and Round

a princess’s life

to just be wild and free

take yourself and go

 

*~*~*~*~*

an empress’s life

trapped within an illusion

she’s forever theirs

 

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

One of my idols and favorite historical figures is the very mysterious and very peculiar Sisi, Empress Elisabeth of Austria. At just fifteen, she became the empress of probably the most powerful monarchy in the world. Her life started as a Cinderella story--a nobody princess, living a wild and carefree life in Bavaria. After meeting the young and handsome Franz Josef, she married for love and quickly realized that the dream of love and luxury was actually a nightmare. No longer free to do what she wanted--explore, play, ride horses, and simply be her carefree self--she became trapped in the pleasantries of court life where she was simply the emperor's beautiful wife... Until she took matters into her own hands.

 

Always an enigma, she was considered the most beautiful woman in the world at the time and she used that to her advantage. She used sex as a weapon against her husband and as a bargaining tool when it came to protecting the common folk in the countries under her control. Her beauty regime lasted hours--she bathed in milk, washed her hair in cognac, ate only oranges and eggs, exercised to exhaustion, and would probably have been considered anorexic by today's standards. And yet the people adored her and even today people are still fascinated with the tragic beauty.

 

Here are two haikus about Sisi--one from when she was a child and another when she was a queen... To go along with the haikus, I thought of drawing her with one of her beloved horses but then decided to put a twist on it--her horses took her nowhere and she was never able to fully escape the reaches of the Habsburg regime--her horses were nothing more than little carousel horses, always bringing her back to where she belonged.

 

a.r.w.