The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1889-03-14
THE uNLuckY HAPsBURcs.
Battle, Murder and Sudden Death Have
Marked the Liyes of tho HaPsburGs.

Marked the Lives of the Hapsburgs.
Apropos of the suicide of Crown
Prince Rudolph of Austria it is recalled
that many of his ancestors met with
sudden death:
Macmillan the First married the
beautiful Mary of Burgunda. Clad In
silver armor. wearing no crown, but a
peerless garland of pearls and precious
stones, he rode into Client to win her.
Next morning she was thrown from
her horse while hawking, and died in
a few hours.
Then Maximilian's cousin went mad.
and the Tyrol came into Maximilian's
possession. Its hills and valleys are
full of memorials of his hunting adj
ventures. Once he was caught on the
brink of the Marlinsward; was held
two days and nights in this perilous
post, and was finally saved from starv-
ing by channels hunter, whom he en-
nobled under the title of 1.-The Hallooer
of High Rock"
Macmillan had the boldness of his
descendants. He forced open the jaws
and pulled out the tongue of Gagged
lion. He mounted to the highest
ledge of the tower of Ulm Cathedral,
and, stepping out on the iron bar by
which the beacon lantern was suspend
ed, he balanced himself on one foot and
posed the other in the air.
Charles ", who succeeded him, was
not handsome. His long, pale face
was disfgured by the ugly lower lip
peculiar to the house of Hapsburg.
His complexion is said to have been
white as milk. At the battle of Null
berg the Protestants looked on him as
a ghost or mummy as he rode along
the lines, his feeble limbs incased in
glittering armor, his hair turned gray
with the torture of the govt, his
features pale as those of corpse.
Macmillan II. died suddenly. He
too had long suffered from the govt.
A quack doctor of Ulm prescribed a
nostrum, saying that it had miraculous
qualities. The King died of it.
Rudolph IL, his eldest son and sue
cessor, was gloomy, passionate, and
hayward, like all his ancestors. His
madness assumed a new phase. He
tanned wild birds and beasts; he studied
magic and alchemy, he strewed his
beautiful palace with antiquarian odds
and ends. His intimate friend was DR..
John Dee, the English alchemist and
conjurer. His dread of violence was
excited still more by the appearance of
Halley's comet, which seemed to con-
firm all his gloomy forebodings. His
bedroom was like fortified place. He
would jump up at the dead of night and
make the Governor search every nook
and Granny of the building.
Ferdinand III. died of shock. A
fire broke ont late at night in the room
where the Emperor lay sick. A hal
berdier of the guard, anxious to save
the youngest Prince, then 2 months old,
was carrying it off in its cot, when in
his haste he fell and broke the cradle.
Tie babe was not in ured, but its i'm
perial father was so terrified that he
expired about three hours afterward.
Queen Eleanor, who married Leo
pold l., was so devout that she tlogged
herself till the blood came, wore spiked
bracelets to torment her wrists. fol-
lowed professions barefoot, and dur
ing the performance of operas, which
her husband forced her to attend,
studied the psalter bound up as lib
retto.
Charles VI, though of stern and
melancholy appearance was as passion
ately fond of field sports as though he
had been of British birth. Undaunted
by wet or cold, he would 60 out for
days together, hawking or tracking
the wild fowl over marsh and moor.
But he was also an excellant musician,
and had the family taste for collecting
coins.
Queen Maria Theresa, whom some
place among the gentlest of women, is
best known by the scene where her
majestic beauty, her animated adj
dress, and the delicacy of her situation
SO affected the Magyars that in a mo-
ment they forgot 200 years of revenge
and cried: eve will die for our King,
Maria Theresa"
Joseph l., like Haroun Alraschid,
loved to mix unknown with his people.
In case of flood or fire he was the
first to the scene of the catastrophe
and worked away Justify with his own
imperial hands.
Leopold H., his brother and sue
cesssor, worked at alchemy and chem
istry. He. too, died by taking quack
pills but these were of his own max
ing. In his cabinet after his death
were found 100 pounds of rouge
powder.
Francis |. was crafty and heartless.
His Ministers were gamesters. When
his physician, Baron Stiff, speaking
OF his health congratulated him on an
excellent constitution, There is no
such thing" said he, ''as an excellent
constitution. have no constitution,
and never will have one"
His son, Ferdinand l., being a tool
in the hands of Metternich, confessed
his weakness of mind and abdicated in
favor of Francis Joseph, the present
Emperor, who has been humiliated by
Prussia, but has still held the dual
Empire intact. His life has passed
smoothly and easily and no great
sorrow has touched it till now.