Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria

Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria (21 August 1858 – 30 January 1889) was the son and heir of Emperor Franz Josef of Austria and Elisabeth of Austria. His death, apparently through suicide, along with that of his mistress, Baroness Mary Vetsera at his Mayerling hunting lodge in 1889 made international headlines, fueled international conspiracy rumours and ultimately may have sealed the longterm fate of the Habsburg monarchy.

The Mayerling "Suicide Pact"

In contrast with his deeply conservative father, Crown Prince Rudolf held distinctively liberal views that were closer to those of his mother. Nevertheless his relationship with her was strained and contained little warmth. On May 10, 1881, he married Princess Stephanie of Belgium, a daughter of King Léopold II, in the Augustinian Church in Vienna with all the pomp and splendour of a state wedding. Rudolf appeared to be genuinely in love, but his mother regarded her new daughter-in-law as a "clumsy oaf." By the time their only child, the Archduchess Elizabeth, was born on September 2, 1883, the couple had drifted apart, and he found solace in drink and female companionship.

Related Topics:
Crown Prince - Liberal - May 10 - 1881 - Princess Stephanie of Belgium - King - Léopold II - Vienna - Archduchess - September 2 - 1883

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In 1887, Rudolf bought Mayerling and adapted it into a hunting lodge. In the autumn of 1888, the 30-year-old crown prince met the 17-year-old Baroness Marie Vetsera, known by the more fashionable Anglophile name Mary. From the start, Mary adored him, and was ready to do anything for him. It was almost certainly not the great romance of his life, but Rudolf did have feelings for her, and was touched by her limitless, almost fanatical, love for him.

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According to official reports, their deaths were a result of Franz Josef's demand that the couple end the relationship: the Crown Prince, as part of a suicide pact, shot his mistress in the head, then himself. Rudolf was officially declared to have been in a state of "mental unbalance" in order to enable burial in the Imperial Crypt (Kapuzinergruft) of the Capuchin Church in Vienna. Mary's body was smuggled out of Mayerling in the middle of the night, and secretly buried in the cemetery of Holy Cross Abbey in Heiligenkreuz and the Emperor had Mayerling converted into a penitential convent of Carmelite nuns.

Related Topics:
Imperial Crypt - Capuchin Church - Vienna - Abbey - Heiligenkreuz - Carmelite

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