by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2019

Otto von Habsburg; Credit – Wikipedia

The last Crown Prince of Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, and Croatia and later in his long life, a member of the European Parliament, Otto von Habsburg was the eldest and the longest surviving of the eight children of Karl I, the last Emperor of Austria and his wife Zita of Bourbon-Parma. Born on November 20, 1912, at Villa Wartholz in Reichenau an der Rax, Austria, he was given a long string of names, Franz Joseph Otto Robert Maria Anton Karl Max Heinrich Sixtus Xavier Felix Renatus Ludwig Gaetan Pius Ignatius. He was called Otto but was given the first names Franz Joseph with the hopes that he would reign as Franz Joseph II, Emperor of Austria in the future.

At the time of Otto’s birth, his great-great-uncle, Franz Joseph was Emperor of Austria and his father Archduke Karl was the heir to the throne. On January 30, 1889, at Mayerling, a hunting lodge in the Vienna Woods, Emperor Franz Joseph’s only son and heir Crown Prince Rudolf shot his 17-year-old mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera and then shot himself in an apparent suicide plot. Rudolf had no sons, so the succession would pass to Emperor Franz Joseph’s brother, Archduke Karl Ludwig, and then to his eldest son, Archduke Franz Ferdinand. In a matter of days, Archduke Karl Ludwig renounced his succession rights in favor of his son Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination in 1914 sparked World War I. Upon Franz Ferdinand’s death, Archduke Karl, Otto’s father, became the heir to the throne. Karl’s father was Archduke Otto Franz, the second son of Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria, brother of Emperor Franz Joseph.

Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria with his great-great-nephew Otto in 1910; Credit – Wikipedia

Otto had seven younger siblings:

• Archduchess Adelheid (1914 – 1971), unmarried
• Archduke Robert (1915 – 1996), married Margherita of Savoy-Aosta, had five children
• Archduke Felix (1916 – 2011), married Anna-Eugénie of Arenberg, seven children
• Archduke Karl Ludwig (1918 – 2007), married, Yolanda of Ligne, had four children
• Archduke Rudolf (1919 – 2010), married (1) Countess Xenia Tschernyschev-Besobrasoff, had four children; (2) Anna Gabriele of Wrede, had one child
• Archduchess Charlotte (1921 – 1989), married George, Duke of Mecklenburg, no issue
• Archduchess Elisabeth (1922 – 1993), married Prince Heinrich Karl Vincenz of Liechtenstein, had five children

Embed from Getty Images 
Otto and his siblings

When Emperor Franz Joseph died on November 21, 1916, in the middle of World War I, Otto’s father succeeded him as Emperor Karl I of Austria, and Otto became Crown Prince of Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, and Croatia. Four-year-old Otto accompanied his parents in Franz Joseph’s funeral procession, and later that same year he attended his parents’ coronation in Budapest as they were crowned King and Queen of Hungary.

Funeral Procession for Emperor Franz Joseph, in front: Zita and Karl with their oldest son Otto; Credit – Wikipedia

Crown Prince Otto with his parents posing for official photographs on the occasion of the coronation in Budapest, Hungary, 1916; Credit – Wikipedia.

Karl only reigned for two years as the monarchy was abolished at the end of World War I. The World War I armistice required that the Austrian-Hungarian Empire allow for autonomy and self-determination of the government of its various ethnic populations. The various areas had proclaimed independence and by October 1918 there was not much left of the empire. On November 11, 1918, the same day as the armistice ending World War I, Karl issued a proclamation in which he recognized the rights of the Austrian people to determine their form of government and released his government officials from their loyalty to him. On November 13, 1918, Karl issued a similar proclamation for Hungary. Karl did not use the term “abdicate” in his proclamations and would never admit that he abdicated.

On March 23, 1919, Karl and his family left for Switzerland. On April 3, 1919, the Austrian Parliament passed the Habsburg Law, forbidding Karl or his wife Zita from returning to Austria. The law also prevented other Habsburgs from returning to Austria unless they renounced all intentions of claiming the throne and accepted the condition of living as ordinary citizens. On the same day, all royal and noble titles were abolished. In 1921, Karl returned to Hungary twice,  attempting to regain the throne of Hungary. After the second attempt, the Council of Allied Powers exiled Karl and his family to the Portuguese island of Madeira.

Karl and his family in exile in Madeira; Credit – Wikipedia

In March 1922, Karl caught a cold that developed into bronchitis, and further developed into pneumonia. After suffering two heart attacks and respiratory failure, Karl died on April 1, 1922, at the age of 34. Due to the Habsburg Law, Karl could not be buried in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna. He was buried at the Church of Our Lady of Monte on the island of Madeira in Portugal.

The years following Karl’s death were difficult financially and Zita and her family moved often. They lived in Spain, Belgium, the United States, and Canada. Two of Zita’s sons served in the US Army during World War II. In 1952, Zita moved back to Europe, living in Luxembourg and Switzerland. One of her daughters died in Austria in 1971 and Zita could not attend the funeral. The restrictions on the Habsburgs entering Austria had been rescinded, but only for those Habsburgs born after April 10, 1919. In 1982, the restrictions were eased and after 63 years Zita could return to Austria for visits. When Zita died in 1989, the government of Austria allowed the funeral to take place in Austria provided that the Habsburg family pay the cost. She was buried in the Imperial Crypt below the Capuchin Church in Vienna, the traditional burial place of the Habsburgs but her husband Karl remains buried on the island of Madeira in Portugal.

Otto’s mother made him learn the main languages of the Austro-Hungarian Empire – German, Hungarian and Croatian – in case the empire was ever restored. In addition, Otto also spoke English, Spanish, French, and Latin fluently. While living in Belgium, Otto attended the Catholic University of Leuven and in 1935, he received a doctorate in social and political sciences.

Embed from Getty Images
Archduke Otto, center, with New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia at City Hall, with Otto’s younger brother Archduke Felix, on the left, in 1940

Before and during World War II, Otto von Habsburg was a strong opponent of Adolf Hitler and Nazism and was greatly concerned about the spread of Communism after the war. When Germany annexed Austria in 1938, the Nazi regime sentenced Otto to death. For his safety, Otto left Europe for the United States where he lived from 1940 to 1944 in Washington, D.C. In 1941, Hitler personally revoked the citizenship of Otto, his mother, and his siblings, and the family found themselves stateless. At the end of the war, Otto returned to Europe and lived for some years in France and Spain.

After World War II, Otto was effectively stateless but was given a passport from the Principality of Monaco. As a Knight of Malta, he was issued a diplomatic passport, and later he was also issued a Spanish diplomatic passport. Although he was recognized as an Austrian citizen in 1956, he did not receive an Austrian passport until 1966. On October 31, 1966, Otto Habsburg-Lothringen, the name on his Austrian passport, visited his birth country for the first time in 48 years. Additionally, in 1978, Otto received German citizenship and a German passport bearing the name of Otto von Habsburg.

In 1949, Otto met Princess Regina of Saxe-Meiningen in a home for Hungarian refugees in Munich, where she worked for Caritas, a Roman Catholic charity. Regina was the daughter of Prince Georg of Saxe-Meiningen and Countess Klara Maria von Korff and also a second cousin of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and a great-great-granddaughter of Princess Feodora of Leiningen, half-sister of Queen Victoria. Although the House of Saxe-Meiningen was Protestant, Regina was raised in her mother’s Roman Catholic religion. Her father, a judge in Meiningen and Hildburghausen in Germany, died in the Soviet concentration camp at Tschernpowetz, Soviet Union in 1946. Regina and her mother fled to West Germany after World War II.

Embed from Getty Images
Wedding of Otto and Regina

Otto and Regina were married on May 10, 1951, at the Church of Saint-François-des-Cordeliers in Nancy, France, with the blessing of Pope Pius XII. For their entire married life, the couple lived at Villa Austria in Pöcking on Lake Starnberg in Bavaria, Germany.

Otto and Regina had seven children:

• Andrea von Habsburg (born 1953), married Hereditary Count Karl Eugen von Neipperg, had five children
• Monika von Habsburg (born 1954, twin of Michaela), married Luis María Gonzaga de Casanova-Cárdenas y Barón, 5th Duke of Santangelo, had four children
• Michaela von Habsburg (born 1954, twin of Monika), married (1) Eric Alba Teran d’Antin, had three children, divorced (2) Count Hubertus von Kageneck, divorced
• Gabriela von Habsburg (born 1956), married Christian Meister, had three children, divorced
• Walburga von Habsburg (born 1958), married Count Archibald Douglas, had one child
• Karl von Habsburg (born 1961), married Baroness Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza, had three children
• Georg von Habsburg (born 1964), married Duchess Eilika of Oldenburg, had three children

Embed from Getty Images
Christening of Otto and Regina’s twin daughters

Otto was an early supporter of a unified Europe and was president of the International Pan-European Union from 1973 to 2004. He served from 1979 until 1999 as a Member of the European Parliament for the conservative party, Christian Social Union in Bavaria and eventually became the senior member of the European Parliament. Otto strongly supported the rights of European refugees, especially the ethnic Germans displaced from Bohemia which was once part of his family’s Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Embed from Getty Images
Otto and Regina at their home Villa Austria

Otto’s wife Regina died at their home in Pöcking, Germany on February 3, 2010, at the age of 85. He survived her for only seventeen months, dying at his home on July 4, 2011, aged 98. Otto was given what was called “the last Emperor’s funeral.”Following a 13-day period of mourning in many countries that were once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a requiem mass was held at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, Austria. Otto was buried in Vienna at the Capuchin Church in the Crypt Chapel of the Imperial Crypt where his mother was also buried. At the time of his burial, Otto’s wife Regina was reburied nearby. 1,000 invited guests attended the funeral and over 100,000 people lined the streets of Vienna. The ceremonies caused large parts of central Vienna to be closed to traffic. The funeral was televised on Austrian television. Otto’s heart was buried at Pannonhalma Archabbey in Hungary on the day after his funeral.

Embed from Getty Images
Funeral Procession through the streets of Vienna, Austria

Otto von Habsburg was buried in the Crypt Chapel of the Imperial Crypt in Vienna, Austria. His tomb is on the right side of the altar and his wife Regina’s tomb is on the left side of the altar; Photo Credit – Susan Flantzer

Tomb of Otto von Habsburg (on the right of the altar), died in 2011; Photo Credit – Susan Flantzer

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty

Works Cited

• De.wikipedia.org. (2018). Otto von Habsburg. [online] Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_von_Habsburg [Accessed 7 Sep. 2018].
• En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Otto von Habsburg. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_von_Habsburg [Accessed 7 Sep. 2018].
• En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Princess Regina of Saxe-Meiningen. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Regina_of_Saxe-Meiningen [Accessed 7 Sep. 2018].
• Flantzer, S. (2014). Karl I, Emperor of Austria. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/april-1-1922-death-of-karl-i-emperor-of-austria/ [Accessed 7 Sep. 2018].
• Flantzer, S. (2016). Zita of Bourbon-Parma, Empress of Austria. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/zita-of-bourbon-parma-empress-of-austria/ [Accessed 7 Sep. 2018].
• Van Der Kiste, J. (2005). Emperor Francis Joseph: Life, Death and the Fall of the Habsburg Empire. Stroud: Sutton Publishing.
• Wheatcroft, A. (1995). The Habsburgs. London: Viking.

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2019

Archduchess Marie Valerie of Austria, Princess of Tuscany; Credit – Wikipedia

The youngest of the four children of Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria and his wife Elisabeth of Bavaria (Sisi), Marie Valerie Mathilde Amalie (called Valerie) was born in Ofen (Buda) in the Kingdom of Hungary, then part of her father’s Austro-Hungarian Empire, on April 22, 1868. Empress Elisabeth had a special affinity towards Hungary and wanted this child to be born in Hungary. She had hoped it would be a boy who could be named Stephen after the patron saint of Hungary.

Valerie in 1871; Credit -Wikipedia

Valerie had three siblings:

• Archduchess Sophie (1855 – 1857), died in childhood
• Archduchess Gisela (1856 – 1932), married Prince Leopold of Bavaria, had four children
• Crown Prince Rudolf (1858 – 1889), married Princess Stephanie of Belgium, had one daughter

Engraving depicting Valerie’s family at Gödöllő Palace in Hungary, circa 1870; Credit – Wikipedia

Empress Elisabeth’s first three children had been raised by her mother-in-law Archduchess Sophie, born a Princess of Bavaria, who was also Elisabeth’s maternal aunt. Elisabeth was never close to her two elder surviving children. An older and wiser Empress Elisabeth decided that Valerie would be hers and hers alone. Her obvious preference for Valerie can be seen by the nickname her mother gave her – die Einzige – the only one.

Valerie and Marie Louise von Larisch-Wallersee in the 1870s; Credit – Wikipedia

Valerie was often in the company of her cousin, Marie Louise von Larisch-Wallersee, the illegitimate daughter of her maternal uncle Ludwig Wilhelm, Duke in Bavaria, who was ten years older and a confidante of her aunt, Empress Elisabeth. Valerie and her cousin Marie Louise spent a lot of time in Hungary which earned Valerie another nickname, this time one from the Austrian people – the Hungarian child. This affected Valerie and despite her mother’s intentions, she began rejecting everything Hungarian and spoke only German with her father. She also spoke French, English, and Italian and loved music and the arts.

During Valerie’s late teenage years, a series of balls were held at Hofburg Palace to which her closest friends and young men attached to the court were invited. At one of the balls, she became acquainted with Archduke Franz Salvator of Austria-Tuscany who was two years older. Franz Salvator was the son of Archduke Karl Salvator, Prince of Tuscany and Princess Maria Immaculata of Bourbon-Two-Sicilies. Valerie and Franz Salvator were third cousins via their descent from Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary and Bohemia, Archduke of Austria and Grand Duke of Tuscany. A possible marriage between Valerie and Franz Salvator began to be discussed.

Empress Elisabeth was in favor of the marriage as it would keep her favorite child in Austria. Emperor Franz Joseph thought it would be better to make a marriage that would give Austria a foreign alliance. Crown Prince Rudolf agreed with his father and thought Franz Salvator was not good enough for his sister. Empress Elisabeth would burst into tears whenever a foreign alliance was discussed. Eventually, Valerie and Empress Elisabeth got their way and at Christmas 1888, Valerie and Franz Salvator were engaged.

Valerie and Franz Salvator around 1890; Credit – Wikipedia

In the midst of Valerie’s wedding preparations, a great tragedy occurred. On January 30, 1889, at Mayerling, a hunting lodge in the Vienna Woods which Rudolf had purchased, in an apparent suicide plot, Rudolf shot his 17-year-old mistress Baroness Mary von Vetsera, and then shot himself. After Rudolf’s death, even the mention of Valerie’s marriage caused her mother to burst into tears but the marriage could not be postponed forever. Valerie and Franz Salvator were married on July 30, 1890, at the parish church in Bad Ischl, Austria. Although the wedding was not a grand Vienna affair, it was still a festive occasion attended by over one hundred members of the Habsburg and Wittelsbach (Bavaria) families and the Bourbon and Salvators from the Tuscan branch of the Habsburg family.

Valerie and Franz Salvator had ten children:

• Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska (1892 – 1930), married Count Georg of Waldburg-Zeil-Trauchburg who had been the tutor of her brothers, had five children, Elisabeth died from pneumonia
• Archduke Franz Karl Salvator (1893 – 1918), unmarried, died during the Spanish Flu epidemic
• Archduke Hubert Salvator (1894 – 1971), married Princess Rosemary of Salm-Salm, had thirteen children
• Archduchess Hedwig (1896 – 1970), married Count Bernard of Stolberg-Stolberg, had nine children
• Archduke Theodor Salvator (1899 – 1978), married Countess Maria Theresa of Waldburg-Zeil-Trauchburg, had four children
• Archduchess Gertrud (1900 – 1962), married Count Georg of Waldburg-Zeil-Trauchburg, widower of her sister Elisabeth, had two children
• Archduchess Maria Elisabeth (1901 – 1936), unmarried
• Archduke Clemens Salvator (1904 – 1974), married Countess Elisabeth Rességuier de Miremont, had nine children
• Archduchess Mathilde (1906 – 1991), married Ernst Hefel, an Austrian politician, no issue
• Archduchess Agnes (born and died 1911) died shortly after birth

Valerie and Franz Salvator with their children; Credit – Wikipedia

Initially, Valerie and Franz leased Schloss Lichtenegg (in German) in Wels in Upper Austria. In 1895, Valerie and Franz Salvator purchased the Schloss Wallsee (in German) on the Danube River in Wallsee-Sindelburg in Lower Austria from Queen Victoria’s son Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. In 1897, after the castle was completely renovated, a gala festival for all the people of Wallsee-Sindelburg was held. The castle is still owned by the family but is not open to the public. Valerie was a devout Catholic and devoted herself to charitable works in Wallsee-Sindelburg where she was known as “The Angel of Wallsee”.

Schloss Wallsee; Credit – Wikipedia

Valerie and Franz Salvator’s marriage was happy at first but after a while, Franz Salvator had affairs including one with Stephany Julienne Richter who became pregnant and persuaded Prince Friedrich Franz von Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst that the baby was his. Friedrich Franz married her and so she was styled Princess Stéphanie von Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst. Her child, born in 1914, was eventually recognized by Franz Salvator as his son.

On September 10, 1898, Valerie’s mother Empress Elisabeth was assassinated when she was stabbed in the heart by the Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni in Geneva, Switzerland. After her mother’s death, Valerie received 40% of her mother’s monetary assets and Hermesvilla, a palace in the Lainzer Tiergarten in Vienna which Emperor Franz Joseph had given to his wife.

Hermesvilla; Credit – By Bwag – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57455101

Valerie’s father Emperor Franz Joseph died on November 21, 1916, in the middle of World War I, at the age of 86. As he had no son to succeed him, his great-nephew succeeded him as Emperor Karl I of Austria but only reigned for two years as the monarchy was abolished at the end of World War I. Valerie officially recognized the end of the Habsburg monarchy and signed documents renouncing all rights for herself and her descendants. This allowed her to remain in Austria and keep her home and possessions.

In 1924, Valerie was diagnosed with lymphoma. Shortly before her death, her sister Gisela wrote in a letter, “I must add that I have seen Valerie – fully conscious, completely aware of her condition, and so devoutly accepting, even joyfully anticipating her impending departure, that I believe an unexpected recovery would actually disappoint her.” Surrounded by her family, Archduchess Valerie of Austria died at her home Schloss Wallsee on September 6, 1924, at the age of 56. She was buried in a crypt behind the high altar at the parish church in Wallsee-Sindelburg, Austria. Several thousand people followed her coffin to its resting place.

Grave of Valerie and Franz Salvator; Credit – https://sternenkaiserin.com/2018/02/28/el-palacio-de-wallsee-o-de-visita-a-maria-valeria/

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

• De.wikipedia.org. (2018). Marie Valerie von Österreich. [online] Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Valerie_von_%C3%96sterreich [Accessed 6 Sep. 2018].
• En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Archduchess Marie Valerie of Austria. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archduchess_Marie_Valerie_of_Austria [Accessed 6 Sep. 2018].
• En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Archduke Franz Salvator of Austria. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archduke_Franz_Salvator_of_Austria [Accessed 6 Sep. 2018].
• Van Der Kiste, J. (2005). Emperor Francis Joseph: Life, Death and the Fall of the Habsburg Empire. Stroud: Sutton Publishing.
• Wheatcroft, A. (1995). The Habsburgs. London: Viking.

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2018

Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria; Credit – Wikipedia

Known for ending his life in a suicide pact with his mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera at the Mayerling hunting lodge, which this writer has visited, His Imperial and Royal Highness The Crown Prince of Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, and Croatia, Rudolf Franz Karl Joseph, was the only son of Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria and his wife Elisabeth of Bavaria (Sisi). He was born at Schloss Laxenburg, the summer retreat of the Habsburgs near Vienna, on August 21, 1858.

Rudolf had three sisters, one who was born and died before his birth, an elder sister, and a younger sister:

• Archduchess Sophie (1855 – 1857), died in childhood
• Archduchess Gisela (1856 – 1932), married Prince Leopold of Bavaria, had four children
• Archduchess Marie Valerie (1868 – 1924), married Archduke Franz Salvator, Prince of Tuscany, had ten children

Crown Prince Rudolf on his fourth birthday; Credit – Wikipedia

Rudolf was first educated by Count Leopold Gondrecourt. His grandmother Archduchess Sophie had chosen the best tutors for Rudolf but instead, Emperor Franz Joseph chose a military tutor. Gondrecourt’s methods of turning the small boy into a brave man included waking up Rudolf by shooting a pistol in his bedroom, locking him in a game preserve, and then telling him a wild boar was coming. One day, Empress Elisabeth woke up to the sound of shouting. Looking out her window, she saw Gondrecourt drilling Rudolf in the snow. Elisabeth was determined to have Rudolf’s tutor removed and eventually, she was successful but the mental damage that Gondrecourt inflicted on Rudolf could not be undone.

Colonel Joseph Latour von Thurnberg, a gentler tutor, was hired and Rudolf’s educational regime was much more relaxed. Rudolf’s new tutor understood the importance of mental stimulation. Rudolf enjoyed science, particularly ornithology, the study of birds. When he was 20 years old, zoologist Alfred Brehm took Rudolf on a trip to observe the animal and birdlife along the Danube River. With the assistance of Brehm, Rudolf wrote and published “ Fünfzehn Tage auf der Donau” (Fifteen Days on the Danube).

In 1878, when Rudolf finished his studies, he moved to Prague where he served in an infantry regiment. Rudolf hated military discipline and considered the military appointments of Imperial Family members to be meaningless. Nevertheless, he progressed through the military ranks: 1878 Colonel, 1880 Major, 1882 Field Marshal, and 1888 General Infantry Inspector.

Rudolf and Stéphanie’s official engagement photograph; Credit – Wikipedia

The royal courts of Belgium and Austria planned Rudolf’s marriage. As the only son of Emperor Franz Joseph I, he was under pressure to marry. Princess Stéphanie of Belgium, daughter of King Leopold II of the Belgians and Archduchess Marie-Henriette of Austria, still a teenager and Roman Catholic, met the criteria of the Emperor.  However, the Empress thought Stéphanie was not good enough for her son because the Belgian monarchy had existed only since 1830. Nevertheless, during a trip to Belgium in March 1880 at the invitation of King Leopold II, Rudolf proposed to Stéphanie to the great joy of her parents. Stéphanie was sent to Vienna to learn the etiquette of the imperial court, but within the month, her ladies-in-waiting realized that she had not yet reached puberty. Stéphanie suffered great humiliation as the wedding was postponed and she was sent back to Belgium. Eventually, the couple married on May 10, 1881, at the Augustinerkirche, the parish church of the Imperial Court of the Habsburgs, a short walk from Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria. Stéphanie was not quite 17-years-old and Rudolf was 22-years-old.

Stéphanie and Rudolf had one child:

• Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria (1883 – 1963), married (1) Prince Otto of Windisch-Graetz, had four children, divorced (2) Leopold Petznek, no issue

Stéphanie and her daughter Elisabeth Marie; Credit – Wikipedia

The marriage was happy at first, but shortly after the birth of their daughter, the relationship between Stéphanie and Rudolf began to deteriorate. Rudolf likely infected Stéphanie with a sexually transmitted disease, causing her to be infertile and unable to provide a male heir for the Austrian throne. Both Stéphanie and Rudolf began affairs with other people in the following years and intermittently spoke of divorce.

Baroness Mary Vetsera, Rudolf’s mistress; Credit – Wikipedia

On January 30, 1889, at Mayerling, a hunting lodge in the Vienna Woods that Rudolf had purchased, 30-year-old Rudolf shot his 17-year-old mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera, and then shot himself in an apparent suicide plot. Rudolf wrote in his farewell letter to his wife Stéphanie: Dear Stéphanie! You are free from my presence and plague; be happy in your way. Be good for the poor little one, who is the only thing left of me.

When the bodies were found, the national security services sealed off the hunting lodge and the surrounding area. The body of Baroness Mary Vetsera was quietly taken out of Mayerling in the middle of the night and secretly buried in the village cemetery at nearby Heiligenkreuz. An official statement was released saying that Rudolf had died “due to a rupture of an aneurysm of the heart”. Eventually, another statement was released stating that Rudolf had first shot the baroness in a suicide pact and sat by her body for several hours before shooting himself. The police closed their investigations quite quickly, in response to Emperor Franz Joseph’s wishes.

Baroness Mary Vetsera’s current grave in Heilingenkreuz, Austria. Her remains were disinterred twice and were finally reburied here in 1993; Credit – Von Peterpol48 – Eigenes Werk, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35429380

Suicide would have prevented Rudolf from being given a Roman Catholic burial. A special dispensation was obtained from the Vatican that declared Rudolf to have been in a state of “mental imbalance” so he could be buried in the Imperial Crypt under the Capuchin Church in Vienna. The possibility of a state funeral was out of the question and Emperor Franz Joseph requested that no foreign royalty come to Vienna. King Leopold II and Queen Marie-Henriette of Belgium, the widowed Stéphanie’s parents, were the only foreign royalty to ignore this request.

Crown Prince Rudolf in a bed for private viewing by his family at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna. His head had to be bandaged to cover gunshot wounds; Credit – Wikipedia

Empress Elisabeth, Crown Princess Stéphanie, and Archduchess Marie Valerie (Rudolf’s younger sister) did not attend the funeral. Six family members were chosen to accompany Emperor Franz Joseph into the crypt where Rudolf would be buried: Rudolf’s paternal uncles Archduke Karl Ludwig and Archduke Ludwig Viktor, Rudolf’s brother-in-law Prince Leopold of Bavaria, Rudolf’s future brother-in-law Archduke Franz Salvator, Rudolf’s cousin Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Prince Philipp of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Crown Princess Stéphanie’s brother-in-law and a close friend of Rudolf who was one of the people to discover the bodies. There, in the crypt, they witnessed the Emperor become the grieving father, breaking down and sobbing uncontrollably. Rudolf’s parents would eventually be buried in the same crypt.

Empress Elisabeth’s tomb is to the left of Emperor Franz Joseph’s tomb and Crown Prince Rudolf’s tomb is on the right; Photo Credit – Susan Flantzer

Rudolf had no sons, so the succession would pass to Emperor Franz Joseph’s brother Archduke Karl Ludwig and his eldest son, Archduke Franz Ferdinand. In a matter of days, Archduke Karl Ludwig renounced his succession rights in favor of his son Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination in 1914 sparked World War I. The custody of Rudolf’s daughter Elisabeth Marie was taken over by her grandfather Emperor Franz Joseph. Elisabeth Marie remained close to her grandfather until he died in 1916. Following her mother’s remarriage to a Hungarian count in 1900, Elisabeth broke off all contact with her mother. Upon Franz Joseph’s death, his great-nephew reigned as Karl I until November 1918 when World War I’s end put an end to many monarchies in Europe.

Various Habsburgs have disputed the accepted version of events that occurred on the night of January 30, 1889. In 2013, another Archduke Rudolf, the grandson of Karl I, the last Emperor of Austria, asserted that the Freemasons had assassinated Rudolf. However, on July 31, 2015, the Austrian National Library issued copies of Baroness Mary Vetsera’s farewell letters to her mother and other family members. These letters, previously believed to be lost or destroyed, were found in a safe deposit box in an Austrian bank, where they had been deposited in 1926. The letters state clearly that Vetsera was preparing to die by suicide with Rudolf, out of “love”. Mary’s letter below translated into English: Dear Mother, Forgive me for what I did. I could not resist love. In accordance with him, I want to be buried beside him in the cemetery of Alland. I am happier in death than in life. Your Mary

Mary Vetsera’s farewell letter to her mother; Credit – Wikipedia

After Rudolf’s death, Emperor Franz Joseph had the Mayerling hunting lodge changed into a monastery for the nuns of the Discalced Carmelite Order, an order in which members dedicate themselves to a life of prayer. Prayers are still said daily by the nuns for the repose of Rudolf’s soul. Visitors to the monastery may visit the chapel where the altar’s position marks where Rudolf and Vetsera’s bed was located. This writer has visited both Mayerling and the Imperial Crypt in Vienna where Rudolf and many other Habsburgs are buried.

Mayerling, now a monastery; Photo Credit – Susan Flantzer

The altar in the chapel at Mayerling is on the location of Rudolf’s bedroom; Credit – Susan Flantzer

Below are some suicide prevention resources.

In the United States, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 988. Anyone in the United States can text or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline to reach trained counselors who can help them cope with a mental health emergency. National Institute of Mental Health: Suicide Prevention is also a United States resource.

Other countries also have similar resources. Please check the resources below.

• International Association for Suicide Prevention
• Wikipedia: List of international suicide crisis lines

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

• De.wikipedia.org. (2018). Rudolf von Österreich-Ungarn. [online] Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_von_%C3%96sterreich-Ungarn [Accessed 3 Sep. 2018].
• En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Mayerling incident. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayerling_incident [Accessed 3 Sep. 2018].
• En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf,_Crown_Prince_of_Austria [Accessed 3 Sep. 2018].
• Unofficial Royalty. (2017). Princess Stéphanie of Belgium, Crown Princess of Austria. [online] Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/princess-stephanie-crown-princess-of-austria/ [Accessed 3 Sep. 2018].
• Van Der Kiste, J. (2005). Emperor Francis Joseph: Life, Death and the Fall of the Habsburg Empire. Stroud: Sutton Publishing.
• Wheatcroft, A. (1995). The Habsburgs. London: Viking.

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2019

Archduke Maximilian of Austria, Emperor of Mexico; Credit Wikipedia

A younger brother of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, Maximilian was one of the two Emperors of Mexico. Both were deposed by force and then executed. The other, Agustín de Iturbide, reigned as Emperor Agustín I from May 19, 1822 – March 19, 1823.

Maximilian was born an Archduke of Austria on July 6, 1832, in Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria. He was the second of the five children and the second of the four sons of Archduke Franz Karl of Austria, son of Emperor Franz I of Austria, and Princess Sophie of Bavaria, daughter of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria.

Maximilian had four siblings:

• Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria (1830 – 1916), married Elisabeth of Bavaria, had three daughters and one son
• Karl Ludwig, Archduke of Austria (1833 – 1896), married (1) Princess Margaretha of Saxony,  no children (2) Princess Maria Annunziata of Bourbon-Two-Sicilies, had three sons and one daughter including Archduke Franz Ferdinand (3) Infanta Maria Theresia of Portugal, had two daughters
• Maria Anna, Archduchess of Austria (1835 – 1840), died in childhood from an epileptic seizure
• Ludwig Viktor, Archduke of Austria (1842 – 1919), unmarried

Maximilian with his brothers: From left to right: Archduke Ludwig Viktor, Emperor Franz Joseph,  Archduke Karl Ludwig, Archduke Maximilian; Credit – Wikipedia

Maximilian was educated with his elder brother Franz Joseph. They were first taught by their governess Baroness Louise von Sturmfeder. In 1836, Count Heinrich Bombelles became responsible for the education of the young archdukes and created a rigorous course of study. The archdukes were expected to study 18 hours a week when they were just six years old. Their study hours each week increased to 36 hours at age eight and 46 hours at age 11. Franz Joseph became seriously ill at the age of 13 due to the stress of his studies. However, the archdukes’ rigorous education continued until they were studying 56 hours a week. It was important for Franz Joseph and Maximilian to learn the languages of the Austrian empire, and so they studied not only French, Latin, and Greek, but also Hungarian, Czech, Italian, and Polish. They also studied mathematics, physics, history, geography, jurisprudence, political science, and physical education.

Maximilian, circa 1850: Credit – Wikipedia

In 1852, Maximilian, then serving in the Austrian navy, made a stopover in Portugal, where he became reacquainted with Princess Maria Amélia of Brazil, daughter of Emperor Pedro I of Brazil and his second wife Amélie of Leuchtenberg. Their mothers were both members of the Bavarian royal family and Maximilian and Maria Amélia had met as children at a family reunion in Munich. Maximilian and Maria Amélia fell in love and were betrothed. However, their engagement was never made official due to Maria Amélia’s death from tuberculosis in February 1853.

Charlotte and Maximilian during their first year of marriage; Credit – Wikipedia

In May 1856, Maximilian met Princess Charlotte of Belgium, daughter of Leopold I, King of the Belgians, and a first cousin to both Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and her husband Prince Albert. Maximilian and Charlotte fell in love and the couple married at the Royal Palace of Brussels in Belgium on July 27, 1857. Unfortunately, Charlotte and Maximilian had no children.

Emperor Franz Joseph appointed his brother Maximilian Viceroy of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, now part of Italy, but then part of the Austrian Empire. There the couple built Miramare Castle in Trieste.  In 1859, Emperor Franz Joseph, angered by his brother’s liberal policies, dismissed him as Viceroy. Shortly afterward, Austria lost control of most of its Italian possessions, and Maximilian and Charlotte then retired to Miramare Castle.

Miramare Castle; Photo Credit – By Valleo61 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22924475

In 1859, Mexican monarchists approached Maximilian with a proposal to become Emperor of Mexico which Maximilian did not accept. After the French intervention in Mexico in 1861, Maximilian changed his mind. At the invitation of Napoleon III, after the French capture of Mexico City and a French-staged referendum that supposedly confirmed the will of the people, Maximilian agreed to accept the crown. On April 10, 1864, in the great salon of Miramare Castle, a Mexican delegation officially informed Maximilian of the referendum’s results, without telling him that the French army had intimidated the voters. Maximilian declared to the Mexican delegation that he accepted the crown from the hands of the Mexican nation and swore to ensure by all means the well-being, prosperity, independence, and integrity of the Mexican nation.

Mexican Delegation appoints Maximilian of Austria Emperor of Mexico; Credit – Wikipedia

Emperor Maximilian and Empress Carlota, as Charlotte was now called, landed at Veracruz, Mexico on May 21, 1864, and received a cold reception from the townspeople. Veracruz was a liberal town and the liberal voters were opposed to having Maximilian being their Emperor. He had the backing of Mexican conservatives and Napoleon III, but from the beginning, he was involved in serious difficulties. The liberal forces led by Benito Juárez, the former president deposed by the French, refused to recognize his rule. There was continuous warfare between the French troops and the forces of Juárez who wanted a republic.

Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, circa 1865; Credit – Wikipedia

After the American Civil War ended, the French withdrew their troops from Mexico under pressure from the United States. After that, Maximilian could not hold out against the popular Juárez as his request for help from Europe remained unanswered. Charlotte traveled to Europe to ask for help from Napoleon III and Pope Pius IX, but the only hope she got was a promise from the Pope to pray for her and her husband. Maximilian then wanted to leave Mexico but changed his mind after receiving a letter from his mother, which prompted him to stay.

Maximilian and his last troops barricaded themselves in the city of Queretaro, which fell after a siege on May 14, 1867. 34-year-old Maximilian was condemned to death by a court of war and on June 19, 1867, he was executed by a firing squad along with two of his faithful Mexican generals. Before the shooting, Maximilian assured the soldiers that they were only doing their duty, gave them gold coins, and asked them to aim precisely and spare his face, so that his mother could identify his body.

• Unofficial Royalty: Execution of Maximilian I, Emperor of Mexico, Archduke of Austria

Édouard Manet’s Execution of Emperor Maximilian (wearing the hat) (1868–1869); Credit – Wikipedia

Eventually, Maximilian’s remains were returned to Austria, where seven months after his execution, on January 18, 1868, they were buried in the Kaisergruft (Imperial Crypt) in the Capuchin Church in Vienna.

Tomb of Maximilian; Photo Credit – Susan Flantzer

Charlotte survived Maximilian by 60 years but fell into a state of insanity after his death.  Today, it is impossible to determine the exact nature of her mental illness. Charlotte spent the rest of her life at Bouchout Castle in Meise, Belgium where her brother King Leopold II oversaw her care. She died from pneumonia at Bouchout Castle on January 19, 1927, at the age of 86, and was buried in the Royal Crypt at the Church of Our Lady of Laeken, the burial place of the Belgian Royal Family.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

• De.wikipedia.org. (2017). Charlotte von Belgien. [online] Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_von_Belgien [Accessed 12 Sep. 2017].
• En.wikipedia.org. (2017). Carlota of Mexico. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlota_of_Mexico [Accessed 12 Sep. 2017].
• En.wikipedia.org. (2017). Maximilian I of Mexico. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilian_I_of_Mexico [Accessed 12 Sep. 2017].
• Flantzer, S. (2017). Princess Charlotte of Belgium, Empress Carlota of Mexico. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/princess-charlotte-empress-carlota-of-mexico/ [Accessed 6 Aug. 2018].
• Fr.wikipedia.org. (2017). Charlotte de Belgique. [online] Available at: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_de_Belgique [Accessed 12 Sep. 2017].