Wealhtheow’s Reviews > The Mistresses: Domestic Scandals of 19th-Century Monarchs > Status Update

Francis Joseph of Austria scrupulously followed a rigid schedule that began at 3:15 am every morning. At 6am he walked to his mistress's house. "Once, when Kathi's cook overslept and failed to unlock the door, he simply stood and waited on the doorstep. He did not know that one could ring a bell."

Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria was a nervous child, and his tutor tried to toughen him by shooting off revolvers in the bedchamber while he slept; or he locked the boy alone in the zoo while he hid himself in the bushes, crying, "Here comes a wild boar!"

Elizabeth of Austria "had a private circus ring in which she trained herself and her horses in the most advanced&dangerous arts of the haute ecole. When she heard of a horse that was untamable, she tamed it.She rode with the Hungarian cowboys, and she could ride 3 horses to a standstill in one day." for her birthday she asked "for either a young royal tiger or a locket. What I should like best of all would be..."

While journeying down the river, he asked why all the people on the bank were cheering him. "because they love you," he was told. "If you love me," he shouted, "throw your hats into the river!" And he laughed to see the hats floating to the sea.Almost all the uncharming anecdotes about the childhood of Alexander of Serbia seem to be anagrams of a question: How much could he get away with before somebody murdered him?