thing in common that those women have is that they became pop icons, but they all lived over a century apart from each other and could not have had more different lives. Well, that's my opinion at least.

“Sisi was arguably the first modern celebrity who operated on a global scale,” Pataki said on the phone recently. “She captured peoples’ hearts and imaginations the way Diana did, and yet, she’s become a footnote in history.”

I'm sorry I can't pay attention to anything else in this quote because "she's become a footnote in history" is INSANE. Like actually crazy. ELISABETH. A FOOTNOTE. ELISABETH!!! One of the most famous women in history!!!! What is she talking about!!!!!

Sorry I needed to get that out of my chest. Moving on. The article actually provides us with a side-by-side list that compares Diana, Princess of Wales and Empress Elisabeth of Austria. Let's break it down and see what parallels we got!

This one has a mistake on Diana's side, she was not royalty, she was from nobility. Elisabeth was a royal highness tho, so that is correct.

Fun fact: Elisabeth and Franz Josef did not meet at Ischl in 1853! Until some weeks ago I thought that they had met for the first time in 1848, when Ludovika went to Innsbruck with her two eldest daughters and her son Karl Theodor, to visit her sister Sophie, who was staying there with her sons to escape the unrest in Vienna (because of you know, the revolution and all that). However, I read in Mythos Kaiserin Elisabeth (run by a blogger that absolutely knows what they are talking about when it comes to Sisi) that their first meeting was in 1843, when Archduchess Sophie visited Possenhofen with Franz Josef. Elisabeth was then only five years old and Franz Josef thirteen. But yeah this comparison feels forced.

The first one is correct, but I don't see anything worth comparison: royal women tended to marry young. The second one is lowkey gross so I'm ignoring it. I don't have anything to add to the third one other than royal weddings are just Like That, again there is nothing particularly special about either of them to merit a comparison. The last one is super forced jgjgk Franz Josef had mistresses they could've put one of them there instead of Sophie lol.

Ok so I started to do this in a sort of "jaja how funny some of these comparisons are" way but that was before I read this and now I'm writing with anger. Not only this is an absolute reach because these two things are LITERALLY NOT THE SAME AT ALL, LIKE NOT EVEN SIMILAR, comparing prince An*rew, who was accused of terrible crimes and was involved with truly horrible people to Archduke Maximilian on the basis of them being "dicey" is incredibly tasteless. Also, Max did not "declare himself" emperor, he was chosen to be emperor!! There was a plebiscite!!! Ok the plebiscite was rigged but he and Charlotte didn't knew that!!! They truly thought that they were helping the Mexicans!!!

I'm skipping the next two because one can be summoned to "rich women wear jewels" and the other is about their eating disorders, wich is a sensitive subject that I rather not discuss so casually.

No you see Diana and Sisi are super similar because, hmm *rolls dice* Elton John made The Lion King theme song and hmmmm *throws dart* Johann Strauss composed waltzes! This is a totally logic comparison that makes perfect sense and it isn't a reach at all!

I... I don't get this one. Are they saying that John Travolta is like the Shah of Persia or that the Shah of Persia was like John Travolta??

I believe the first one is from an interview. The second one is a private poem Elisabeth wrote soon after she got married. These are two completely different things that should not be compared.

First one: again two different things that have nothing to do with each other at all. Second one: ok I'm not super versed in Diana lore but I'm pretty sure that she was dating Dodi right? Like it wasn't "a fling" they were a couple. And Andrassy was just Elisabeth's friend, in fact she was very proud that their relationship wasn't "poisoned by love". Third one: 19th century journalism was completely different to 20th century journalism and I don't think it should be compared. Last one: I don't recall Elisabeth being called that during her lifetime, although she did like to compare herself to Titania so maybe that's what it's refering to??

Ok we are done! I had put a disclaimer at first about how I didn't want to come off as arrogant or know it all and that this was just me joking, but the list got so stupid that I was like, "actually nevermind I want to be mean", and deleted it jgjdk. But this pretty much sums up my problem with this comparison: Diana and Elisabeth are not really that similar, so people just forces connections between them so they can title their article/video/whatever "learn all about the Diana of the 19th century!!". It's plain clickbait. And worse of all, no one mentions one of the actual connections between them: during her hunting trips in England, Elisabeth stayed at the house of the Earl Spencer, Diana's great-something-grandfather. I believe that that is more worthy to be put in the list than the ridiculous Elton John/Johann Strauss parallel.

Sorry for the rant!

[royaltyandpomp]

THE MOTHER

H.I.R.M. Empress Zita of Austria and H.I.R.H. Archduke Rudolf of Austria