The Mayerling tragedy: what happened in it and how it marked history

First, the official version spoke of death from a sudden stroke. The next day, and given the rumors that were beginning to circulate in Vienna, the version of "suicide by mental alienation" was presented. But there was still a third version, the most impressive of all: Archduke Rudolf could have been assassinated.

What exactly happened? Oddly enough, to this day the facts are still unknown. We only have a succession of evidence and statements that contradict each other. may never really be known what happened in Mayerling, the night of January 29-30, 1889.

What is the Mayerling tragedy?

The strange events that took place in Mayerling, the hunting lodge of Rudolf, Archduke of Austria and heir to the Austrian throne, are known as the “Mayerling tragedy”. On the morning of January 30, 1889, Johann Loschek, the archduke's valet, announces to the Count of Hoyos that the prince does not respond to his calls.

The archduke had left him the order to wake him up at 8:30 a.m., but the door to the room is locked and there is only silence on the other side.

. Alarmed, the Count of Hoyos goes, with the valet and the Prince of Coburg, to the prince's room. As the silence persists, they make the decision to break down the door.

The first to enter the chamber is Loschek, the first witness to the misfortune: on the bed is Rodolfo's still warm body, half sitting; Beside her, Baroness Vetsera, his young mistress, is lying on her back on the bed. They are both dead. Around him, a huge pool of blood spreads.

So far, the witness statements. Immediately, the Vienna Hofburg is informed about what happened. The matter is delicate: they have a probable double suicide on their hands (which is highly scandalous in a conservative society and Catholic like the Austrian) and, furthermore, the one who lies in the Archduke's bed is not his wife, Princess Stephanie, but his lover. How to present a similar situation to the people?

From now on, the official versions contradict each other. Rumors start. The tests do not agree. Mayerling's tragedy thus becomes one of the greatest mysteries of contemporary history.

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The sadness of Archduke Rudolf

It is necessary to explain who the victims of the tragedy were and why they were in Mayerling that night. Archduke Rudolf was the only son of Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria, and his wife Elisabeth, better known as 'Sissi'. As such, from a very young age he was subjected to harsh military discipline, from which his mother managed to separate him, terrified by the methods used by his tutors. It is said that Rodolfo, at the age of five, was woken up with shots to “strengthen his character”. Obviously, this unique way of educating the little one only aggravated his fears.

The boy had inherited from his mother an extraordinary emotional richness, but also a certain mental instability that caused him to experience numerous depressions throughout his life. It seems that the prince was trying to escape through a dissipated life, in which there was no lack of alcohol, drugs and, of course, sex. Rodolfo did not renounce women even after marrying Estefanía from Belgium; In fact, he infected her wife with a venereal disease (it is not clear if gonorrhea or syphilis) that made her sterile and further chilled the already distant relationship they both had.

Estefanía's sterility was not only a personal issue; it was also a matter of state. Because the marriage had only produced one daughter, little Isabel María and, according to the laws of Austria, a woman could not inherit the empire. It seems that this was one of the causes of the heated discussion between father and son on January 26, four days before the tragedy. Without the possibility of having a male heir, the future of the empire was in jeopardy. Francisco José blamed the situation on his son and his continuous delusions.

But there was another reason why relations between the emperor and his heir were only getting worse. Rodolfo, intelligent and sensitive like his mother, felt a deep sympathy for liberal tendencies, and deeply hated the conservative guidelines that marked his father's politics. In fact, on one occasion, and under a pseudonym, she strongly attacked the Habsburg regime from a Viennese newspaper. Rudolf was too fresh a wind for the stale Austrian monarchy.

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The last love: Maria Vetsera

At this somber moment in his life, Rodolfo met Maria Vetsera, a very young Hungarian aristocrat, barely 17 years old. The relationship has spawned rivers of ink and is so peppered with romantic additions that it's hard to tell truth from legend. What is certain is that, on the day of the tragedy, the young woman was with the prince in Mayerling.

In 2015, the Austrian National Library announced the discovery of several letters from Maria, found in a chest that was kept in a private Austrian bank. The vault, dating from 1929, contained a leather tome containing photographs and handwritten documents of the Vetseras. In the letters, Maria asks her mother "to forgive her" and to bury her next to her beloved. In another of the letters, this time addressed to her brothers, the young woman tells them that she and Rodolfo are leaving for another life beyond the grave...

These startling lines shocked the community of historians because, if authentic, they these letters would prove that Vetsera and Rodolfo already intended to commit suicide when they went to Mayerling. However, as we will see below, there are still many elements that simply do not add up to suicide.

Suicide or murder?

The first official version put forward by the Austrian royal house was, as we have already mentioned, a stroke. However, and given the insistent rumors, they had to vary the version. So it was made public that Rodolfo had committed suicide, prey to a "mental derangement". It is important to point out, by the way, that all the versions made reference to the prince; Nothing was said about her, about Maria. In fact, her body was secretly buried in the cemetery of an abbey near the tragedy, and her relatives were strictly forbidden to talk about her or visit her grave.

When considering the version of suicide, the monarchy found itself in a very delicate situation. Not only because of the scandal that the well-thinking Austrian society would cause if their prince had taken his life, but also because, if so, he could not be buried in the Capuchin Crypt, the mausoleum real. So, Francisco José had to write to the Pope to ask for a special authorization that would allow him to give his son a Christian burial. Without knowing the reasons, the Pope agreed, and Rodolfo was finally buried in the family crypt.

Why did the Pope agree to the Emperor's request? It could simply be that his decision was motivated by the importance of the character who was asking for it. Also, let's not forget that Austria was a country that was a staunch defender of the Catholic faith. However, some historians venture another reason: that Francisco José told the truth to the Pontiff. And this truth would be none other than the murder of the Archduke.

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The evidence doesn't add up

Had the heir to the Austrian throne been assassinated then? If this was the case, what was the reason?

There are numerous contradictions in the Mayerling case that are, to say the least, sobering. Among them is the fact that the bullet hole was in the young man's left temple, when Rodolfo was right-handed. Certainly a strange way to shoot yourself.

On the other hand, the revolver that appeared on the bed next to the corpses was not the prince's. And to further complicate matters, both Rodolfo's body and that of his lover had wounds and bruises, an obvious sign of that they had struggled to defend themselves... In addition, and according to the statement of the carpenter's son that he was called to bring order to the room of the facts, when his father arrived, the chamber looked like a battlefield: there was blood everywhere and the furniture they were broken. Had someone entered the room with the intent to kill the Archduke and Maria, and had they fought fiercely for his life…?

too dangerous a prince

Rumors continued to circulate throughout the 20th century. In March 1983, Zita of Bourbon-Parma (1892-1989), the last Austro-Hungarian Empress, declared for a Austrian publication that Rudolf had been assassinated, and that only a pact of silence from his family had silenced the truth.

But if so, who and why would he have wanted to kill the heir to Austria? Many historians point to the Austrian secret service that, given the possibility that a personality like Rodolfo's, of open mind and close to liberal currents, accede to the throne, they decided that ending his life was the best option for Austria. The death of a prince in exchange for the protection of the empire.

Whether he was the victim of a political plot or by his own decision, the truth is that Rodolfo's death at the age of 30 is the bitter climax of a sad life marked by isolation and loneliness. On his last trip he was accompanied by a 17-year-old girl who loved him deeply, but we don't know if he voluntarily followed him in a double suicide or if he simply happened to be that night where he shouldn't be.