MARY VETSERA and THE MEET UP WITH CROWN PRINCE RUDOLF - AN AMBITIOUS MOTHER - A WORRIED BROTHER

This is a reprint.  The book was published in 1914 in Austria.  The so called Meyerling "Incident" happened in 1881, when Mary Vetsera was just seventeen years old.  Gribble's book focuses on the situation with Mary and Mizzi in Chapter XX. I like that the book was published way back, closer to that time in history.

My notes from The Life Of The Emperor Francis Joseph

The author if this book, Frances Henry Gribble, hints that MARY VETSERA had turned down a marriage prospect to Miquel of Braganza.  Her personality and character? "Infatuated and determined to have Rudolf."  Supposedly she stuck herself to him, groupie-like, and he said she was a "leech" who couldn't be shaken off.  What evidence of this is there? She wrote him a letter asking him to meet her.  She asked her mother to be sent to him.  She may have already lost her virginity.  It sounds forward for a 19th century woman but we have learned that there were many independently minded women even in times where women were denied so much.

It was suggested that Mary had been motivated by some form of political intrigue such as a conspiracy with Rudolf against his father; that Hungary might separate from the Austrian empire and that he, Rudolf, become King of Hungary.  That or perhaps some other plot. It says Mary, with her mother's approval, went off to Meyerling to be with the Crown Prince for a couple days. This suggests that her mother was encouraging her daughter towards this relationship.  Maybe she could become Queen?  The initial meeting of the doomed lovers was arranged by Countess Marie Larisch who continued to be a go-between.  Mary Vetsera did have a protective brother, Alexander Baltazzi, who went out looking for her.  This suggests to me that he loved her more or was more concerned about family reputation, knowing Crown Prince Rudolf was a despoiler.

Meyerling was not a rugged isolated dwelling in hunt county.  I t was not far from the capital, Vienna, and was a place where the Crown Prince and his friends had fun.  They drank and had affairs.  Crown Prince Rudolf's wife, Stephanie of Belgium, knew and may have followed him or had him followed.  Perhaps Crown Prince Rudolf wanted a divorce? Her father, King Leopold II had also had affairs and a mistress or two. Stephanie wasn't going to get any sympathy there.

... to be continued

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