The Habsburg Dynasty

[Julia]

The Ghosts of Mayerling:
The death of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria-Hungary (1858-1889)
By Art Beéche

The great history writer Stefan Zweig once said "Mystery excites creation." Since January 30, 1889, there is a name that symbolizes the mystery of a scandalous and tragic double death: Mayerling. The tragic and mysterious death Archduke Rudolf of Habsburg, Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, immediately caused a dynastic crisis. Rudolf and his mistress Baroness Marie Vetsera were found dead at the Crown Prince's hunting lodge, Mayerling. The death of his only son devastated the Austrian emperor, since he had no other male heirs.

The Austro-Hungarian crown would therefore pass to the Emperor's brother, Karl-Ludwig, and eventually to this archduke's descendants. Karl-Ludwig had three sons: Franz-Ferdinand, of a sickly complexion, Otto, of a wild and debauched nature, and Ferdinand-Karl, who was only too ready to give up his imperial rights and become a commoner under the name Ferdinand Burg. Franz-Ferdinand contracted a morganatic marriage in 1900 with Countess Sophie Chotek, his children could not inherit the throne. Otto married Princess Maria-Jose of Saxony to satisfy the dynasty's pressing need for heirs. The marriage was loveless, and even though two children were born of it, Emperor Karl I and Archduke Ferdinand, Otto never stopped womanizing and enjoying all the pleasures that Vienna offered to a handsome member of the Habsburg dynasty. After Franz-Joseph's death in 1916, it was Archduke Otto's son Karl who finally inherited the crown. Archduke Karl in fact was the sixth heir-presumptive to Franz Joseph throne. The deaths at Mayerling took away the security of the imperial succession that Franz-Joseph had provided. Mayerling will forever hold the sign of tragedy and despair that later engulfed the Habsburg family.

Crown Prince Rudolf was the only son of Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth, one of Europe's most beautiful princesses. Rudolf was born on August 21, 1858. He married Princess Stephanie of Belgium in 1881. Their marriage, as it happened frequently in the house of Habsburg, was arranged and involved little love between the young couple. Rudolf needed a wife with a more interesting than that of his child-bride. Stephanie was not even seventeen years of age at the time of her wedding and she failed to keep her husband from wandering the streets of Vienna in search of licentious enjoyments. The couple had only one daughter, Archduchess Elisabeth, born in 1883.

Since that fateful winter day in 1889, more than a century ago, much has been said, speculated and written about the deaths at Mayerling. Speculation has pointed to political intrigues, unspeakable love affairs, and international conspiracies. Yet the great mystery surrounding the death of Crown Prince Rudolf and Baroness Marie Vetsera still remains after more than a century. The last Austrian Empress, Zita, who died in 1989, once said she believed Rudolf had been the victim of an international political conspiracy engineered by Georges Clemenceau, the French Prime Minister. Zita did not believe that with such a promising life ahead of him, Crown Prince Rudolf would have chosen suicide under any circumstances. Zita alleged that Clemenceau was conspiring to overthrow Franz Joseph and place germanophobe Rudolf on the throne. This would allow Austria to break away from her allegiance to Germany and sign an alliance with France. Rudolf, Zita believed, refused to partake in the conspiracy and was killed to secure his silence.

Several historians believe that the key to unlock the events at Mayerling will most likely never be found. Many argue that the Austrian police's cover-up of the deaths of Rudolf and Marie Vetsera, his young and foolish lover, shrouded Mayerling in mystery. Furthermore, the tragic events at Mayerling continue to trouble many people who desperately want the mystery revealed. For example, just days before Christmas 1992 it was discovered that the mortal remains of Marie Vetsera had been mysteriously removed from the cemetery at Heiligenkreuz, where they had laid in deadly silence for more than a century. After initial consternation, the local police was able to track down the coffin and recover Vetsera's remains. To verify that the remains were those of young Marie, the police asked the Viennese Medical Institute to examine the remains and identify if indeed they were those of Mayerling victim.

Upon inspection of the human remains recovered by the police, medical examiners discovered that the head of the young woman lacked any traces of a perforating bullet. The cranial cavity was not destroyed by the suspected bullet that Crown Prince Rudolf had fired into his lover's head. On the contrary, the cranial cavity showed signs of trauma. These lacerations could have been caused by a heavy object or some gardening equipment, but not by a bullet. And if in fact this was the Vetsera's body, then the official version of a double suicide at Mayerling had been a hoax all along. Zita's version of the Mayerling tragedy seemed to hold ground.

The old Empress Zita's observations on Mayerling were founded on several disturbing facts. These were also an echo of the many speculations freely roaming around Viennese court circles after the death of Rudolf. On February 9, 1889, the German Ambassador in Vienna sent a missive to Berlin in which he reported a conversation with the Papal Nuncio, Monsignor Luigi Galimberti, and the Habsburg Court Chaplain, Monsignor Lorenz Mayer. During this conversation, the officious ambassador reported, the two well-informed prelates expressed their serious doubts concerning the official version of the events at Mayerling.

Half a century later, in 1946, the tomb of Marie Vetsera was desecrated by the occupying Soviet forces. Possibly looking for jewels, Soviet troops looted Marie Vetsera's remains. This profanity was not discovered until 1955 when the Red Army abandoned Austria. In 1959 specialists in funereal preservation, accompanied by a doctor and a member of the Vetsera family, examined the remains. They were all shocked to discover that the body of the young woman in the vault did not present any traces of death by firearm. What they did observe was a large trauma on the crown of the head. This fact supported the version which alleged that the mistress of the Austrian Crown Prince had not been killed by Rudolf, but had fallen foul to Rudolf's assassins. Yet in 1955, this macabre discovery was curiously ignored by all concerned.

The German note, as well as the forensic evidence found in Vetsera's body, are just many of the proofs challenging the official version of Rudolf and Marie's death. Many have alleged that Rudolf's body showed signs of a violent confrontation before death. Lacerations were discovered in several parts of the body. His hands showed signs of struggle, which might demonstrate that the poor Crown Prince tried desperately to fight off his would-be assassins. It also seems that the revolver used to kill both Rudolf and Vetsera was not the one owned by the Crown Prince, and that all six bullets were fired. In this case, Marie Vetsera was not the foul victim of a tragic love affair, but the unwilling witness of one of the most daring political assassinations ever achieved.

Rudolf's death brought ruin to his parents' marriage, uncertainty over the imperial succession, and ultimately the end of the ancient house of Habsburg. If he had not met with an untimely demise, Europe's history would have been tremendously different. Mayerling not only meant the death of two love struck people, it also robbed the Habsburgs of the one person who seemed most capable of keeping the tattered multinational monarchy from its eventual disintegration and collapse.

From: European Royal History

[Julia]

Elisabeth
Empress of Austria & Queen of Hungary

In 1998 the world will remember one of history's most fascinating women. One hundred years ago, on September 10, 1898, Austria's Empress Elisabeth died from wounds inflicted during an assassination attempt. Exhibitions throughout Austria will commemorate the country's beloved Empress. They will document the intriguing life story of a woman who was an "empress against her will", who was at once fairy-tale princess and liberated woman, a dieting fanatic and expert equestrian, a poet and inveterate traveler.

The empress, affectionately known to millions as "Sisi", was as intelligent as she was extravagant, and was decades ahead of her time. Although the imperial surroundings of Schönbrunn Palace and the glittering Vienna Hofburg were her home, the consort of the Austrian emperor established a special relationship with all classes of her subjects. Little wonder then that following her tragic death Princess Diana was often likened in obituaries to Sisi: Both were women of extraordinary beauty and represented their countries with dignity and elegance. Both succeeded in winning a special place in people's hearts even amidst the ceremony and protocol of ancient dynasties. Both were dedicated to social causes. And both died tragically before their time.

Elisabeth was born on Christmas 1837 in Munich, Bavaria, as the daughter of Duke Maximilian and Maria Ludowika, daughter of the Bavarian king. She grew up in Possenhofen castle (foto right) far from the ceremony of court, and developed like her brothers and sisters into an unconventional, freedom loving, and extremely sensitive person. The romatic legend of how Sisi and Franz Joseph met has been immortalized in the wonderfully romatic and melodramatic Austrian "Sissi" Films starring Romy Schneider as young Sisi. The musical "Elisabeth", which has attracted tourists from all over the world to Vienna for more than five years, is much more realistic.
In the summer of 1853 at the scenic Salzkammergut town Bad Ischl she met Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria, who was actually supposed to marry her sister, Helene.

Imperial Villa in Bad Ischl, build as "E" for Elisabeth.

However, the Emperor defied his mother's marriage plans and fell in love with Helen's sister Elisabeth, then only 15 years old, who had accompanied the party rather accidentally. Already one day after their first encounter Francis Joseph and Elisabeth celebrated their engagement.
The engagement to Sisi was a sensation. Everyone wanted to know who she was. She quickly became a rising star. The Papparazzi of the day, the court painters and engravers were quickly producing pictures of this beautiful young duchess "Sisi". They married on 24th April 1854 in the Vienna Augustine Church. The festivites lasted for over a week.

In 1855, Sisi gave birth to a daughter, Sophie, and in the following year to another girl, Gisela. Finally, in 1858 the long-awaited crown prince, Rudolph, arrived.
With her charm and natural grace Elisabeth soon became a fairy-tale princess in the eyes of the public. In her private life, however, insoluble problems began to make their appearance. From the first day she arrived in Vienna the young empress felt constrained and unhappy by the strict life at court, personified by her mother-in-law, Sophie. During the early years of her marriage, Elisabeth took refuge in isolation and illness. Sisi could not adapt to the strict court etiquette, and soon immersed herself in rigourous exercise and horse riding. Later she spent a lot of time in Madeira and Corfu trying to escape. The official public explanation was "severe illness". Her children were forced from her and had to remain in the hands of her mother-in-law and the court. (right: Postcard "Departure of the Empress")

After the birth of the crown prince, however, with whose education she was not entrusted, she broke into open rebellion. In 1859, Elisabeth left her husband and small children to live in seclusion on Madeira, Corfu, and in Venice. The Empress had exchanged a carefree country life with the strict etiquette of the Imperial Court and could hardly adapt to it. Francis Joseph loved his wife dearly, but he ruled over an empire of 50 million people and had little time to be with "Sisi" who felt lonely. "I wish he were no emperor", she confided her former governess.

After a lengthy interval due to marital problems, a fourth child, Marie Valerie, was born to the imperial couple. Marie Valerie was dubbed the "Hungarian child" because she was brought up and educated in the Hungarian language. The youngest offspring was a symbolic gift from the Queen-Empress to the Hungarian people who she loved so much. The new baby arrived exactly ten months after the coronation of her husband as King of Hungary, which Elisabeth had been so energetic in promoting.

Although Sisi usually stayed out of politics, she made a great exception as far as Hungary was concerned. Elisabeth's interest in politics developed as she grew matured. She was liberal and forward-minded. The empress placed herself decisively on the Hungarian side in the nationality conflict thereby making an important contribution to the historic compromise of 1867. Hungary's gaining an equal footing with Austria also strengthened the liberal element in the monarchy as a whole. Elisabeth attained an unparalleled position of respect and affection in Hungary, one which has lasted until the present day. It was due to her influnce that the reconciliation with the rebellious peoples of Hungary was established. Elisabeth learned to speak Hungarian fluently and spent more time in Budapest then in Vienna, much to the anger and displeasure of her mother in law and her cohorts in the Viennese Court.

In the 1860's Elisabeth was considered the world's most beautiful monarch. In the 1870's she became the most famous, and probably also the world's best, female equestrian. She trained as hard as a professional sportswoman for years to achieve this goal. After the Hungarian compromise had been reached, Elisabeth had little choice but to withdraw from politics. Later when gout made riding impossible she tried to make a name for herself as a poet in the mold of Heinrich Heine, who she revered.

All of these efforts were meant to prove herself as an individual and not as an empress. They were at the same time an expression of Elisabeth's contempt for the monarchy, which she considered a "ruin". Sisi remained consciously individualistic and dedicated herself exclusively to her self-expression and physical beauty. Elisabeth was also a highly educated woman, who not only learned Hungarian and modern Greek perfectly, but who even in later years immersed herself in the world of the ancient Greeks. It was for this reason that she built a palace on the Greek island of Corfu and named it "Achilleion" (foto) after her favorite hero of the ancient world, Achilles.

Personal blows left heavy marks on the life of Austria's empress. She lost her daughter, Sophie, in 1857, and her favorite cousin, King Ludwig II of Bavaria, in a tragic fashion. Her brother-in-law, Emperor Maximilian of Mexico was shot by revolutionaries. She never was able to get over her most terrible tragedy, the suicide of her son, Rudolph, in 1889. Her son dead, her favorite daughter happily married, her husband the Emperor was in a mutually satisfying relationship with a lady named Katharina Schratt, the Empress found herself alone and set out travelling in Italy and Greece.

Now invariably dressed in black, Sisi spent the last years of her life far from the pomp and ceremony of the Viennese court traveling widely, especially in Greece. Her decades-long hunger diets coupled with a need for movement and exercise which compelled her to undertake lengthy and strenuous hikes, caused malnutrition and depressions and led finally to suicidal fantasies. The sixty-year old empress was stabbed with a file by a twenty-four year old anarchist, Luigi Lucheni, shortly after noon on September 10, 1898 on the promenade of Lake Geneva as she boarded a steamship for Montreux. After the incident the Empress still walked for a few minutes. Because she was so strictly corsetted, she was unaware how seriously she had been wounded. Her last words were "What happened to me?"
For the assassin Elisabeth represented the monarchic order which he despised, but she was in fact simply a survivor, who tired of life looked forward to her own death.

Sisi (nickname for Elisabeth) was already a legend in her lifetime. And especially in Budapest (Hungary) many buildings or institutions are named after her, and Elisabeth is still the most often given girlname in Hungary. Even a century after her death, Sisi's hold on the popular imagination remains undiminished. This can be seen in the popularity of Sisi films and the musical "Elisabeth", which has run for years in Vienna. The sites where the empress lived continue to draw tourists from the world over. Among these are her apartments in Schönbrunn Palace, the Hofburg, and the Hermes Villa in Vienna, her tomb in the imperial burial vault of the capital's Capuchin Church, and the imperial villa in Bad Ischl, as well as many other places throughout Austria.

[Julia]

Sisi...

[thissal]

Thanks, that's great information and just the kind I was hoping for. I wonder how daring the assassination was though if they didn't have any body guards? Maybe body guards for royalty came into being much later. I guess his mother didn't have any body guards either when she was assassinated.

[Julia]

Hi thissal!

Yes, the question of bodyguards is a good one. I could be quite wrong, but I believe that only close attendands (ladies-in-waiting, aides, etc...) were the buffers between the royal members and would be assassins in private. In public, I would think that male members would have somekind of military aides that travelled along side them, and that they would also provide protection for the ruling female member as well. I could be quite, quite, off, but in my readings on Marie-Antoinette there were really just various members of royalty (Princes and Princesses of the Blood, etc...) who were there to comfort and aid their sovereigns. I know that the Swiss Guard was very loyal to M-A and that the king's guards were only there to keep out the "riff-raff". I wonder when bodyguards as we know them today came into being??
Having said that, I would think that the military did not approve of Crown Prince Rudolf's actions and probably looked the other way. I would think the same in regards to the assassination of Empress Elisabeth.

Funeral of Empress Zita of Austria

Can anyone post pictures of this royal event? I would like to see pictures of this event !!!
Thanks in advance !!!

Olivier.

Elissa Landi

Elissa Landi was an actress in 1923 - 1943 and a writer 1944 - 1948 writing 6 novels and books on poetry. She was born Elizabeth-Marie Kuhnelt in Venice, Italy December 6, 1904 and lived only 43 years until 1948 when she died of cancer in New York. She had one daughter, Carolyn Maude Thomas. Elissa Landi is believed by some people to have been the secret granddaughter of Sissi (Empress Elizabeth), the beautiful consort of Emperor Franz Josef of Austria. (Imdb)

http://www.elissa.org/images/landi-stand2.jpg
http://www.elissa.org/images/landi-standing.jpg
http://www.elissa.org/images/landi-still.jpg
http://www.elissa.org/images/landi-prone.jpg

[Martine]

I heard that Karl of Austria and his wife have split up. is this true?

[Lena]

I remember that this was a big topic in the austrian magazine NEWS in june (?) and the story was also copied from other tabloids in germany. The reason for their assumption was that Francesca bought a flat in Vienna and so they assumed that she would move from Salzburg to Vienna...both, Franceca and Karl have denied those rumours, and as it was tabloid-stuff I wouldn´t take it to serious...

[Martine]

thanks for clearing that up !

i read it in a german tabloid and they said that their son is living in vienna too;i didn't take that too serious , but I thought it was weird though when i noticed in vanity fair there was only a picture of karl and the kids


anyway hope it's not true

[Lord Williams]

http://otto.twschwarzer.de/

A great site on Dr. Otto von Habsburg!!! Take a look! Many great pics and stuff! Even has his address at Villa Austria!

[Fiona]

A good Link: http://worldroots.com/brigitte/royal/habsfamily.htm

[gogm]

There are a host of good sites about Elisabeth. Some are:

http://www.kaiserin-elisabeth.net/english/...bilderseite.htm ,

and

http://www.kaiserin-elisabeth.net/sw/e/ , and

Claudia's (she also runs a site about marie Antoinette):

http://www.geocities.com/claudine1755/sissi/home.htm.

Google will turn up others.

[Jackswife]

A wonderful article about one of my personal favorite royals. A lot of parallels to the life of Princess Diana, too. Thanks very much.

[Empress Aleksandra]

What happened to that barbarian Luigi Lucheni? Was he punished?

[Jackswife]

Suicide.

[Sean.~]

Originally posted by Empress Aleksandra@Feb 20th, 2004 - 5:09 pm
What happened to that barbarian Luigi Lucheni? Was he punished?

He had some mental isssues. It's too bad he lived in an age where he couldn't get some help.

[Asma2]

She is my role model because of her courage, devotion to her husband and for being mother to 16 kids. Here is her brief biography.

Maria Theresa of Austria

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Maria Theresa (May 13, 1717 - November 29, 1780) was a Habsburg by birth and a Holy Roman Empress by marriage, Archduchess of Austria, and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia from 1740 to 1780. She was the eldest daughter of Charles VI whose sole male heir - his son Leopold - died in 1711. In 1713 Charles issued the Pragmatic Sanction which guaranteed his daughter the right to succeed to the Austrian throne and inherit his lands on his death. While many European monarchs agreed to the Pragmatic Sanction when it was issued, on Charles' death (1740) the War of Austrian Succession began. Maria was one of the so-called "enlightened monarchs".
At the time, Maria Theresa was married to Francis Stephen of Lorraine with whom she had sixteen children, the youngest daughter of the sixteen was Marie Antoinette who would be promised in marriage to Louis, the Dauphin of France who would become King Louis XVI.

Maria Theresa's father had assumed that she would yield the true power to her husband. Because of this, her father had not given Maria Theresa any information on the workings of the government, leaving her to learn the job on her own. Additionally, the army was weak and the treasury depleted due to two wars near the end of her father's reign.

The War of Austrian Succession began with Frederick II of Prussia invading and occupying Silesia. While Bavaria and France also invaded Austrian western territories, it was Frederick (later known as Frederick the Great) who became Maria Theresa's main foe during her reign. Therefore she focused her internal and external policies on defeating Prussia and regaining the lands that had been taken from Austria.

She doubled the number of troops in the army, changed taxes to guarantee a steady annual income to support the government and military. She centralized the government by combining the Austrian and Bohemian chancelleries, formerly separate, into one administrative office. Before this, justice and administration were overseen by the same officials, but she created a supreme court with the sole responsibility for upholding justice in her lands. These reforms strengthened the economy. She dropped Great Britain as an ally on the advice of her state chancellor, Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz, and allied with Russia and France. In 1752 she established a military academy, and in 1754 she established an academy of engineering science. She also demanded that the University of Vienna be given the resources to make the medical faculty more efficient. When she felt her army was strong enough, she prepared to attack Prussia in 1756. Frederick II attacked first however, invading Saxony, another ally of Austria, beginning the Seven Years' War. The war ended in 1763 with Maria Theresa signing the Treaty of Hubertusberg which recognized Prussian ownership of Silesia.

Her husband died two years later. Her devotion to him was so great that she dressed in mourning clothes until her own death 15 years later and became more closeted from her people. Her focus changed from attempting to regain Silesia, to maintaining the peace. She also recognized Joseph II, her eldest son, as coregent and emperor. She only allowed him limited powers because she felt he was too rash and arrogant.

In the later years of her reign, she focused on reforming the laws regarding serfs. In 1771, she issued the Robot Patent, a reform that regulated the serf's labor payments in her lands, providing them some relief.

She died in 1780, the only female to rule during the 650-year-long Habsburg dynasty that ended with the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria in 1914 led to the outbreak of World War I .

Names in other languages: German: Maria Theresia, Czech: Marie Terezie, Hungarian/Slovak: Mária Terézia, Slovenian: Marija Terezija.