Sisi's Legacy: The truth about Empress Elisabeth |History Stories Special

The video failed to mention that Sophie, Franz Josef’s mother, took Sisi’s children from her right from birth. She even presumed to name their first child after herself. Sisi never stood a chance to mother her children.

I've studied Sissi for a long time. She was a very mentally ill woman who was married at an extremely young age. She likely had borderline personality disorder. Empress Sophie, Franz Joseph's mother, and Sissi's own maternal Aunt, took Sissi's children from her and forbade her from mothering them. Sophie also begrudged Siss's inability to get pregnant in the first few years. I dislike how this documentary acts like Sissi was an absent mother considering 1) she was a literal teenager/young adult when giving birth to these children 2) she was forbidden from mothering them by Sophie, and 3) she suffered severe eating disorders and mental illness. Sissi was not perfect by any means, but this whole discussion of her comes across as blaming and accusatory. Do better.

The effort they put into finding actors who look like the people they are portraying—-or certainly echo them strongly—-is impressive.

I always have a bone to pick when videos about Sisi are made. I’ve yet to find one that illustrates just how terrible a husband Franz Joseph was to her. Yes he loved her, but not enough to support her and protect her from his awful mother. He let his mom steal Sisi’s children from her. He witnessed her decline in mental health due to this and other factors and wouldn’t do anything to help the woman he claimed to love dearly. He was a perpetual mamma’s boy and never put his wife first in my opinion.

How intriguing! A young woman, both beautiful and wealthy, who dared to shape her life in accordance with her own desires and needs. Let's label her as as vain, difficult and mentally ill. The way I see it, she was savvy enough to break free from a failed marriage, an overbearing mother-in-law, she was savvy enough to make a fortune with her investments and lived by her own rules. Kudos to her for seizing control of her life, and I sincerely hope she discovered some happiness in her extensive travels.

It is very pleasant to see the clips of Romy Schneider playing the Empress Elizabeth, as she was a very beautiful, intelligent and vastly talented actress who died far too young.

As much as I am also interested in Sissi, I feel like she remains popular in the media mainly because of the halo affect. My first exposure to her was a 2000s kids cartoon called Princess Sissi. Sissi was a stunning and fashionable woman that married young and lived in splendour. This alone gives filmmakers the template to superimpose all sorts of romantic and dramatic stories upon her that appeal to modern audiences. However, beyond the surface she was greatly troubled with mental health issues. She was almost a hermit and had a greatly strained marriage. Overall, she was glamourous but had very little agency. Her story isnt a fairytale, it is a tragedy.

Tragic all around. Sisi never stood a chance if you ask me...not with an overpowering mother in law and strict court life. She controlled the only things she could, her weight and looks. She took to us the Hungarians because we represented a strong character that doesn't give in come hell or high water. Us Hungarians, we genuinely loved her because she understood us and advocated on our behalf. May she RIP

I’ve always wondered how Sisi was able eat so little and not suffer from hair loss due to lack of vitamins.

And Franz Josef never stood up to his mother on behalf of Sisi. She may have had her issues, but she didn’t stand a chance against her formidable mother-in-law.

I'd also heard that Franz Joseph was "supposed" to marry Sisi's older sister but Franz was bowled over by Sisi's beauty and picked her instead. I don't suppose Sisi had much say in the matter and was unprepared for marriage, much less all the baggage that came with being Empress in a family which lived in a stuffy, aristocratic bubble. Then the mother-in-law berated her during the first few years of her marriage for not getting pregnant right away. When she started producing children the mother in law whisks the first three away in infancy. The youngest daughter was the only one of her children she was "allowed" to raise so no wonder the girl never left her mother's side. Hungary was an escape from her hated life in Vienna. As for Sisi's obsession with her looks and weight, it was the only thing she had control over. Mental illness? Maybe, but the mother-in-law certainly made her contribution to that.

Her mother in law took the children away from SiSi by her mother in law so of course she could not make a good relationship with her children. SiSi came from the small Monarchy of bayern. They had planned for her sister to marry the emperor but he chose SiSi.

To be fair, it was not at all unusual for noble children to see little or nothing of their parents. They were very often pawns in advancing or consolidating the family's power. It wasn't at all unusual for marriages to be arranged when children were infants. Sisi herself had been handed over in such a marriage. She may not even have liked her husband yet had to be bred by him as if she were a pedigreed mare. It's recorded that her oldest child died in her arms, and that Sisi fell into a very deep state of mourning. It's not surprising that a fragile young woman drew ever deeper into herself and sought escape.

It was presented in other documentaries that it was her mother in law who basically took over the children and did not allow Sissy to raise them herself. If that was true I wouldn’t stay around either with no say in the lives of my own children.

"What was Sisi really like" they say and show the photo of Romy Schneider. Really?

She didn’t neglect her children. She has an overbearing mother, and a husband who was complicit at best. Her mother in law dominated her and did not allow her access to her children. She was a child when she was married

I think we look at this womans life through modern eyes. I don't think that is fair. Fact, she clearly had both mental and health issues. She was a woman in a time that she was owned by her husband. She had no rights no freedom and no choices. She was never allowed to be a mother in any real sense. Confronted with all of that no wonder her life was unhappy.

They two women just a few mins back said that she probably wouldn’t have been a mother if she had lived during this time because she was so into herself. But when you know that your only job is bear children, I think that may lead to some resentment before they are even born. She knows that she could die during childbirth, but as long as their is a living heir..that’s all that matters. She even knows she can be replaced if she passes away with another Empress. I understand I am only at the beginning but that is heavy weight for any woman. 4:07

Sisi was heartbroken when her babies were taken from her. The trip to Hungary. Where do I begin. Just eight years after the bloodiest Hungarian revolution and war of independence that was crushed by Russia at the request of Franz Joseph? The event that is still the biggest Hungarian holiday of remembrance to this day? Nobody was welcoming them.

This video leaves so many facts out in order to tear apart Sisi's legacy. She was FIFTEEN when Franz Joseph (23) chose her over her sister to marry. Her youngest daughter was the only child she had been allowed to care for and raise after years of mental and emotional torment by her mother-in-law (who was also her aunt). Franz Joseph allowed his wife to be reduced to the secondary woman in her own home! Her focus on her looks was more about the one thing she could control and not about vanity, she was anorexic and starved herself for days at a time. This is nothing but an assassination of her character!