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Archduchess Elisabeth Maria Henriette Stephanie Gisela of Austria (2 September 1883, Laxenburg – 16 March 1963, Vienna) was the only child of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and Princess Stéphanie of Belgium. She was known to the family as "Erzsi", a diminutive of her name in Hungarian. Later nicknamed "The Red Archduchess", she was famous for becoming a socialist and a member of the Austrian Social Democratic Party. ==Early life== Elisabeth was born at Schloss Laxenburg on 2 September 1883, to Rudolf and Stéphanie, daughter of King Leopold II of Belgium. The only child of his only (deceased) son, Erzsi was the favorite granddaughter of her paternal grandfather, Emperor Franz Josef of Austria. In 1889, when Erzsi was a little over five years old, her father and Baroness Mary Vetsera, his mistress, were found dead in what was assumed to be a murder-suicide pact at the Imperial hunting lodge at Mayerling. Her father's death interrupted the dynastic succession within the Austrian imperial family of Habsburg-Lorraine, fractured her grandparents' already tenuous marriage, and was a catalyst in Austria-Hungary's destabilization which culminated in the First World War and the subsequent loss of the Habsburg Empire. After Rudolf's death, Franz Josef took over guardianship of Erzsi; by his order, she was forbidden to leave Austria with her mother.〔Moore, George Greville, Society recollections in Paris and Vienna, 1879–1904, D. Appleton and Co., 1908, p. 236〕 At a young age she displayed a strong personality, as well as an opposition to the Viennese court. Her grandmother, the capricious Empress Elisabeth, did not enjoy being identified as a grandmother and was therefore not close to any of her grandchildren. However, after her assassination in 1898, her will specified that outside a large bequest of the sale of her jewels to benefit charities and religious orders, all of her personal property was bequeathed to Erszi, her namesake and, of course, Rudolf's only child. The Empress was open in her dislike of her daughter-in-law prior to the scandal, and after Mayerling blamed Stéphanie's jealous behavior for her son's unhappiness and suicide. Rudolf's wife, the Crown Princess Stéphanie, mother of the young Archduchess Elisabeth, was entirely dependent on the Emperor's charity. Following Rudolf's death, the resulting lack of Imperial support towards Stephanie impacted Elisabeth's relationship with her mother negatively; the parent and child were never close.〔Anonymous, At the Austrian Court: Recollections of a Royal Governess, D. Appleton & Co., 1915, p. 299〕 In 1900 Stéphanie renounced her title of Crown Princess to marry the younger – and Protestant – Hungarian Count Elemer Lonyay. Although Franz Josef provided her with a dowry and Lonyay eventually converted,〔Anonymous, At the Austrian Court: Recollections of a Royal Governess, D. Appleton & Co., 1915, p.299〕 Elisabeth broke off all contact with her mother as she disapproved of the marriage, feeling it a betrayal of her father's memory. Later, following her marriage, Stéphanie retaliated by disinheriting her only child, Elisabeth, in 1934.〔Weissensteiner, Friedrich, Elisabeth, Die rote Erzherzogin Elisabeth, the red Archduchess, Vienna, 1982, p.142〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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