Sissi empress of austria biography of donald
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Corsage and Empress Elisabeth: The first royal celebrity
Features correspondent
The new film Corsage tells the story of the Austrian Empress Elisabeth. It allows us a glimpse behind the mask of a 19th-Century glamour icon, writes Christina Newland.
Empress Elisabeth of Austria (or "Sisi" as she was colloquially known) was one of the most famous women in the world at one time. One of the most audacious, even eccentric, female celebrities of her time, she served as monarch and helped to create the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary – along with her husband the Emperor Franz Joseph – in the mid-19th Century. Considered a phenomenal beauty and obsessed to the point of pathology with shrinking her waist size, she was also an early adopter of psychiatry, rigorous physical exercise at a period when women were advised against it, and an ardent reader of philosophy and literature. Her tumultuous and defiant life – which ended in
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Empress Elisabeth of Austria, known to her family as Sisi, belongs to a famous love story of European royalty - in 1853 the Emperor Franz Josef, the most eligible bachelor in Europe, fell in love with her at first sight when she was fifteen; they were married the next year. On the surface, it was a fairytale marriage, all the more poignant, with hindsight, because her death signalled the twilight years of the Habsburg Empire.
At the time of its first publication in 1988, Brigitte Hamann's biography, which tells Elisabeth's story from her birth as a member of the Bavarian nobility to her assassination at the hands of an Italian anarchist, led to a revised and deeper understanding of Elisabeth. During her lifetime she was idolised solely for her grace and beauty; now, for the first time, the Empress was portrayed as a stronger character, bitter at her marriage, seeking independence, and struggling against the powerful influence of her mother-in-law, the Archduchess Sophie. Researched
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History Tea Time
We’re familiar with the Christmas carol “The 12 days of Christmas” but in the middle ages, this extended holiday Christmas looked a bit different. There were plenty of lords-a-leaping and ladies dancing but the only partridge was trussed up on the King’s table next to the swans-a-swimming in gravy. And the gold rings were baked in the Christmas pudding! Medieval people dropped their plows, wrapped their spinning wheels in holly and ivy and took 12 days off, from Christmas day to Epiphany on January 6th. As the yule log crackled in the fire they feasted, played games and sports, attended mass, enjoyed subversive revelry and imbibed gallons of festdryck. It all culminated into the most raucous party of the year on twelfth night! So Deck your halls, mull some wine, and cut a slice of mince pie as we join in the celebrations of the 12 days of Medieval Christmas...
Advent, December 24th - Christmas Eve
månad 25th - Christmas Day - 1st day of Christmas
December 2