The Empress is a historical drama series from Germany. It was created by Katharina Eyssen and directed by Katrin Gebbe. The second season consists of six episodes. The first part of the series was released on Netflix on 22 November 2024. The series has received positive reviews for its first and second seasons.
Philip Froissant plays Emperor Franz Joseph’s character in The Empress. The show’s focus remains on the crucial meeting between the young Bavarian Princess Elisabeth, played by Devrim Lingnau, and the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I, played by Philip Froissant.
The show covers the politics and battles against them in mid-1800s Austria. Almost everything that happens in seasons 1 and 2 of the show is taken from historical data.
In the season finale of The Empress, Francis decides to go to war with Napoleon III. It is a fact that Franz Joseph did fight against Napoleon III during the Second Italian War of Independence but he returned safely. Emperor Franz Joseph dies at the age of 86 because of pneumonia.
The Empress: How does real-life Franz Joseph die?
The reason behind Franz Joseph’s death
The series tells the true story of a young woman who, after falling in love with Emperor Franz Joseph I, marries the Viennese court.
After the wedding, Elisabeth realizes that the fairy tale is just an illusion. From the first moment of her reign, the young and free-spirited empress is trapped by the rigid rules and expectations of the court, while her mother-in-law tries to mold her into a ‘real’ empress.
In the second season of The Empress, Francis was confronted with the unrest in Lombardy-Venetia, as the people of the region attempted to gain independence from the Austrian Empire. He traveled to the region with Elisabeth to allay the fears of the locals and struggled with his determined wife, who was so concerned about the people’s plight but unable to make any real change.
In Season 1, it was revealed that Emperor Franz Joseph must decide which side to take and go to war. Season 2 ends on a cliffhanger as to whether Franz Joseph is safe or not. However, history has proven that although Austria lost the war, the Emperor returned home as a whole. Not only did Franz Joseph survive the war against Napoleon III, but he later died of pneumonia in 1916 at the age of 86.
Who is Emperor Franz Joseph?
Elisabeth and Francis
Emperor Francis, also known as Francis, was the eldest child of Archduke Francis Charles and Sophia, daughter of King Maximilian I of Bavaria. As his uncle, Emperor Ferdinand I, had no children, Franz was considered his successor.
He became Emperor of Austria on 2 December 1848 at the age of 18. Franz married Elisabeth of Wittelsbach, often called ‘Sissi’. They married when Elizabeth was 16 and he was 23. The original plan was for Franz to marry her older sister, Helene, but he fell in love with Sissi after they met at a party for his 23rd birthday. Within months they were engaged and married in Austria in 1854.
Franz was Emperor of Austria from 1848 to 1916 and King of Hungary from 1867 to 1916. He reigned for 68 years before he died in 1916 when both Hungary and Austria were independent states of equal status.
Season 2 of The Empress is now available for fans to stream on Netflix.
