Sisi: Empress of Exploits and Austria

This is just one of many articles featuring Empress Sisi of Austria on Etiquipedia. She was an Empress who had chafed at the Royal Court etiquette of the Austrian Imperial family ever since she married the young Emperor Franz Josef. You can read one article here ~ According to Encyclopedia.com, “Elisabeth, Empress of Austria (1837-1898), was the beloved “Sisi,” one of the most famous royal celebrities of her day. As the consort of the emperor of Austria—a land that dominated the map of Europe at the time—Elisabeth was a well-known figure whose exploits were avidly chronicled in the nineteenth-century press much in the same way that Britain's Diana (1961-1997), Princess of Wales, would be a hundred years later.”

Not as Good as Her “Ma” –

The Opinion of an Austrian Princess on a Circus Rider's Feat

Nearly everybody knows that the eccentric Empress of Austria carries her fondness for hunting to such, a pitch that up to recent years she used to brave the terrible fits of “mal de mer” that are caused by the Irish channel for the sake of enjoying the superb hunting that can still be found in the Emerald Isle– one free joy not yet a hunted out of it by the ubiquitous and iniquitous Sassenach. But it is not generally known, says the New York Journal, that the first lady of the land in Austria is also a fancy rider, used to have a private arena, and when in playful mood would give exhibitions of startling equestrian skill to a select circle of more or less discreet friends. 

One day when her little daughter, Stephanie, was on a visit at the home of a noble in another part of the Empire it occurred to her hosts that perhaps a circus that was performing in the neighborhood would afford the infant princess a novel delight. They took the child, and were astonished at the profound gravity with which her little eyes watched the performers leaping through hoops of colored paper, turning somersaults or riding two horses at once. "Well," said one at last, "what does our little Princess think of it?" "Not much," replied the child, shaking her head sagely. "My ma can do those things a heap better." Then, with an air of profound conviction: "My ma's a born circus rider." Imagine, if you can, Austria's etiquette, and then imagine the thrill of amazement and horror which the child's remark produced. – Bridgeport-Chronicle Union, 1894

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Rigid Court Etiquette in Vienna

According to HistoryToday.com, picnics were a favourite pastime of the aristocracy in the 18th century. Mainly indoor affairs, picnics were held at one’s home or in hired rooms, they were associated with conversation, wit and were often seen as intellectual refinement. “At larger gatherings, there was also music or a dance – with the result that ‘picnic’ could be synonymous with a ball or party. In 1763, for instance, Lady Mary Coke told her sister that she had been at a type of ‘Subscription Ball’, known in Hanover as a ‘Picquenic’; and, in 1777, the novelist Cornelia Knight wrote in her diary that, during a stop-over in Toulouse, she ‘was entertained at a “pique-nique” dinner and dance.’” By the latter part of the Victorian era, the British “Aristocratic Picnic,” like many types of sporting events, evolved to become an activity followed variously by all classes of society, after efforts by civic leaders in newly developing areas like South Australia, to offer the middle and lower classes an alternative to drinking alcohol, gambling and carousing during their brief periods of leisure time. — Shown above, Archduke Ludwig Viktor Joseph Anton of Austria from the House of Habsburg. He was the youngest son born to Archduke Franz Karl of Austria and Princess Sophie of Bavaria, and he was the younger brother of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. 

— photo source, Pinterest 

Apropos of the retirement of the Austrian Minister of Public Instruction, Baron Conrad, a Vienna paper relates the following episode, which shows how rigidly court etiquette is observed in Vienna: One evening, at a so-called “Aristocratic Picnic” at the Hotel Imperial, one of his daughters, who was dancing with the Archduke Ludwig Victor, pinned one of the cotillion orders on her partner’s coat. Such a thing is strictly forbidden by etiquette, and the Duke promptly tore off the order and threw it on the floor. 

The young Baroness being ignorant of this rule, went to her mother, weeping, and left the hall; and next day Baron Conrad had an audience with the Emperor, begging to retire to private life on account of the insult to his family. But the Emperor smiled, and told him he would “make it all right,” and the following day Ludwig Victor called on Baroness Conrad and apologized for his apparent rudeness in the most chivalrous manner.—Exchange, 1886

🍽️Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber of The RSVP Institute of Etiquette, is the Site Editor for Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia