VIENNA, Austria -- Crown Prince Rudolf, heir to the throne of the Austrian-Hugarian empire, was murdered by political foes in 1889 and did not commit suicide with his lover as commonly believed, a relative said Friday.
Rudolf, son ofEmperor Franz Jozef and husband of Princess Stephanie, was found dead at the age of 31 with his 18-year-old lover Mary Vetsera, 18, in a remote hunting lodge at Mayerling on Jan. 31, 1889.
Both had been shot in the head.
One of the more popular theories regarding their mysterious deaths, which inspired several movies, has been that they entered into a suicide pact over the futility of their affair.
But former Empress Zita, the wife of Karl I, the last Austrian-Hungarian emperor, said in an interview with the Vienna newspaper Kronen Zeitung the suicide theory was wrong.
'Crown Prince Rudolf did not commit suicide but was the victim of a political murder plot,' the 90-year-old Zita said.
'I have recorded everything exactly that was given to me under an oath of silence. I will publish these documents, which are in any case still in my files, when the time is right.'
Zita said her information came from highly placed sources in royal circles at the time of Rudolf's death, including her husband Karl and Rudolf's two sisters.
Franz Joseph ordered his government not to comment on the circumstances of Rudolf's death and Miss Vetsera was buried in virtual anonymity in a monastery graveyard. Her socially prominent family virtually disappered from view.
Zita said when Franz Jozef was asked why he allowed Austrians to believe Rudolf's death was a suicide, he replied: 'I had no choice. It was a question of the monarchy's existence.'
