Reign On Me | Episode 2.1 | Two Families, Both Alike In Dignity

Reign On Me | Episode 2.4 | A New and Improved Empress

Empress Sisi of Austria has returned to the court of Vienna from her years of convalescing from a mystery illness, and everyone is shocked by how much she has changed. While a sullen and sorrowful young Empress left Vienna, a worldly and self assured woman arrives ready to use her voice and make some moves of her own.

Reign On Me | Episode 2.3 | Enter Sisi

This week host Jennifer Gulbrandsen [//jennifergulbrandsen.com], covers the first few years of Franz and Siri's marriage including the power struggle between the new Empress and her mother in law, Archduchess Sophie.

Reign On Me | Episode 2.2 | Two Brides for One Brother

This week on 'Reign On Me' host Jennifer Gulbrandsen [//jennifergulbrandsen.com] continues our journey with the new Emperor facing dismal public approval, and his mother Archduchess Sophie decides that the best PR plan for a flailing royal is weddings and babies, so a search for a bride is on. Sophie doesn't have to look too far, because her sister Ludovika happens to have the perfect daughter to step into the role of Empress. However, there's another free spirited daughter to contend with who sets the whole plan on its ear.

Reign On Me | Episode 2.1 | Two Families, Both Alike In Dignity

In the Season 2 premiere of Reign On Me, host Jennifer Gulbrandsen [//jennifergulbrandsen.com] sets the stage for the drama that will unfold by introducing listeners to the two longest reigning dynasties in Europe, the Wittlespachs and the Hapsburgs. Two families both alike in dignity, and of course intrigue throughout European history. It's through this rapid recap of these families that we are brought up to speed where we begin our adventure in the 1840's with four daughters of the Bavarian King, and how three of them will change Austria forever.

Reign On Me | Season 2 Trailer | The Hot Mess Hapsburgs

As we learned in season one of Reign On Me [https://www.jennifergulbrandsen.com/reign-on-me-a-pophistory-podcast], royal family drama didn’t begin with our modern tabloid stories about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle - It’s a tale as old as time. To be royal is to be the drama, dahling. In season two of Reign On Me [https://www.jennifergulbrandsen.com/reign-on-me-a-pophistory-podcast], we dive into the deep end of the Hapsburg dynasty and the intrigues of Austria’s last emperor, Franz Joseph, and his wife the eccentric Empress Sisi. A story that once began in triumph -  and ended in a series of scandals and tragedies. Did Sisi suffer from the rumored curse of what was then called the Bavarian madness, or was she a progressive genius simply ahead of her time? Was the Emperor a mama's boy who couldn’t rule and should have abdicated to his brother? Was the last archduchess the product of an affair? Was a murder-suicide covered up? In a family that on the surface looks more cursed than the Kennedys, was there a way these misfortunes could have been prevented? In season 2 of Reign On Me [https://www.jennifergulbrandsen.com/reign-on-me-a-pophistory-podcast], we’ll also look at how the industrial revolution changed monarchy forever, leaving only the soon to be renamed House of Windsor the last empire standing. How did England’s Empire manage to be the only one to survive the first world war? So pull up a chair, pour your favorite drink, and join me, Jennifer Gulbrandsen [//jennifergulbrandsen.com], as we delve into  more drama than today’s modern monarchies can dish out as we start Season 2 of Reign on Me, the Hot Mess Hapsburgs [https://www.jennifergulbrandsen.com/reign-on-me-a-pophistory-podcast], and the end of the Austrian Empire.