Rudolph (1858-1889), archduke and Crown Prince of Austria, only son of Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria. He was a patron of literature and the arts and travelled extensively. He wrote about his travels in Travels in the East (1884; trans. 1884). In 1881 he married Princess Stephanie of Belgium. His romantic attachment to a young Austrian noblewoman, Baroness Marie Vetsera, ended in the violent death of both. Their bodies were found in a hunting lodge at Mayerling, near Vienna. Although the Austrian government officially announced that the lovers had committed suicide, unsubstantiated rumours of foul play have persisted to the present day, chiefly because of the archduke's sympathy with the cause of Hungarian nationalism.