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

Name: Twilight of Empire: The Tragedy at Mayerling and the End of the Habsburgs
Brand: ST MARTINS PR
Availability: OutOfStock
Rating: 5 (1 reviews)

By Greg King

0 - Default Title

Description

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 na?ve 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.

Product details

Number of Pages:: 352
Release Date:: 2017-11-14
Publication Date:: 2017-11-14
Publisher:: ST MARTINS PR
Languages:: Original: English
ISBN10:: 1250083028
ISBN13:: 9781250083029
Weight:: 543 g
Height:: 16.1 cm
Width:: 24.1 cm
Thickness:: 3.5 cm

Buy on Amazon

Currently sold out

Add to Wishlist