Crown Prince Rudolf of Habsburg on his deathbed, 1889 • WIKIMEDIACOMMONS On November 21, 1916, the death of François-Joseph I st marked the end of an era. The old emperor had been the protagonist and the witness of almost 70 years of European history, from the revolution of 1848 until the First World War. A methodical, thoughtful, and conservative leader, he faced the growing challenges of his time unwaveringly. On only one occasion was this firmness on the point of breaking:when his son and heir, Rudolph, committed suicide with his young mistress, Marie Vetsera, in the Austrian residence of Mayerling. A tragedy which, given the circumstances, marked the fall of the Empire and, therefore, of its sovereign. A nonconformist heir Rodolphe was born in Vienna on August 21, 1858. He was the third child and only son of François-Joseph and Elisabeth of Bavaria, the famous Sissi. Clever, passionate about science and a non-conformist, he possessed a liberal spirit very different from that expected by the conservative Viennese court for its crown prince. In 1881, he married Stéphanie de Belgique, a young woman of 16, Catholic, conservative and ceremonial. He quickly realizes the ideological and intellectual chasm that separates them and begins to seek new thrills far from the marital bed. The consequences of Rodolphe's life as a seducer are terrible. Shortly after the birth of the couple's only child, Elisabeth-Marie, in 1883, Stéphanie became sterile following a venereal disease transmitted by her husband. She will never forgive him and, from then on, the heir couple is nothing more than a facade. His father does not forgive him either. The Salic law, which prohibits access to the throne for women, is still in force in the Empire, and the frivolity of his son has destroyed all the hopes of the emperor to have a direct heir. Mary seduces the seducer After his pranks, the crown prince, harassed by the conservatives, relegated to the political background and stuck in a marriage that does not satisfy him, ends up feeling like a stranger to the world to which he belongs. It was then that an attractive young woman of barely 17 years old entered his life:Baroness Marie Vetsera. Marie was born into a family close to the imperial court and to Marie Larisch, niece of Sissi, who introduced her to the crown prince during a horse race. Marie falls in love with Rodolphe and goes so far as to collect photos and articles about him. At the beginning of November 1888 their first meeting took place. It will be followed by about twenty other meetings in the space of three months, until the day of the tragedy, January 29, 1889, when the two lovers find themselves in the imperial hunting lodge of Mayerling, near Vienna. , and Rodolphe de Habsbourg shoots the Baroness, before turning the gun on himself. Informed of the terrible news, the emperor puts aside his nature of father and hastens to make decisions of ruler. Quickly, he gathers the people who discovered the bodies and, while making them swear never to reveal anything, orders them to bury Marie secretly. In order to be able to bury his heir in consecrated ground, he wrote a press release declaring that the Archduke had succumbed to an apoplexy attack, even if the authorities very quickly changed the version:the prince inheriting committed suicide during a " fit of madness”. Suicidal tendencies From then on, the double suicide thesis became the main explanation for Mayerling's drama. It is true that several clues confirm this version, in particular Rodolphe's suicidal tendencies, probably linked to the morphine treatment he underwent after contracting syphilis. In a letter to her friend Hermine Tobis, Marie Vetsera describes her first meeting with Rodolphe this way:“We arrived at Hofburg. Near an iron door was waiting for us an old valet who, after crossing a maze of stairs and dark rooms, led us through a door. There, a black bird, similar to a crow, brushed against my head. A voice from an adjoining room exclaimed, “Ladies, come here!” Marie [Larisch] introduced me, and we started talking. At the end, he said to me:“I would like to speak in private with the countess.” And he went into an adjoining room with Marie. I busied myself looking around the room. On a desk were a gun and a skull. I took it in my hands and examined it carefully. When he came back, he snatched it from me in fear. When I told him that I was not afraid, he smiled. Maria Vetsera adds that, if their relationship were made public, "there would be no other solution than to kill us in an unknown place, after a few last hours of happiness". The dubious role of the emperor Nevertheless, the days following the tragedy, other versions arise, which contradict the official version. One fact is particularly revealing. Indeed, at first, the Church refused to bury the Christian heir in consecrated ground. However, the Vatican nuncio receives secret documents obliging the ecclesiastical hierarchy to give its agreement. What information did the emperor have that prompted the Vatican to give a sacred burial to a suicide? Rumors of assassination ordered by the emperor himself, worried about his son's political alliances or wanting to avoid the scandal of a divorce, begin to spread. Indeed, the day before the tragedy, the two men had a fight because, in all likelihood, the father wanted to forbid his son to see his mistress again. According to the autopsy report, Rodolphe's body showed signs of a struggle. He would even have suffered a depression of the posterior part of the skull, something impossible in the event of suicide. The news that the German ambassador in Vienna has communicated to the Kaiser that the apostolic nuncio, Luigi Galimberti, refuses the thesis of suicide and suggests the possibility of magnicide spreads in the European courts. His version coincides with the information held by the British secret service. Rodolphe's body would show traces of a struggle, several cuts on the wrist and traces of blows on other parts of the body. He would even have suffered a depression of the posterior part of the skull, something impossible in the event of suicide. The Emperor sent the autopsy report to the President of the Council, Count Taaffe, a man of great confidence, so that it would not be filed in the official archives. Years later, Rodolphe's valet, the first to have discovered the scene of the drama, assured that the room where the bodies were discovered showed signs of a struggle. In addition, a window had been opened from the outside. In 1983, the last Empress of Austria, Zita of Bourbon-Parma, told the Viennese newspaper Kronen Zeitung that the Mayerling drama was a state crime. Either way, suicide or assassination, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire was too fragile a man to face his fate. Princess Louise Marie of Belgium was not mistaken in concluding her memoirs in this way:“Rodolphe died of boredom. » Find out more Rodolf of Habsburg. Mayerling or the end of an empire, C. Mondon, Bernard Giovanangeli Publisher, 2009. United until death On January 14, 1889, a few weeks before his death, the Crown Prince presented Marie Vetsera with a gold wedding ring engraved with the inscription ILVBIDT, meaning In Liebe vereint bis in den Tod (“United by love even in death”). This seems to demonstrate that their relationship went beyond a simple affair, like those the heir had had before. A Farewell Letter Rodolphe addressed this letter to his wife on the day of his death:“My dear Stéphanie, you are delivered from my presence and freed from the scourge that I am. Be kind to the poor little girl. I go calmly towards death which alone can save the honor of my name. I hold you affectionately in my arms. Your Rodolphe who loves you. » Rodolphe's funeral procession On January 31, 1889, the remains of the prince arrived at the Hofburg Imperial Palace. On February 5, she was buried in the imperial crypt of the Capuchins. The emperor prevents Elisabeth, Stéphanie and Marie-Valérie, sister of Rodolphe, from seeing the body. The latter wrote in her diary:“Dad's almost supernatural fatalism, Mum's serene pain resting on her theory of predestination… All of this is indescribably painful to contemplate. »
