Elisabeth Glas Popular Books

Elisabeth Glas Biography & Facts

Elisabeth (born Duchess Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie in Bavaria; 24 December 1837 – 10 September 1898), nicknamed Sisi or Sissi, was Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary from her marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph I on 24 April 1854 until her assassination in 1898. Elisabeth was born into the Ducal royal branch of the Bavarian House of Wittelsbach but enjoyed an informal upbringing before marrying her first cousin, Emperor Franz Joseph I, at 16. The marriage thrust her into the much more formal Habsburg court life, for which she was unprepared and which she found suffocating. Early in the marriage, she was at odds with her mother-in-law, who was also her maternal aunt, Archduchess Sophie, who took over the rearing of Elisabeth's daughters, one of whom, Sophie, died in infancy. The birth of a son, Crown Prince Rudolf, improved Elisabeth's standing at court, but her health suffered under the strain. As a result, she would often visit Hungary for its more relaxed environment. She came to develop a deep kinship with Hungary and helped to bring about the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary in 1867. The death of Elisabeth's only son and his mistress Mary Vetsera in a murder–suicide at his hunting lodge at Mayerling in 1889 was a blow from which the Empress never recovered. She withdrew from court duties and travelled widely, unaccompanied by her family. In 1890, she had the palace Achilleion built on the Greek island of Corfu. The palace featured an elaborate mythological motif and served as a refuge, which Elisabeth visited often. She was obsessively concerned with maintaining her youthful figure and beauty, developing a restrictive diet and wearing extremely tightlaced corsets to keep her waist looking very small. While travelling in Geneva in 1898, Elisabeth was fatally stabbed in the heart by an Italian anarchist named Luigi Lucheni. Her tenure of 44 years was the longest of any Austrian empress. Duchess in Bavaria Born Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie on 24 December 1837 in the Herzog-Max-Palais in Munich, Bavaria, she was the third child and second daughter of Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria and Princess Ludovika of Bavaria, the half-sister of King Ludwig I of Bavaria. Maximilian was considered peculiar; he loved circuses and traveled the Bavarian countryside to escape his duties. The family's homes were the Herzog-Max-Palais in Munich during winter and Possenhofen Castle in the summer months, far from the protocols of court. Sisi and her siblings grew up in an unrestrained, unstructured environment; she often skipped her lessons to go riding in the countryside.In 1853, Archduchess Sophie, the domineering mother of 23-year-old Emperor Franz Joseph I, preferring a niece to a stranger for her daughter-in-law, arranged a meeting between her son and her sister Princess Ludovika's eldest daughter, Duchess Helene ("Néné"). Although the couple had never met, Franz Joseph's obedience was taken for granted by the Archduchess, who was once described as "the only man in the Hofburg" for her authoritarian manner.Princess Ludovika and Duchess Helene were invited to journey to the resort of Bad Ischl, Upper Austria to receive his formal proposal of marriage. Ludovika also had the then-15-year-old Sisi accompany them for several reasons. Firstly, Sisi had been mourning the recent death of the young Count she had loved, and had fallen into a lengthy depression. Ludovika hoped the change of scenery would cheer her up. Secondly, Archduke Karl Ludwig, Franz Joseph's second younger brother, would also be joining the Imperial family. Karl Ludwig and Sisi had formed a close friendship in childhood, exchanging letters and gifts. Her mother hoped them seeing each other again would end with a possible engagement for Sisi.The Duchesses traveled from Munich in several coaches, but arrived later because Ludovika who was prone to migraines had to interrupt the journey to allow her time to recover. The coaches got separated and the one with their gala dresses never arrived. On their way to Bad Ischl, they visited Leopoldskron Palace where Theresa, the Queen Dowager of Bavaria was in mourning for her brother Georg, so they were dressed in black and unable to don more suitable clothing before meeting the young Emperor. While black did not suit 18-year-old Helene's dark coloring, it made her younger sister's blonder looks more striking.Helene was a pious, quiet young woman, and while she and Franz Joseph felt ill at ease in each other's company, he was instantly infatuated with her younger sister. He did not propose to Helene, but instead, he defied his mother and informed her that if he could not have Elisabeth, he would not marry at all. Five days later, their betrothal was officially announced. The couple were married eight months later in Vienna, at the Augustinerkirche, on 24 April 1854. The marriage was finally consummated three days later, and Elisabeth received a dower equal to US$240,000 as of 2015. Empress of Austria After enjoying an informal, unstructured childhood, Elisabeth, who was shy and introverted by nature, and more so among the stifling formality of Habsburg court life, had difficulty adapting to the Hofburg and its rigid protocols and strict etiquette. Within a few weeks, Elisabeth started to display health problems. She experienced fits of coughing and became anxious and frightened whenever she had to descend a narrow or steep staircase.Early in her marriage she was surprised to learn that she was pregnant; she gave birth to her first child, daughter Sophie Friederike Dorothea Maria Josepha (1855–1857), just 10 months after her wedding. The elder Archduchess Sophie, who often referred to Elisabeth as "a silly young mother", not only named the child after herself without consulting the mother, but she took complete charge of the baby, refusing to allow Elisabeth to breastfeed or otherwise care for her own child. When a second daughter, Gisela Louise Marie (1856–1932), was born a year later, the Archduchess took this baby away from Elisabeth as well.The fact that she had not produced a male heir made Elisabeth increasingly unwanted in the palace. One day, she found a pamphlet on her desk with the following words underlined: ...The natural destiny of a Queen is to give an heir to the throne. If the Queen is so fortunate as to provide the State with a Crown Prince this should be the end of her ambition–she should by no means meddle with the government of an Empire, the care of which is not a task for women... If the Queen bears no sons, she is merely a foreigner in the State, and a very dangerous foreigner, too. For as she can never hope to be looked on kindly here, and must always expect to be sent back whence she came, so will she always seek to win the King by other than natural means; she will struggle for position and power by intrigue and the sowing of discord, to the mischief of the King, the nation, and the Empire... Her mother-in-law is generally considered to be the source of .... Discover the Elisabeth Glas popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Elisabeth Glas books.

Best Seller Elisabeth Glas Books of 2024

  • Frost In May synopsis, comments

    Frost In May

    Antonia White, Tessa Hadley & Elizabeth Bowen

    'Frost in May is the unsurpassed novel of convent school life. This story of a clash between a determined young girl and an authoritarian regime is both perceptive and painfully em...

  • Life Is Magic synopsis, comments

    Life Is Magic

    Jon Dorenbos

    “Jon Dorenbos is a magical person. Life Is Magic shows how we can all choose happiness in the face of overwhelming odds.” Ellen DeGeneres An extraordinary and empowering story of r...

  • Craigdarroch Castle in 21 Treasures synopsis, comments

    Craigdarroch Castle in 21 Treasures

    Moira Dann

    Told in 21 objectsincluding furnishings, artwork, and toolsthis approachable museum guide takes readers into the family history, local lore, and oddities of one of Victoria's most ...

  • The Smallest Man synopsis, comments

    The Smallest Man

    Frances Quinn

    ‘I want you to remember something, Nat. You’re small on the outside. But inside you’re as big as everyone else. You show people that and you won’t go far wrong in life.’  A co...

  • Looking Glass Foes synopsis, comments

    Looking Glass Foes

    Mikala Ash

    Could the handsome Peter Smythe be the one? Elizabeth is mightily attracted to the dedicated and brave journalist and faces the struggle of balancing her duty to save the empire wi...

  • Turn Right At The Spotted Dog synopsis, comments

    Turn Right At The Spotted Dog

    Jilly Cooper OBE

    After going to live in the country Jilly Cooper wrote regularly for the Mail on Sunday for several years and this is a selection of her best pieces written at that time. The topics...

  • Good Girls synopsis, comments

    Good Girls

    Hadley Freeman

    From Hadley Freeman, bestselling author of House of Glass, comes a “riveting” (The New York Times) memoir about her experience as an anorexic and her journey to recovery.In 1995, H...

  • Castle In The Window synopsis, comments

    Castle In The Window

    Laura C Stevenson

    Staying for the summer with an unfamiliar aunt and uncle, Erin finds herself drawn into the magical world of a medieval castle, complete with knights and pages, a prince and a page...

  • Warehouse synopsis, comments

    Warehouse

    Keith Gray

    'I know a place you can go'. It's a secret place hidden among the rundown buildings of the derelict dockyards. A community of young people have gathered in an old warehouse to get ...

  • Enchanted synopsis, comments

    Enchanted

    Janine Ashbless, Leonie Martell & Olivia Knight

    Three top authors writing three erotic fairytalesBear Skin: Hazel is whisked away from her tedious job and humdrum life by the mysterious Arailt, to be his lover 'for a year and a ...

  • Malarkey synopsis, comments

    Malarkey

    Keith Gray

    Brook High is a great grey concrete ants' nest of a school. John Malarkey is the new kid, thrown in at the deep end of Year 11. He's the wrong person in the wrong place at the wron...

  • An Unreliable Man synopsis, comments

    An Unreliable Man

    Jostein Gaarder & Nichola Smalley

    From the creative genius of Jostein Gaarder, author of modern classic Sophie's World, comes a novel about loneliness and the power of words Jakop is a lonely man. Divorced from hi...

  • Natural Wine, No Drama synopsis, comments

    Natural Wine, No Drama

    Honey Spencer

    Discover the world of natural wine… without all the drama. Honey Spencer is determined to help everyone understand and enjoy all that each unique glass has to offer.Honey has worke...

  • The Fair Botanists synopsis, comments

    The Fair Botanists

    Sara Sheridan

    SELECTED AS THE WATERSTONES SCOTTISH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022'Compelling, fascinating . . . A cracking good read' Val McDermid'An evocative, enjoyable portrait of 1820s Edinburgh' Sun...

  • Watch the Lady synopsis, comments

    Watch the Lady

    Elizabeth Fremantle

    From “a brilliant new player in the court of royal fiction” (People), comes the mesmerizing story of Lady Penelope Devereuxthe daring young beauty in the Tudor court, who inspired ...

  • The Beast in the Jungle synopsis, comments

    The Beast in the Jungle

    Henry James

    'Something or other lay in wait for him, amid the twists and turns of the months and the years, like a crouching beast in the jungle.'Henry James's devastating and profoundly movin...

  • Please Let It Stop synopsis, comments

    Please Let It Stop

    Jacqueline Gold

    'In retrospect, I can see I was the perfect candidate for child abuse. My parents had divorced and my mother didn't show me much love. Her selfimposed isolation kept me away from o...

  • The Vanishing synopsis, comments

    The Vanishing

    Sophia Tobin

    'Think Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre, but ten times darker, and you have The Vanishing … as dark and eerie and gothic as the Yorkshire Moors it is set on. One ...

  • The Forsyte Saga synopsis, comments

    The Forsyte Saga

    John Galsworthy

    The Forsyte Saga is the first part of John Galsworthy’s magnificent, wellloved Forsyte Chronicles, which trace the changing fortunes of the wealthy Forsyte dynasty through fifty ye...

  • The Winter Spirits synopsis, comments

    The Winter Spirits

    Bridget Collins, Imogen Hermes Gowar, Natasha Pulley, Jess Kidd, Andrew Michael Hurley, Elizabeth Macneal, Laura Purcell, Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Stuart Turton, Catriona Ward, Laura Shepherd-Robinson & Susan Stokes-Chapman

    FROM THE CREATORS OF THE HAUNTING SEASON COMES A DAZZLING COLLECTION OF NEVERBEFORESEEN GHOSTLY TALES.'Terrific every bit as good as an MR James collection' ROSIE ANDREWS, author ...

  • A Walk on Broken Glass synopsis, comments

    A Walk on Broken Glass

    Gloria M. Allan

    Living in a shallow and jealous court society, greedy for position and power, Elisabeth's strength of character, her determination, her skill as a horsewoman and love of travel all...

  • That Bonesetter Woman synopsis, comments

    That Bonesetter Woman

    Frances Quinn

    Preorder UNSINKABLE, the astonishing new novel by Frances Quinn, coming February 2025. ‘What a heroine Endurance Proudfoot is! I loved her from the start. An unconventional woman w...