She prevented war and death on an immense scale, in acts that could earn the Nobel Peace Prize today. But History enshrined Sisi, Empress of Austria, as a vain beauty queen. The smear campaign was personal, not political: it started with her own tyrannical mother-in-law. Can Sisi conquer her own self-doubt, and drag draconian Austria into the modern world?
Our guest is Nancy Goldstone, author of The Rebel Empresses: Elisabeth of Austria and Eugenie of France, Power and Glamor in the Struggle for Europe.
Karl Theodor von Piloty
Amanda Bergstedt, 1855
illustration from the Weiner Zeitung newspaper
Franz Xaver Winterhalter
Franz Adam, 1856
Josef Kriehuber Kaiserin, 1858
Edmund Tull
Philip de László
photo in the public domain
photo in the public domain
photo in the public domain
Joseph Karl Steiler
Nancy Goldstone is the author of seven previous books, including In the Shadow of the Empress, Daughters of the Winter Queen, The Rival Queens, The Maid and the Queen, Four Queens, and The Lady Queen. She has also coauthored six books with her husband, Lawrence Goldstone. She lives in Del Mar, California.
Music featured in this episode includes:
Vienna Blood Waltz and Blue Danube Waltz by Johann Strauss; Serenade Op.6 by Joseph Suk; La Traviata Drinking Song by Giuseppe Verdi; Imperial Anthem by Bedrich Smetana; Crade Song and Hungarian Dance by Johannes Brahms; Serenade by Franz Schubert; Liebestraum by Franz Liszt; and March of the Mind by Kevin MacLeod
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