The Mayerling Incident

January 30, 1889

Unhappy with his marriage to Princess Stéphanie of Belgium, Prince Rudolf became involved in a number of affairs. He eventually met Mary Freiin von Vetsera, a 17-year-old baroness, with whom he started a three-month-long relationship. In 1889, at the Imperial hunting lodge of Mayerling, Rudolf and Vetsera enacted a suicide pact. In a letter to her mother, Vetsara unambiguously stated that she plans to commit suicide with Rudolf and will be "happier in death than life."

The death of Rudolf would put a permanent strain on the relationship between the Kaiser and Empress Elisabeth. It would also create an opening for the throne, one meant to be filled by the Kaiser’s nephew, the ill-fated Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The hunting lodge was converted into a convent for nuns by the Kaiser and would later go on to become a museum and popular tourist attraction in Mayerling. The Crown Prince was buried in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna.