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In episode four of Netflix’s The Empress, Countess Esterházy tells Archduchess Sophie that Empress Sisi is likely pregnant. Sophie knows about the condition before even Sisi herself—the archduchess, after all, has a courtier to watch and track her daughter-in-law’s every movement, including her menstrual cycle. “The honeymoon phase is over,” Sophie says, matter-of-factly.
It’s just one of her many controlling maneuvers. Throughout the season, she dictates everything from what Sisi should wear, to how she should behave, to when she can see her husband, Emperor Franz Joseph I. When the 16-year-old tries to give Franz Joseph political advice, Sophie moves to suppress it. “We are talking about an heir—that is your only task,” Sophie says.
The ever-growing conflict certainly makes for a captivating television show. How much of it, though, is reflective of real-life events?
As far as in-laws go, Archduchess Sophie goes down in history as one (if not the) most formidable. She, after all, was the mastermind behind her son’s ascension to emperor: After his uncle, Ferdinand, abdicated the throne, Sophie convinced her meek husband, Franz, to pass the throne to the younger Franz Joseph instead. She then dedicated herself to being a silent statesman, offering her son advice—and heavily pressuring him to take it—throughout his reign. So powerful and decisive were her opinions that she was called “the only man at court.”
When Franz Joseph proposed to Elisabeth (a controversial choice) Sophie wasted no time making sure Sisi would fit the all-powerful Hapsburg image—which for women, was one of ethereal beauty and heir-providing abilities. She accompanied Franz to meet Sisi when she first arrived in Vienna before their wedding. “Archduchess Sophie stepped aboard the boat right behind her son to greet the prospective bride. From that moment on, little Sis was a personage of state, observed by a thousand critical eyes,” writes Polly Cone in The Imperial Style: Fashions of the Hapsburg Era.
Sophie also chose every single member of Elisabeth’s staff, which, according to Cone, comprised mostly middle-aged women. The teenager did not know, and could not trust, any of them, as they would just relay everything she said and did to Sophie, leaving her isolated and lonely.
Nor was Sisi allowed much alone time with her husband. In Brigitte Hamann’s The Reluctant Empress, the historian recalls Sophie’s strict control of the couple. For example, Sisi and Franz used to occasionally walk alone through the palace halls to the Burgtheater, a quieter part of the palace. Sophie put a stop to it once she found out. From then on, the two had to be escorted by court officials. “Conflicts with the secret Empress, Archduchess Sophie, usually turned, in Sisi’s opinion, on trivialities, and they hurt her all the more for being so trivial,” writes Hamann.
Another seemingly petty moment? When Sophie got rid of Sisi’s pet parrots, which had brought her much joy. “She suggested to the emperor that he take the parrots away from Sisi so that she would not ‘look askance’ at a bird, condemning her baby to end up looking like a parrot,” writes Hamann. The Emperor rarely objected, and the miserable Sisi grew extremely frustrated with the stringent demands of her mother-in-law. Yet it’s likely Sophie believed they were necessary to keep her family in power: “Sophie was always concerned with upholding imperial dignity,” Hamann notes.
Perhaps the most hurtful moment came when Sisi gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Sophie. The Archduchess set up the nursery within her own apartments, which were far from Sisi’s, and installed her own staff to care for the child. The empress—who was pregnant again soon after giving birth—struggled to see her own child. According to The Imperial Style, the emperor wrote in a letter that Sisi had to “wheeze” up the stairs to see her baby.
In time, however, Archduchess Sophie’s power began to wane as her son—and his wife—grew into their own. Sisi also eventually understood where her mother-in-law was coming from: Hamann wrote that she once told a lady-in-waiting “that the Archduchess surely meant so well in everything—but that the paths were arduous and the manner harsh.” A complicated relationship, indeed.