Mayerling Tragedy

January 30, 1889

The heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Crown Prince Rudolf, was found dead at his hunting lodge alongside his seventeen-year-old mistress. Murder-suicide, almost certainly. The succession fell to Rudolf's cousin Franz Ferdinand - who, twenty-five years later, would be shot in Sarajevo and light a world war. The tragedy haunted the Habsburg court and robbed the dual monarchy of its most reform-minded heir at the worst possible moment.