Editing Empress Elisabeth of Austria (section)

===Mayerling incident===
{{main|Mayerling incident}}

[[File:Mayerling 1889.jpg|thumb|The imperial hunting lodge at [[Mayerling]], in which Crown Prince Rudolf died by suicide in 1889]]

In 1889, Elisabeth's life was shattered by the death of her only son [[Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria|Rudolf]], who was found dead together with his young lover Baroness [[Baroness Mary Vetsera|Mary Vetsera]], in what was suspected to be a [[murder–suicide]] on Rudolf's part. The scandal was known as the "Mayerling incident" after the location of Rudolf's hunting lodge in [[Lower Austria]], where they were found.

[[File:László Erzsébet királyné.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|left|Elisabeth in [[Mourning|mourning dress]], by [[Philip de László]] (1889)]]

Elisabeth never recovered from the tragedy, sinking further into melancholy. Within ten years, she had lost her father, [[Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria|Maximilian Joseph]], in 1888; her only son Rudolf in 1889; her older sister [[Duchess Helene in Bavaria|Helene]] in 1890; her mother, [[Princess Ludovika of Bavaria|Ludovika]], in 1892; and her younger sister, [[Duchess Sophie Charlotte in Bavaria|Sophie Charlotte]], during an accidental fire at the [[Bazar de la Charité]] in 1897. After Rudolf's death she was thought to have dressed only in black for the rest of her life, although a light blue and cream dress discovered by The Hofburg's Sisi Museum dates to this time.<ref name="Bowers Bahney 2015" /> To compound her losses, Count [[Gyula Andrássy]] died on 18 February 1890. "My last and only friend is dead," she lamented. Elisabeth's youngest daughter Marie Valerie declared, "...she clung to him with true and steadfast friendship as she did perhaps, to no other person."<ref>Sisa, Stephan, ''The Spirit of Hungary: A Panorama of Hungarian History and Culture'', Vista Court Books, 1995, p. 173</ref>

The Mayerling incident increased public interest in Elisabeth, and she continued to be an icon and a sensation in her own right wherever she went. She carried a white [[Umbrella|parasol]] made of leather in addition to a concealing fan to hide her face from the curious.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TycC_OQQ6QQC&pg=PP6|title=The Reluctant Empress: A Biography of Empress Elisabeth of Austria|last=Hamann|first=Brigitte|date=2012|publisher=Faber & Faber|isbn=9780571287567|language=en}}</ref>