“I Gambled Freedom Away”
The day after the engagement between Franz
Josef and Elisabeth of Bavaria was announced,
Sisi’s mother, Ludovika, declared: “It is a such
prodigious joy and yet such a weighty and im-
portant situation, that I am very moved in every
respect. She is so young, so inexperienced but
I hope that forbearance will be shown to such
extreme youth.” Her hopes proved ill founded.
Soon after her wedding, Sisi confessed in a poem
how distraught she felt at finding herself sud-
denly cloistered in the imperial palace in Vienna:
Oh had I but never left the path / That would
have led me to freedom / Oh, that on the broad
avenues / of vanity I had never strayed! / I have
awakened in a dungeon / With chains on my
hands. / And my longing ever stronger / And
freedom! You turned from me! / I have awak-
ened from a rapture, / Which held my spirit cap-
tive, / And vainly do I curse this exchange, / In
which I gambled freedom away.
A PORCELAIN PAINTING OF FRANZ JOSEF AND ELISABETH (SISI)
DURING THEIR ENGAGEMENT. KUNSTHISTORISCHES MUSEUM, VIENNA
AKG/ALBUM