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In contrast with his deeply conservative and reactionary 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, the daughter of King Leopold II, in 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, 1883Events January January 16 The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States Civil service, is passed January 19 The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires begins service ( Roselle, New Jersey) It was built by Thomas E, the couple had drifted apart, and he found solace in drink and female companionship.
In 1887, Rudolf bought Mayerling and adopted into a hunting lodge. In the Autumn of 1888, he met the 17 year old Baroness Marie Vetsera. 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.
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 of the Capuchin Church ( KapuzinergruftSince 1633, the significant members of the Habsburg family have been buried in the so-called Kapuziner or Kaisergruft (Imperial crypt) in Vienna. Twelve Emperors, 15 Empresses and around 100 Archdukes lie here, carefully guarded by Capuchin monks. The fir). 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 .
It was well known that Rudolf had long been fascinated by death and was very sick of a venerian disease. On his desk, he kept a revolver with a human skull. Apparently, in Mary, he found someone willing to accompany him in death. The Emperor had Mayerling converted into a penitential convent of Carmelite nuns.
Many people however doubted the truthfulness of the report. Empress ZitaOtto von Habsburg, his son Karl, Cardinal Mindszenty and Otto's mother Zita (from left to right) in 1972 Zita of Bourbon-Parma ( May 9, 1892 March 14, 1989) was the last Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary. She was born in Villa Pianore near Lucca in, the widow of the last Austrian Emperor KarlHungarian), Karel III (in Czech), Karol IV (in Slovak), Charles (in English) Karl of Austria ( August 17, 1887 April 1, 1922), more formally known as Karl Franz Josef Ludwig Hubert Georg Maria von Habsburg-Lothringen was (among other titles) the last Empe ( rA Reign is a period of time a person serves as a monarch or pope. No time limit exists on reigns, nor is there a term of office. Thus a reign usually lasts for the lifetime of the monarch, unless the monarchy itself is abolished or the monarch abdicates.: 1916-1918) before her death in 19891989 is a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). Events January January 7 Akihito becomes Emperor of Japan following the death of Hirohito. The Heisei period begins January 8 the Kegworth Air Disaster A British Midland Boeing 737 cra repeated the claim that the young couple had been murdered as part of a conspiracy to silence the young prince 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's claims, however widely rumoured, were not given much credence during her lifetime.
In DecemberDecember is the twelfth and last month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 31 days. From the Latin decem for " ten" (it was originally the tenth month of the year, before January and February were inserted). The winter solstice falls 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 at 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 a 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. That the couple rowed and 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 gun. 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.
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