Rudolf at the time of his engagement.

Crown Prince Rudolf of Austro-Hungary (21 August 1858 30 January 1889) was the son and heir of Emperor Franz Josef I 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 long-term fate of the Habsburg monarchy. Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria (1858-1889) Photo taken circa 1880, at the time of his engagement to Princess Stéphanie of Belgium (they married May 10, 1881). ... Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria (1858-1889) Photo taken circa 1880, at the time of his engagement to Princess Stéphanie of Belgium (they married May 10, 1881). ... August 21 is the 233rd day of the year (234th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1858 (MDCCCLVIII) is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... January 30 is the 30th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1889 (MDCCCLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... An emperor is a (male) monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. ... Franz Joseph I Franz Joseph (in English also Francis Joseph) (August 18, 1830 - November 21, 1916) of the Habsburg Dynasty was Emperor of Austria and King of Bohemia from 1848 until 1916 and King of Hungary from 1867 until 1916. ... Empress Elisabeth Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie, Duchess in Bavaria and Princess of Bavaria (December 24, 1837 – September 10, 1898), of the House of Wittelsbach, was the Empress consort of Austria and Queen consort of Hungary due to her marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph. ... Suicide (from Latin sui caedere, to kill oneself) is the act of willfully ending ones own life. ... Madame de Pompadour the mistress of King Louis XV of France. ... The last photograph taken of Baroness Mary Vetsera (R). ... Mayerling is a hunting lodge in Lower Austria, where on January 30, 1889 Archduke Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, only son of Emperor Franz Joseph and Elisabeth and heir to the Austro-Hungarian crown, was found dead with his mistress Baroness Marie Vetsera, apparently as a result of suicide. ... A conspiracy theory attempts to explain the ultimate cause of an event (usually a political, social, or historical event) as a secret, and often deceptive, plot by a covert alliance of powerful people or organizations rather than as an overt activity or as natural occurrence. ... Flag of the Habsburg Monarchy; also used as the flag of the Austrian Empire until the Ausgleich of 1867. ...

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 Stéphanie 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 Elisabeth, was born on September 2, 1883, the couple had drifted apart, and he found solace in drink and female companionship. A Crown Prince or Crown Princess is the heir or heiress apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. ... Classical liberalism is a term used to describe the following: the philosophy developed by early liberals from the Enlightenment until John Stuart Mill the philosophy developed by early liberals from the Age of Enlightenment until John Stuart Mill and then revived in the 20th century by Friedrich von Hayek and... May 10 is the 130th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (131st in leap years). ... 1881 (MDCCCLXXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Stéphanie, Princess of Belgium and of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Duchess in Saxony (Stéphanie Clotilde Louise Herminie Marie Charlotte of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, 21 May 1864 – 23 August 1945) was the wife of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria-Hungary. ... Look up monarch in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... King Léopold II His Majesty King Léopold II of the Belgians (Louis Philippe Marie Victor) (April 9, 1835–December 17, 1909), succeeded his father, Léopold I of Belgium, to the Belgian throne in 1865 and remained king until his death. ... Vienna (German: Wien ; Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian: Beč, Czech: Vídeň, Hungarian: Bécs, Greek: Βιέννη, Romanian: Viena, Romani: Bech or Vidnya, Russian: Вена, Slovak: Viedeň, Slovenian: Dunaj, Dutch: Wenen) is the capital of Austria, and also one of the nine States of Austria. ... Elisabeth Maria Henriette Stephanie Gisela, Archduchess of Austria, (2 September 1883 – 16 March 1963) was the only child of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and Princess Stéphanie of Belgium. ... September 2 is the 245th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (246th in leap years). ... 1883 (MDCCCLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...

Crown prince Rudolph

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. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (638x1109, 135 KB) Summary Licensing File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Mayerling Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (638x1109, 135 KB) Summary Licensing File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Mayerling Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the...

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. An ornament of the sarcophagus of Emperor Karl VI: a deaths head with the crown of the Holy Roman Empire Tomb of Franz Josef I, flanked by wife Elisabeth and son Rudolf. ... Vienna (German: Wien ; Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian: Beč, Czech: Vídeň, Hungarian: Bécs, Greek: Βιέννη, Romanian: Viena, Romani: Bech or Vidnya, Russian: Вена, Slovak: Viedeň, Slovenian: Dunaj, Dutch: Wenen) is the capital of Austria, and also one of the nine States of Austria. ... An abbey (from the Latin abbatia, which is derived from the Syriac abba, father), is a Christian monastery or convent, under the government of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serve as the spiritual father or mother of the community. ... Žiar nad Hronom (German: , Hungarian: ) is a town in Banská Bystrica Region, Slovakia. ... Origin and early history Carmelites (in Latin Ordo fratrum Beatæ Virginis Mariæ de monte Carmelo) is the name of a Roman Catholic order founded in the 12th century by a certain Berthold (d. ...

Suicide or murder?

Many people however doubted the truthfulness of the report. Before her death in 1989, Empress Zita, widow of the last Austrian emperor, Karl (r. 1916–1918), repeated the claim that the young couple had been murdered as part of a conspiracy to silence Rudolf after he had refused to take part in a French plot to depose his pro-German conservative father and assume the control as a pro-French liberal Austrian emperor. Empress Zita did not offer any new evidence and her claims, however widely rumoured, were not given much credence during her lifetime. From left to right: Otto von Habsburg, his son Karl, Cardinal Mindszenty and Ottos mother Zita in 1972 Zita of Bourbon-Parma (German: Zita von Bourbon-Parma) (May 9, 1892 - March 14, 1989) was the last Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary. ... Karl I, a. ... A Reign is a period of time a person serves as a monarch or pope. ...

In December 1992 the remains of Baroness Vetsera were stolen from the cemetery at Heiligenkreuz. When the missing remains were tracked down, the police, to ensure they were the correct remains, asked the Viennese Medical Institute to examine them. While they did confirm that they were the correct remains, the institution noted how the skull contained no evidence whatsoever of a bullet hole, the supposed means by which Vetsera had been killed by the crown prince. The evidence instead suggested she may have been killed by a series of violent blows to the head. Separately, evidence came to light in the form of a report on the remains of the crown prince, made at the time of the double death. His body showed evidence of a major violent struggle. A report at the time had also noted that all six bullets had been fired from the gun, which it was revealed did not belong to the crown prince.

The official state report of the deaths claimed that the crown prince shot Vetsera before shooting himself with his own gun. It made no mention of the facts subsequently revealed, leading to the conclusion that for some reason a cover-up of the actual manner of the deaths had taken place. It is unlikely ever to be clarified as to what really happened. Two theories have been postulated. One is that the couple had a violent struggle and that the crown prince murdered his lover by battering her before shooting himself; in other words, a clear case of murder rather than the suggested double suicide. However, that theory fails to explain the ability of the prince to fire the gun six times as he killed himself, or indeed where the gun came from, given that it was not his weapon. The other theory is that some third party attacked both, battered Vetsera to death, and shot the crown prince. The latter theory does bear some resemblance to the theory postulated for eighty years by Empress Zita, who as Crown Princess from 1914 to 1916 had been a confidante of Rudolf's father, Emperor Franz Josef, and so may have heard his theories, and those of other members of the Austro-Hungarian court, as to the manner of the death of Crown Prince Rudolf.

It would have been difficult for the emperor to admit that his son and heir had killed the girl and himself in a state of "mental unbalance". If there had been any way to claim that the two had been murdered by a third party, that version would have been infinitely preferable. There would have been no need to accuse someone in particular; it would have avoided the public admission that the crown prince was a mad killer and that he had committed suicide.

Impact of the Crown Prince's death

Following the death of the emperor's only son, the marriage of Franz Josef and Elisabeth collapsed completely, with the empress spending much of her time abroad, particularly in England and Ireland where she loved to hunt. The new heir presumptive to the Austrian, Bohemian and Hungarian thrones was Archduke Karl Ludwig, eldest surviving brother of the emperor. After Karl Ludwig's death, his oldest son, Archduke Franz Ferdinand became heir presumptive. His assassination in 1914 led a chain of events that produced World War I. Karl Ludwig, Archduke of Austria (30 July 1833 - 19 May 1896) was the father of Franz Ferdinand of Austria, whose shooting occasioned the start of World War I. He was born at Schönbrunn in Vienna, the son of Franz Karl Josef of Austria (1802-1878) and his wife Sophie... Archduke Francis Ferdinand. ... Combatants Allied Powers: British Empire France Italy Russia United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary Bulgaria Germany Ottoman Empire Casualties Military dead: 5 million Military dead: 4 million The First World War, also known as The Great War, The War to End All Wars, and World War I (abbreviated WWI) was...

Had Rudolf lived, it is possible that Emperor Franz Josef would have abdicated as had his uncle, passing the thrones to an emperor who was much more liberal in outlook and opposed to Austria's military alliance with Kaiser Wilhelm II's Germany that played such a part in triggering the First World War. Emperor Ferdinand Ferdinand I Karl Leopold Joseph Franz Marchlin Emperor of Austria King of Hungary and Bohemia (April 19, 1793 – June 29, 1875) succeeded his father (Franz II Holy Roman Emperor/Franz I of Austria) as Emperor and King in 1835 and was forced to abdicate in 1848. ... Kaiser is the German title meaning Emperor, derived from the Roman title of Caesar, as is the Slavic title of Tsar. ... German Emperor Wilhelm (born Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albrecht, Prince of Prussia 27 January 1859–4 June 1941), was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia (de: Deutscher Kaiser und König von Preußen), ruling from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918. ...

Instead however, the throne ultimately went to Franz Josef's grand-nephew, Karl, who in 1916 became the last Austrian emperor as Emperor Karl, and who, though he tried, was unable to stop the war and to save the Habsburg monarchy from final collapse. Karl I, a. ...

References

• Brigitte Hamann (Hrsg.): Rudolf. Majestät, ich warne Sie... Geheime und private Schriften. Amaltha, Wien und München 1979, ISBN 3-85002-110-6 (zuletzt als Piper-Taschenbuch, München 1998, ISBN 3-492-20824-X)
• Brigitte Hamann: Kronprinz Rudolf. Ein Leben. Amalthea, Wien und München 2005, ISBN 3-85002-5403

Brigitte Hamann Ph. ... Brigitte Hamann Ph. ...

TV Film

• Crown Prince Rudolph, directed by Robert Dornhelm (2006), in two parts. Historical adviser: Brigitte Hamann. Here, the love story and the conflict between father and son are embedded in the general political situation of the time in Central Europe.

Brigitte Hamann Ph. ...

See also

• Mayerling

Mayerling is a hunting lodge in Lower Austria, where on January 30, 1889 Archduke Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, only son of Emperor Franz Joseph and Elisabeth and heir to the Austro-Hungarian crown, was found dead with his mistress Baroness Marie Vetsera, apparently as a result of suicide. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria

• A profile of Marie Vetsera
• Crown Prince Rudolf's Coffin
• Mayerling tragedy
• IMDB on various Mayerling Films