Will & Kate - the Countdown is on .... and what about the Austrian royals? Sisi!?

I can't wait for the new wedding in the house of Windsor!

Although I have to admit, that I am still more interested in the Tudors, Henry VIII with his 6 marriages and the according tragedies & affairs.

After living in the UK for some years I became interested in royal history as it shaped society till today and still does - to a certain extent.

Well, we Austrians too had a quite flash royal experience, but people here tend not to be too fond of it anymore.
You'll be seen as a monarchist, old-fashioned, dusty, almost like a political extreme, if you're too much into the royal history. But dear me, we had the Hapsburgs!

And they were at least that posh, fancy and spellbinding like the Tudors, Stuarts or Windsors.
We had similar intrigues and adultries, incest stories, suicides and endless birth-givings.
And, let us not forget, we do have a familiar bond with the Tudors too! No, you do not want to know the details, unless you can follow, when I explain the family tree for 15minutes!

And we even have our Elisabeth who made it into the hearts of the people and is well known throughout the world as Sisi.


Elisabeth, Sisi, (born 1837) a stunning and beautiful woman, was married to Franz Joseph I.
They had 4 children. And like in so many royal families unlucky fortune: their first child, Sophie, died at the age of two, their surviving daughters Gisela (1856-1932) and Marie Valerie (1868-1924) both married and had several children, from whom there are numerous descendants. Their only son, Crown Prince Rudolf, born in 1858, committed suicide together with his mistress, the seventeen-year-old Baroness Mary Vetsera.
 
The tragedies in her life did influence her spirits, she was a melancholic and sad person, tried to escape with travelling, but never ever overcame the loss of her small child and her son.

Like all tragedies also her life had a sudden unexpected end: she was stabbed to death at the Lake Geneve and reunited in heaven on 10th September 1898.

I just hope, that Will 'n' Kate will be more lucky, I wish them the so much needed heirs, lots of love and over all peace!