Hot History - I Missi Sisi

Episode Date: January 12, 2024

Today we are getting down and dirty with the OG Hot Girl and leader of the 19th century's 'tight lacer' crew - Empress Sisi. Covering her marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph, obsessive beauty routine, Odyssey of travels, and more, we look for the real Sisi amidst the fogs of mystery surrounding her.

This episode of Hot History contains reference to eating disorders and self-harm that some listeners may find disturbing. If you or someone you know is struggling from an eating disorder, call the Butterfly National Helpline on 1-800-33-4-673. If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of self-harm, please call Lifeline on 1311-1-14. Hello and welcome back to the very first episode of Hot History for 2024. I am so excited to have you listening along as we talk about all the things in history that you probably should know, but don't. We are starting off, the first of this year's episodes with the Hot Girl to end all Hot Girls. The mysterious enigma, Empress Sissy. Class is in session. So who was Sissy? Born on December 24, 1837, into the Royal Bavarian House of Wittlespark,

Elizabeth, nicknamed Sissy, enjoyed an informal upbringing, where her hands on mother and father raised her to explore the countryside and enjoy creative pursuits. However, in 1853, fate would intervene in Sissy's life as she meets Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph. Now, the meeting of Sissy and Franz is pretty problematic and so fated. You see, it all started with the suitcases. The suitcases containing Sissy, her sister and her mother's colourful summer wardrobe vanished. And given that they were in mourning, because of a recently deceased aunt, they had to appear before the Emperor in Black for their meeting on that fateful day on August 16, 1853.

In Battershall, a lovely town in Austria-Southburg Lake District, Helen Sissy's sister, was to be presented to his Majesty Franz Joseph ruler of the Habsburg Empire. She was a serious 17-year-old who appeared austere and aesthetic in her dark clothing. Franz Joseph greeted her, but his gaze wandered to the young, lively girl next to her. The 15-year-old Elizabeth or Sissy kept her mother and sister company on the journey and as fate would have it, the emperor fell in love with her at first sight. Struck by her beauty and creativity, Franz proposes to Sissy, ruffling, as you can imagine, several feathers within her own family and the royal court. So basically, Sissy is Mr. Still Your Man.

Sissy and Franz are married in Vienna in 1854, with Sissy trading in her Bavarian life to live under the rule and rigor of the Viennese court, which it's also key to note here that she was 16 years old at this time and was never really prepared or educated on how to be an empress, let alone an Austrian empress within the House of Habsburg. To no surprise, Sissy despised royal life and found it increasingly dull. Her education and the value she had for creativity and adventure met that the often dull and repetitive nature of royal duties did not suit her, which in turn pissed off most of the court around her. In an act of defiance, she even took up smoking, practiced gymnastics, and rode horses throughout her entire marriage, which subjected her to

even more gossip, both within and outside of court. And this was not the only press coverage Sissy was receiving. At the time, Sissy was considered to be one of the most beautiful women alive and exceeding intelligence and elegant proportions which kept everyone obsessed with not only her but the entire Austrian court that surrounded her her famously disapproving mother-in-law archdietcher sophy once wrote that cissy is the empress who attracts them all she is their joy and their idol which is true in many ways even queen victoria had cissy on the mind often speaking on how slend women were not attractive to which cissy would remark that short, larger ones were. Neither.

Sissy went to incredible lengths to preserve her looks with a beauty routine that would envy any Kardashian or makeup YouTuber. Sissy's most recognizable attribute by far was undoubtedly her thick chestnut hair, which she herself believed was her crowning glory. It grew well past her knees, nearly reaching her feet, and required some serious maintenance. So what does Sissy's beauty routine look like? Well, every morning, after a cold person, bath, massage to boost circulation, light breakfast and rigorous exercise, Sissy sat down in a chair

and submitted to no less than three hours a day on her hair. Her hairdresser also had to give account to her mistress of all the hairs that had broken or fallen out during the process, which would define her mood for the whole day. Obsessed with keeping wrinkles and other signs of aging at bay, Sissy applied crushed strawberries to her hands, neck and face. She even slept, quoting, in a sort of mask lined inside with raw veal. She soaked in warm olive oil baths to keep her skin soft and supple, and for everyday bathing, she used distilled water. She also made it a habit to sleep without any pillows to benefit her beauty.

She really needed one of those silky pillowcase things. Throughout her life, she was fanatical about maintaining a slim figure and wrapped herself in damp cloths to reduce inches on her waist. She was constantly dieting and overexercising, which included several hour-long afternoon walks, which were more in line with a forced march than a hot girl strong. role. Sissy was also one of the 19th century's famous tight laces, with a corset cinched to a mere 19 inches for the majority of her life. Even after four pregnancies, Elizabeth kept her weight

at approximately 110 pounds, but the pressure to maintain her good looks took its toll on the young royal, who was described as being graceful, but too slender and extremely unhappy by fellow Cordiers. Historians would later diagnose Sissy with an eating disorder and severe depression, not the mere melancholy that was so often passed around the medical circles of the 19th century. Sissy needed support in her role and in her life, something that she did not find with her husband very often. The Empress's relationship with Emperor Franz Joseph was so unhappy that in the minutes following her nuptials, the young bride was seen sobbing from her carriage as she passed through processions of excited Austrians. Nonetheless, Sissy and Franz did their duty, having four children, three daughters and a son.

Her first daughter was named Sophie and was followed by Gisela. And on a journey, both girls caught fevers and diarrhea. And where Gisela recovered, Sophie did not. The death of her eldest daughter at only two years old rocked Sissy to her core. And let us remember, at the age of only 21, Sissy was a mother of three. And the death of Sophie was so traumatic that she began dissoning herself from Gisela and her son, Rudolph, which meant they grew up lonely and practically without a mother. Following Sophie's death, Sissy spent nearly two years away from court recovering from a lung disease and extreme bouts of sadness,

brought on by her unhappy marriage and grief at her daughter's loss. It was this and books that gave the royal some relief during her life. Elizabeth used the excessive hours in which she had her hair done to learn languages, speaking fluent English and French and added modern Greek to her Hungarian studies. This side of Sissy is often not reported, and like so many women, who came before her and after her, historic accounts of Elizabeth's intelligence have been somewhat neglected

and replaced by stories of her vanity and social activities. But it was her hasty departure from Vienna to the Greek island of Corfu that was the beginning of a lifelong odyssey. For the rest of her days, Elizabeth of Austria remained wandering the world in search for her true self.

Restlessly, she moved from spa town to spa town, staying often only a few weeks at a time before moving on. She spent her touch. days with a rigorous sport program. Her maids regularly had to be picked up by carriages because they could not keep up with her. And by then, she had long been considered the best horsewoman in the world. Sissy loved the sea. She sailed in the worst storms and had an anchor even tattooed on her shoulder. It was around this time that she also no longer allowed porches of herself. The last photo of Sissy was taken at age 30 in the last painting at age 40. No one except her chambermaids

really saw her face, which she hid behind a veil, fan or umbrella as soon as she left her room. It was as if she had decided to remain forever that radiantly beautiful girl with whom the emperor had fallen in love with, and would spend much of her later years with her back turned to people. It was Sissy's love for travel that would bring her to Lake Geneva in Switzerland in 1898. She'd attended to the lake to visit several of her friends, including Baroness Rothschild. As this was not an official state visit, Sissy traveled incognito as the Countess of Hoemmes. However, while buying gears for her grandchildren at a shop, one of the workers alerted the papers to her presence, which is where we meet Luigi Lucini. Luigi travels to Geneva to carry out an assassination to protest against plutocracy, which is essentially where a state or government is controlled by the wealthy.

Luigi's intended victim was Prince Henry Diolion, but when the prince cancelled his plans, Luigi changed his target. He waited for Sissy and her female companion to leave the hotel to walk around the lake, and using a sharpened triangular file, he attacked her with a wound to the heart. The force of the blow threw Sissy to the ground, but she thought the man had merely knocked her over, and so she straightened up, apologized to pass the by for her mishap, and hurried with her chambermaid to the ship. It was only when she was finally on board that the emperor.

when her friend undid the empress's bodice to help her to breathe she noticed a small blood stain on her chemise and realized that cissy had actually been stabbed she revealed the true identity of the empress and she was carried back to the hotel where doctors were summoned to try and save her life in the end she died of internal bleeding from the blow by luigi who was labeled an anarchist with doctors later confirming that the tight lacing of her corset of which cissy was famous four, kept her alive from the initial attack until it was unlaced. What actually happened were her last words? Minutes later, the woman who was to become the most famous of all Habsburgs died at the age of 60. Sissy's body was taken to Vienna and her funeral casket in carriage were just as dramatic

and beautiful as she herself had been. She is now interned in the Imperial crypt at the Church of the Capuchin Friars. So we've covered about 60 years of history from Sissy's birth. through to her death. So who else was kicking around at the time? Sissy was born 16 years after Napoleon's death, four years after William Wilberforce dies, and the same year as American financier and Gilded Age new money man, J.P. Morgan. Sissy died 16 years before the start of World War I, two years before the death of Queen Victoria and two years after, Nicholas II was crowned as Tsar of Russia. She saw the first pattern of the car during her lifetime, as well as the American Civil War and its resulting abolition of slavery plus the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

She was also alive to see the unification of the German states plus the three cousins who would eventually start World War I, St. Nicholas II of Russia, King George V of Britain and Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany. So a pretty interesting pocket of history. The calm before the storm in many ways, if you would. So what impact does she have on modern times? First and foremost, Sissy was one of the final Habsburg empresses. When she married Franz Joseph and and had their four children, including their one son, Rudolph, the future of the empire seemed secure.

Rudolph went on to marry Princess Stephanie of Belgium, and they had one daughter who they named Elizabeth. The couple dripped it apart, and Rudolph became a heavy drinker, and in 1886 he and Stephanie became seriously ill with peritonitis, travelling to modern-day Croatia for treatment. After this intensive treatment, Stephanie was able to recover from the illness, but she was left unable to have children, as it had destroyed her fallopian tubes.

Stephanie's symptoms and outcome indicate Rudolph had most likely infected her with gonorrhea. Rudolph himself did not improve and with treatment and grew increasingly ill. It is likely he had contracted syphilis in addition to gonorrhea. In order to cope with the effects of the disease, Rudolph began taking large doses of morphine. So with no prospect of having a son and with a serious illness himself, he and his 18-year-old mistress committed joint suicide. As suicide would prevent him from being given a church burial,

Rudolph was officially declared to have been in a state of mental unbalance, and he was buried in the imperial crypt of the Capuchin Church in Vienna. His mistress, Mary's body, was smuggled out in the middle of the night and secretly buried in a village cemetery. Mary's private letters were later discovered in a safe deposit box in an Austrian bank in 2015, and they revealed that she was prepared to commit suicide alongside Rudolph out of love. Without a male heir to the throne, Franz Joseph named his brother Carl Ludwig Air.

However, following his death, France Joseph named Carl's elder son and his nephew as heir. Anyone venture a guess on who that may have been? It was no other than Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Yeah, the one who was shot in 1914 by extremist Gavrillo Princep. The result of this incident? World War I. France Joseph, as Emperor of Austria, Hungary, was an ally of the German Kaiser as part of the central powers and lived for the first two years of the war before dying and passing his throne to his great-nephew Charles I, who following their defeat in World War I,

was ordered to abdicate, and thus the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the House of Habsburg ended. So it was the death of Sissy's son, which led to the ongoing problems of succession, which ended with the exile of Charles I. Throughout her lifetime, Sissy was a benefactor to several charitable causes, and upon her death in 1898, she left a gift for the needy and persecuted. And today, that money supports the UNHCR, which is the UN Refugee Agency in countries that are part of the former Habsburg Empire. Sissy's endowment came into use very recently, under the order of the managing director of the UNHCR who announced that, quote, we will use the money in a way Sissy would have wished, protecting Ukrainian refugees. Thanks to Sissy, we will be able to do a bit extra.

Sissy's endowment went on to help 2,600 refugees in Ukraine as well as fund the UNHCR program itself. You may be asking, where'd the money come from? Well, it came from the sale of a diary that Sissy wrote in the 1880s when she was in her 50s. She left the diaries for safekeeping, not in Austrian archives, but with the Swiss government, with a publication embargo of 60 years, and the money came from that. In a more indirect way, Sissy is second only to Mozart as a draw for tourists to Vienna, with the Sissy Museum attracting over a million visitors annually, and often being associated directly with Austria's beauty.

But what about Sissy and pop culture? Well, the romance, in the beginning at least, her desire for self-determination and independence, the eccentricities of her later life as well as her tragic love for Franz Joseph, made Elizabeth of Austria a Habsburg celebrity, and she has been betrayed in several reincarnations throughout pop culture ever since. In the 50s, the trilogy with Romy Schneider made Sissy world famous with several television

and musical reincarnations since. Most recently, in 2022, Netflix launched a new series about Austria's most famous empress titled The Empress, taking us through the early years of Sissy and Empress Franz Jose's marriage. In May of that same year, the movie drama Corsuch, premiered at the Khan Film Festival and has since then collected international awards in several categories, foremost for the performance of Vicky Grape as the aging empress.

In 2023, Hulu released the documentary called The Jewel Thief, which follows the incredible true story of how one of Empress Sissy's stars was stolen from the Sean Brun Palace in Vienna. Sissy is often remembered for a collection of pearl and diamond stars that she would have placed in her floor-length chestnut hair, being forever captured in her state of beautiful. beauty by artists France Savor Winterhalter with the stars on full display. Today, around 27 of the diamond and pearl ornaments remain held up in the palace. That was at least until 1998 when a young man named Gerald Blanchard visited the museum.

Attending with his wife and father-in-law posing as tourist, Gerald toured the building, filming its layout and disabling the alarm. A few days later, police found a small parachute near the palace grounds, and it was not until two weeks later that the museum discovered the priceless piece, of Austrian history had been swapped with a replica from the gift store. In the years between 1998 and 2004, the star's location remained a mystery until Gerald was arrested in Canada trying to steal $500,000 from an ATM in a soon-to-open bank. In return for his accomplices receiving lesser sentences, Gerald told the police he had leverage if they would drive him to his grandmother's house.

Upon arrival, Gerald slipped his hand into a compartment and pulled out the missing star of Sissy, which was returned to the Austrians in 2009. Blanchard never gave up any of his accomplices and served two years in prison before being released on parole. It's a wild story made even more popular by the presence of Sissy at its centre. Remember today for her beauty, tragedy, mystery and links with the last of the great Habsburgs,

Empress Sissy remains one of the most illuminating and interesting female figures of the 19th century. Which brings us to the end of another ever, episode of Hot History. If you'd like to support us, then you can find us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts Hot History. Follow us on TikTok at hot.com and on Instagram at Hot History Club. As always, it is a pleasure getting down and dirty in time with you. And tune in next week as we discuss the tumultuous and terrifying Ivan the terrible.