On april 25, 1854, a shy and melancholy bride married into a major european royal house. Trembling and overcome with emotion, 16-year-old elisabeth, known by her childhood nickname sisi, was wed Married at 16 to the emperor of austria, elisabethâ€nicknamed sisiâ€was a reluctant empress, struggling with royal life and sympathetic to the democratic struggles of the people in her new nation.