The End of the Habsburgs by John Van der Kiste

Author:John Van der Kiste [Kiste, John Van der]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-78155-770-9
Publisher: Fonthill Media
Published: 2019-02-04T16:00:00+00:00

7

‘He no longer understands

the times’

Between Emperor Francis Joseph and his nephew, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, since 1896 also his heir, relations were civil but never close. They became even more distant after the sovereign was informed of a most unwelcome discovery. The wife of his second cousin, Archduke Frederick, Duke of Teschen, the redoubtable Archduchess Isabella, had fondly imagined that this most eligible of bachelors was courting her eldest daughter, Archduchess Maria Christina. One summer day in 1899 after a tennis party at their castle at Bratislava, a servant found Francis Ferdinand’s gold watch, which he had left behind. Hanging from it was a locket containing a miniature picture, not of her daughter, but of her lady-in-waiting, Countess Sophie Chotek, his occasional doubles partner at tennis. Aged thirty-one, she came from a good family of Bohemian nobility, ennobled by the Habsburgs in the sixteenth century. They had a long history of service to the empire, her father being the diplomat in Brussels who had helped to negotiate the marriage between Rudolf and Stephanie. Yet she was not of sufficient rank to become the next empress of Austria-Hungary.

A furious Archduchess Isabella dismissed her at once and informed the emperor. At first, he was prepared to regard it as a mere infatuation, but his nephew said he and the countess had been passionately in love for five years and he intended to marry her. It seemed grossly unfair to him that if any member of the family was attracted to someone, some minor blemish in their lineage invariably ruled out marriage. Instead, they were constantly marrying their relatives, and half the children of these unions were ‘cretins or epileptics’. At least one member of the imperial family had taken to heart the unfortunate mistake made too often by previous generations, and understood the consequences of inbreeding. Quite apart from this, most of the eligible princesses, he thought, were ‘ugly underdeveloped ducklings’ of seventeen or eighteen. Now in his late thirties, he was too old for them and had neither ‘the time nor the inclination to attend to the education of a wife’.1

His stepmother interceded with the emperor, telling him that his relationship with the countess had changed her difficult, unhappy stepson for the better, and that she would make him an excellent wife. Despite this, the emperor summoned his nephew for an interview, told him firmly his behaviour was most regrettable because it had caused a rift with his cousins, which it was his duty to repair, and that he must break off all contact with the countess. Francis Ferdinand declared he would not and formally requested permission to marry her. The emperor said he forbade such a marriage, but finding his nephew obdurate, he gave him a week to consider the matter. Next, the archduke consulted his physician, Dr Eisenmenger, whether any children of his were likely to inherit his tuberculosis. He was reassured that the disease was rarely passed on, that measures could be taken to protect his family in the unlikely event of his doing so, and that his health would clearly benefit from a happy marriage.

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