The Archduchess may, too, have avoided the western side of the park, near the zoological gardens; for a tale, which Sophie’s letters show troubled her over several years, maintained that her husband’s younger sister Archduchess Marianna - only seven months older than Sophie - owed the hideous disfigurement of her face and her virtual imbecility to a prenatal incident when her mother was startled by an escaped orangutan while walking in the gardens. In 1830 Archduchess Marianna was still living at Schonbrunn, a rarely seen presence secluded in the labyrinth of smaller rooms.
Clash of generations. Empress Elisabeth “Sisi” of Austria and her mother-in-law & aunt Archduchess Sophie symbolising the two opposing parties of their people on the example of Crown Prince Rudolf’s education. In short, new liberal ideas versus the conservative tradition.
Okay, now that it’s almost the year of our lord 2020 and Gentleman Jack has reminded everyone that the 1830’s were, in fact, a thing, can we please get a TV series solely focused on my darling Sophie of Bavaria?
Many of Franz Joseph’s attitudes, character traits and ideas are clearly traceable to his mother : his piety, conservatism, aversion to liberal and democratic ideas, intolerance, belief in aristocratic virtues, devotion to forms and formality, the idea of the legitimacy of dynasties, and of the sanctity of the house of Austria. All these ideas, attitudes, and character traits were strengthened by the influence of Franz Joseph’s teachers, who were always chosen on the basis of their views coinciding with those of the Archduchess.
The daughter of King Maximilian I of Bavaria, Sophie married Archduke Franz Karl, the brother of Emperor Ferdinand I in 1824. Hugely influential – she was even called ‘the only man at Court’ – she secured the succession for her eldest son Franz Joseph following the abdication of Ferdinand I in 1848. She also played a dominant role in the corridors of power during the early years of the young emperor’s reign.
