#josef count hoyos

[archduchessofnowhere]

It was the morning of January 30th, a gloomy winter day, the sky being overcast, and snowflakes drifting across the window-panes. I had my singinglesson from the wife of Professor Niklas-Kempner, at ten in the morning as usual (...) When, shortly before, I had returned from the south, I had once again been struck by the change in the Crown Prince, and this time more strongly than ever. He was rarely sober; did not get home to the Hofburg Palace until dawn; and as for the company he kept, the less said about it the better. His restlessness and nervous irritability had become intensified, He spoke menacingly of horrible things, and, in my very presence, would cruelly toy with the revolver he always carried about with him. Indeed, I had become afraid to be alone with him. Still, summoning all my strength of mind to aid me, I went on trying to hide from others’ inquisitive gaze the complete failure of our marriage. On the particular morning of which I now write, the entrance of my chief lady-in-waiting interrupted the singing lesson, and the gloomy trains of thought which were interspersed with it. Her aspect was unusually serious and reserved when she begged me to give her a few minutes in private. She had, she said, an important communication to make to me. I went with her into the adjoining room, and looked at her while, in words hesitant and trembling, she began to talk about bad news from Mayerling. I realized instantly that the catastrophe I had so long dreaded must have taken place. “He is dead!” I cried. Sorrowfully she nodded her head in the affirmative. He was dead; he had fulfilled his dreadful threat, and had put an end to his disordered life. Such was the insufferable climax to all I had suffered, seen, and heard during the last few weeks. I trembled with excitement and terror. Then I begged my informant to tell me, in detail, what had happened; but, as yet, she knew nothing more than the bare facts of the suicide. Soon I was summoned to the Emperor [Franz Josef] and the Empress [Elisabeth]. Accompanied by my chief lady-in-waiting, I went to the private Imperial apartments. The Emperor was seated in the middle of the room, the Empress, dressed in black, her face pale and rigid, was standing beside him, In my shattered condition I believed that they looked on me asa criminal. They assailed me with a cross-fire of questions some of which I could not, and others would not, answer. At length the Empress made up her mind to tell me the whole truth. The most horrible thing had happened which could befall a wife. At Mayerling, early in the morning, the Crown Prince had been found in bed, with his brains blown out, and beside him the corpse of a woman who had also been shot— Mary Vetsera.

Count Joseph Hoyos, one of the Crown Prince’s guests at the shoot, summoned early in the morning by the groom of the chambers, who could get no answer to his knocking at the door of the Crown Prince’s bedroom, had forced an entry and had seen the two dead bodies. Hoyos had made all possible speed to Vienna, and had conveyed the terrible news to Rudolf’s chief chamberlain. It was decided to tell her Majesty the Empress before any one else; the companion and secretary, Fraulein von Ferenczy, being charged with this painful commission. The Empress went at once to the Emperor. The agony of this hour was borne by the parents alone, without any witness of their grief.

Only after that was it decided to acquaint Rudolf’s widow with what had happened. I sat between their Majesties while what I heard and suffered inflicted on me incurable wounds. At length I ventured to tell the Empress what, weeks before, I had tried to say to the Emperor. I spoke of Rudolf’s manner of life, his habits and customs, his associates, how completely his health had been disordered. The Empress, however, stubbornly closed her mind against these communications, and it was an additional distress to me to feel that she was turning away from me. In her eyes I was the guilty party. Though outwardly I remained calm, inwardly I was in a state of collapse.

Princess Stephanie of Belgium (1937). I was to be empress

[roehenstart]

Portrait of Franz von Meran, son of Archduke Johann in Styrian costume.By Josef Kriehuber.

Franz was the only child of the morganatic marriage between Archduke Johann of Austria-Tuscany and Anna Plochl, and a grandson of the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II. On 8 July 1862 at Ottenstein, Germany, he married Countess Theresia von Lamberg (1836–1913), the second child and only daughter of Franz Philipp, Count von Lamberg and his wife, Countess Caroline Hoyos zu Stichsenstein.

He was born legitimate but a commoner, and thus he was not permitted to bear the Habsburg-Lorraine surname of his father's dynasty. His mother had been ennobled by the emperor five years after her marriage to the archduke, becoming Baroness (Freifrau) von Brandhofen on 4 July 1834, and Franz shared in her title after his birth. He was raised to comital rank as Count (Graf) von Meran on 29 April 1844 (letters patent issuing 30 December 1845, Vienna).

[archduchessofnowhere]

1889, 29 January we had a family dinner at which Rudolf, whom I last saw at the opera on 22 January, did not appear. He was hunting in Mayerling and had Philipp Koburg [Rudolf's brother-in-law] tell him that he had a slight cold and fever and preferred to stay outside quietly. - Oh dear God, how am I to continue writing now?

On Wedenesday, 30 January, everything was already packed to travel to Ofen on Thursday. At 12 o'clock I was just before dinner with Louise and Margit, when Gusti told me that Mama had sent for me. I hurry up quite merrily and find Mama [Empress Elisabeth] in my bedroom. "Rudolf is very ill - no hope (I sat on her lap) - you'll go pale - it's the very worst." I don't know why I say: "Has he killed himself?" And then, as Mama asked, so frightened, why I thought that, I knew. We knelt down, but you can't pray properly at such moments. Mama told me to be quiet like her, because of Papa [Emperor Franz Josef], and I was. She herself had told him the news brought by Count Hoyos and while my thoughts were still with him, who had not been spared this bitterest of things, he himself entered. - Words cannot tell how painful it is to look at him; I fell around his neck. We held each other and wept, and his heroic example sustained Mama and me.

I was now sent to Stephanie [Crown Princess of Austria] to bring her over. Everything, everything, Countess Tarouca had told her, unhappy woman! She kept asking us all to forgive her, for she must have felt that her lack of devotion had helped to drive Rudolf to this dreadful thing. Mama was sublime with her, loving and almost motherly, without bitterness.

Franz [Archduke of Austria-Tuscany, Valerie's fiancé] was my consolation: one must give oneself completely to God. But Mama says: "The great Jehovah is terrible when he comes witheringly like the storm." In the evening, Mama says it's not quite certain yet whether Rudolf killed himself. People say: Heartbeat. Thousands of them stood on the Burgplatz and the soldiers sat on guard reading the newspaper. Our Papa was calm, godly, heroic and holy. I couldn't look at him without crying.

Archduchess Marie Valerie of Austria (1998), Das Tagebuch der Lieblingstochter von Kaiserin Elisabeth (1878-1899) (Translation done by DeepL. Please keep in mind that in a machine translation a lot of nuance may/will be lost)

[archduchessofnowhere]

Hello! You have information about Josef Graf Hoyos-Sprinzenstein. Thanks.

Hello! Not much really. He was Crown Prince Rudolf's friend and confident and they used to hang out a lot. More importantly for us, he was at Mayerling the night Rudolf and Mary Vetsera died, and was one of the first persons in finding their bodies.

Hoyos wrote a memorandum in which he recorded his experience in Mayerling and deposited it in the Haus-, Hof-und Staatsarchiv (aka really old Austrian archive). This memorandum has been a great source for the Mayerling incident, for instance Penny Wilson and Greg King quote it a lot in their book Twilight of Empire. In their book they also said that:

A few days after the tragedy at Mayerling, Rudolf’s friend and frequent hunting companion Count Josef Hoyos had an audience with Franz Josef, in which he generously offered to say that he had accidentally shot the crown prince in a hunting accident—an offer the emperor declined. Stephanie never blamed Hoyos for her husband’s misadventures or death: Two weeks after Mayerling, she wrote to the count, thanking him for his “true and sincere friendship, both in happiness as well as in sorrow” and asking that he “only recall the happy days” he had spent with “my beloved Rudolf.”

I can't really say more about him (there doesn't seem to be a lot of personal information available either). Hope that I could help you!