Rudolf was born at Schloss Laxenburg,[2] a castle near Vienna, as the son of Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth.

This did not change their relationship and Gisela remained close to him until she left Vienna upon her marriage to Prince Leopold of Bavaria.

Rudolf's initial education under Leopold Gondrecourt was physically and emotionally abusive, and likely a contributing factor in his later suicide.

Although their marriage was initially a happy one, by the time their only child, the Archduchess Elisabeth, was born on 2 September 1883, the couple had drifted apart.

[13] Vetsera's private letters were discovered in a safe deposit box in an Austrian bank in 2015, and they revealed that she was preparing to commit suicide alongside Rudolf, out of love.

She wore black or pearl grey, the colours of mourning, for the rest of her life and spent more and more time away from the imperial court in Vienna.

Franz-Joseph's younger brother, Archduke Karl Ludwig, was next in line to the Austro-Hungarian throne,[17] though it was falsely reported that he had renounced his succession rights.

[18] In any case, his death in 1896 from typhoid made his eldest son, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the new heir presumptive.

However, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in 1914 (an event that precipitated World War I), so when Emperor Franz-Joseph died in November 1916, he was succeeded instead by his grandnephew, Charles I of Austria.

The demands of the American President, Woodrow Wilson[citation needed] forced Emperor Charles I to renounce involvement in state affairs in Vienna in early November 1918.