Elisabeth was born in Reichenau on 7 July 1878, the youngest of a large family, as her father Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria married three times and had children with two of his wives.

In addition, her father was a younger brother of Franz Joseph I of Austria, the reigning emperor at the time of her birth.

The bride's uncle Emperor Franz Joseph I attended the wedding with the intention of making it clear he regarded the House of Liechtenstein as a legitimate reigning dynasty.

[3] Sometime after their marriage, Princess Catherine Radziwill commented that Elisabeth "is very pretty and resembles her mother more than the Habsburgs, whose lower lip she has not inherited by some kind of miracle, for which, I suppose, she feels immeasurably grateful".

She converted the stables at her Hungarian castle Stuhlweissenburg to garages but pursued her hobby quietly and studiously, so that the great majority of the public were not even aware of her large collection.