- The Empress on Netflix offers a fresh take on the love story between Empress Elisabeth of Austria and Emperor Franz Joseph.
- The show mixes historical background with fiction to provide a compelling love story that captivates audiences.
- While not entirely historically accurate, The Empress provides a nuanced portrayal of Elisabeth's struggles at the Viennese Court.
The 6-part Netflix series The Empress tells the poetic story of the early life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. Prior to its release, the most well-known film adaptation of Elisabeth's life had been the 1950s Sissi trilogy, with charming Romy Schneider as the leading actress. Seven decades later, The Empress offers a fresh take on the great love story between Elisabeth and Franz Joseph – equally strong and dramatic from its very beginning.
The Empress’ first (and currently the only) season is focused on the fateful meeting between the young Bavarian Duchess Elisabeth (Devrim Lingnau) and the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I (Philip Froissant). As is often the case with period dramas, The Empress mixes historical background with fiction, not trying to provide ultimate historical accuracy, but rather giving a compelling love story that captivates the hearts and minds of the audience. But who was the real Elisabeth, and what struggles did she have to endure at the Viennese Court to become the legendary Empress of Austria, admired worldwide even a century and a half later?
The Empress
When rebellious Elisabeth falls for Emperor Franz and becomes his unlikely bride, she enters a world of tensions and intrigue at the Viennese court.
Release Date 2022-09-29
Creator Katharina Eyssen
Main Genre Historical
Seasons 1
What Is Reality vs. Fiction With Empress Sisi?
The third child and second daughter of Duke Maximilian Joseph of Bavaria and his wife Ludovika, Duchess Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie – also known as Sissi (alternative spelling Sisi) – was, indeed, a charming and freedom-loving girl who lived secluded with her family in Possenhofen Castle and dreamed of happiness and true love. Meanwhile, at the Viennese Court, Franz Joseph's authoritarian mother – Archduchess Sophie (Melika Foroutan) – considered a prominent alliance for her son. The hastiness to find a wife for the 22-year-old monarch was partially sparked by the recent attempt at his assassination (on 18 February 1853), which would leave Austria without a direct male heir.
Notably, the royal Bavarian House of Wittelsbach was not Sophie’s first choice, however. The young emperor Franz Joseph was quite picky: he liked neither Princess Anna of Prussia nor Princess Sidonie of Saxony. That led his mother to reach out to her sister – Duchess Ludovika of Bavaria – and arrange an engagement between Franz Joseph and Ludovika’s eldest daughter – Helena (Elisa Schlott). On August 15, 1853, burning with impatience to see the promised beautiful bride, Franz Joseph rushed to the small Austrian town of Bad Ischl, where Duchess Ludovika was supposed to arrive with her daughter to celebrate Franz Joseph’s birthday. Little did the young Emperor know that on that trip, his aunt would also take her youngest daughter – 15-year-old Elisabeth – who would steal Franz Joseph’s heart in the blink of an eye.
How Much of 'The Empress' Is True to Real Historical Events?
The answer is — to a certain degree. The celebration in Bad Ischl was not, in fact, the first time Franz Joseph saw his cousins. Technically, the first meeting between Elisabeth and Franz Joseph happened in June 1848 when Duchess Ludovika with children visited her sister, Archduchess Sophie, in Innsbruck. Back then Elisabeth was too young to spark the interest of the future Emperor who was too busy dealing with revolutionary events that threatened to collapse the monarchy. The romanticized version of their encounter depicted in The Empress – in the woods – is one of many myths circling Elisabeth and her life. Even the bold "two cotillions in a row" move Franz Joseph allowed himself at the ball, inviting Elisabeth one dance after another (which was a telltale sign of an upcoming engagement), was discussed between Franz and his mother prior to the ball. The engagement proposal itself was made in a much more formal way – through Archduchess Sophie, who approached her sister and arranged the agreement between the families to marry Elisabeth and Franz Joseph.
Soon after the wedding, Elisabeth found out that the fairy tale was merely an illusion. From the first days of the enthronement, the young and free-spirited empress felt suffocated by the strict etiquette and court orders, while her arbitrarily controlling mother-in-law immediately started to make a “real” empress out of her niece. However, Elisabeth's confrontations with Archduchess Sophie and her husband's brother Maximilian (Johannes Nussbaum), allegedly eager to seize the throne, were not as one-sided as it is often portrayed in the empress’ biographies.
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The best television shows for when you need a good escape.The Tragedy of 'The Empress' Has Just Begun
The Empress' first season dramatic ending leaves the audience on a cliffhanger when Elisabeth, determined to head home to Bavaria after a tense conversation with her husband and mother-in-law, finds out that she is pregnant. With a Season 2 in the works at Netflix, there is a lot more of Sissi's life to explore. The relationship between Elisabeth and her mother-in-law Sophie progressively spiraled down, as the latter was convinced that the young and free-spirited Empress could not provide an adequate upbringing to the royal children. In multiple biographies and fiction describing Elisabeth's life, Sophie is often portrayed as a controlling and power-hungry tyrant, ruthlessly submitting her daughter-in-law to her own will. The reality is more nuanced. Sophie was, indeed, an ambitious woman who placed royal duties above anything else. Elisabeth, on the contrary, was increasingly neglecting her official royal duties and indulging herself in an isolated and whimsical lifestyle.
From the 1860s on, the Empress spent her time traveling, rarely seeing her husband and hardly ever seeing her children. This behavior was widely condemned among the Austrian nobility, even though Franz Joseph did not try to restrict his wife’s wanderings. In 1857, during one of the trips to Hungary, her eldest daughter – two-year-old Sophie – died of an infection. The death of her first child shocked Sissi so much that she completely handed over the upbringing of her older children (Gisela and Rudolf) to the mother-in-law. Contrary to popular belief, Crown Prince Rudolf's relationship with his mother was not particularly warm. However, when the 30-year-old prince took his own life in 1889, Elisabeth was shaken to her core and from that day for the rest of her life wore only colors of mourning.
Another prominent character in The Empress – Franz Joseph’s younger brother the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Habsburg – was, indeed, an active figure at the Austrian court. Even though there is no direct evidence of Maximilian's intentions to overthrow Franz Joseph, the fact that Maximilian was under the influence of the most progressive liberal ideas was a dormant threat to the older brother. The tension was slowly raising between the two brothers, so the Emperor preferred to send Maximilian away, appointing him as a viceroy of the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia (modern Italy). In the early 1860s, Maximilian was crowned the Emperor of Mexico as a result of supporting French intervention in the country. Soon enough, Maximilian faced opposition from the Mexican Republicans, led by Benito Juárez. After the French Expeditionary Force was withdrawn from Mexico, the Emperor’s fate was sealed – he was captured and subsequently executed, despite the pleas of all European monarchs, US President Andrew Johnson, Giuseppe Garibaldi, and Victor Hugo.
Elisabeth met her own tragic death in 1898, in Geneva, where she was assassinated by the Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni. She never took her personal safety seriously and refused to be guarded during her multiple trips, which eventually led to her untimely demise. After the death of his beloved wife, Emperor Franz Joseph allegedly went silent for several months. A portrait of Elisabeth hung in his study until the end of his life as a true sign of the eternal love these two were bound by from that fateful meeting in Bad Ischl. Their love story altered the history of Europe, starting a cascade of events that eventually led to the beginning of the Great War.
Empress Elisabeth was, in many regards, a controversial figure. However, she has always remained an outstanding woman who, even 150 years later, excites, puzzles, and fascinates the imagination of generations.
All six episodes of The Empress are available to stream on Netflix.
