Sissi took a paddle steamer named "Franz Joseph" and went down the Danube River. This is also the end of the first part of "Sissi". A magnificent scene rendered with great effort. A grand welcoming ceremony was held in Vienna to welcome the young queen. But then Princess Sissi was exhausted because the Archbishop of Vienna spent nearly an hour saying mass, which she had never experienced before. Her mother-in-law despised this wild girl from the bottom of her heart, and the citizens of Vienna cared too much about her. It turned out that the innocent and lively Sissi felt tremendous pressure, which was incompatible with the unrestrained nature she had formed in the Bavarian countryside. The tragic beginning of her life.
Strictly speaking, Princess Sissi is not a "good" queen. She is sensitive and willful, romantic and melancholic. After her marriage, she was separated from her husband for a long time, and she kept riding horses, hunting and traveling, almost without caring about her identity and responsibilities as a queen. Princess Sissi and Emperor Franz gave birth to four children, the eldest daughter Sophie in 1855 (the cute little princess in the film, unfortunately died of illness while visiting Hungary with her parents in 1857); the second daughter Gisela in 1856; In 1858, his son Rudolf was born in Rasimburg (for which Johann Strauss Jr. quickly wrote "Rasimborg Polka"); in 1867, his youngest daughter (whose name was not found) was born. Sissi was exhausted from the continuous births. On the other hand, the rigid etiquette in the palace and the obvious hostility of the Sufi Queen Mother towards her also made Sissi feel unprecedentedly depressed and desperate, so she chose to escape.
From historical records, Sissi loved to exercise, sometimes to the point of self-abuse. I exhausted myself every day and barely ate anything, making me look skinny (my waistline was only over 50 centimeters after middle age). In 1883, Sissi, who was already a middle-aged woman, walked on an abandoned military road for nearly seven hours and 22 miles in the scorching sun! Moreover, I only drank one glass of orange juice on the way! In addition to self-destructive sports, Sissi also likes to dress up and spends more than four hours doing makeup almost every day. After 1860, Sissi became obsessed with Greek mythology and Shakespeare, and fanatical worship of the poet Heine. She herself also wrote a large number of sad poems, and sang them in harmony with her cousin, the famous "fairy tale king" King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Interestingly, Ludwig II stubbornly believed that he was an "eagle" perched on the top of the mountain. Sissi, on the other hand, imagined herself as a "seagull" flying on the sea. From then on, Princess Sissi lived in seclusion in her fantasy world, almost isolated from the world, until she was stabbed to death on the shores of Lake Geneva.
In "The Young Queen", Sissi had a heated argument with Empress Sufi for the custody of her daughter. In the end, Sissi won and kept her daughter by her side. But in history it's exactly the opposite. Except for the eldest daughter Sophie, Sissi's other three children were all meticulously educated in accordance with the cumbersome court etiquette and the traditions of the Habsburg family. They were almost exactly the same as Franz back then. Their mothers were almost completely deprived of the right to raise their children. This made Sissi feel particularly distressed and sad, and also made the relationship between her and her mother-in-law Sophie very tense. Franz had to mediate between his wife and mother. However, Sissi had completely despaired of everything in the Vienna court. She spent a lot of time traveling and stayed in a villa outside Budapest for a long time. inside. Sissi liked Hungary very much. She studied the very difficult Magyar language seriously and made many Hungarian friends, including Count Andrássy (the Hungarian rebel leader in the film, who also fell in love with "Her Majesty the Queen". In history, he later became the famous foreign minister of the Austro-Hungarian Empire). The Hungarian people also loved Princess Sissi very much and compared her to the benevolent Theresa (Empress Maria Theresa, the ruler of the Habsburg dynasty in the eighteenth century, known for her kindness and kindness), and for that Emperor Franz was always hostile.
It can be said that Princess Sissi contributed a lot to the coronation of the Austrian Emperor Franz as the King of Hungary, and to the reconciliation between the Austrians and the Hungarians, at least on the surface.
In the last "Queen's Destiny", Sissi fought unremittingly against lung disease. In fact, Sissi's lung disease was not very serious. This was just a reason for her to escape from the court life in Vienna. In 1863, Princess Sissi came to the island of Madeira (belonging to Portugal, the picturesque and beautiful island in the film) west of Gibralto for recuperation. When I was researching information, I found something very interesting. At that time, Queen Victoria of England lent her royal yacht to Sissi. The stormy waves on the Atlantic made almost everyone sick, but Sissi, who had been sick in Vienna, was in high spirits. In the end, Sissi's chef also fell ill, so Sissi had to eat the Royal Navy's shipboard meals, and her appetite increased greatly! It seems that a person's mood has an incredible impact on the body. Sissi fell ill again after her return and had to flee Vienna again. Let me add a small episode here. As we all know, Queen Victoria was a tolerant ruler, but when Sissi later traveled to London, she very rudely rejected Victoria's sincere invitation, which made the Queen very angry. Fortunately, she did not care, so it did not lead to a diplomatic dispute. The willful Sissi did not realize that this was just one of the many things she did that was not in line with her status as a queen.
Emperor Franz in the film is so in love with Princess Sissi that he is simply a replica of the handsome prince and beautiful princess in fairy tales in reality. Is this the case? As an emperor of a powerful empire, doesn’t he have romantic affairs? After checking some information, I found that their love is indeed loyal. Although Sissi hated palace life extremely and was not with Franz all year round, it did not diminish the emperor's longing for and love for the empress at all. When Sissi was traveling, Franz wrote a letter almost every day expressing his love to his wife, and Sissi did the same, which was really rare. However, Franz had some uncertainties in his later years. In 1872, the Sufi Empress Dowager died and his wife was no longer around. The languid emperor felt extremely desolate. In 1875, the 45-year-old Emperor Franz met a plump woman named Anna Nachowski, the wife of a railway switchman, while doing morning exercises outside the Hofburg, his palace in Vienna. The emperor flirted with this wretched woman, and then the usual things happened. But Anna was a greedy woman and she plundered a lot of money from Emperor Franz, who soon grew tired of it. Then another jaw-dropping story happened to Franz. In 1883, Emperor Franz met the second-rate actress Katerina Schurath, the daughter of a Viennese grocer, while attending a theater. Franz and Caterina's relationship becomes more and more intense, but what's incredible is that their relationship is pure and truly platonic. Franz stubbornly refused to let Caterina become his mistress, so as not to tarnish the "noble feelings" between them. Emperor Franz once wrote to the actress: “If we stroll through the Chateau de Chambron and the slopes of the Tyrolean Gardens become slippery, perhaps I will have the honor of being allowed to hold her arm. "Your arms go forward." It can be said that this is the boldest confession made by the dull Emperor Franz to Katerina. Caterina indeed made the emperor feel the long-lost intimacy. The strange thing is that Franz was still deeply in love with Sissi at this time and actually reported all this to Sissi! What’s even more incredible is that Sissi not only agreed with Franz’s relationship with the actress, but even encouraged her husband to continue the relationship! I don’t know what Sissi was thinking at that time! Sissi soon regretted her generosity, but on the surface she still seemed reasonable and even got along well with Catalina. However, behind the scenes, Princess Sissi, like all jealous women, desperately created rumors about the actress and spoke ill of her everywhere. But in the end she was powerless and had no choice but to indulge in her travels and sad poems and live in seclusion in her own fantasy world.
In 1908, the Austro-Hungarian Empire annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina. This was Franz's first and last victory.
In 1914, Archduke Ferdinand and Archduchess Sophie Shotek were assassinated in Sarajevo. The First World War broke out, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire at this time completely became a pawn of the German Empire. Emperor Franz not only had to suffer the immense grief of yet another loss of a loved one, but he also saw the Habsburg dynasty and its empire in ruins. He is an old man in his 80s and has long stopped being involved in political affairs. On November 21, 1916, the 86-year-old Austrian Emperor and Hungarian King Franz Joseph I passed away, and the last link between the various ethnic groups in the Austro-Hungarian Empire disappeared. His great-nephew, the 29-year-old Karl, ascended to the throne, which only brought the Habsburg dynasty to its demise step by step. In 1918, the Allies were defeated, the Austro-Hungarian Empire fell apart, and new nation-states of various sizes were established on the ruins of the empire. On November 11, 1918, Emperor Karl issued a statement expressing his separation from politics; on November 12, the Austrian National Assembly announced the establishment of the German-Austrian Revolutionary War, and then Karl left Vienna and began his life in exile. Strictly speaking, Emperor Karl never abdicated. In a legal sense, he had always been the emperor of Austria and the ruler of the Habsburg dynasty, but this dynasty and its empire no longer existed.
The final part of the "Sissi" trilogy, "The Queen's Fate", uses St. Mark's Square in Venice as the magnificent background, allowing Italians to sing to the majestic national anthem of the Austrian Empire. Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress of Austria concluded by taking off their hats. The Habsburg family, the oldest dynasty in Europe with a history of thousands of years, was already on the verge of collapse by the end of the 19th century. Unfortunately this dynasty ended with the most romantic and sad story of a European royal family. As the first emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Franz Joseph worked diligently throughout his life, although he may not have realized that the collapse of the dynasty was inevitable. During his reign, Vienna became the art and academic center of Europe. The political atmosphere was relatively relaxed, and all ethnic groups were peaceful on the surface. Franz was also kinder to the Jews. His wife Princess Sissi, Queen of Austria and Queen Elisabeth of Hungary are the protagonists of this romantic story. The Austro-Hungarian Empire can be said to be the golden period in Austria's history. Needless to say, the great Baroque architecture, the brilliant waltz, the famous Vienna School, the brilliant medical achievements and Strauss's "Blue Danube" almost became Austria's ’s second national anthem.
Watching "Sissi" and recalling the story of the young emperor and queen of the oldest dynasty in Europe, I felt really emotional. Thanks to Romy Schneider for bringing us a perfect Sissi, a beautiful fairy tale that took place in the 19th century.