Sisi & Eugénie: the empresses who redefined royalty

Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History magazine. In the latter half of the 19th century, Europe was dazzled by the beauty, charm, and sensibility of two empresses. Eugenie, Empress of the French via her marriage to Napoleon III, and Elizabeth, better known as Sisi, consort to the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph. In this episode, author Nancy Goldstone speaks to Danny Byrd about the lives of these two women, how they broke boundaries and redefined what a royal consort could be. Nancy, you've written about some incredible historical women before, but what was it about Empress Elizabeth of Austria, aka CC, and Empress Eugenie of France that made you want to tell their stories in tandem?

Well, I remember distinctly when I first came across Sissy, Empress Elizabeth, she's more commonly known as Sissy, it was at least five years ago and I was researching a much earlier book about Elizabeth Stewart actually, the Winter Queen. We were in Prague and we had just finished touring the castle. We walked outside to some of the shops and there was a bookstore. It was a I love going into bookstores in other countries.

So of course we went in and there there was a little English section with I think it was almost like a child's book. with a picture on it that was s standing out on the shelf of a woman in a good fairy princess gown with diamond stars in her hair and I literally did a double take and said, Who is that? I didn't think for a moment that she was a real person. I thought this was like a German fairy tale or something. And I bought the book and it turns out that she was an empress and right up my alley and I thought, well, okay, I have to do her.

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