Empress Elisabeth of Bavaria, known to her closest companions as 'Sisi', married Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria in April of 1854, and together they had four children. Renowned for her beauty and liberal political leanings, she became a political and national icon throughout Austro-Hungary. Despite her popularity amongst her people, her life was marred by tragedy: her eldest daughter Sophie died at the tender age of two, and her only son, Rudolph, committed suicide at the age of thirty. She was later assasinated in 1898 on the shore of Lake Geneva by anarchist Luigi Lucheni.