202. The Secret Poems of Austria’s Empress “Sisi”
Long before an insatiable press laid siege to Catherine, Princess of Wales, Princess Diana, Meghan Markle and in-law to America’s “royal family,” Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, Empress Elizabeth of Austria was the beautiful royal everyone wanted a piece of. Feeling like a prisoner in a gilded cage, “Sisi” managed her frustrations through an unhealthy obsession with her appearance and by writing poetry that maligned the monarchy and revealed her deep yearning for freedom. In this week’s bonus episode, Amy discusses Sisi’s life and poems, which were finally published almost a century after her 1898 assassination. Head to our Patreon for this subscriber-only episode.
Mentioned in this episode:
Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy by Elizabeth Beller
“Royal Bodies” by Hilary Mantel
Princess Kate at the 2024 Trooping the Colour Ceremony
Corsage trailer
Sisi Museum at Vienna’s Hofburg Palace
Franz Joseh, Emperor of Austria
Sisi’s Beauty Routine
Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
“The Empress” on Netflix
The 1950s film trilogy on Empress Sisi
Heinrich Heine, German poet
The Reluctant Empress by Brigitte Hamann
An internet collection of Sisi’s poetry
“Sisi’s New Portrait” poem in the Sisi Museum