Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria (1858-1889) and Mayerling

[CyrilVladisla]

Mayerling Waltz

 

[Blog Real]

I know it was a rumour that he was killed (by the Austrian secret service) because he had talked about the state's business but it was disproven. AFAIK. I'd have to reread one of the Mayerling-books to be sure, though.

I always thought that Prince Rudolf and Maria Vetsera made a suicide pact.

 

[Prinsara]

Isn't there information about the Mayerling incident supposedly hidden at the Vatican for some reason?

 

[Blog Real]

Isn't there information about the Mayerling incident supposedly hidden at the Vatican for some reason?

I do not know. I think there is more information than what has been released. Maybe the royal family has more information and for some reason it hasn't been released?

 

[Curryong]

The tragic events at Mayerling is one of the great historic mysteries isn’t it?

I tend to go with the suicide pact theory simply because (a) Rudolf was at a low physical and mental ebb at the time. He had talked about a suicide pact with several of his girlfriends for months before and seemingly had persuaded the impressionable and very young Marie Vetsera to join him. And (b) his going to the hunting lodge had been arranged, by himself, only shortly before. A bit soon for any foreign attempts to get organised for an assassination attempt.


As far as the truth of the matter I doubt that any one document is hidden anywhere stating exactly what occurred. Vienna was full of rumours within hours of the news at Mayerling seeping out, and from then on the Police and the Imperial Court were busy stamping out the various stories.


Everyone from the Kaiser to foreign diplomats, friends and courtiers had a different theory but nothing has come to light in the century and a half since though Rudolf’s last letters to his wife, mother, best friend etc must have provided some clues about his state of mind.

 

[Denville]

Isn't there information about the Mayerling incident supposedly hidden at the Vatican for some reason?

Possibly documents relating to Rudolph's state of mind. he was depressed and well pretty unstalbe, and that meant that alhthough he had almost certainly killed his mistress and then himself, he was able to be buried in the Roman Catholic rite.

 

[Alison H]

I doubt that it was an assassination attempt. My opinion, for what it's worth, is that Rudolf killed Marie and then himself. I think the big question is whether it was a suicide pact or whether he effectively murdered poor Marie.

 

[Curryong]

Rudolf certainly took his time in killing himself after he shot Marie. Several hours in fact.

The Papal Nuncio to the Empire was admitted to Mayerling a few days after the tragedy and apparently questioned the Grand Marshal who had been instructed by the Emperor to make an inventory of Rudolf’s effects at the hunting lodge.

The Nuncio asked some pertinent questions such as how many bullets had been fired, (rumours circulated in Vienna that a young woman had been involved in a suicide pact with the Crown Prince) but he apparently reported back to Rome that he was satisfied Rudolf had been alone and killed himself while (as we would put it nowadays) the balance of his mind had been disturbed. In other words he had been insane.

The body of Marie Vetsera had bizarrely been dressed and transported in a coach to a secret burial in a monastery garden by her uncles a day or so after the deaths. It was as if she had never been.

 

[Denville]

I doubt that it was an assassination attempt. My opinion, for what it's worth, is that Rudolf killed Marie and then himself. I think the big question is whether it was a suicide pact or whether he effectively murdered poor Marie.

The evidence seems to be that Marie was willing to go along iwth the suicide. However it also suggests that Rudolph waited some hours before he shot himself....

 

[Curryong]

Marie was more than willing. She wrote farewell letters to her mother and sister talking of her great love for Rudolf and joining him in the ‘great beyond’.

The evidence is that he killed her, however. One of the last letters he wrote speaks of how ‘I have killed’ and therefore how he could no longer live. He drank spirits for ages before he got the courage up to finish himself off, all the same.

 

[CyrilVladisla]

Why did Crown Prince Rudolph ask the Emperor Franz Joseph to have guardianship over his daughter Archduchess Elisabeth instead of Crown Princess Stephanie?

 

[CyrilVladisla]

In 1888 Crown Prince Rudolph gave his mother Empress Elisabeth a very special and precious present for her birthday December 24th. For a very high price he bought eleven manuscripts of the poet Christian Johann Heinrich Heine. Heine was a favorite poet of Elisabeth. Rudolph also liked him.

 

[Blog Real]

Documentary about Crown Prince Rudolf:

 

[Lee-Z]

wonder if the complete story of what happened ever will be cleared, but as i understand from the documentary, the Habsburg family hold the key

 

[eya]

Crown Prince Rudolf memorial mass in the Capuchin Church in Vienna and the laying of a wreath in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna


https://habsburg.org/einblicke/gede...kranzniederlegung-in-der-kaisergruft-zu-wien/

 

[CyrilVladisla]

Painting of Crown Prince Rudolph by Franz von Lenbach
http://www.lookandlearn.com/history-images/YWM2000944

​

 

[SirGyamfi1]

Why did Crown Prince Rudolph ask the Emperor Franz Joseph to have guardianship over his daughter Archduchess Elisabeth instead of Crown Princess Stephanie?

Probably because he wanted her to stay in Austria.

 

[Blog Real]

Princess Stéphanie and her fiancé Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria. Photography by Ghémar Frères, March 1880.

The Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Austria. Photography by Jindřich Eckert, 1882.