EMPRESS OF AUSTRIA’S DEATH.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXI, Issue XII, 17 September 1898, Page 375

EMPRESS OF AUSTRIA’S DEATH.

I'he daily paces have already made our renders acquainted with details of the terrible tragedy which has horrified the whole civilised world. The Empress of Austria was bom in the year 1837 and was one of the four Empresses in Europe. She was at one time regarded as the finest equestrienne in Europe. Many stories are told of her hairbreath escapes from death in the hunting field, for though a skilled she was a very clashing rider. She was scarcely seventeen years of age when she married the Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria. She was then described as a supple, willowy girl and an ardent lover of out-door sports. For years she was the very life and soul of the Vienna Court,but since the tragic death of

her only son. the Crown Prince Rudolph. she took no more interest in society and was afflicted with a mild form of melancholia. In 1854 the Empress' marriage took place. She was the princess ElialMd.li Amalie Eugenie, daughter of the Duke Maxmilian-Joseph, and was a cousin, on the mother's side, to the King of Bavaria. In 1857 she and the Emperor paid a visit to the Italian and Hungarian dominions and granted an amnesty to political oft'emletrs. The Empress frequently visited England ami Ireland for hunting. In July, 1890. her daughter, the Arch-Duchess Valerie, was married to the Archduke Francis Salvator. The Empress' only son, Rudolph, committed suicide mysteriously on January 28th, 1889. The present heir apparent is the Archduke Francis Ferdlinand, nephew of the Emperor of Austria. The liereaved Emperor. Francis Joseph 1., is now 68 years of age, and became Emperor in 1849. He showed much devotion in the war with Prussia in 1866.