Melancholy seemed to run in the family. Following the death of her son, Elisabeth’s sister Helene “often seemed mad in her terrible passion.”1 Following the death of her cousin King Ludwig II of Bavaria, who had been declared insane shortly before, Elisabeth’s chamberlain wrote that “though there is no reason for it, she is nevertheless emotionally disturbed. Since she lives so utterly alone, she talks herself into it more and more.”2 Her niece Amalie wrote of her “bewildered glance, her gloomy disturbed expression during these days.”2 Elisabeth found solace in writing poetry about the death of Ludwig. She also became more spiritual and often attended sessions with mediums.
She reportedly had conversations with spirits, including Ludwig, and by the mid-1880s, she began to speak of suicide. Marie Valerie, who was often by her mother’s side, often wrote of her mother’s “indescribable despair and hopelessness” and “she says that it is a torment to be alive, and she indicates that she wants to kill herself. ‘Then you will go to hell,’ Papa said. And Mama replied, ‘But we already have hell on earth!'”3 As she neared her fifties, her beauty had begun to fade, and she was suffering from sciatica and “nervous disorders.”4
The death of her son Crown Prince Rudolf hit Elisabeth hard. Although Elisabeth had been quite composed in the days following her son’s death, she soon fell apart. The German ambassador reported that Elisabeth “abandons herself to incessant brooding, reproaches herself, and attributes to the inherited Wittelsbach blood the mental confusion of her poor son.”5 It was also another reason for Elisabeth to be criticized by the court circle. One Countess de Jonghe wrote, “This time, the first lady of the land bears the principal blame. If she had thought less of herself and more of her obligations, this recent catastrophe would not have occurred.”6
Just a few days after Rudolf’s funeral, Elisabeth tried to make contact with his spirit down in the crypt to learn the reason for his suicide, and she continued to try and reach his spirit unsuccessfully. She later told Marie Valerie, “Rudolf’s bullet killed my faith.”7 Her attempts to reach him caused even more gossip in Vienna but she was desperate the learn the reasons for his suicide. She strayed far from the Catholic faith, much to the worry of Marie Valerie, who wrote, “Mama is actually merely deistic. She prays to great Jehovah in His destructive power and greatness; but that He hears the pleas of His creatures she does not believe because – she says – from the beginning of time, everything is predestined and man is powerless against eternal predestination, which is based, simply, on Jehovah’s inscrutable will. In His sight, she is equal to the most insignificant gnat – how could He care anything about her.”7
Although newspapers reported on Elisabeth’s supposed insanity, these seemed to have been exaggerated. During this time, Franz Joseph visited his wife in Territet, and it was noted that “Her Majesty is in particularly good humour, and he too glows with happiness.”8 Nevertheless, her odd behaviour was noted during her travels, as was her extreme shyness. Her lady-in-waiting wrote, “With us, everything is extraordinary. Her Majesty is simple, it is only that she begins from the back what others begin from the front, begins from the left what others begin from the right. It is from this that the difficulties arise.”
The death of her sister Helene plunged Elisabeth into even more despair, and she increasingly longed to die as well. Marie Valerie wrote, “Mama will probably never again be as she was at one time; she envies Rudolf his death, and day and night longes for her own.”9 By the end of the mourning period for Rudolf, Elisabeth had given away all her light-coloured gowns and other items to Gisela and Marie Valerie. She wore only plain mourning attire and did not wear colour again for the rest of her life. She also began to give away her jewellery, mostly to her two daughters and Rudolf’s daughter.
During her final years, Elisabeth still stuck to her starvation diet and continued to suffer from “oedema of hunger.”10 Her waist measured 51 centimetres at one point, and she maintained an average weight of 47 kilos at a height of 172 centimetres.11 In the summer of 1898, Elisabeth met with her husband in Bad Ischl, where they were joined by their daughter Archduchess Valerie. Elisabeth was “in low spirits, as always.”12 Elisabeth then departed for Bad Nauheim while Valerie and the Emperor remained in Bad Ischl for a few more weeks.
The cure in Bad Nauheim did nothing for the Empress, and she wrote to her daughter in July, “I am in bad humour and sad, and the family can be glad that they are away from me. I have a sense that I will not rally again.”12 From Bad Nauheim, she travelled on to Switzerland. On 10 September 1898 in Geneva, Elisabeth was stabbed in the heart with a file with a knife-edge by Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni. The extent of her injuries was not known until her bodice was unbuttoned. Elisabeth was rushed back by boat, though the summoned doctor could do nothing but pronounce her dead.
It’s impossible to diagnose someone with a mental illness retroactively. However, we can conclude that Elisabeth had a difficult time with the life that had been set for her, and she dealt with it the only way she knew how.
- The reluctant Empress by Brigitte Hamann p.272
- The reluctant Empress by Brigitte Hamann p.273
- The reluctant Empress by Brigitte Hamann p.278
- The reluctant Empress by Brigitte Hamann p.281
- The Reluctant Empress by Birgitte Hamann p. 344
- The Reluctant Empress by Birgitte Hamann p. 345
- The Reluctant Empress by Birgitte Hamann p. 346
- The Reluctant Empress by Birgitte Hamann p. 362
- The Reluctant Empress by Birgitte Hamann p. 348
- The Reluctant Empress by Birgitte Hamann p. 363
- Vienna’s Most Fashionable Neurasthenic: Empress Sisi and the Cult of Size Zero in Journeys into Madness: Mapping Mental Illness in the Austro-Hungarian Empire p.91
- The Reluctant Empress by Birgitte Hamann p. 366
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