The Reluctant Empress
Jan. 18th, 2008 08:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sanalithMy third book of the year is Brigitte Hamann's The Reluctant Empress: A Biography of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. This is the second biography of Elisabeth I've read. The first was The Golden Fleece by Bertita Harding and I'm still rather on the fence on which I liked best. I think Harding's was a more enjoyable read, because she wrote it in a more novel-type form and really drew you into everyone's thoughts and feelings. Hamann's was more of a traditional biography and was therefore a little more dry, but she, unlike Harding, included footnotes and based most of her information off of diaries and letters of the people involved. I have a feeling her work is a bit more accurate, even if it was a bit harder to get through.
I wouldn't recommend this as a first bio to someone who wanted a book on Elisabeth. Hamann admitted upfront that she organized her book more thematically than chronologically, and therefore she'll often mention people or events in passing before formally introducing them. She spoke a lot about Elisabeth's fourth child, Marie Valerie, before actually coming to her birth. She does put in a timeline and a list of characters at the very beginning of the book, in order to make things easier for the reader when she does go out of order, but there are so many people and events that I think it would be hard to keep them straight without having a real knowledge of Elisabeth's life. In this case, I would recommend The Golden Fleece first. However, for those who've already done research on her life, and know a thing or two about the Austrian monarchy and the wars going on at the time, the book isn't so jolting.
Probably the most interesting part of the book for me was Hamann's take on Elisabeth's relationship with Sophie, her mother-in-law from Hell, and her husband, Franz Joseph. Most people even remotely familiar with Elisabeth's life know that a lot of her problems stemmed from Sophie and her tyrannical rule. While the author does not debate this, she does seem to indicate that Sophie isn't so much to blame as the society in which she was brought up. Sophie's diary apparently indicated that she initially didn't mind Elisabeth as a potential daughter-in-law. She was so meek and quiet and eager to please that Sophie doted on her. She personally provided for a good portion of Elisabeth's wedding trousseau, and a lot of her jewelery, including her most expensive wedding tiara, were from Sophie's personal collection. The clashes began because of a lack of understand on both Elisabeth and Sophie's parts on the proper behavior of an Empress. Elisabeth, being the daughter of a relatively low-ranking family, had no idea how to behave in court. She didn't understand all the formalities and why they were necessary. For her, there was no substance, only empty ceremony. Both Sophie and Franz were raised to respect these court customs even if they were empty - it was just normal for them. As such, they never took the trouble to explain to Elisabeth *why* public appearances and court formalities were important, possibly because they did not truly know themselves. That's just the way it was. When Elisabeth balked at being put on display for reasons she didn't understand and that no one would explain, the problems started and then escalated. In other words, Sophie may or may not have been intentionally vindictive. She may just have been too used to court customs to bother explaining them. I don't know how I feel about this view of Sophie, mainly because I am so used to seeing her as a simple villain, but it is at least something to consider.
I do feel like this bio was a little more harsh on Elisabeth than the other, though perhaps with good reason. Hamann spends a lot of time reiterating in various ways how bad a mother Elisabeth was, and while she doesn't deny that a good portion of this is because Sophie took her first three children away from her, it does show what a bitter woman Elisabeth had become. Marie Valerie's diaries and letters serve as a large reference when it comes to Elisabeth's relationship with her children, and how stifled Valerie felt in comparison to her brother and sister. She was the only child Elisabeth was able to raise, and was therefore her favorite, but in actual fact, the two had very little in common with one another. Rudolf was by far the most like his mother, but by the time this became apparent, Elisabeth had lost interest in politics and the monarchy, and so she never noticed how alike she and her son were.
Elisabeth's political views were given heavy weight also in this book, especially with regards to Hungary. This is probably the saddest part of her life for me, because she was a truly brilliant woman. She very easily convinced people to see her side of arguments, and she was a huge proponent of constitutional governments. She clearly saw the end of the monarchy, and she invested a good deal of money in Swiss bank accounts in case this happened during her life time and she had to flee. Hamann does point out that her interest declined with Franz and Sophie refused to listen to her thoughts and didn't include her in any discussions. She saw this as being shut out like a child, when really they simply couldn't consider her suggestions. Elisabeth wanted, in essence, to undermindeher very place in society, and that of her family. While in retrospect, we can agree she had the right idea, it is an odd view for an empress to have.
One aspect that was not really dealt with that I wish had been was that Elisabeth was such an irony. She was a friend to the poor and the downtrodden, and yet instead of assisting them with her fortune, she spent it all on horses and castles in foreign countries. She felt caged at every opportunity, and yet, she was one of the freest women of her era. Society might look down at her for leaving her family all the time to jaunt around the world, but her husband was powerless to stop her. She really did do whatever she wanted for the majority of her life, and yet she always desired more freedom.
A point Hamann made that I never before considered was that Elisabeth's chronic nervousness might have been somewhat sexual in nature. Other than the first few years of their marriage, Elisabeth made it clear that she was not sleeping with her husband, until she decided she wanted a fourth child. And after that, the resolution returned. She was also extremely upset whenever she had to return to her husband. She also made several comments to Marie Valerie that all female children should be killed at birth, and that being a wife and mother was the hardest job for women. I think it's clear that she certainly had a phobia of large crowds, but the sexual nature of her problems never crossed my mind.
One of the great questions of Elisabeth's life was the part she played in her husband's "friend," the actress Katharina Schratt. In The Golden Fleece, Harding makes it clear that she never believed Franz formally cheated on his wife and that Elisabeth was content in this knowledge. Hamann, however, claims that Elisabeth brought Franz and Schratt together for the express purpose of Franz having a companion. This would make Elisabeth feel better about leaving her husband for 10 months out of the year. Marie Valerie claimed in her diary that Elisabeth asked her to ensure that Schratt and Franz married after her death, and Valerie admits to a severe dislike of the woman who was always at family meals and gatherings. No conclusive proof exists either way, but it is an interesting side to the story.
All in all, I liked this book, and though I found The Golden Fleece a more enjoyable read, I came away from this book feeling like I have a much better understanding of Elisabeth's thoughts and feelings, and also about the Austrian court in general. Elisabeth was truly the Diana of her day, everyone except in her own society - the Viennese Court - and her life was truly a tragedy. So many of her friends lamented that she wasted her vast talents by walking and riding and starving herself - and basically ignoring the world at large - rather than putting herself to good use. Her was a woman who truly longed for death before she ever truly lived.
I wouldn't recommend this as a first bio to someone who wanted a book on Elisabeth. Hamann admitted upfront that she organized her book more thematically than chronologically, and therefore she'll often mention people or events in passing before formally introducing them. She spoke a lot about Elisabeth's fourth child, Marie Valerie, before actually coming to her birth. She does put in a timeline and a list of characters at the very beginning of the book, in order to make things easier for the reader when she does go out of order, but there are so many people and events that I think it would be hard to keep them straight without having a real knowledge of Elisabeth's life. In this case, I would recommend The Golden Fleece first. However, for those who've already done research on her life, and know a thing or two about the Austrian monarchy and the wars going on at the time, the book isn't so jolting.
Probably the most interesting part of the book for me was Hamann's take on Elisabeth's relationship with Sophie, her mother-in-law from Hell, and her husband, Franz Joseph. Most people even remotely familiar with Elisabeth's life know that a lot of her problems stemmed from Sophie and her tyrannical rule. While the author does not debate this, she does seem to indicate that Sophie isn't so much to blame as the society in which she was brought up. Sophie's diary apparently indicated that she initially didn't mind Elisabeth as a potential daughter-in-law. She was so meek and quiet and eager to please that Sophie doted on her. She personally provided for a good portion of Elisabeth's wedding trousseau, and a lot of her jewelery, including her most expensive wedding tiara, were from Sophie's personal collection. The clashes began because of a lack of understand on both Elisabeth and Sophie's parts on the proper behavior of an Empress. Elisabeth, being the daughter of a relatively low-ranking family, had no idea how to behave in court. She didn't understand all the formalities and why they were necessary. For her, there was no substance, only empty ceremony. Both Sophie and Franz were raised to respect these court customs even if they were empty - it was just normal for them. As such, they never took the trouble to explain to Elisabeth *why* public appearances and court formalities were important, possibly because they did not truly know themselves. That's just the way it was. When Elisabeth balked at being put on display for reasons she didn't understand and that no one would explain, the problems started and then escalated. In other words, Sophie may or may not have been intentionally vindictive. She may just have been too used to court customs to bother explaining them. I don't know how I feel about this view of Sophie, mainly because I am so used to seeing her as a simple villain, but it is at least something to consider.
I do feel like this bio was a little more harsh on Elisabeth than the other, though perhaps with good reason. Hamann spends a lot of time reiterating in various ways how bad a mother Elisabeth was, and while she doesn't deny that a good portion of this is because Sophie took her first three children away from her, it does show what a bitter woman Elisabeth had become. Marie Valerie's diaries and letters serve as a large reference when it comes to Elisabeth's relationship with her children, and how stifled Valerie felt in comparison to her brother and sister. She was the only child Elisabeth was able to raise, and was therefore her favorite, but in actual fact, the two had very little in common with one another. Rudolf was by far the most like his mother, but by the time this became apparent, Elisabeth had lost interest in politics and the monarchy, and so she never noticed how alike she and her son were.
Elisabeth's political views were given heavy weight also in this book, especially with regards to Hungary. This is probably the saddest part of her life for me, because she was a truly brilliant woman. She very easily convinced people to see her side of arguments, and she was a huge proponent of constitutional governments. She clearly saw the end of the monarchy, and she invested a good deal of money in Swiss bank accounts in case this happened during her life time and she had to flee. Hamann does point out that her interest declined with Franz and Sophie refused to listen to her thoughts and didn't include her in any discussions. She saw this as being shut out like a child, when really they simply couldn't consider her suggestions. Elisabeth wanted, in essence, to undermindeher very place in society, and that of her family. While in retrospect, we can agree she had the right idea, it is an odd view for an empress to have.
One aspect that was not really dealt with that I wish had been was that Elisabeth was such an irony. She was a friend to the poor and the downtrodden, and yet instead of assisting them with her fortune, she spent it all on horses and castles in foreign countries. She felt caged at every opportunity, and yet, she was one of the freest women of her era. Society might look down at her for leaving her family all the time to jaunt around the world, but her husband was powerless to stop her. She really did do whatever she wanted for the majority of her life, and yet she always desired more freedom.
A point Hamann made that I never before considered was that Elisabeth's chronic nervousness might have been somewhat sexual in nature. Other than the first few years of their marriage, Elisabeth made it clear that she was not sleeping with her husband, until she decided she wanted a fourth child. And after that, the resolution returned. She was also extremely upset whenever she had to return to her husband. She also made several comments to Marie Valerie that all female children should be killed at birth, and that being a wife and mother was the hardest job for women. I think it's clear that she certainly had a phobia of large crowds, but the sexual nature of her problems never crossed my mind.
One of the great questions of Elisabeth's life was the part she played in her husband's "friend," the actress Katharina Schratt. In The Golden Fleece, Harding makes it clear that she never believed Franz formally cheated on his wife and that Elisabeth was content in this knowledge. Hamann, however, claims that Elisabeth brought Franz and Schratt together for the express purpose of Franz having a companion. This would make Elisabeth feel better about leaving her husband for 10 months out of the year. Marie Valerie claimed in her diary that Elisabeth asked her to ensure that Schratt and Franz married after her death, and Valerie admits to a severe dislike of the woman who was always at family meals and gatherings. No conclusive proof exists either way, but it is an interesting side to the story.
All in all, I liked this book, and though I found The Golden Fleece a more enjoyable read, I came away from this book feeling like I have a much better understanding of Elisabeth's thoughts and feelings, and also about the Austrian court in general. Elisabeth was truly the Diana of her day, everyone except in her own society - the Viennese Court - and her life was truly a tragedy. So many of her friends lamented that she wasted her vast talents by walking and riding and starving herself - and basically ignoring the world at large - rather than putting herself to good use. Her was a woman who truly longed for death before she ever truly lived.