Crown Prince Of Austria Rudolf

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Austrian royalty, the only son of Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elizabeth. He was intelligent and charming but restless. His dad allowed him no role in public affairs and they were at odds politically. In 1881, Rudolph married Princess Stephanie, the dull daughter of the Belgian king but they seemed to lead separate lives. He had a series of mistresses, catching VD along the way. Europe was shocked with the scandal when he committed suicide with Baroness Maria Vetsera at Mayerling 1/30/1889, 7:00 to 8:00 AM. The affair was excluded from official dossiers and all persons connected were sworn to secrecy. The body of the 18-year-old Maria was found dead in bed at Rudolph's hunting lodge at Mayerling on 1/30/1889. Newspapers wrote that the Archduke had arrived at the lodge a few minutes after 7:00 but died soon after of apoplexy and the true story only emerged years later. Apparently the lovers had died in a murder-suicide tryst. The biography "He Did Not Die at Mayerling, the Autobiography of 'R'," written in collaboration with Henry Wysham Lanier, 1937, claims that he did not die but fled to the U.S. and became a watchmaker. Link to Wikipedia biography