[Illustration: _ELIZABETH as the young Empress_]
_Life Stories for Young People_
ELIZABETH
EMPRESS OF AUSTRIA AND QUEEN OF HUNGARY
_Translated from the German of
Carl Küchler_
BY
GEORGE P. UPTON
_Translator of “Memories,” “Immensee,” etc._
WITH FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS
[Illustration: A · C · M^cCLURG]
CHICAGO
A. C. McCLURG & CO.
1909
Copyright
A. C. McClurg & Co.
1909
Published August 21, 1909
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.
Translator’s Preface
The story of the life of Elizabeth of Bavaria, Empress of Austria and
Queen of Hungary, is one of the saddest in the history of royalty, and
in some respects recalls the story of the life of Marie Antoinette. Both
their lives were sorrowful, both ended tragically, the one at the hands
of an assassin, the other upon the guillotine. Elizabeth will not be
remembered in history as a sovereign, for everything connected with the
throne and with court life was distasteful to her, but rather as the
beautiful, sorrowful daughter of the Wittelsbachs. She was not only one
of the most beautiful women of her time, but an accomplished scholar and
linguist, a good musician, and well versed in history, science, and art.
She was a passionate lover of the woods and mountains, and was happiest
when she was walking or riding among them, or associating with the
Hungarian people. She was no more at home with the Viennese than was
Marie Antoinette with the Parisians. Her domestic life was saddened by
estrangement from her husband, by lack of sympathy among her relatives,
by the terrible tragedy which ended the life of her son, Prince Rudolph,
and by other tragedies which involved the happiness and sometimes the
lives of those nearest to her. At last her sufferings were ended by the
dagger of a cruel anarchist assassin. As the author of this volume says:
“She died as she had often wished to die, swiftly and painlessly and
under the open sky. Who can say that her last breath was not a sigh of
thankfulness and peace?”
G. P. U.
Chicago, May 10, 1909.
Contents
Chapter Page
I The Diamond Wedding 11
II Birth and Childhood of Elizabeth of Bavaria 19
III Betrothal of Princess Elizabeth 25
IV The Wedding Ceremonies 32
V First Troubles 40
VI Travels and Sorrows 46
VII Birth of Crown Prince Rudolf 53
VIII Elizabeth’s Illness and Sojourn in Madeira 58
IX The Express’ Flight from Vienna 63
X The Coronation in Hungary 67
XI The Archduchess Marie Valerie 72
XII The Castle of Gödöllö 77
XIII The Empress in Vienna 83
XIV Marriage of Crown Prince Rudolf 88
XV King Ludwig Second of Bavaria 96
XVI The Empress’ Travels 101
XVII The Empress’ Literary Tastes 110
XVIII Daily Life of the Empress 114
XIX Death of Crown Prince Rudolf 119
XX Death of the Empress 128
Appendix 139
Illustrations
Elizabeth as the young Empress _Frontispiece_
Emperor Franz Joseph in his twenty-eighth year 34
Crown Prince Rudolf 90
Empress Elizabeth in later years 122
Elizabeth
Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary
Chapter I
The Diamond Wedding
On the ninth of September, 1888, an unusual event occurred in the
princely house of Wittelsbach. Maximilian Joseph, the head of the ducal
line of Vorpfalz-Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld, and his wife Ludovica (Louise),
daughter of King Maximilian First of Bavaria and his second wife,
Caroline of Baden, celebrated on that day their diamond wedding, both
bride and groom having been barely twenty years old at the time of their
marriage.
Few princely couples have been closely connected with so many of the
reigning families of Europe. Their eldest son, Ludwig Wilhelm, renounced
the succession to wed an actress, Henrietta Mendel, who had received the
title of Countess Wallersee. Helene, the eldest daughter, married the
Hereditary Prince of Thurn and Taxis, and their daughter Louise, by her
alliance with Frederick of Hohenzollern, formed new ties between the
Wittelsbachs and the royal house of Prussia. The next daughter was
Elizabeth of Austria-Hungary, whose son in his turn took for his bride
the King of Belgium’s daughter, Stephanie. After Elizabeth, in the
family, came Karl Theodore, well known as an oculist, and, on his
father’s death, the head of the ducal line of Wittelsbach. He first
married his cousin Sophie, daughter of King John of Saxony; the second
and present wife is Marie Josepha, Princess of Portugal. Two other
daughters, Marie and Mathilde, allied themselves with the younger branch
of the Bourbons. Marie became the wife of King Francis Second of Naples
and Mathilde married his half-brother, Count Louis of Trani. The
youngest daughter, Sophie, was betrothed at one time to her cousin, King
Ludwig Second of Bavaria, but afterwards married Duke Ferdinand
d’Alençon, nephew of Louis Philippe of France, while the youngest son,
Max Emanuel, married Amélie of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, thereby becoming
connected by marriage with Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria.
The Wittelsbachs have always been eccentric. Mental disorders have been
common with them, and during the last century between twenty and thirty
members of the family have died insane. Yet in spite of their
peculiarities and eccentricities they have always been exceedingly
popular with their subjects, as much for their personal charm as for
their devotion to the happiness and welfare of their people. The annals
of Bavaria have little to record of treason or conspiracy against the
princes of the land, but tell much of the loyalty and sacrifices of life
and property on the part of the people.
Duke Maximilian Joseph was born at Bamberg, December 4, 1808. He was the
son of the weak-minded Duke Pius Augustus of Bavaria and his wife,
Amélie Louise, Princess of Arenberg. “The good Duke Max,” as he was
called by the people, was the only direct descendant of his grandfather,
while his wife, on the other hand, was the youngest of a large family of
sisters. Two had been princesses of Saxony and one a Queen of Prussia,
while the fourth was the mother of the Emperor Francis Joseph of
Austria-Hungary. King Ludwig First of Bavaria was a half-brother, and
there were also two half-sisters. One was married first to the King of
Würtemberg and afterwards to the Emperor Francis First of
Austria-Hungary; the other became the wife of Napoleon’s stepson, Eugene
Beauharnais, and the grandmother of Kings Charles Fifteenth and Oscar
Second of Norway and Sweden.
Thus most of the dynasties of Europe were interested in the festivities
in honor of the aged pair, and sent congratulations to the secluded spot
on Starnberg Lake, where the event was celebrated, and where many
touching proofs of the loyalty of the people of Bavaria were also
received.
Maximilian Joseph belonged to the most eccentric and popular branch of
the Bavarian royal family. Educated directly under the eye of his
grandfather, his childhood had been spent partly in Bamberg, partly in
Munich. At the age of eighteen he entered the University of Munich,
where he applied himself assiduously to the study of history, natural
science, and political economy, and on coming of age he was given, as
provided by the Bavarian constitution, a seat in the Senate chamber. But
he did not aspire to fame, either as orator or statesman; nor did he
strive for military distinction, though at the age of thirty he was
assigned to the command of a regiment of cavalry and in 1857 was
invested with the rank of general. His natural love for science,
literature, and art more often led him to exchange his uniform for the
simple civilian dress.
During the youth of the Duke a musician, named Johann Petzmacher,
created a great stir. He was born in 1803, the son of an innkeeper in
Vienna, and in his eighteenth year accidentally learned to play the
homely zither with which the mountaineers of the Austrian and Bavarian
highlands accompany their folk songs. He soon became so absorbed in the
possibilities of this instrument that he gave up everything else to
devote himself to it. His fame as a performer soon spread far and wide.
He played before the most select circles of Vienna and even at court,
and made tours throughout Germany, being received everywhere with the
greatest enthusiasm. Duke Max first heard him in 1837 at a concert in
Bamberg, and determined to learn to play the zither under the master’s
direction. Petzmacher was introduced to the would-be virtuoso, and from
that time until his death made his home with his art-loving patron. The
Duke in 1838 undertook a long journey through Asia and Africa, and his
musician friend accompanied him. Savages listened with delight to his
playing, and as the two friends sat on the top of the Egyptian pyramids
or camped in the hot desert sands, the homely melodies carried their
thoughts back to loved ones in Germany, and dangers and hardships were
forgotten. While on this journey Duke Max wrote several musical
compositions which were afterwards performed in public and received with
great applause. Under the name of “Phantasus,” he wrote a collection of
dramatic poems and novels that showed no small literary talent. More
noteworthy than these, however, is his “Travels in the Orient,” a book
of considerable merit. On his return to Bavaria he had a circus ring
constructed in the rear of his palace in the Ludwigstrasse, at Munich,
which aroused much curiosity, where he frequently made his appearance as
ringmaster with members of the Bavarian nobility as circus riders and
performers.
It was only during the winter months that he remained in Munich. All
through the Summer and Autumn he lived with his family at his castle
Possenhoffen, beautifully situated on Lake Starnberg. This picturesque
region, shut in by a chain of lofty Alps, seems as if created to inspire
poetical sentiment, and various members of the art-loving Bavarian royal
family have built summer palaces there.
Max Joseph was an enthusiastic hunter and spent whole days roaming
through the forests and mountains about Possenhoffen. Enjoyment of the
beauties of nature was one of his passions, and he often came out in the
Winter for a few days at a time. On these excursions he wore a simple
hunting costume,—short gray jacket, open shirt with suspenders,
feathered cap, knickerbockers with long stockings, and heavy-soled
shoes. He generally went about on foot, but sometimes made use of the
mail-coach, the usual mode of conveyance at that time. His fellow
travellers seldom suspected that the good-natured huntsman who chatted
so freely with them was a duke and the brother-in-law of their
sovereign. He was continually besieged with petitions, and rarely did
any one appeal in vain to the comparatively poor but warm-hearted
prince. His benevolence was one of the chief causes for his popularity
in Munich, though he was most beloved by the people as the gay zither
player who with his instrument under his arm would enter their cottages
quite like one of themselves, and play for the young people who were
never weary of dancing to his music.
His wife was very different. She had not his artistic, impulsive
temperament, and the good-humored simplicity with which he mingled with
the common people did not altogether meet with her approval. The proper
maintenance of her position seemed no more than a duty due to her high
birth and rank, and for this reason she was never as popular as her
husband, though her many admirable qualities commanded the greatest
respect and admiration during the sixty years that she remained mistress
of Possenhoffen. She was naturally endowed with a good mind and had been
carefully educated. Honesty and love of truth were among her most marked
characteristics, and all her life she held firmly to what after mature
reflection she believed to be right. Like the Duke, she preferred the
seclusion of the country to city life, and all through their happy
married life she acted as a balance to her loving but restless husband
as well as friend and adviser of her children, who adored and looked up
to her always. Her glance was keen but kindly. Smiles came easily to her
lips, and there was an air of distinction about her that sprang from
true nobility of heart. She was one of those strong souls born to help
others, but in little need of support themselves. She was by no means
unambitious for her children, though the trials suffered because of them
taught her by degrees to place less value upon outward splendor. She
disliked to excite personal attention and cared only to live as quietly
and modestly as possible.