Doomed Empire
By Mowahid Hussain Shah

 

The other day, I watched the 1968 historical drama, “Mayerling,” starring what the Daily Mail, on May 24, 2015, characterized “the last great romantic idol of cinema” Omar Sharif, playing Prince Rudolf. It is based on a true story in that, on January 30, 1889, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Crown Prince Rudolf, along with Mary, his paramour, were found dead inside the Mayerling hunting lodge, in Baden district in lower Austria. Opinions differ on the manner of the deaths. Suffice it to say they both died under disputed circumstances. Some say it was a suicide pact; others call it a conspiratorial murder. Prince Rudolf did hold liberal views that were at variance with the stricter posture of the House of Habsburg, which was the ruling royalty. Plenty of conjecture lingers, just like in Princess Diana’s death with Dodi on August 31, 1997. Both of the tragic episodes, a century apart, threatened the Crown. Mayerling was a preview of worse to come.

In the movie, director Terence Young took a chance by having screen icon, Ava Gardner, portray Empress Elisabeth, Rudolf’s mother, although she was only 8 years older than Omar Sharif. Elisabeth – noted for her charitable works – never got over the death of her only son and 10 years later was herself assassinated by an Italian anarchist in Geneva.

Seeing the movie unfold triggered memory of a visit to the Muslim city of Sarajevo in Bosnia, where I stood at the exact spot where an assassin, on June 28, 1914, had gunned down the heir apparent to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife. This assassination triggered World War I.

When Crown Prince Rudolf died, three great empires, namely, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman, and the Tsarist, were in the twilight zone. The Sarajevo slaying 25 years later hastened their collective demise. The end of the Ottoman Empire sparked the Khilafat Movement in India, wherein Mahatma Gandhi joined hands with Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire – the second largest country in Europe – existed from 1867 to 1918, and was comprised of the Austrian Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia and, after 1908, Bosnia-Herzegovina.  The Royal House of Habsburg, which ruled much of Europe for centuries, was marked by consanguineous marriages – and because of excessive inbreeding – carried over into the bloodline genetic deformities, including significant mental issues.

Vienna was the seat of the House of Habsburg. In 1683, an Ottoman siege of Vienna was thwarted and there is a functional exhibit marking that seminal event, through which the Viennese first became acquainted with coffee. When my wife and I took a boat from Budapest to Vienna on the River Danube, one of our first stops was to visit the mammoth Hofburg Palace, the main imperial palace of the Habsburg dynasty. What immediately struck, despite the grandeur and opulence of the surroundings, was the paucity of bathrooms, which put into context the unscientific notions of personal hygiene prevailing in Europe – a pattern that still persists.

The movie “Mayerling” is a sweeping historic epic lavishly mounted. It took a skilled director in Terence Young to put it all together. He is the one who had previously launched the James Bond franchise by directing “Dr No” (1962) and “From Russia With Love” (1963). In 1956, Terence Young made his mark by directing “Zarak”, a CinemaScope extravaganza set in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier, based on a story of Britain’s colonial battles against Pathan resistance. That ultimately turned out to be a doomed misadventure.

Its latest manifestation is the ignominy of America’s frantic evacuation from Afghanistan. Juxtapose the tall talk in 2001 with the rush to the exit doors in 2021. It evokes the Carpenters hit song, “It is Yesterday Once More.” History has its own repetitive cycle. An invincible façade masks a vulnerable core.

At the end of the day, when all is said and done, just like the doomed romance of Crown Prince Rudolf with Mary, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was also doomed. Aren’t all empires doomed?