AHC: Find a better wife for Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria

[GameBawesome]

Challenge: In OTL, Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria married Stephanie of Belgium. The marriage was unhappy, which lead to him having an affair with a baroness, and in 1889, killing himself, in a Suicide pact.

Find an alternate wife for Rudolf, for him to marry, that won’t cause him to have an affair, and commit suicide.

 

[cjc]

Interesting, so first step is to find actual canadits because the habsburgs where very prickly about who anybody in the family could Mary, basicly it had to be a ruling eupoian marnarchy, franz chose a countess and basicly gust his intiere branch of the family disbard from succeeding him, seems harsh but there was plenty of habsburgs to go around at that point I suppose.

 

[Eparkhos]

With a POD of Henri, Comte de Chambord, agrees to take the crown of France in 1871;

Amélie d'Orleans (1865-1951), daughter of the ATL Philippe VII (Successor of Henri V)

This, if the betrothal is done early enough (And this is based off of my hazy knowledge of 19th century European politics) could possibly lead to a re-alignment of the European political access, with the alliance system as of 1914 (as an example; it's almost certainly not going to happen ATL) being, roughly;

Britain—Germany—Russia

v.

Austria-Hungary—France—Ottomans?/Italians?


Note: Don't take any of this seriously, I'm just speculating with little to no research/knowledge. This is almost certainly ASB.

 

[Kellan Sullivan]

Challenge: In OTL, Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria married Stephanie of Belgium. The marriage was unhappy, which lead to him having an affair with a baroness, and in 1889, killing himself, in a Suicide pact.

Find an alternate wife for Rudolf, for him to marry, that won’t cause him to have an affair, and commit suicide.

Just let Rudi marry Antonietta of Tuscany (his dad refused because of her weak health, she died two years later), and then once she shuffles off, there's a WHOLE new batch of candidates.
Otherwise, Maria Teresa of Bragança (daughter of D. Miguel) and a daughter of Isabel II were under consideration. MT refused Rudolf to marry his uncle, while Rudi wasn't particularly taken with Maria del Pilar IIRC.

 

[isabella]

Challenge: In OTL, Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria married Stephanie of Belgium. The marriage was unhappy, which lead to him having an affair with a baroness, and in 1889, killing himself, in a Suicide pact.

Find an alternate wife for Rudolf, for him to marry, that won’t cause him to have an affair, and commit suicide.

His wife was the last of Rudolf’s problem and Mary was in no way the first or only lover of Rudolf (who had also other mistresses during the 3 months of his affair with her).
Being son of his parents was cause of most of his troubles and unhappiness... A different mother (as Elisabeth herself had likely mental troubles, and Rudolf was not helped by the fact who his parents were first cousins, three of his four grandparents were Wittelsbachs and the fourth was son of double first cousins) or an earlier death of his father would help Rudolf much more than a different wife.

 

[Jonathan]

Potential Brides:
- Princess Louise of Belgium, (18/2/1858-1/3/1924) Catholic, eldest daughter of Leopold II and his wife, Marie Henriette of Austria.
- [URL='https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Christina_of_Austria']Maria Christina of Austria-Este[/URL], (21/7/1858–6/2/1929), daughter of Archduke Karl Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska of Austria.
- Princess Isabella of Bavaria (31/8/1863–26/2/1924) was the third child and eldest daughter of Prince Adalbert of Bavaria and his wife Infanta Amalia of Spain.
- Infanta Adelgundes, Duchess of Guimarães (10/11/1858–15/4/1946) was the fifth child and fourth daughter of Miguel of Portugal and his wife Adelaide of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg.
- Princess Marie of Orléans (13/1/1865–4/12/1909)
- Princess Charlotte of Prussia (24/7/1860–1/10/1919), the second child and eldest daughter of Prince Frederick of Prussia, (future Crown Prince of Prussia and German Emperor) and his wife, Victoria, Princess Royal, making Charlotte the eldest granddaughter of Queen Victoria of Britain and her consort Prince Albert. Although a Protestant, it could be potentially an alliance between Prussia and Austria.

 

[cjc]

Potential Brides:
- Princess Louise of Belgium, (18/2/1858-1/3/1924) Catholic, eldest daughter of Leopold II and his wife, Marie Henriette of Austria.
- Maria Christina of Austria-Este, (21/7/1858–6/2/1929), daughter of Archduke Karl Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska of Austria.
- Princess Isabella of Bavaria (31/8/1863–26/2/1924) was the third child and eldest daughter of Prince Adalbert of Bavaria and his wife Infanta Amalia of Spain.
- Infanta Adelgundes, Duchess of Guimarães (10/11/1858–15/4/1946) was the fifth child and fourth daughter of Miguel of Portugal and his wife Adelaide of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg.
- Princess Marie of Orléans (13/1/1865–4/12/1909)
- Princess Charlotte of Prussia (24/7/1860–1/10/1919), the second child and eldest daughter of Prince Frederick of Prussia, (future Crown Prince of Prussia and German Emperor) and his wife, Victoria, Princess Royal, making Charlotte the eldest granddaughter of Queen Victoria of Britain and her consort Prince Albert. Although a Protestant, it could be potentially an alliance between Prussia and Austria.

I'm particularly intrestind in the baceriab and Prussian matches, what was the reason OTL they weren't chosen?

 

[Jonathan]

Prussian matches, what was the reason OTL they weren't chosen?

The Prussian match was not viable as Charlotte was eager to escape from parental control, at age seventeen, she married Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Meiningen in 1878.

 

[isabella]

The Prussian match was not viable as Charlotte was eager to escape from parental control, at age seventeen, she married Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Meiningen in 1878.

Austria also was not at all popular in Prussia (Franz Joseph had wished to marry Anna of Prussia but the match was denied officially as she was already engaged to a much lower ranking ruler but in truth because Prussia had no intention to tie itself to Austria with a wedding or they would have broken the other engagement without much trouble and Anna was only a junior Princess of Prussia unlike Charlotte)