Few places on Earth must have appeared more glamorous than the Imperial Court of Austria-Hungary in 1889. A series of magnificent palaces in and around Vienna, one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, were stage sets for hundreds of elegantly dressed courtiers and ministers dedicated to the service of the couple who ruled the giant multi-ethnic empire. Lesser members of the Habsburg Dynasty and thousands of other aristocrats made up a glittering Society that revolved around that same couple, Franz Josef I, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, and his beautiful wife Elisabeth. Second only to the Emperor and Empress were the Crown Prince and Princess, Rudolf and Stephanie.
Yet the glamour and magnificence were only a facade. The Empire was troubled and increasingly ramshackle, shaken by rising nationalism among its many minorities. The Court and Society were riddled with scandal and intrigue, and the Emperor and Empress led separate lives, his devoted to ceaseless routine and duty, hers to restless traveling. And Crown Prince Rudolf, who had once seemed full of promise, was now a sick and disappointed man, scheming against his father and indulging in a series of empty love affairs while ignoring his wife Stephanie, whom he had infected with gonorrhea and rendered barren after the birth of one child, a daughter. In early 1889 Rudolf was attempting to put an end to his latest affair, a romp with a 17 year old girl with an ambitious mother from a social climbing family, Baroness Mary Vetsera. Rudolf's entanglement with Mary Vetsera was his last. In late January their two bodies were found in a bedroom at the hunting lodge at Mayerling, apparently the result of a murder-suicide in which Rudolf had first shot Mary and then, hours later, himself. The tragedy at Mayerling has gone down in history as either a story of thwarted romance or as a darker tale of political vengeance. Now Greg King and Penny Wilson, in a meticulously documented and well written history, have come as close as anyone can to unraveling what really happened at Mayerling and why.
Twilight of Empire is divided into four sections. The first details Crown Prince Rudolf's miserable childhood and early adult years. Deprived of contact with either parent and forced through an unimaginative and harsh education,he grew up to be intelligent but flighty. He lent his support to politicians and editors attempting to liberalize Austria-Hungary's creaking government, but gained nothing except enmity and distrust from his father.He spent most of his time in a series of love affairs with women from all classes of Society,eventually including Mary Vetsera. Mary was a pretty young teenager who nowadays would be labeled a juvenile delinquent. Her ambitious mother and family, anxious to be admitted into Viennese High Society, encouraged her brazen affair with the Crown Prince. Part II deals with the events of late January 1889,when Rudolf found himself embroiled in political intrigues that bordered on high treason. He was called before his father and berated for his disloyalty and for his carryings on with Mary. That, along with the general hopelessness of his life in general, caused Rudolf to take Mary to his hunting lodge at Mayerling. In Part III we read about the immediate aftermath of the murder-suicide as the Imperial Court scrambled to make sense of and cover up the most sensational aspects of what had happened, while rumors swirled throughout Vienna and the rest of Europe. And in Part IV King and Wilson do a superb job of analyzing the available material (many official records dealing with Mayerling have been destroyed) and coming up with a plausible explanation for what really happened on the night of January 29-30, 1889.
Twilight of Empire makes it clear that Mayerling was not a fairy tale gone awry. The events leading up to it and the subsequent actions taken by the Court and Government were for the most part tawdry, causing controversy and confusion that has lasted for more than a century. None of the principal actors, excepting Crown Princess Stephanie and Rudolf's sisters Gisela and Marie Valerie, behaved with any real dignity or honor. And as the Epilogue makes clear, most of the people involved in some way with Mayerling went on to lead unpleasant and difficult lives. King and Wilson's account should become the standard reference on the tragedy as well as an important addition to late nineteenth century European history.
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