Duchess Elizabeth of Bavaria was the wife of 19th century Habsburg ruler, Franz Joseph I. She wed him at the ripe age of 16, and Franz only 23. Franz Joseph was the Emperor of Austria, the King of Hungary and also of Bohemia. Given that her husband was a man of great ruling, she had married herself into a world which attempted to give her a very formal lifestyle, and restrictive by court convention. The Duchess, better known as Sisi, which was her nickname, began to feel at odds with her new life. She had come from a close knit, loving family in Bavaria and felt great indifference to her surroundings of strictly organized protocol from the imperial courts of Vienna.

Besides her history of being from a very different lifestyle, she also had a very free spirit that seemed to clash with her restrictive surroundings. She was very shy...