Editing Empress Elisabeth of Austria (section)

==Assassination==

[[File:Elisabeth, Kaiserin von Österreich Momentaufnahme in Territet mit Hofdame Irma Gfn. Sztáray.jpg|thumb|Purported last photograph taken of Elisabeth at [[Territet]], Switzerland, a week before her death]]

In 1898, despite warnings of possible assassination attempts, the 60-year-old Elisabeth traveled incognito to [[Geneva]], [[Switzerland]]. However, someone from the [[Beau-Rivage Geneva|Hôtel Beau-Rivage]] revealed that the Empress of Austria was their guest.<ref name="Bowers Bahney 2015" />

At 1:35&nbsp;p.m. on Saturday 10 September 1898, Elisabeth and Countess [[Irma Sztáray]], her [[lady-in-waiting]], left the hotel on the shore of [[Lake Geneva]] on foot to catch the [[steamship]] [[Paddle steamer Genève|''Genève'']] for [[Montreux]]. Since the Empress despised [[procession]]s, she insisted that they walk without the other members of her entourage.<ref name="famous assassinations 132">{{cite book|last1=Newton|first1=Michael|title=Famous Assassinations in World History: An Encyclopedia [2 volumes]|publisher=[[ABC-Clio|ABC-CLIO]]|isbn=978-1610692854|page=132|chapter=Elisabeth of Austria (1837–1898)|year=2014}}</ref>

They were walking along the [[Esplanade|promenade]] when the 25-year-old Italian [[Anarchism|anarchist]] [[Luigi Lucheni]] approached them, attempting to peer underneath the empress's [[Umbrella|parasol]]. According to Sztáray, as the [[ship's bell]] announced the departure, Lucheni seemed to stumble and made a movement with his hand, as if he wanted to maintain his balance. In reality, in an act of "[[propaganda of the deed]]", he had stabbed Elisabeth with a sharpened needle file that was {{convert|4|in|cm}} long (used to file the eyes of industrial needles) that he had inserted into a wooden handle.<ref name="famous assassinations 132" /><ref name="famous assassinations 134">{{cite book|last1=Newton|first1=Michael|title=Famous Assassinations in World History: An Encyclopedia [2 volumes]|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1610692854|page=134|chapter=Elisabeth of Austria (1837–1898)|year=2014}}</ref>

Lucheni originally planned to kill the [[Prince Philippe, Duke of Orléans (1869–1926)|Duke of Orléans]], but the [[pretender]] to France's throne had left Geneva earlier for the [[Valais]]. Failing to find him, the assassin selected Elisabeth when a Geneva newspaper revealed that the elegant woman traveling under the [[pseudonym]] of "Countess of Hohenembs" was the Empress of Austria.<ref>Norton, Frederick, ''A Nervous Splendor'', Penguin Books, 1980</ref>

{{blockquote|I am an anarchist by conviction... I came to Geneva to kill a sovereign, with object of giving an example to those who suffer and those who do nothing to improve their social position; it did not matter to me who the sovereign was whom I should kill... It was not a woman I struck, but an Empress; it was a crown that I had in view.<ref name="deburgh"/>{{rp|326–327}}}}

[[File:Assassinato luigi.jpg|thumb|An artist's rendition of the stabbing of Elisabeth by the Italian anarchist [[Luigi Lucheni]] |left]]

After Lucheni struck her, Elisabeth collapsed. A coach driver helped her to her feet and alerted the Austrian concierge of the Beau-Rivage, a man named Planner, who had been watching the progress the Empress made toward the ''Genève''. The two women walked roughly {{convert|100|yards}} to the gangway and boarded, at which point, Sztáray relaxed her hold on Elisabeth's arm. The Empress then lost consciousness and collapsed next to her. Sztáray called for a doctor, but only a former nurse, a fellow passenger, was available. The boat's captain, Captain Roux, was ignorant of Elisabeth's identity, and since it was very hot on deck, he advised the Countess to disembark and take her companion back to her hotel. The boat was already sailing out of the harbor. Three men carried the Empress to the top deck and laid her on a bench. Sztáray opened her dress and cut Elisabeth's corset laces so she could breathe. Elisabeth revived somewhat and when Sztáray asked her if she was in pain, she replied, "No". She then asked, "What has happened?"<ref name="test">Le Comte, Edward S. ''Dictionary of Last Words ''. New York: Philosophical Library, 1955, p. 75.</ref> and lost consciousness again.<ref name="deburgh" />{{rp|317}}

[[File:Site of Assassination of Empress Elisabeth.jpg|thumb|Sign reads "Here Empress Elisabeth of Austria was assassinated on 10 September 1898" in Geneva, Switzerland (2022)]]

Countess Sztáray noticed a small brown stain above the left breast of the Empress. Alarmed that Elisabeth had not recovered consciousness, she informed the captain of her identity, and the boat turned back to Geneva. Elisabeth was carried back to the Hôtel Beau-Rivage by six sailors on a stretcher improvised from a sail, cushions and two oars. Fanny Mayer, the wife of the hotel's director, a visiting nurse, and the Countess undressed Elisabeth and removed her shoes, at which point Sztáray noticed a few small drops of blood and a small wound. When they then removed her from the stretcher to the bed, she was clearly dead. Frau Mayer believed the two audible breaths she heard the Empress take as she was brought into the room were her last. Two doctors, Dr. Golay and Dr. Mayer arrived, along with a priest, who was too late to grant her [[absolution]]. Mayer incised the artery of her left arm to ascertain death and found no blood. She was pronounced dead at 2:10&nbsp;p.m. Everyone knelt down and prayed for the repose of her soul, and Countess Sztáray closed Elisabeth's eyes and joined her hands.<ref name="deburgh" />{{rp|333}}

Elisabeth had been the Empress of Austria for 44 years.
 
When Franz Joseph received the telegram informing him of Elisabeth's death, his first fear was that her death was caused by suicide. It was only when a later message arrived, detailing the assassination, that he was reassured on that point. The telegram asked permission to perform an autopsy, and the response was that whatever procedures were prescribed should be adhered to.<ref name="famous assassinations 134" /><ref name="deburgh" />{{rp|324}}

The autopsy was performed the next day by Golay, who discovered that the weapon, which had not yet been found, had penetrated {{convert|3.33|in}} into Elisabeth's thorax, fractured the fourth rib, pierced the lung and [[pericardium]], and penetrated the heart from the top before coming out the base of the left [[ventricle (heart)|ventricle]]. Because of the sharpness and thinness of the file, the wound was very narrow and, due to pressure from Elisabeth's extremely tight corseting, the hemorrhage of blood into the pericardial sac around the heart was slowed to mere drops. Until this sac filled (a medical emergency known as [[cardiac tamponade]]), the beating of her heart was not impeded, which is why the Empress had been able to walk from the site of the assault and up the boat's boarding ramp. Had the weapon not been removed, she would have lived a while longer, as it would have acted like a plug to stop the bleeding.<ref name="deburgh" />{{rp|310}}

Golay photographed the wound but turned the photograph over to the Swiss Procurator-General, who had it destroyed, on the orders of Franz Joseph, along with the autopsy instruments.<ref name="deburgh" />{{rp|383}}

[[File:Erzsébet temetése Löwy.jpg|thumb|The funeral procession in Vienna (17 September 1898)|left]]

As Geneva shuttered itself in mourning, Elisabeth's body was placed in a triple coffin: two inner ones of lead, the third exterior one in bronze, reposing on lion claws. On Tuesday, before the coffins were sealed, Franz Joseph's official representatives arrived to identify the body. The coffin was fitted with two glass panels, covered with doors, which could be slid back to allow her face to be seen.<ref name="deburgh" />{{rp|333}}

On Wednesday morning, the body was carried back to Vienna aboard a funeral train. The inscription on her coffin read, "Elisabeth, Empress of Austria". The Hungarians were outraged, and the words, "and Queen of Hungary" were hastily added.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Owens|first1=Karen|title=Franz Joseph and Elisabeth: The Last Great Monarchs of Austria-Hungary|page=153|year= 2013|publisher=McFarland}}</ref> The entire empire was in deep mourning; eighty-two sovereigns and high-ranking nobles followed her funeral cortege on the morning of 17 September to the [[Imperial Crypt]] at the [[Capuchin Church, Vienna|Capuchin Church]].<ref name="deburgh" />{{rp|359}}

===Aftermath===

[[File:Sarcophagus Elisabeth Sisi Kapuzinergruft Vienna.jpg|thumb|Empress Elisabeth's tomb next to that of her husband Franz Joseph in Vienna's [[Imperial Crypt]]. On the other side of Franz Josef's tomb is that of their son, Crown Prince Rudolf]]

After the attack, Lucheni fled down the Rue des Alpes, where he threw the file into the entrance to No. 3. He was caught by two cabdrivers and a sailor, then secured by a [[Gendarmerie|gendarme]]. The weapon was found the next day by the concierge during his morning cleaning; he thought it belonged to a laborer who had moved the day before and did not notify the police of his discovery until the following day. There was no blood on the file and the tip was broken off, which occurred when Lucheni threw it away. The file was so dull in appearance it was speculated that it had been deliberately selected because it would be less noticeable than a shiny knife, which would have given Lucheni away as he approached.<ref name="deburgh" />{{rp|313}} Lucheni had planned to purchase a [[stiletto]], but lacking the price of 12 francs he had simply sharpened an old file into a homemade dagger and cut down a piece of firewood into a handle.<ref>Tuchman, Barbara, ''Proud Tower'', Random House Digital, Inc., 2011</ref>

Although Lucheni boasted that he acted alone, because many political refugees found a haven in Switzerland, the possibility that he was part of a plot and that the life of the Emperor was also in danger was considered. Once it was discovered that an Italian was responsible for Elisabeth's murder, unrest swept Vienna and reprisals were threatened against Italians. The intensity of shock, mourning, and outrage far exceeded that which occurred at the news of Rudolf's death.

An outcry also immediately erupted over the lack of protection for the Empress. The Swiss police had been well aware of her presence, and telegrams to the appropriate authorities advising them to take all precautions had been dispatched. Police Chief Virieux of the Canton of [[Vaud]] had organized Elisabeth's protection, but she had detected his officers outside the hotel the day before the assassination and protested that the surveillance was disagreeable, so Virieux had no choice but to withdraw them. It is also possible that if Elisabeth had not dismissed her other attendants that day, an entourage larger than one lady-in-waiting could have discouraged Lucheni, who had been following the Empress for several days, awaiting an opportunity.<ref name="deburgh" />{{rp|321}}

Lucheni was brought before the Geneva Court in October. Furious that the death sentence had been abolished there, he demanded that he be tried according to the laws of the Canton of [[Lucerne]], which still had the death penalty, signing the letter: "Luigi Lucheni, anarchist, and one of the most dangerous".<ref name="famous assassinations 134" /> Since Elisabeth was famous for preferring the common man to courtiers, known for her charitable works, and considered such a blameless target, Lucheni's sanity was questioned initially.<ref name="deburgh" />{{rp|322}} He was declared to be sane, but was tried as a common murderer, not a political criminal. Incarcerated for life, and denied the opportunity to make a political statement by his action, he attempted to kill himself with the sharpened key from a tin of sardines on 20 February 1900. Ten years later, he hanged himself with his belt in his cell on the evening of 16 October 1910, after a guard confiscated his uncompleted memoirs.<ref name="famous assassinations 1342">{{cite book |last1=Newton |first1=Michael |title=Famous Assassinations in World History: An Encyclopedia [2 volumes] |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2014 |isbn=978-1610692854 |page=134 |chapter=Elisabeth of Austria (1837–1898)}}</ref>

Franz Joseph remarked to Prince Liechtenstein, who was the couple's devoted [[equerry]], "That a man could be found to attack such a woman, whose whole life was spent in doing good and who never injured any person, is to me {{Soft hyphen|incom|pre|hen|sible}}".<ref name="deburgh" />{{rp|323}}

Elisabeth's will stipulated that a large part of her jewel collection should be sold and the proceeds (then estimated at over £600,000), were to be applied to various religious and charitable organizations. Everything else that the Empress had the power to bequeath, outside of the crown jewels and state property, was left to her granddaughter, [[Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria|Archduchess Elisabeth]], Rudolf's only child.<ref name="deburgh" />{{rp|367}}

Internationally the assassination resulted in the [[International Conference of Rome for the Social Defense Against Anarchists]], the first international conference [[Counterterrorism|against terrorism]].<ref name="t136">{{cite book | title=The Battle against Anarchist Terrorism | chapter=The first international conference on terrorism: Rome 1898 | publisher=Cambridge University Press | date=2013-12-05 | isbn=978-1-139-52412-4 | doi=10.1017/cbo9781139524124.008 | pages=131–184}}</ref>