Do you remember Elizabeth of Bavaria, also known as Sissi, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary who as a sixteen-year-old girlie married the 23-year-old Francis Joseph, then Emperor of Austria? She was poor Ludwig’s half-first cousin once removed and his great friend. Unfortunately she also shared his fate, being murdered in very murky circumstances. But let not put the carriage before the horse – first I must write something about her life, children and most notably about her only son Rudolf, the Crown Prince.
Franz Joseph, the Emperor of Austria, although he was supposed to marry her older sister, Duchess Helene, fell in love with young Sissi and decided: this girl and nobody else. Small wonder – Elizabeth was considered one of the most beautiful European princesses of all times and, to tell you the truth, her life sometimes reminded me of the life of the late Princess Diana. Like Diana, Sissi was very slender and pretty - at a height of 172 cm (5.7 feet) she only weighed 50kg – a woman with truly supermodel figure and way before times when extremely slim girls appeared on catwalks. Like Diana, she married young and her husband was a man who she didn’t love. Like Diana, she paid extreme attention to her appearance - she spent much time preserving her beauty and she was a very active, outdoor type of woman who could ride a horse or hike for several hours a day to stay slim and fit. She followed such a strict exercise regimen combined with a draconian diet to maintain her 20-inch (50 cm) waistline (corseted of course) and 65-cm hips size. As a result, though, she sometimes was simply wasting away to near emaciation. Nowadays the diagnosis would be rather obvious: anorexia nervosa. Our heroine was not a fairy tale Cinderella who lived happily ever after but a bitter, unhappy woman full of self-loathing and various emotional and mental disorders. Happy people don’t suffer from anorexia after all.
Soon after the marriage Sissi bore the emperor three children: Archduchess Sophie of Austria (1855), Archduchess Gisela of Austria (1856), and the hoped-for crown prince, Rudolf (1858). Three kids in four years – it must have been really exhausting for the young mama who wanted to look great all the same. However, in 1857, the first tragedy struck.
Elisabeth, against the advice of the doctors, took her two daughters on a vacation in Hungary, a country she was very fond of. Both girls were ill with diarrhoea, but while Gisela recovered quickly, her older sister Sophie died; she was two. Her firstborn daughter's death haunted Elisabeth for the rest of her life and it was the first serious cause of a rift between her and her husband.
In 1860, Elisabeth left Vienna after contracting a lung disease, later believed to be rather psychosomatic. She spent the winter in Madeira and returned to Vienna only after having visited the Ionian Islands. Soon after that she fell ill again and returned to Corfu. Traveling became a real passion of hers, as building castles and listening to operas were the real passions of Ludwig, her cousin. If you think Elizabeth was visiting one country after another with small kids in her wake you are wrong; I am sure that after the death of the eldest daughter she was afraid of traveling with them or maybe she decided that they didn’t need her so much; perhaps she was also too young to develop maternal instincts – in short imperial children were raised by her mother-in-law and aunt, Princess Sophie of Bavaria, who often referred to Elisabeth as a "silly young mother". Well, she shouldn’t have married and had children so early for sure.
For some time all seemed to go well - in 1867, national unrest within the Habsburg monarchy caused by the rebellious Hungarians led to the founding of the Austro–Hungarian double monarchy. Elisabeth had always sympathized with the Hungarian cause – she loved their language and culture - so she must have enjoyed such a solution very much. She even reconciled and reunited with her husband, joining Francis Joseph in Budapest, where their coronation took place. Following the imperial couple's reconciliation, Elisabeth gave birth to their fourth child, Archduchess Marie Valerie (1868) and the rest of her offspring seemed to grow up just fine. The sad, dark events, although rather remote, seemed to haunt her nevertheless.
In 1867, the same year the Austro-Hungarian monarchy was created, Sissi’s brother-in-law, Emperor Maximilian I. of Mexico, was shot by anti-monarchy insurgents in his own country. His wife, Charlotte, went insane. Then came the mysterious death of Ludwig II and his doctor in June 1886 - that unexplained and totally weird double “suicide by drowning” in Lake Starnberg. On January 30, 1889, so only three years later, came the major blow known also as the Mayerling Incident.
Mary Vetsera via WikipediaNow let me digress to throw more light on the situation of the Crown Prince Rudolf to show you why the official version was such a big pile of rubbish.
Rudolf and Stephanie via WikipediaHe was born on August 21, 1858. In 1881 he married Princess Stephanie of Belgium. Their marriage, as it happened frequently in the house of Habsburg and in other royal families of that time, was arranged and not very happy – there were little tender feelings between the young couple. Stephanie was very young - not even seventeen at the time of her wedding – and hardly pretty; even her mother-in-law regarded her new daughter-in-law as a "clumsy oaf”. Small wonder Stephanie failed to keep her husband from wandering the streets of Vienna in search of nicer company. Apparently Rudolf needed a wife with a more interesting character. The couple had only one daughter, Archduchess Elisabeth, born in 1883.
The fact that Rudolf had many mistresses and led an “interesting” life was really nothing new or strange. His own father had a long-lasting affair with an actress, Katharina Schratt ; his mother, Elizabeth, tolerated it to some extend; some also believe she didn’t shun the company of different dashing fellows (like George "Bay" Middleton) either . In late 1888, the 30-year-old crown prince met the 17-year-old Baroness Marie Vetsera. From the start, Mary adored him, and was ready to do anything for him, not the other way round. I suppose that childish infatuation was the main reason why it was Mary’s body which was found near the dead prince. She wasn’t the greatest romance of his life, far from it, but she would do whatever he said/asked her to. He happened to ask her to accompany him to Mayerling.
By 1889, many people at the Court, including Rudolf's wife Stéphanie and his father Franz Joseph, knew that Rudolf and Mary were close to each other. It was tolerated. Indeed, Rudolf’s wife, Princess Stéphanie, was carrying on her own affair as well. Why a crown prince with bright future before him would all of a sudden end his life because of one fling? Though Mary has been presented as the woman who was Rudolf’s “great love”, in reality they had not known each other for long. Apart from that Rudolf had proposed the suicide pact already to two women before Mary: to his wife Stephanie (whom he most definitely didn’t love), and to Mizzi Kaspar, with whom he had had a relationship for years. Both women refused. Mizzi, being more cheeky or more distressed (or both), laughed him off, stating that she loves life too much. Afterwards she allegedly tried to help the prince by going to the Prime Minister, pleading that Rudolph should be watched. It must have taken a great deal of courage for a woman in her position and the outcome was painfully predictable: she was told to mind her own business. Even when Rudolf went away to presumably die with Mary, he visited Mizzi on his last night before leaving and wrote her a loving, tender letter of farewell before he died. After his death she got 30.000 Guldens bequeathed by the Prince in his testament.
Wait a moment: a man is going to kill himself because he can’t be with the love of his life and just before that desperate deed he visits a second mistress and then leaves her a tender letter? From a psychological point of view there was something strange in the whole suicide pact, something that sounds very unlikely. Why didn't the Prince want to commit suicide on his own, providing it was indeed his real intention? Why did he need a woman as a suicide companion or any companion at all?
Let’s return to the crime and the official reasons behind it. Apart from the straightforward lover’s pact cited in the official report, a lover’s quarrel has also been postulated. One variant states that Mary was pregnant and died during a botched abortion and the grief-stricken Rudolf killed himself. Why did they carry the abortion in a hunting lodge, for heavens’ sake, not in a remote hospital abroad? Why there was neither a doctor nor a midwife present? I really cannot believe any of these either.
Rudolf left a final letter to Princess Stephanie – it also seems to support the suicide hypothesis but only at first glance. It is short so I quote the original German text along with its English translation:
Liebe Stephanie! Du bist von meiner Gegenwart und Plage befreit; werde glücklich auf Deine Art. Sei gut für die arme Kleine, die das einzige ist, was von mir übrig leibt.
Allen Bekannten, besonders Bombelles, Spindler, Latour, Wowo, Gisela, Leopold, etc.etc. sage meine letzten Grüße. Ich gehe ruhig in den Tod, der allein meinen guten Namen retten kann. Sei herzlichst umarmt. Dein Dich liebender Rudolph
“Dear Stephanie, you are now rid of my presence and annoyance; be happy in your own way. Take care of the poor wee one, she is all that remains of me. To all acquaintances, especially Bombelles, Spindler, Latour, Wowo (nickname for the barones Von Welden, Ruldolf's nanny), Gisela, Leopold, etc., etc., say my last greetings. I go quietly to my death, which alone can save my good name. I embrace you affectionately. Your loving Rudolph.”
During funeral the corpse of the Crown Prince wore gloves and his mother was not allowed to see his hands. Many have alleged that Rudolf's entire body showed signs of a violent confrontation before death. His hands allegedly showed signs of struggle, which might support the theory that it wasn’t a suicide – if somebody tries desperately to fight off his would-be assassins he can’t be called suicidal after all. It also seems that the revolver used to kill Rudolf was not the one owned by the Crown Prince, and that all six bullets were fired. Why?
Prince Rudolf via WikipediaIt seems that Marie Vetsera was not the foul victim of a tragic love affair, but the unwilling witness of one of the most daring political assassinations ever achieved. It also appears that Mary had been killed several hours before Rudolf, and perhaps he was forced to watch her brutal, quietly inflicted death, which forensic analysis generally concludes was probably from beating, not gunshots (but I will deal with it later).
Now a bit about the aftermath. Rudolf's death brought ruin to his parents' marriage, changed the imperial succession, and perhaps contributed in a small way to the end of the ancient house of Habsburg in 1918. The removal of the liberal Rudolf made Franz Joseph's conservative policies easier to pursue. Since Rudolf was the only son of Franz Joseph, Emperor Franz Joseph's brother, Karl Ludwig, became heir-presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian Empire but he renounced his succession rights a few days later in favour of his eldest son Franz Ferdinand. After Franz Ferdinand's assassination in 1914 (well, here we go, another one in the family), Franz Ferdinand's nephew, Karl Ludwig's grandson, Karl, became the heir-presumptive. Karl would ultimately succeed his grand-uncle as Emperor Charles I in 1916. Anyway if Rudolf had not met with an untimely demise, Europe's history would have been tremendously different. Mayerling Incident not only meant the death of two young people, it also robbed the Habsburgs of the one person who seemed most capable of keeping the tattered multinational monarchy from its eventual disintegration and collapse. That’s why you really shouldn’t disregard political conspiracy theories concerning the whole case.
One is the story of the last Austrian Empress, Zita, the wife of Karl, who died in 1989. She believed Rudolf had been the victim of an international political conspiracy engineered by Georges Clemenceau, the French Prime Minister. Zita did not believe that with such a promising life ahead of him, Crown Prince Rudolf would have chosen suicide under any circumstances – I happen to support her, the guy loved good life too much. He might have been suicidal from time to time but not to the point of getting serious about it. Anyway Zita alleged that Clemenceau was conspiring to overthrow Franz Joseph and place germanophobe Rudolf on the throne. It was known Rudolf opposed his father on certain issues, including liberalizing voting and allowing more scope for the activities of national groups within the Empire. This was seen in some quarters in France and elsewhere as an opportunity to weaken the Empire by playing son against father. Since Rudolf refused to agree to any suggestions of deposing and/or replacing his father, the theory has it that he had to be killed to maintain the secrecy of the plot (Bogle & Bogle, p 3, citing Erich Feigl's biography of the Emperor Charles, Vienna, 1988). Well, if anybody had found out it would have been a scandal indeed – something definitely more serious than any illicit affair.
The other theory, with a vivid description of the whole event, might be found in The Secrets of the Hohenzollerns by Dr. Armgaard Karl Graves, published in 1915 (Graves claims to have been a German spy who reported directly to Kaiser Wilhelm II). I would like to quote here a large part of it:
"...Prussian diplomacy had gained such an ascendancy over the House of Habsburg and the affairs of Austria, that Austria has been and is a staunch ally and supported by Germany in all its aims and ambitions. This alliance is developed to such an extent that even an heir apparent to the Austrian empire unless acceptable to and identified with Prusso-Germanic interests finds it impossible to ascend the throne.
"Erherzog Rudolph, the archduke, next in succession, was mysteriously killed at Mayerling, an obscure little hunting lodge in upper Austria. Much has been written and many conjectures made about the cirumstance of this lamentable tragedy. The real reason, so vast in its importance, has of necessity never been divulged.
"On a blustery and cold January night in 1889 His Royal Highness and the Baroness Marie Vetzera (Vetchera) were familiarly seated around a plain but daintily spread supper table in the hunting lodge of Mayerling. They were attended by Max and Otto K----, two brothers much trusted in the archducal household. Supper was nearly finished and the Prince, who was very fond of a certain brand of champagne, had just given the order to Otto for another couple of bottles, when the deep baying of the Prince's favorite deerhound gave notice of the approach of strangers. A dull thud and agonized yelp of the dog made the Prince jump up and stride toward the door, which was guarded by Max. Pushing the servant aside, His Royal Highness pulled the door open. Three men muffled up to their eyes in great coats forced their way into the room. In a trice the leader of the trio pinioned Max to the wall. The Archduke, who had jumped back startled and was reseating himself behind the supper table, demanded the reason for this intrusion, when the smallest of the three, supposedly the brother of the Baroness Vetzer, laid hold of a bottle of champagne and brought the weapon down with terrific force on his unprotected head, completely crushing the skull. The Baroness, who apparently had recognized one of the three intruders, was hysterically screaming and uttering dire threats and vengeance against the perpetrators of this foul deed. As she stood there, gripping the edges of the table, the third, standing at the door, raised his Stutzen (a short hunting gun in great favor in the Austrian Alps), and fired point blank at the unfortunate woman, almost blowing her head to pieces.
(…)The next moment Otto received a Hirsch-fanger (a hunting dagger) between his shoulders. Dragging their wounded conspirator with them, the two assassins disappeared into the night. From that day to this there have never been any arrests made or any one held to account for this dastardly deed.
"Otto, who was left for dead, on regaining sufficient strength decently covered the bodies with table cloths and napkins, and left a short pencil written account of the occurrences pinned on to his brother's clothes. He also disappeared in the night; for he well knew the consequences attached to an even entirely innocent witnessing of such a royal family tragedy. Old, gray and bent, Otto is living to this day the quiet life of a hermit and exile not five hundred miles from New York City. Money would never make Otto talk, but some day the upheaval in Europe may provide an occasion when this old retainer of the House of Habsburg may unseal his lips; and then woe to the guilty."
Well, everything would be fine if only this report weren’t so totally wrong. Half a century later, in 1946, the tomb of Marie Vetsera was desecrated by the occupying Soviet forces – the soldiers were looking for jewellery and other such trifles. This profanity was not discovered until 1955 when the Red Army abandoned Austria. In 1959 specialists in funereal preservation, accompanied by a doctor and a member of the Vetsera family, examined the remains. They were all shocked to discover that the body of the young woman in the vault did not present any traces of death by firearm. What they did observe was a large trauma on the crown of the head. In the quoted report it was stated that Mary had been shot in her head and the Prince - bludgeoned to death. It was exactly the other way round. What’s more the report doesn’t explain why the hands of the Prince’s cadaver had to be gloved in the coffin. Another rubbish evidence, perhaps intended to make more meaningless fuss about the whole mystery.
Let’s return to our Empress – we started with her and we will end with her too.
Sisi never recovered from the blow. Increasingly growing lonely, Elizabeth embarked on a life of travel again. The Empress visited countries to which no other northern royal went at the time: Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Malta, Greece, Turkey and Egypt. The endless travels became an escape for the Empress from herself and her misery but I doubt she found a peace of mind she looked for.
On 10 September 1898, in Geneva, Switzerland, Elisabeth, aged 60, was stabbed in the heart with a sharpened file by a young anarchist named Luigi Lucheni. When attacked, she had been walking along the promenade of Lake Geneva about to board the steamship Genève for Montreux with her lady-of-courtesy, Countess Sztaray. She boarded the ship, unaware of the severity of her condition. She died soon afterwards.
I suppose now you won’t be surprised by the fact that the reasons behind her assassination remain murky to say the least of it. Reportedly, her assassin had hoped to kill a prince from the House of Orléans and, failing to find him, turned on Elisabeth instead. A coincidence, bad luck or something more sinister? Lucheni afterwards said, "I wanted to kill a royal. It did not matter which one." Perhaps it didn’t matter to him but I doubt his patrons were so undiscriminating. I do think he had some patrons - he was a perfect tool: mentally deranged, determined to the point of being an extremist, craving fame and glory for his deed.
Luigi Luccheni tried to flee immediately after the deed, but already after a few metres he was captured and arrested. Precisely one month after the assassination, Luccheni appeared before the court. Proudly he confessed to the murder and noticed with satisfaction the great interest in his person. He was sentenced to lifelong imprisonment. Luccheni was disappointed that his trial was held according to the Geneva Convention, and that he therefore could not be given the death penalty. Twelve years later, in October 1910, Luccheni hanged himself on his leather belt in his cell. Perhaps somebody helped him, removing a useless prisoner and an inconvenient witness or maybe he really had had enough – we will never know.
My sources:
So sad, I always liked Sissi. The reason is rather silly, those German movies made in the 50s, so loved them. No idea how I even understood them as a kid, them speaking German, and the text in Finnish. But I do think Swedish telly showed them too
ReplyDeleteKids are clever when it comes to languages.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the movies about her were pretty popular in Poland too; pity she had to suffer so much and have such a violent death.
I saw those movies with Romy Schneider too. It is a sad tale. The events at Mayerling seemed very suspicious.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Sissi was allowed to raise her children. She was just a baby farm. They didn't belong to her.
The death of Rudolph's brother at Sarajevo sparked WWI. Sad how the assassin shot his wife, too.
Sissy has been compared to Diana often but there is another tragic blonde to whom comparison is apt :the Duchess of Devonshire, Lady Georgiana Spencer, and yes she is related to Diana.
But I also think Diana's death was no accident either and we will never really know the truth of Mayerling or that night in Paris.
The death of Rudolph's brother at Sarajevo sparked WWI. Sad how the assassin shot his wife, too.
ReplyDeleteIt was Rudolf's cousin, not his brother but yes, it is very strange that his death started a world war. Rudolf's death was a step in that direction too.
I also think Diana's death was no accident either and we will never really know the truth of Mayerling or that night in Paris.
Well, perhaps Diana's death might have been a well-planned action which had to look like an accident. It's enough to choose the right man and position him in the right place at the right time.
The murder of Sissi by that unstable man, Luccheni, might have been also planned but if you use the right person (like that unstable anarchistic maniac) there will be always some doubts whether it was planned or not (and to what extend). Clever.
Sissy has been compared to Diana often but there is another tragic blonde to whom comparison is apt :the Duchess of Devonshire, Lady Georgiana Spencer, and yes she is related to Diana.
I haven't heard about her - thanks for the pointer!
I stand corrected. I thought his successor was his brother. The shooter was named Gabriel. I have thought it was strange that, in the movies, the crazy homicidal archangel was always Gabriel. Wonder if there is a connection.
ReplyDeleteThere was a good movie made about Lady Georgiana Spencer, called The Duchess with Kiera Knightly. It is worth a gander.
There was a good movie made about Lady Georgiana Spencer, called The Duchess with Kiera Knightly. It is worth a gander.
ReplyDeleteI'll try to find it and have a peek - thanks!
With all this talk about tragic blondes, it brings to my mind that there have never been any tragic red heads.
ReplyDeleteGood for you ! Anyway Sissi wasn't blonde either...
ReplyDelete