Attempt To Murder Austrian Archduchess Shot Fired at Car

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 768, 14 September 1929, Page 20

Attempt To Murder Austrian Archduchess Shot Fired at Car

MS unsuccessful attempt to murder Princess Elisabeth Windiscligraetz, granddaughter of the late Emperor Franz Joseph, is reported from Laibach (Ljubliana, in Jugoslavia). It. is stated that when the Princess was returning to her castle at Littai, near Laibach, a shot was fired at her motor-car. The windows were smashed, and the princess was slightly injured about the face. The Hapsburg Archduchess Elisabeth, who is the daughter of the late unhappy Crown Prince Rudolph and the Belgian Princess Stephanie, has led an amazing life. When the Princess met and fell in love with Prince Wiudischgraetz in 1901, the Emperor Joseph insisted that they should neither meet nor write each other for a year. The condition was kept and the Royal couple married, despite the Emperor’s belief that it was a mesalliance. Soon remarkable stories of love intrigues were afoot, and later the Prince asked for a divorce, alleging that his -wife’s affection had turned to hatred. Four Years’ Trial After a trial lasting four years, the Prince won his suit and was given custody of the two children. At Scboenau Castle there were lively scenes when an attempt was made to force the mother to give up the children. Twenty gendarmes with fixed bayonets went to the castle, but the estate workers protested and a fight seemed imminent, when the Mayor obtained the postponement of the putting into execution of the court’s order. ' She once > wrote of her husband: “The class of aristocrat who is' ridiculed both by the stage and the Press; in short, a weak-minded, morally undeveloped, cowardly fop.”