Elisabeth von Wittelsbach, better known by the name “Sisi.”
She was one of the most famous and legendary women of nineteenth-century Europe.
This stemmed both from her noble status as the “Empress of the Empire” and her outstanding beauty, hailed as the “most beautiful in Europe.” Countless romantic or tragic rumors surrounded her.
So, why would this woman become the catalyst for Karl to eliminate the Emperor’s warning?
There was only one reason: this very month, according to the historical trajectory Karl knew, she would be assassinated in Geneva by an Italian anarchist.
And the Old Emperor, Franz Joseph I, who loved her with an almost pathological intensity, would be so shocked by this sudden, heavy blow that he would faint on the spot, his body and mind suffering severe trauma.
The Emperor, at least in terms of willpower and resilience, was stronger than most.
Crown Prince Rudolf, who had received a militarized education so rigorous it was almost cruel in his youth, failed to endure it, ultimately suffering from severe depression, panic, and even neurasthenia;
The Emperor himself, however, gritted his teeth and pulled through, viewing that rigidity as discipline.
Why was Crown Prince Rudolf subjected to such inhumane education?
In Karl’s view, it was simply because Franz Joseph had endured it himself and foolishly thought, “Since I could bear it, my son surely can too,” which led to the subsequent tragedy.
In short, even the Emperor, whose willpower was akin to a machine, was hit with a massive shock by the unexpected death of his beloved wife.
Where else could one find a second chance to score so many points with the Emperor?
Regardless, the Old Emperor would remain on the throne for over a decade; once his trust was gained, Karl’s future room for maneuver would broaden significantly.
Clatter, clatter!
The steam locomotive traveled along the tracks heading toward Switzerland.
“Your…
Your Highness…
we really can’t do this…
if His Majesty finds out, the sky will fall!”
Inside the train compartment, Rita, a young maidservant disguised as an ordinary noblewoman sitting beside Karl, was full of terror and almost on the verge of tears.
Karl had recently been strictly ordered by the Emperor not to leave Vienna; this was no secret in Augarten Palace or even the Hofburg Palace.
Yet now she was following her young master, blatantly sitting on a train bound for Switzerland; her heart was terrified to death.
She probably thought this little Prince had gone mad, openly defying a direct order from His Majesty the Emperor.
Should she break the carriage window and jump out?
Rita’s mind was a mess.
“Be quiet, Rita.
We won’t be discovered; I’ve made arrangements.”
Karl, however, seemed completely unconcerned, even leaning back in the comfortable seat with a hint of sleepiness.
Moreover, he was a possible future heir.
What could an Old Emperor, who spent all day locked in his study reviewing official documents, really do to him?
At most, he would find out afterward and fly into a rage.
Furthermore, this was a tragedy that Karl felt must be prevented at all costs, so he had put considerable effort into covering his tracks.
First, his identity must absolutely not be exposed during the journey.
It wouldn’t matter if he were discovered after everything was over, but if he were intercepted and dragged back by the Emperor’s eyes and ears or the gendarmerie while still within Austria, then it would truly be over.
He had the maid Rita and several capable Guards disguise themselves as an Austrian country squire’s family on an outing, with Karl playing the role of their son.
Additionally, two other groups of Guards in different disguises were scattered near the same carriage as tourists, being inconspicuous while able to react quickly if needed.
“But Your Highness, what if—I mean, just in case His Majesty finds out, you would be…
I would be…”
Rita’s voice trembled incessantly from fear.
Those able to serve as personal maids to the royal family were by no means from ordinary commoner families.
In today’s world, anarchists and nationalists ran rampant, and the streets of Vienna were not peaceful.
Those people watched the royals like hawks; if one carelessly hired someone with an unclear background, an assassin could be mixed in by mistake.
Therefore, the maid Rita, who left Vienna with Karl, must have a clean and reliable background, coming from a lower-to-middle-tier noble family loyal to the imperial house.
Even so, she still seemed to harbor a deep fear of Emperor Franz Joseph I.
“Relax.
As long as this succeeds, any warnings won’t matter anymore.”
“I guarantee that His Majesty the Emperor will not only not blame me, but might even reward me…
for instance, by agreeing to let me experience a ‘playing airplane game.'”
Karl began to say things to Rita that she couldn’t understand.
This wasn’t just talk.
For no other reason than the person he was going to save was the one the Emperor loved to death—”Sisi,” Empress Elisabeth.
But in truth, Karl’s personal evaluation of this legendary Empress was extremely negative, even somewhat disdainful.
The Empress of the grand Austro-Hungarian Empire, wandering around outside all day instead of fulfilling her courtly duties in Vienna—did that make any sense?
The Empire’s ceremonies, foreign affairs, and charitable activities were countless; the Empress was supposed to appear to grace these occasions, show the royal family’s approachability, and elevate the imperial prestige.
Yet she cast all of this aside, concerned only with traveling across Europe and even North Africa, obsessed with her own melancholy, poetry, and a pathological pursuit of a slender figure.
And where she stayed during her travels were hardly ordinary places; every trip involved the most luxurious hotels and expensive spas, with all expenses naturally paid for by the Imperial Treasury—that is, the taxpayers’ money.
What exactly made such a person worth the Emperor’s obsession, leading Franz Joseph to build Gödöllő Palace for her in Hungary and indulge her every whim?
While the Emperor himself lived like an ascetic, never leaving his office, solely buried in government affairs that seemed never-ending.
She certainly hadn’t committed a capital crime, but whether in her public role as the Empress of Austria or her family roles as a wife and mother, in Karl’s view, she had abandoned her duties and propriety for the sake of self-exile.
She was one of the indirect reasons for Crown Prince Rudolf’s suicide.
She sent her eldest daughter, for whom she had no love, into a political marriage, yet exclusively favored her youngest daughter while remaining cold and distant toward her son, Rudolf.
Of course, from Sisi’s perspective, she also had countless reasons for defense.
When she married into the Austrian Empire as a young girl, how could the court atmosphere be called normal?
The strong resistance of the Hungarians eventually led to the Austro-Hungarian Compromise; the royal family was in a state of profound crisis regarding their rule.
This sense of crisis inevitably made the etiquette and culture of the Vienna court increasingly rigid and harsh, and her mother-in-law, the powerful Archduchess Sophie, was a “top-tier figure” in the history of European mother-in-law and daughter-in-law conflicts.
She took away her daughter-in-law’s newborn children without permission, named them, and subjected them to a rigid, almost military education.
Sisi was completely stripped of her rights as a mother; how could she live happily?
Her husband was busy consolidating the empire, her mother-in-law was tyrannical and overbearing, and the court culture was suffocatingly oppressive.
Having grown up free and easy in the Bavarian countryside, her inability to adapt to the golden cage environment of the Habsburg court was, in Karl’s view, understandable.
But who in the world doesn’t have their own difficulties?
Those in high positions, especially, must bear the corresponding costs.
Even so, Karl’s negative evaluation of Sisi did not change.
After her son Rudolf committed suicide in Mayerling, she continued her travels clad in black mourning clothes; Karl truly didn’t understand what kind of mindset that was.
Indifferent to her son in daily life, then perhaps feeling guilty once he ended his own life, yet she still didn’t truly return to her family or fulfill her duties as Empress, drifting consistently until the end.
In short, the reason this empire would head toward decline and disintegration was partly due to problems within the imperial family; it was by no means accidental.
If it were just death by disease, it would have been a gentle ending.
Assassinations, executions, people going mad, even suicides…
if such a family didn’t eventually perish, it would be even more incredible.
Others fought wars with military force, but the “traditional skill” of the Habsburg Family was often constant internal friction and strife.
If the empire were to be stable and long-lasting, the imperial family should first be stable.
Karl secretly made up his mind: I must never become that kind of person in the future.