Princess Sophie of Bavaria
Princess Sophie Friederike von Bayern, Sophie Friederike Dorothea Wilhelmine full name of Bavaria ( born January 27, 1805 in Munich, † May 28, 1872 in Vienna) was through the marriage of Archduchess of Austria and the mother of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria.
Biography
Childhood and youth
Sophie was the daughter of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and his second wife Karoline Friederike Wilhelmine of Baden, as well as a sister of Queen Elizabeth Ludovica of Prussia and twin sister of Queen Maria of Saxony.
The parents looked after - contrary to the then practice - personally to the numerous children. They wanted to educate these modern-thinking people, which in spite of all vested certain rules included, such as punctuality, which stood in the first place. Sophie was a very pretty young girl and was added later by King Ludwig I, her half-brother in his famous beauty gallery which can still be seen in the Nymphenburg Palace today. For her father was the intention of the Emperor Francis I of Austria, to marry his second son Francis Charles with Sophie, extremely important and so little research on the future and its siblings were hired. The first meeting with her future husband was for the young girl not to their liking, but political considerations prevailed - the Future was the second in the Habsburg throne and the real heir to the throne would hardly ever take the throne due to his severe epilepsy. An ample dowry was compiled. The wedding took place in Vienna on 4 November 1824.
Later life
Came only after six years of marriage, and several miscarriages, after several spa stays Sophie in Ischl, the first child of the couple, Franz Joseph, to the world; two and three years later the sons Maximilian and Karl Ludwig and twelve years later Ludwig Viktor. She also had a daughter, Archduchess Maria Anna (1835-1840), but only four years old, was: How her uncle, Emperor Ferdinand I, she suffered from epileptic seizures and died.
In the crisis of the Austrian monarchy in the revolutionary year 1848, the abdication of Ferdinand I and a new beginning were the only opportunities. Sophie refrained himself to be Empress by her husband Franz Karl, the next in line to the throne, is encouraged, to be left behind in favor of their son Franz Joseph. So Franz Joseph was a 18 -year-old Emperor on 2 December 1848 without being previously been heir to the throne.
In his first years of the reign Sophie ( patroness of Ultramontanes ) was the eindämmenden to young and inexperienced emperor a great support and was one of his main advisers, particularly in a the ambitions of the Magyar elite, neo-absolutist policy. Her daughter and niece, Empress Elisabeth, this tried thereby to compensate that they came to meet the Hungarians with special kindness.
The later spread mainly by Egon Caesar Conte Corti and in the Sissi films view, Sophie had been a " wicked stepmother " for Elizabeth, can not be maintained according to Georg Markus. Sophie advocated it accordingly when Elizabeth herself took care of their children, and expressed in his correspondence with other family members not a bad word about the young Empress.
Sophie was 1855 godmother of her first granddaughter, who was named after her: Sophie Friederike, daughter of Franz Joseph I and Elizabeth. The child died two years.
After her favorite son Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico, was shot dead in 1867 in Mexico, Sophie lost all will to live and survived him by only five years. After visiting the castle theater, she suffered a severe lung inflammation, where they died.
Archduchess Sophie was buried in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna. Beside her, the Duke of imperial city rested ( his body was established in 1940 on the orders of Hitler transferred to Paris ); next to her rests to this day her son Maximilian.
Progeny
- Franz Joseph I (1830-1916), Emperor of Austria ∞ Princess Elisabeth in Bavaria "Sisi" (1837-1898)
- Maximilian I (1832-1867), Emperor of Mexico ∞ Princess Charlotte of Belgium (1840-1927)
- Karl Ludwig (1833-1896), Archduke ∞ 1 Princess Margarete of Saxony ( 1840-1858 ) ∞ 2 Princess Maria Annunziata of Naples and Sicily ( 1843-1871 ) ∞ 3 Princess Maria Teresa of Portugal ( 1855-1944 )
- Maria Anna Carolina (1835-1840), died of epilepsy
- Stillborn son (* / † October 24, 1840 )
- Ludwig Viktor (1842-1919), Archduke
Letters
- 3 letters Archduchess Sophie Countess Ida Hahn -Hahn. June 22, 1859 to March 14, 1864