Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria

[LouisFerdinand]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIRg4T-iNcU

Rudolph (1858-1889) was Archduke of Austria and Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary. He was the only son of Emperor Franz Joseph I.

[amabel]

Yes, and he committed suicide with his mistress.

[sandy]

He had a daughter Archduchess Elisabeth Marie, with his wife.

And descendants:

Descendants of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria

[LouisFerdinand]

Rudolph greatly enjoyed the theatre, social gatherings, salons, race meetings, concerts or riding in the Prater. The Prater was the leisure complex of Vienna were the elite paraded for the purpose of seeing and being seen.

[LouisFerdinand]

Empress Elisabeth's relationship with Rudolph was distant and strained. He wanted his mother's affection.     
Rudolph did well in most school subjects, although he showed little interest in religion. Would he not have to know about Roman Catholicism? After all, someday he would be the Emperor of a Catholic country.

[Curryong]

Well, I suppose, as far as interest in religion is concerned some people's minds run in a naturally philosophical and abstract sort of fashion and others don't. Rudolph, although he seemed to be rather unstable in that melancholic Wittelsbach manner (I think he definitely took after his mother's side of the family) and brooded a lot, didn't have that sort of brain. I do think he obviously was given a full grounding in the RC religion and was confirmed and so on.

I don't think his terribly self absorbed mother took much interest in either of her two older surviving children, though she loved them of course. She just obsessed about Valerie and the so-called Hungarian links an awful lot. A very beautiful woman but very tiresome IMO, and no more fit to be Empress Consort in Vienna than a wild deer.

[LouisFerdinand]

The marriage of Crown Prince Rudolph and Stephanie, who was from the royal house of Belgium, was conducted for reasons of state rather than from personal liking. Rudolph found increasingly little in common with Stephanie.

[LouisFerdinand]

Why did Emperor Franz Joseph I exclude Crown Prince Rudolph from the business of the government?

[LouisFerdinand]

Crown Prince Rudolph hunting for chamois in the Austrian Alps.   
Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria... News Photo | Getty Images

[LouisFerdinand]

Crown Prince Rudolph remained close to his sister Archduchess Gisela until she left Vienna upon her marriage to Prince Leopold of Bavaria.

[LouisFerdinand]

Crown Prince Rudolph at the Spanish Riding School     
Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria Spanish Riding School Stock Photo: 139720403 - Alamy

[LouisFerdinand]

After his demise, large portions of Crown Prince Rudolph's mineral collection came into the possession of the University for Agriculture in Vienna.

[LouisFerdinand]

I like the fact that his parents named Rudolph after Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph I, who was the first Habsburg to be the Emperor.

[LouisFerdinand]

The Archduke Rudolph at a review     
The Archduke Rudolph at a Review Stock Photo - Alamy

[LouisFerdinand]

Did Crown Prince Rudolph ever share sensitive political and diplomatic information pubicly?  :yessir: :yessir: :yessir: :yessir:

[Curryong]

I don't know about publicly, but he did send anonymous articles to a leading Vienna newspaper commenting on current affairs. He also wrote regularly to an old acquaintance, a madam who operated a network of prostitutes in brothels where Ruldolph had disported himself regularly since before his marriage. In these he sometimes gave his impressions of various foreign royals. He liked the Prince of Wales, whom he regarded as a cheerful and game old boy, and couldn't stand Kaiser Wilhelm. Another one! He once jokingly described an occasion when Willie was to join a hunting party as a good opportunity to arrange 'an accident'.

I believe that it was well known in Vienna that CP Rudolph was a seething ball of frustration and resentment at having to fulfil virtually meaningless ritual and social engagements and keep his mouth shut to save embarrassment to his father. Practically everyone knew that Rudolph's views were liberal, that he was a Francophile and his outlook on the future direction of the Austro Hungarian empire was directly opposite his father's. The Hungarians in particular had great hopes of him.

Of course it is inevitably the case when the heir to the throne of a creaking Empire dies prematurely. All the promise is gone for ever. However, the darker side of Rudolf has become better known since. Addictions to both drugs and drink, melancholia and other mental afflictions inherited from his mother and her family, the Wittelsbachs, the obsessive womanising resulting in various STDs including perhaps syphilis, a fascination with death etc. (Indeed he may not have lived long anyway, even without Mayerling.) Whether he was indiscreet or not it would have been fascinating to see what sort of Emperor Rudolph would have made, as he was a man of wide interests and intelligence.

[LouisFerdinand]

As Emperor it would have been interesting to see what accomplishments Rudolph would have achieved in the fine arts and culture.

[Curryong]

Rudolph's interests were more in the area of the sciences than the fine Arts. He loved ornithology and mineralogy from boyhood for instance, but rarely read a work of fiction, disliked most music and paintings left him cold.

Personally I believe that Rudolph wouldn't have lasted until his father's death. His physical and mental health couldn't have coped. If you look at photos of the CP taken shortly before his death with those of even five years before, you can see a thin, prematurely aged and disillusioned individual with haunted eyes. He looked at least a decade older than he was and could have served as a poster for 'This is what a debauched lifestyle does for you'! Sad, really.