Why just the one? Due to his sexual affairs outside the marriage, Rudolph infected his wife with syphilis according to one Los Angeles Times article, which rendered her unable to have more children. Only one daughter - not the ideal for a royal couple that depends on a male heir. At the time of the marriage she was only 15, a gawky schoolgirl.” They had one daughter together, Elisabeth, known as Erzi. She had little education, a hot temper and a stubborn will. She was, according to the New York Times, “plain, oddly colorless. The Crown Prince Rudolph had been married for eight years by the time of his death, to Princess Stephanie, who was … a royal obligation. His friends knew him as a sensitive soul, as did many mistresses. His empathy for the little guy wasn’t the only thing that was sexy about Rudolph. In fact, he didn’t want to get too close to Germany, and he’s quoted as saying in Greg King and Penny Wilson’s Twilight of Empire, “ Germany needs this alliance more than we do.” Before his death, the Crown Prince Rudolph, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, sympathized with those wanting their independence, even had liberal political views in opposition to the notoriously conservative Emperor, his father. Franz Joseph would not give them independence, instead allying the empire with Germany. A few key things to know:įranz Joseph was the reigning Emperor of Austria-Hungary in 1889, an empire of myriad ethnic and national groups, many of whom wanted their own nation-states. To understand the story, we have to understand the characters, and perhaps even more importantly, we have to understand the setting. The progression of global events is indisputable, but the facts of that night are messy. Our world would be completely different had they lived. This tragic romance directly triggered the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which led to the subsequent start of the First World War, ending in a peace agreement that would ignite the embers for a Second World War just two decades later, and finally, set in motion a 45-year long Cold War between East and West that arguably continues to this day. One thing seems to be consistent, though: through the butterfly effect, these untimely deaths not only symbolized the destabilization of European monarchies, but they had global repercussions. For more than a hundred years, people have speculated wildly at the events surrounding this double suicide – or murder suicide –– depending on whom you ask. On the morning of January 30, 1889, three friends of Rudolf, the Crown Prince of Austria, broke down On the morning of January 30, 1889, three friends of Rudolf, the Crown Prince of Austria, broke down the bedroom door at his hunting lodge to find him dead, sitting by the naked corpse of his teenage mistress.
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