They had three children, Ernst, Max and Sophie, the last two known in the family as Maxl and Sopherl — whom the Archduke adored. Momentarily oblivious to all protocol, he enjoyed sitting on the floor to play with them, often receiving important visitors in this position — and woe to any visitor who did not instantly follow the royal example. The conjugal union of the Habsburg autocrat-to-be with the daughter of the empire’s despised Slav minority seemed a model of bourgeois felicity; actually it was in all probability something more than that: the day they took their last ride together it was
...more
