Her paternal half-sister, Caroline Augusta of Bavaria, had married the groom's widowed father, Francis II, in 1816.

[1] Unlike her husband, Sophie was attached to all of her children, especially Franz Joseph, as well as Ferdinand Maximilian, who was her favorite son.

She had a reputation for being strong-willed and authoritarian by nature but she was also known as a familiar and sociable person devoted to her family and the Habsburg empire she married into.

[4] During the Revolution of 1848, she persuaded her somewhat feeble-minded husband to give up his rights to the throne in favour of their son Franz Joseph.

[6] Historically, Sophie is remembered for her extremely adversarial relationship with Franz Joseph's wife Elisabeth "Sisi", who was also her niece.

[citation needed] He was the father of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination in 1914 sparked World War I.