She was ‘so beautiful, in mind and heart, in person and spirit; and whether with a crown upon her head or without it and nameless, a grace to the human race’.
That was the author Mark Twain writing about the Empress Elisabeth of Austria and Queen of Hungary, who died 125 years ago this September, aged 60, murdered by an unhinged anarchist on the shores of Lake Geneva.
In this anniversary year, the Empress, also known as Sisi, is back in fashion.
An arty, gruelling film about her life, Corsage, has won awards. The Netflix series – a continental counterpart to – is getting a second series. It presents her as a free spirit, dubiously modern, a kind of cross between Princess Diana and the
