Sisi’s lady-in-waiting Countess Festetics was famously suspicious of the pushy horse-riding Baltazzi brothers, Hector and Alexander (1850 -1914) , writing in her diary that nobody knew where their money came from. They rode with Empress Elisabeth on the Isle of Wight, Northamptonshire and at Godollo.
The money came from their father Emanuel who was banker to the Sultan of Turkey, who set up a bank in Constantinople and collected tolls on the Pera bridge. Hector and his brother Alexander were educated at the famous public school at Rugby and were able to indulge their love of horse riding. They were welcomed at the royal Courts of Europe.
Hector bought the famous horse Kisber in Hungary that won the Derby and the Grand Prix de Paris races. In England the Baltazzis set up a joint horse training stables at Newmarket with the Rothschilds. Hector married Countess Anna Ungarte 1875 and Alexander married a popular English actress Nellie Bromley in 1878.
Their sister Helen, Countess Vetsera also went to the Isle of Wight. Her daughter Mary became Crown Prince Rudolf’s mistress and died at Mayerling. As a consequence, Hector left Vienna for Paris where he lived for many years. He separated from the Countess in 1890 and died in Vienna.
Attribution Anton Huber [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
