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    Twilight of Empire: The Tragedy at Mayerling and the End of the Habsburgs
    Twilight of Empire: The Tragedy at Mayerling and the End of the Habsburgs
    Twilight of Empire: The Tragedy at Mayerling and the End of the Habsburgs
    Audiobook9 hours

    Twilight of Empire: The Tragedy at Mayerling and the End of the Habsburgs

    Written by Greg King and Penny Wilson

    Narrated by Anne Flosnik

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    On a snowy January morning in 1889, a worried servant hacked open a locked door at the remote hunting lodge deep in the Vienna Woods. Inside, he found two bodies sprawled on an ornate bed, blood oozing from their mouths. Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria-Hungary appeared to have shot his seventeen-year-old mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera as she slept, sat with the corpse for hours and, when dawn broke, turned the pistol on himself.

    A century has transformed this bloody scene into romantic tragedy: star-crossed lovers who preferred death together than to be parted by a cold, unfeeling Viennese Court. But Mayerling is also the story of family secrets: incestuous relationships and mental instability; blackmail, venereal disease, and political treason; and a disillusioned, morphine-addicted Crown Prince and a naïve schoolgirl caught up in a dangerous and deadly waltz inside a decaying empire. What happened in that locked room remains one of history's most evocative mysteries: What led Rudolf and mistress to this desperate act? Was it really a suicide pact? Or did something far more disturbing take place at that remote hunting lodge and result in murder?

    Drawing interviews with members of the Habsburg family and archival sources in Vienna, Greg King and Penny Wilson reconstruct this historical mystery, laying out evidence and information long ignored that conclusively refutes the romantic myth and the conspiracy stories.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateSep 11, 2018
    ISBN9781541449787
    Twilight of Empire: The Tragedy at Mayerling and the End of the Habsburgs
    Author

    Greg King

    Greg King is the author of eleven previously published books, including the bestselling, The Duchess of Windsor and the internationally acclaimed The Fate of the Romanovs.

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    Reviews for Twilight of Empire

    3.5/5

    32 ratings5 reviews

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    • 2/5
      This work of 'narrative history' about the Maylering incident is not without merit, but is best regarded as simply an introduction to what happened in 1889. The first half, setting out the events leading up to the double death, seems largely lifted from other sources, especially Morton's 'A Nervous Splendor'. The latter half of the book is given over to sifting through the various theories and rumours about the deaths, but this is done in a confusing and repetitive way, with some of the authors' own speculations thrown in for good measure. Ultimately rather disappointing. Some good photographs, and information on events in subsequent years.
    • 4/5
      A really well thought out look at the tragedy of Rudolf of Austria and Mary Vetsera. In the style that has come to characterize each of their books, Greg King and Penny Wilson set the stage in a sumptuous and richly descriptive way. The book is divided into four parts. In the first, we learn about the principal characters. In the second, we read of the senseless murder/suicide of Rudolf and Mary. In the third, the authors take us on a trip through all the conspiracy theories that were advanced in an effort to explain what exactly happened at the Mayerling hunting lodge. In the fourth and final part of the book, the authors deftly navigate what we know about the tragedy and what we know about mental illness today and create a very plausible picture of what they think happen.Anyone that enjoys reading of the Habsburgs will find this hard to put down. I know I did.
    • 4/5
      3.5 Several months back I read [book:The Radetzky March|54258], and realized how little I knew about the Hungarian, Austrian empire. The March was about the end of this huge empire, but told from a military standpoint, soldiers fighting for the empire that could see the end coming. This book shows the inner imploding of the empire and the beginning of the end of power of the Hapsburgs. When the crown prince Rudolf is found dead, alongside his seventeen years old mistress, leaving the empire without a direct heir, the end of this powerful house is near. These deaths would cause gossip, speculation and conspiracy theories that have reverberated through the decades. What really happened at Mayerling?I love nonfiction that is not dry, told in an easy but through way, additionally I enjoyed how this book was arranged. In four distinct parts, the author takes us through the royal family, how Rudolf was raised, his marriage, his partying, drinking and his frustration with his life. The second section sets the stage for what was found at Mayerling, and how it was handled, covered up, things hidden. Then we hear about the conspiracies suspected, world reaction to the event, and different interpretations about the event. We learn what happened to those directly or indirectly and indirectly involved, and lastly the interpretations of all the evidence to date, which conclusion makes the most sense and seems to fit the best. Quite well done. It covers much more than just the deaths, it also looked inside the inbreeding of the royal family. The state of their marriages and family. The political background of the time, and what was going on in this empire. Blackmail, a mother selling her daughter for entry into higher echelons of influence, and s young girl caught in the middle of these machinations. Quite sad, but fascinating.
    • 4/5
      I first heard of Austria's Crown Prince Rudolf and his mistress Mary Vetsera in 1989 when I spent a week with a friend in Heiligenkreuz and we visited the cemetery where Mary Vetsera is buried. This book about their tragic deaths caught my eye. Some questions surrounding the murder/suicide may never be answered since some evidence was destroyed (or at best, was not preserved) and some of the principals took their knowledge to their graves. King and Wilson use make good use of contemporary accounts and surviving documentation to build a convincing case that there was more to this incident than love gone wrong. It may have had more to do with the poor relationship between Rudolf and his father, the emperor Franz Josef, and Rudolf's sympathy for Hungarian independence. Recommended for readers with an interest in late 19th century Europe and its royalty.This review is based on an electronic advance readers copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley.
    • 4/5
      This book was sent to me via NetGalley by the publisher MacMillanUSA. Thank you.The subtitle of this history is “The Tragedy of Mayerling and the end of the Hapsburgs.” The authors take a fresh look at the facts and theories surrounding the deaths of Crown Prince Rudolf and his mistress Mary Vetsera at Mayerling Hunting Lodge on January 30, 1889. They explain in the introduction how they divided their study into four sections. Part One covers the background of the principals and the events that led up to the tragedy. Part Two deals with the deaths and the initial damage control. Part Three is a look at how others viewed the facts and the many theories about what happened and why. Finally, in Part Four, they offer their own possible explanation of the deaths and why those left behind acted as they did.The writing is engrossing, especially for readers interested in actual facts and reasonable explanation as opposed to conspiracy theories. But the conspiracy theories and cover-ups are interesting in their own right as the authors analyze just why so many different explanations were offered as late as the 21st century.The reader meets the Rudolf and Mary in the first part. (Any similarity between the pair and their film counterparts is purely coincidental, although Audrey Hepburn’s eyes surely were as fascinating as Mary’s glittering orbs.) Neither individual was a role model. Rudolf was neglected by his parents as was the custom and abused by his first tutor. Although he had a fine intellect, he was not encouraged to pursue his studies, was married to a princess he had met only a few times, and had no real role in governing the Hapsburg Empire. If he had strong ideas, especially in the belief that Hungary should be separate from Austria and have its own king and elected officials, those ideas were ignored or actively discouraged by his father. He found solace in champagne, drugs, and sex with lots of willing women who received silver cigarette cases and a dose of clap when their affairs ended. Mary Vetsera was a buxom seventeen year old, sexually experienced thanks to the encouragement of her mother who saw her daughter’s affairs as an entry door into the closed court society with its wealth and benefits. But even if Rudolf was not her first lover, she still was only seventeen, read juicy French novels, loved dressing up, and thought lovers’ suicide pacts were the most romantic way to leave this workaday world. The brightest gem in the jewelry box she was not. But she was seventeen!These two were aided and abetted by Mary’s mother and by Rudolf’s illegitimate cousin Marie Von Larich, a lady-in waiting to the Empress who must have modeled her life after Cousin Bette. She surely hated the fact that, although her blood was as blue as the rest of the royals, because she was born before her parents were married, she was a bastard. The Emperor looked the other way; the Crown Princess fumed; the court gossiped. It was the perfect storm for tragic murder-suicide.In the second part the authors describe the initial reaction to the deaths. Rudolf died of a stroke; no, a heart attack; no, a jealous gamekeeper shot him because the crown prince dallied with his wife; no, Mary hit him over the head with a champagne bottle and then shot herself in remorse when she realized she had killed him. In an almost Marx Brothers scenario, according to strict court protocol no one had the authority to inform Franz Josef his heir was dead. Mary is buried secretly (a gothic incident if there ever was one) and Rudolf is given a state funeral.“Why” is the topic of the third section? Was it a plot by Hungarian nationalists who felt betrayed by the crown prince and managed to sneak into the lodge and murder him and his young mistress? Did Rudolf finally succumb to the strain of insanity that ran in his mother’s family and, in a state of deep depression, kill Mary and then himself? This was the reason presented to the Pope to allow a Catholic burial and the theory that surviving members of the Hapsburg dynasty clung to for most of their lives. A mentally ill suicide was not morally responsible for his actions and so could enter heaven. Or, in the most outlandish theory, was Rudolf even dead? Maybe he escaped to New York or South America and made a new life for himself. A body was planted in the bed chamber.Finally, in the last part, the authors take the evidence and theories and make sense of them. Their conclusion, based on historical facts and modern psychology should be the definitive answer to the Mayerling deaths. At least, I hope so.The cast of characters is fascinating, from the royals to the servants who knew too much to the police who had to tread a very careful line. The sources are the letters and diaries and memories of witnesses and their descendants who recalled family stories about the events in 1889 Some are reliable and some are not, but all are carefully noted in footnotes and bibliography. This is a fascinating and fast-moving account of the beginning of the end of the Hapsburg Empire.