Archduchess Sophie Friederike of Austria

Archduchess Sophie of Austria (5 March 185529 May 1857) was the first child of Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth of Austria. She died aged two. Life Within two months of her marriage to Franz Joseph, Elisabeth was pregnant. On 5 March 1855, the 17-year-old Empress of Austria delivered a daughter who was christened the same day, without Elisabeth's knowledge, Sophie Friederike Dorothea Maria Josepha, after Franz Joseph's mother. On both her mother and her father's side, Sophie descended from King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria, as her parents were first cousins. On her father's side, she descended from the last Holy Roman Emperor, Francis II. During the next year, Elisabeth delivered another daughter, Archduchess Gisela, a younger sister to Sophie. Although they were both girls and did not need to be educated for duties a monarch would be obliged to fulfill, both infants right after being baptised were taken away from Elisabeth by Archduchess Sophie (who was both Elisabeth's aunt and mother-in-law) on account of the Empress being too young to raise two children. Elisabeth later commented: No matter how long Elisabeth begged Franz Joseph to discuss the matter with his mother, her cries went unheard. Eventually, Franz Joseph did discuss the problem with his mother and Elisabeth eventually began to openly express her wishes to her mother-in-law and even took the little girls with her as she travelled. Death