6. Mary Vetsera

Baroness Marie Alexandrine (Mary) von Vetsera was born in Vienna in 1871. She attended a convent school in Vienna, the Institute for Daughters of the Nobility, "but since she frequently accompanied her parents on their journeys her education did not go beyond that of a young girl of good family at the time. She had no interests apart from clothes and horse-racing, a sport with which she was familiar from childhood...." (Judtmann 29).

Mary's father, Baron Albin Vetsera, was a diplomat. He died in Cairo in 1887 while serving as the Austro-Hungarian delegate to the Commission Administering the Egyptian State Debt.

Mary's mother, Baroness Helene Vetsera was an ambitious society hostess who wanted to improve her family's nouveau riche status. Albin Vetsera had only been raised to the rank of hereditary baron in 1870 so the Vetseras were regarded as Johnny-come-latelies.

Helene, however, was no stranger to wealth. Her father Theodore Baltazzi had been a banker in Constantinople where he made a fortune from the lease on an important toll bridge, and the Baltazzi family still had connections there. Albin Vetsera, in seeking Franz Josef's permission to marry Helene, told him that she "was the richest young girl in Constantinople" (Judtmann 30).

Helene had three other children, but Mary was her favourite. The older of Helene's two sons had died in the disastrous Ring Theatre fire of 1881 which claimed several hundred victims (estimates vary widely). Sadly, Helene was destined to outlive all four of her children.