Crown Prince Rudolf's death left a young daughter in mourning, but her grandfather, Emperor Franz Joseph, stepped into the breech to become guardian of young Elisabeth Marie, future Archduchess. Though the two were close, Elisabeth was a fiery child who balked at convention, much like her father. She cajoled her grandfather into approving her first marriage, a union unsuitable for her rank, but he ultimately relented and allowed Elisabeth to wed Prince Otto of Windisch-Graetz. Otto was as surprised as anyone by the union, leading to an unfortunate incident where Elisabeth murdered his mistress with a handgun he'd given her. Though they would have four children, the marriage floundered, and by 1918 they were separated. In 1921, always a radical, Elisabeth joined the Social Democratic Party of Austria - hence, The Red Archduchess - and met her next flame, Leopold Petznek. The two would remain together until his death in 1956, though only married for a short time - on account of Elisabeth and Otto remaining married until 1948! Listen ad-free at patreon.com/trashyroyalspodcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Content warning: Suicide This week, we take a little trip over to the Austro-Hungarian Emprire in the latter half of the 19th century to meet one of the more scandalous figures of his age - and a man whose death most likely put the world on the path toward World War I. Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria grew up in an emotionally and physically abusive environment, tormented by the military official in charge of his education and ignored by his mother, whose affection he craved. Bookish and forward-thinking, young Rudolf clashed often with his father, Emperor Franz Joseph, and struck out on his own as a Playboy Prince, nurturing a close friendship with Queen Victoria's heir, Bertie, Prince of Wales. While forced into a loveless marriage, Rudolf didn't slow his extracurriculars for even a minute; he would later contract, and share with his unsuspecting wife, gonorrhoea, and it's thought that the Prince himself may have contracted syphilis as well. These are all unseemly things, to be sure, but it is the murder-suicide that ended both Crown Prince Rudolf's life, as well as his 17-year-old mistress's, that shook up the line of succession, forged a tight alliance with Germany, and seems to have inevitably led to the beginning of hostilities in 1914. Listen ad-free at patreon.com/trashyroyalspodcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We tend to think of Queen Victoria attired in black, with a dour countenance, but as a young queen she was anything but. Her marriage to Prince Albert was the rare love match, and according to her surviving letters and journal entries, the two enjoyed a vibrant intimacy, albeit in an era where birth control wasn't really a thing. The nine children Victoria and Albert produced speaks to that. Then, Alicia has some tales from the more ordinary lives of Victorians in England, most of which evinced an enduring - and in our day, a somewhat funny - fascination with death. Listen ad-free at patreon.com/trashyroyalspodcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Queen Victoria was just 18 when she assumed the throne in the United Kingdom in 1837. She ruled for more than 63 years and is considered truly one of the great monarchs in history, but her reign did not start without a few hiccups. Looking at her first two years on the throne or so, we examine some of the personal politics that played out through the lenses of a few people in her orbit. Sir John Conroy, her mother's comptroller (and possibly lover), had been integral to the much-loathed "Kensington System" under which she had been raised. While intended to make her meek and dependent on her mother and Conroy, the opposite happened, and when Victoria was finally liberated by the death of her uncle, King William IV, one of her first acts was to bar him from her presence. He remained her mother's comptroller, however, and would continue to attempt to exert malign influence for a few years to come. The Whig Prime Minister at the time, Lord Melbourne, took a keen interest in the young Queen, and spent substantial amounts of time educating her on the finer points of politics in the Kingdom. This, of course, set less charitable tongues wagging, particularly given Lord Melbourne's fairly sordid background. Seriously - how did this guy manage to become PM? In what became a genuine stain on Victoria's early years, the Lady Flora Hastings affair was a culmination of her enduring anger over the Kensington System, and gave John Conroy a last chance to attack the new Queen's judgment. When one of her mother's ladies-in-waiting, Lady Flora Hastings, developed a swollen belly and other signs of pregnancy, rumors swirled that the unmarried Lady Flora was pregnant with John Conroy's child. Animosity ran deep on all sides, and Victoria ultimately made clear that Lady Flora would not be permitted in her mother's household until she submitted to an invasive examination by the royal physician. Tragically, Lady Flora was not pregnant; her true condition was an advanced cancerous tumor on her liver, and the whole scandal - including Lady Flora's death just months later - left Victoria personally ashamed and publicly damaged. Listen ad-free at patreon.com/trashyroyalspodcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We tend to think of royal upbringings as fairly entitled, but for the future Queen Victoria, her childhood was more like a hostage situation. After her father's death when she was just an infant, her mother and (maybe) her mother's lover went to great lengths to control every aspect of her life. Young Victoria was simply never allowed to be alone, including sleeping in her mother's bedroom until the day she became Queen, and was not permitted to walk down stairs without holding the hand of either her mother or her governess. This so-called Kensington System, invented by her mother and Sir John Conroy, also kept her isolated from other children and her Hanoverian relatives, with the intent of making Victoria dependent on them for the rest of her life. In that, it was a colossal failure. As Queen, Victoria barely maintained a relationship with her mother, and Sir John Conroy was specifically banned from her apartments in one of her first acts as monarch. Listen ad-free at patreon.com/trashyroyalspodcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices