Teenage Kicks

The graphic novel based on Rudolf and Mary's affair is called 'Angel's Coffin'. Mary is an innocent village maiden and Rudolf is her nasty aristo demon-lover, obsessed with skulls and guns. Ok, I can see the obvious attraction between them in that case.
 I have been musing a bit about what exactly attracted Mary to Rudolf. His face appeared on all the souvenir postcards throughout the Empire, he had the cachet of a pop star and young girls would pin-up the latest pics of the dashing Crown Prince on their bedroom walls. To start with, as a gauche, shy, (clean-shaven) teenager, he did have a certain brooding charm (his eyes are very like Sisi's.) However, Rudolf seems to age (rather rapidly) from his mid-20s onwards, especially after his marriage. His eyes somehow get smaller in the surrounding puffy flesh and sadder in expression. You do get the feeling that the various photographic studios (after 1883) had a lot of retouching work to do on on his Imperial mug. Yes, the full 'handlebar' moustache, as worn by Rudolf in his later years, came in handy for hiding a multitude of sins.
It is hard to believe he was just 30 yrs old when he died. The body of Rudolf lying in state during the (final) public showing looks 45 at the very least. They changed his uniform at least once during these sessions, almost in parody of his many pin-up representations in different dress uniforms over his lifetime.
Mary's looks also possess an uncanny maturity for her years. She was an like an exotic 'early bloomer' from the Imperial hothouse. According to the (modern) forensic reports, her height was 5ft 4 inches. She was, for those times, considered to be tall, 'with delicately modelled hands and feet'. She looks about 22 yrs old in a family group photo at the pyramids in Egypt, when in actual fact, she can be barely more than 16 yrs old. There were rumours of course, that she had already had at least one lover and a string of 'gentlemen admirers' by this tender age.
The picture below shows a "brazen" Mary-type in playful kittenish pose, attempting to seduce an older man (not necessarily Rudolf in this instance-- it could almost be the Count from Schnitzler's Reigen?)
Anyway, I got the idea from a particularly low-slung armchair that was a Mayerling furniture exhibit at the Hofmobiliendepot's  Kronprinz Rudolf Lebensspuren in 2008/9. Ahem, it got me thinking! Again, I've given her a very modest length of undergarment, though.

Antony and Cleopatra?

Yes, this is my pre 'Naughty Nineties' tribute. I like to think that the drawing of the girl has a touch of Lewis Baumer about it (the cartoonist was shortly about to embark on his Punch career in the early 1890's and is most famous for his 'flapper girls' of the early Twenties.)
Mary was certainly risking more than her reputation by wanting to become Rudolf's lover. 
Condoms, or prophylactics as they were known, were banned by Imperial decree throughout the (Roman Catholic) Empire...but could be purchased surreptitiously by those in the know, of course. For instance, the classified columns of Wiener Caricaturen, a fairly racy publication with an exclusively male readership, are scattered with small ads for 'womens' health aids' using the curious term 'gummi'(as in 'rubber'?) 

"Something for the weekend, Sir?"

Perhaps Rudolf should have shelled out on a few 'gummis' in his lifetime, but alas, he was obviously far too arrogant and princely and not that much of a revolutionary visionary after all. There were rumours of illegitimate children born after Rudolf's various illicit liaisons and many think that Mary became pregnant too. However, it can be said that for want of a 'gummi' poor Mary's sexual/reproductive health was most probably irretrievably damaged. Venereal diseases could not be completely cured until the discovery of penicillin and the introduction of antibiotics more than half a century later. Let's not forget poor Stephanie, stricken with pelvic inflammatory disease (courtesy of Rudolf) having only managed to produce a daughter. 
Did Mary, in her all consuming passion for the Crown Prince, covertly fantasise about bearing Rudolf a male child? More to trump Stephanie, I feel, than any serious bid to provide an heir for the Hapsburgs-- a very long shot indeed!
However, in the new year of 1889, in a very cynical move (or desperate last-ditch attempt) Rudolf tries to get Emperor Franz Joseph to persuade the Vatican to agree to a marriage annulment-- on the grounds that Stephanie is sterile and is therefore incapable of producing further offspring. Of course, the old man refuses to oblige and is extremely angry, telling Rudolf to dump Mary and patch up his marriage. This is a heated exchange by all accounts during which the Emperor may, at one stage, have threatened to 'disinherit' Rudolf if he didn't comply with his wishes. 

The path to Mayerling is now set...