Rudolph and Mary's affair was conducted as a Gothic melodrama—secret meetings in a deserted park, a skull and revolver on the desk, a raven flying at her head, an iron ring inscribed 'united unto death'—and culminated in a genuine suicide pact at the Mayerling hunting lodge where Rudolph shot Mary and then himself.

87:07fair. >> That's true. >> Also, what what do you give the man who owns Central Europe? >> A uniform. >> Yeah, you give him Venice back or something. That's what he'd like. Yeah. So, this sounds lovely, but Rudolph spends the festive season brooding darkly. His hatred of the Kaiser has now reached absolute fever. [laughter] Basically, since the Kaiser went back to Berlin, Berlin newspapers have just been

87:34mercilessly mocking the Austrian army. [snorts] And this has driven Rudolph mad. And Rudolph has written to his mate Morris Seps, the kind of newspaper editor, and he says, [laughter] I can give you information about that when we went hunting in Stereo with Kaiser Wilhelm, a prostitute stole Vilhelm's cufflinks. Do you know who this unexpectedly reminds me of? is um Harold Wilson in 1974 really >> releasing mad mad stories to the press.

88:03>> Yes, I can see that actually. >> Clearly made up. >> Yeah. Well, I mean, do you think this is made up or do you think a prostitute? I think the Kaiser is precisely the kind of man who might have his cufflings stolen by a lady of the night. >> No. >> Yeah, I suppose >> he'd been an unpopular customer. he wouldn't be a great tipper [laughter]

88:19and in revenge his uh escorts would steal items of his personal apparel hoping to blackmail him later. Anyway, Rudolph sends this in him this letter and says, "I want you to hold on to this. If the Berlin press continues slagging me off, you can you can print it." And then a couple of days later, he writes again to this editor and he says, "I feel the storm clouds are gathering

88:41over Austria. In international politics, there is a temporary quiet. The dangers threatening us from Serbia, wow, that's a little preview what's coming, are postponed for the moment, but this uncanny stillness gives me the impression of calm before the storm. It can't go on like this. That's my consolation. And this editor writes back and says, "You, you not you're not feeling good. That's a shame. Um, oh, I

89:05think you're brilliant. The future is yours. You never tire unlike so many other people. And it's because our crown prince never tires that we still believe in a great, glorious, free, and prosperous Austria. So basically sucking up to to Rudolph to try to modify him. >> The very end of the year, Rudolph and Stephanie, his wife, they go to a place called now called Opatia, but at the

89:28time called Abatsia, which was on the Adriatic, it's on the Croatian coast. It was the can or the Sanrope of the Austrahungarian Empire. So, palm trees, hotels, sort of tea lounges, all of this. Rudolph doesn't like it. He finds it very boring. He comes back early to Vienna. It's not very Gothic, is it? >> No, it's not very Gothic. It's very dull as far as he's concerned. And he also he

89:49finds his wife very dull. He comes back to Vienna. He finds, as usual, there have been meetings of the army command without him, which he very annoyed by. They didn't invite him because they thought he was on holiday. Then they're into the carnival season. Now because the Austrian courts are still mourning the death of Kaiser's father the previous summer court sort of regulations forbid them from going to