A Treasury of Royal Scandals: The Shocking True Stories History's Wickedest Weirdest Most Wanton Kings Queens by Michael Farquhar
Authors: Michael Farquhar
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up with the rest of his subjects when the royal family was toasted. Her dignified behavior in the face of all her husband’s insults gained Catherine sympathy and respect, and soon a plot to overthrow the tsar centered around her. With the Russian army and establishment firmly behind her, Catherine forced Peter’s abdication. She was proclaimed empress, while her husband was discreetly murdered a few days later. He was a far more effective general, it seems, with tin soldiers on a loveless bed.
5
Wails From the Vienna Wood
A ustrian Empress Maria Theresa should not be judged too harshly for the series of miserable marriages she arranged for her large brood of children in the late eighteenth century. Sure, dynastic and diplomatic considerations took precedence over any potential happiness they might have enjoyed in the arrangements, but, in her defense, the empress probably had no notion of what wedded bliss meant. She was, after all, married to a shameless philanderer who humiliated her with his numerous and less than discreet affairs.
From his frequent flirtations with young dancers and opera singers of the Vienna stage to long-term liaisons with ladies of the court, Emperor Francis was the ultimate adulterer. He was particularly enamoured of Princess Auersperg, a paramour thirty years his junior. “The emperor makes no secret of his passion for her,” one visitor to the Austrian court noted. Indeed, Francis and his mistress enjoyed frequent trysts in his hunting lodges, his theater box in Vienna, and the cozy home he purchased for her. Even his somewhat sheltered children knew what was going on. “The emperor is a very good-hearted father,” wrote his daughter Christina, “one can always rely upon him as a friend, and we must do what we can to protect him from his weakness. I am referring to his conduct with Princess Auersperg.” Her mother, Christina continued, was “very jealous of this devotion.”
Despite her displeasure, and the fact that she held all the power as the sovereign of both Austria and Hungary, the empress could do nothing to rein in her wayward husband. Instead, she became obsessed with controlling the moral conduct of her subjects. With its opulent theaters, grand opera houses, and an up-and-coming talent by the name of Mozart, the glittering city of Vienna was a cosmopolitan mecca in the midst of a cultural wasteland. It was “a city of free adultery,” as one visitor put it. And it was here that Emperor Francis’s lifestyle thrived.
Transferring her anger at her husband’s betrayals, Maria Theresa established her Chastity Commission, a special department of the police charged with suppressing vice. The purity patrols were everywhere, infiltrating theaters, social gatherings, and even private homes. Anyone suspected of being less than upright was arrested, while foreigners accused of corrupting the local citizenry were banished from the kingdom. Some said the betrayed empress herself played a part in the commission, disguising herself and roaming Vienna in search of her wayward man.
The usual punishment for those convicted of moral violations was harsh, meant to serve as an example to others. The violators were chained to stone pillars at the city gates where they sat in their own filth, sometimes for weeks or months, completely dependent on the kindness of strangers for food and drink. The punishments, however, backfired. Instead of being ridiculed and scorned, the chained souls became heroes of sorts. The citizens of Vienna fed and catered to them while laughing at the prudish empress with the unfaithful husband.
When she wasn’t storming the bedrooms of her people, Maria Theresa busied herself inflicting marriage on her helpless children. Like many royal offspring, they were to be used as political capital, helping to strengthen their parents’ position through arranged matrimony. This was a particularly rich and ancient tradition in the empress’s Habsburg family line.
5
Wails From the Vienna Wood
A ustrian Empress Maria Theresa should not be judged too harshly for the series of miserable marriages she arranged for her large brood of children in the late eighteenth century. Sure, dynastic and diplomatic considerations took precedence over any potential happiness they might have enjoyed in the arrangements, but, in her defense, the empress probably had no notion of what wedded bliss meant. She was, after all, married to a shameless philanderer who humiliated her with his numerous and less than discreet affairs.
From his frequent flirtations with young dancers and opera singers of the Vienna stage to long-term liaisons with ladies of the court, Emperor Francis was the ultimate adulterer. He was particularly enamoured of Princess Auersperg, a paramour thirty years his junior. “The emperor makes no secret of his passion for her,” one visitor to the Austrian court noted. Indeed, Francis and his mistress enjoyed frequent trysts in his hunting lodges, his theater box in Vienna, and the cozy home he purchased for her. Even his somewhat sheltered children knew what was going on. “The emperor is a very good-hearted father,” wrote his daughter Christina, “one can always rely upon him as a friend, and we must do what we can to protect him from his weakness. I am referring to his conduct with Princess Auersperg.” Her mother, Christina continued, was “very jealous of this devotion.”
Despite her displeasure, and the fact that she held all the power as the sovereign of both Austria and Hungary, the empress could do nothing to rein in her wayward husband. Instead, she became obsessed with controlling the moral conduct of her subjects. With its opulent theaters, grand opera houses, and an up-and-coming talent by the name of Mozart, the glittering city of Vienna was a cosmopolitan mecca in the midst of a cultural wasteland. It was “a city of free adultery,” as one visitor put it. And it was here that Emperor Francis’s lifestyle thrived.
Transferring her anger at her husband’s betrayals, Maria Theresa established her Chastity Commission, a special department of the police charged with suppressing vice. The purity patrols were everywhere, infiltrating theaters, social gatherings, and even private homes. Anyone suspected of being less than upright was arrested, while foreigners accused of corrupting the local citizenry were banished from the kingdom. Some said the betrayed empress herself played a part in the commission, disguising herself and roaming Vienna in search of her wayward man.
The usual punishment for those convicted of moral violations was harsh, meant to serve as an example to others. The violators were chained to stone pillars at the city gates where they sat in their own filth, sometimes for weeks or months, completely dependent on the kindness of strangers for food and drink. The punishments, however, backfired. Instead of being ridiculed and scorned, the chained souls became heroes of sorts. The citizens of Vienna fed and catered to them while laughing at the prudish empress with the unfaithful husband.
When she wasn’t storming the bedrooms of her people, Maria Theresa busied herself inflicting marriage on her helpless children. Like many royal offspring, they were to be used as political capital, helping to strengthen their parents’ position through arranged matrimony. This was a particularly rich and ancient tradition in the empress’s Habsburg family line.
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