The Empress's Palace

While waiting for the clouds to clear over Innsbruck (they never did), David and I went sightseeing The city is haunted by ghosts of the Hapsburgs.

In 1740, Charles VI, King of Germany, Emperor of Austria and Hungary, and Holy Roman emperor, died without a male heir. His daughter, Maria Theresa, declared herself Holy Roman Empress. She let her husband, Frances I of Lorraine, and later her son Joseph, be called Holy Roman Emperors, but she was the real ruler.

While Americans fought England for their independence and adopted our Constitution, Maria Theresa played power politics in Europe, fighting with Frederick the Great of Prussia and forming alliances with France and Russia. According to Wikipedia, she is “considered one of (the) most capable rulers” in 18th Century Europe.

Maria Theresa lived most of the time in Vienna, where she had two palaces, the Hofburg in the city and the summer palace, Schonbrunn, which rivals Versailles. Tourists flock to see the wonders of Schonbrunn. Most don’t know she also had a palace in Innsbruck.

What I remember most about the Innsbruck palace was a huge ballroom. At one end was a giant painting of the three babies floating on clouds to Heaven, representing Maria Theresa’s children who died in infancy. This remarkable woman, who managed the Austro-Hungarian Empire like a capable man, had 16 children. Around the room were larger-than-life-size portraits of the 13 survivors.

The last portrait was of a little teenage girl, Maria Theresa’s youngest child “Maria”, who was shipped off to France at the age of 13 to become Marie Antoinette, Queen of France. She lost her head.

The Hapsburgs were a prolific bunch. I once saw a chart naming 12 or 14 children in every generation in every branch. Yet the family was marked for tragedy. During our Civil War, the Emperor of Austria sent his brother, Maximilian, to be Emperor of Mexico. He was executed.

Rudolph, only son of Emperor Franz Joseph, committed suicide with his young mistress. I saw a made-for-tv movie called “Meyerling” after the name of the hunting lodge where the double suicides took place. A romantic story. I wonder what really happened. Movies are not expected to be historically accurate.

After Rudolph’s suicide, Franz Joseph’s heir, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, were assassinated in Sarajevo, sparking World War I. After that war the Hapsburgs vanished from History and from the news. Sic transit gloria.

I met a man whose last name was von Hapsburg. He was manager of a hotel in Albuquerque.