Frankie Goes to the Hofburg, or Napoléon II, Regent of Austria?
I liked it @Kellan Sullivan! 
Good to see that there’s both an heir and a spare - I can’t wait to see how the duchies’ dispute will turn out heh
Good to see that there’s both an heir and a spare - I can’t wait to see how the duchies’ dispute will turn out hehNicolas could be named Nicolas Frederik (a bit like Prince Ferdinand of Denmark) - Should the worst then happen, he could still rule as a Frederik. Frankie’s daughter being godmother might be a bit of a stretch though hahah
Thank you. Any guesses why they're going to Lake Constance?
Who's going to support Augustenborg once Berlin stops? Even the liberals in the duchy might not like his opposition to King Christian's constitution. After all, if they want the duchies to have a separate constitution, the idea that he opposes a constitution might be spun as he opposes/will oppose any constitution.I liked it @Kellan Sullivan!
Works for me. Was more just channeling Christian IX's sons (Vilhelm/Georgios and Waldemar) who broke with tradition re: names even though, IIRC, Georgios had Christian as a first name.
Because she's Catholic? Seems a bit ridiculous when Denmark has an Orthodox queen. And IIRC Franz Joseph stood godfather to one of, ICR if it was Christian IX's or Frederik VIII's children OTL. The fact that it's a fourth child could also probably dampen the outrage no?
That is true. With Prussia in shambles and with Austria not really interested here (afaik), Denmark should have a much freer hand to integrate Slesvig/Sønderjylland here. Holstein will then just be like Luxembourg was to the Netherlands I suppose?
I was more thinking of the fact that she’s an openly acknowledged bastard daughter of Frankie - That would be pretty controversial to some, would it not? Even though the child is a girl and way down. Maybe one of the girl’s names could be after her?
Maybe a look at Croatia? The Croatian Sabor was quite unruly at the time. They wanted to secede from Hungary, unite with Slavonia, Dalmatia and Istria, annex Fiume and reintegrate the Military Frontier. IOTL Jelačić managed to temper the Croats and rally against Hungary only (without explicitly defying the Habsburgs), but that was possible only because of the hightened tensions between the Hungarian government and the reactionist elements of the Court (and worked out well only because of the news of the lynching of Count Lambert and the delayed arrival of the news of Pákozd). In this scenario, the Croats might find themselves in open opposition to not only Hungary, but also the Habsburg Monarchy as a whole.
Swiss Fondue
Soundtrack: Friedrich Theodor Fröhlich - Overture to the Drama 'Konradin' [1]
*exterior* *we see the late Queen Hortense's chateau at Arenenberg [2]* *the carriage with Frankie's arms on the door drives up to the front door* *followed by the baggage train that is clearly "necessary" for a "family" outing*
*cut to Frankie and Amalie taking a walk along the lake front* *the pair could be an otherwise perfectly ordinary couple as they watch the four boys running on ahead with their kites* *Karoline and Therese are seated on the picnic blanket that has clearly been used for lunch* *both girls have that "bored teenager held against their will" look of being dragged with on a family vacation, away from friends or anyone their age [3]*
*we see a man in Frankie's red-and-gold livery bustling out across the lawns*
Man: General Dufour has arrived, your Majesty [4].
Amalie: *looks at Frankie exasperatedly* *with that resignation of a wife who knows her husband is too old to change*
Frankie: *consults his watch* *looks at the boys* let them stay out a bit longer. *to chamberlain* bring the ladies a coat, at least, Malsach. This wind coming off the lake is rather cool.
*cut to interior* *looks like a dining room* *it has a long table* *at the head of the room is Appiani's portrait of Napoléon à Milan [5]* *beneath are several carefully tended pots of violets*
Rageth Abys [6]: *frowns at a bronze bust of Napoléon he's holding in his hands* and what good have you wrought?
Frankie: *from the doorway* not much, I assure you, general. Left a dreadful mess behind him. *takes the bust from Abys* *looks at it* *then hands it back* keep it. I'm sure the king of Rome won't mind.
General Dufour: will he be joining us?
Frankie: oh, they sent me to keep you entertained until he deigns to get here [7]
Dufour: rather rude of him. He's the one that summoned us here, after all.
Frankie: I'm afraid that's his nature. Always been like that. Always tearing from here to there, never sitting still for a moment an-
Malsach: *announcing* Messieurs Blösch [8], Neuhaus [9] and Siegward-Müller [10].
Colonel Johannes Burkhardt [11]: what are they doing here.
Frankie: I'm told the king of Rome would be...most appreciative if you could all manage to be civil to one another. This is a civil war, after all *smiles*
Neuhaus: *folds arms* I'll have nothing to say while they are here.
Frankie: *looks expectantly at Blösch and Siegwart-Müller* does the same go for you gentlemen?
*unsure nods*
Frankie: I see...*looks at Dufour and Abys* and you gentlemen feel likewise?
Dufour: I see no reason why we can't discuss this rationally.
Frankie: *leans back in the chair* perhaps because you're all behaving as children. *looks pointedly at Blösch and co.*
Siegward-Müller: *looks up at portrait of Napoléon* I will discuss the matter with the king of Rome or the duke of Reichstadt...or whatever it is he's calling himself nowadays. Not...with these *looks down his nose* men.
Frankie: then, as I said to General Dufour, you might be waiting a while for that. I gathered he was not particularly interested in meeting. Either with a side who murdered a king *looks at Dufour* [12] or with men who are- for want of a better term- rebels *looks at Siegward-Müller*
Siegward-Müller: *draws himself up* we are not rebels sir. We are-
Frankie: freedom fighters? Patriots? Call the game what you will, Monsieur, but it is a very old game. A very tired game. In fact, if I remember my history correctly, wasn't it the patriots who murdered Caesar, Monsieur Titot [13]?
Titot: I believe that is correct, sir.
Frankie: *looks at Siegward-Müller as though to say "see"* now...let me boil down the king of Rome's demands for you gentlemen and then you may...go boil your own heads if you will. *pauses to see if they will agree* *unfolds a piece of paper he takes from inside his coat* on the matter of the Jesuits, he is not particularly concerned either way, but he would propose a compromise.
Titot: *suspiciously* what sort of compromise?
Frankie: you have no doubt seen the types of school he established first in Venice and then at Eichfeld, yes?
*some of the men look suspicious* *others shake their heads*
Titot: they are rather marvellous blend of the traditional and the modern.
Frankie: he would propose that schools of this type- not necessarily identical- be established. Whether a canton wishes to have Jesuits as the teachers or laymen, that is entirely their prerogative. That way, the Jesuits are not expelled but religion is not excised from the school entirely.
Dufour: what denomination would these schools be?
Frankie: it's a school, not a church. If France can have churches that serve both Protestant and Catholic congregations, why can a school not do the same?
*some mutterings from Titot's side of the room* *but they confer and seem to find this "acceptable"*
Frankie: *looks at the other side* going once?
Blösch: it is a good idea, but-
Frankie: why is there always a but?
Neuhaus: the king of Rome is minister of education for the Austrian Empire, not for the Swiss Confederacy.
Frankie: *sighs* Malsach, will you bring that thing I asked you to.
*Malsach sets a book on the table*
Frankie: gentlemen, this is the king of Rome's dictionary of the German language. It has been compiled by some of the most brilliant minds at universities across the Reich. It has been a near decade long labour that has finally come to fruition. So that he could introduce - from the beginning of the year - a standard German to be taught at school. The children will be instructed in their native Boarisch or Pälzisch, but they will learn to speak a single German that will enable them to travel and work throughout the Reich [14]. -now...if he was able to successfully implement such a design across the Deutsche Bund, if he could manage to get more than half of them to agree to sign onto that Constitutio of his...not through treachery or armies...don't you think he's someone who at least merits being heard out?
Neuhaus: the Swiss will not be part of the Bund.
Dufour, Siegwart-Müller: *simultaneously* agreed.
Frankie: *sarcastically* would you look at that. You gentlemen found common ground.
*the men look rather reviled at the thought*
Frankie: and hopefully, by the time his Majesty, the king of Rome graces us with his presence, you gentlemen have perhaps not killed one another and instead found several things you can agree on. *stands up*
Burkhardt: you're leaving?
Frankie: I see no reason to stay.
Burkhardt: but the list of demands... *points*
Frankie: the list of demands was merely to get you gentlemen talking. Since you could agree after the very first point, I see no further reason to waste time reading out the rest.
Abys: and if we do not agree on anything else?
Frankie: no concern of mine. He simply asked me to remind you that he has been relieved of his duties in Austria. And replaced in office by Prince Metternich. Since this whole...kerfuffle...that you have is in contravention of the terms agreed to at the Congress of Vienna, I need not paint a picture for you gentlemen of what would happen there. Prince Metternich lept the hangman's noose ready for the king for twenty years, his Majesty should hate to see the Swiss fall prey to the same noose. After all, last he heard, the man was already negotiating with the king of Hannover to withdraw his support [15]. And then those nice friendly Austrian soldiers marching up and down your countryside won't be so friendly if Prince Metternich persuades the emperor that the Habsburgs really want Switzerland.
Burkhardt: he wouldn't.
Frankie: have you met Prince Metternich? He persuaded the king of Saxony to trade his inheritance for a will o' the wisp in Poland. He would love to be able to claim once again the title of "Europe's peacemaker". If that means sending the entire Austrian army to their doom on the slopes of your damned mountains? He'll do that too. So...you gentlemen understand why the king of Rome is so eager to have you reach an accord before that happens?
*fade to black as he walks out*
[1] my apologies that there's no link to this 1826 work. I can't find any on youtube or even naxos, although there was a 2002 CD (Aargauer Symphony Orchestra and Marc Kissoczy) released with this- and I did have the piece in my music library at one point, but it seems to have disappeared. (if anyone either has a copy or knows where to find it, I'd be very much obliged)
[2] we haven't been back to Arenenberg since Chapter Eliza, ou Le voyage aux Glaciers when Hortense de Beauharnais died. I don't think she left it to Frankie or anything , simply that it makes a very convenient base of operations for him
[3] let's face it. They've just been to Frankfurt (possibly for the first time) and prior to that, Vienna, with it's "dizzying" round of soirées and balls and parties (let's face it, given the way Franzi objects to Frankie "going overboard" with celebrations in Chapter The Man in the Iron Mask, I suspect it was replicated in Frankfurt. Difference being that in Frankfurt, Franzi took the excuse to go deal with his uncle in Saxony). There they were the "centrepieces" (no mention is made that there were any senior archduchesses/empresses), maybe got treated as "women", now they're here. On a family vacation. On Lake Constance. To two "city girls"- raised first in Venice, then Vienna- it's probably "boring".
[4] while Frankie is touchy about that style, given the fact that Arenenberg is likely "too" out of the way to see any regular use aside from occasional visits, the staff might still be locals inherited from Hortense, rather than that Frankie travels with dozens of personal staff
[5] the portrait in question:
[6] Swiss politician, merchant, and soldier and liberal advisor the Grand Diet of Switzerland
[7] Frankie's used a similar tactic of "deception" in Chapter Room With a View. Even if he's been at the forefront of Austrian policy for nearly the last decade, I expect he regularly leans into how unBonaparte he looks: over six-foot, blond and blue-eyed, with a pink-and-white complexion. Even Marmont noted that the only parts of him that resembled his father were his nose, chin and hands
[8] Eduard Eugen Blösch, an fierce opponent of the Swiss Constitution of 1848, even though he supported the ideas of the liberals (mostly). He attempted to "reconcile" the factions- so that the Jesuits could return to Switzerland and the matter of the Aargau monasteries- but was ultimately unsuccessful
[9] Karl Neuhaus, the so-called "dictator of Berne" who was forced to resign his seat due to being overtaken by the liberal radicals
[10] Constantin Siegwart-Müller, one of the main leaders of the ultramontane party, exiled first to Lombardy, then settled in Innsbruck, after the liberals' exposure of his correspondence with Prince Metternich requesting assistance to the secessionists. Since Metternich is not in office, Siegwart-Müller avoids getting exiled.
[11] I can't find out which side he was on, although given the fact that he was Protestant, my money's on anti-Sonderbund
[12] Carlo Alberto fell in battle, not to an assassin's blade, but the point stands
[13] Heinrich/Henri Titot. Again, not sure which side he was on, although he was Protestant. But he was a philanthropist and big supporter of education (for both boys and girls), establishing schools for them in 1846 and 1847
[14] from what my German lecturer told us, this only happened after 1871 OTL, which is why "standard German" is really just "Prussian" German and why there's such a wide divergence between standard German and Austrian/Bavarian/Alemannic German
[15] oddly enough Ernst August of Hannover sent three times as many soldiers to fight in the Sonderbund War as what the Prussians (who kinda ruled Neuchatel) did. I have no idea whether this was that Ernie just paid for the equippage of soldiers, or whether they were actual Hannoverian soldiers, or even why he sent them, but it does sort of explain why Lord Palmerston warned the Swiss to settle this "as quickly as possible". PS, Abys was actually a soldier (quartermaster) in the Dutch army, Titot was a Württemberger, Burckhardt was formerly in the French army, so there was definitely an "international aspect" to it
*exterior* *we see the late Queen Hortense's chateau at Arenenberg [2]* *the carriage with Frankie's arms on the door drives up to the front door* *followed by the baggage train that is clearly "necessary" for a "family" outing*
*cut to Frankie and Amalie taking a walk along the lake front* *the pair could be an otherwise perfectly ordinary couple as they watch the four boys running on ahead with their kites* *Karoline and Therese are seated on the picnic blanket that has clearly been used for lunch* *both girls have that "bored teenager held against their will" look of being dragged with on a family vacation, away from friends or anyone their age [3]*
*we see a man in Frankie's red-and-gold livery bustling out across the lawns*
Man: General Dufour has arrived, your Majesty [4].
Amalie: *looks at Frankie exasperatedly* *with that resignation of a wife who knows her husband is too old to change*
Frankie: *consults his watch* *looks at the boys* let them stay out a bit longer. *to chamberlain* bring the ladies a coat, at least, Malsach. This wind coming off the lake is rather cool.
*cut to interior* *looks like a dining room* *it has a long table* *at the head of the room is Appiani's portrait of Napoléon à Milan [5]* *beneath are several carefully tended pots of violets*
Rageth Abys [6]: *frowns at a bronze bust of Napoléon he's holding in his hands* and what good have you wrought?
Frankie: *from the doorway* not much, I assure you, general. Left a dreadful mess behind him. *takes the bust from Abys* *looks at it* *then hands it back* keep it. I'm sure the king of Rome won't mind.
General Dufour: will he be joining us?
Frankie: oh, they sent me to keep you entertained until he deigns to get here [7]
Dufour: rather rude of him. He's the one that summoned us here, after all.
Frankie: I'm afraid that's his nature. Always been like that. Always tearing from here to there, never sitting still for a moment an-
Malsach: *announcing* Messieurs Blösch [8], Neuhaus [9] and Siegward-Müller [10].
Colonel Johannes Burkhardt [11]: what are they doing here.
Frankie: I'm told the king of Rome would be...most appreciative if you could all manage to be civil to one another. This is a civil war, after all *smiles*
Neuhaus: *folds arms* I'll have nothing to say while they are here.
Frankie: *looks expectantly at Blösch and Siegwart-Müller* does the same go for you gentlemen?
*unsure nods*
Frankie: I see...*looks at Dufour and Abys* and you gentlemen feel likewise?
Dufour: I see no reason why we can't discuss this rationally.
Frankie: *leans back in the chair* perhaps because you're all behaving as children. *looks pointedly at Blösch and co.*
Siegward-Müller: *looks up at portrait of Napoléon* I will discuss the matter with the king of Rome or the duke of Reichstadt...or whatever it is he's calling himself nowadays. Not...with these *looks down his nose* men.
Frankie: then, as I said to General Dufour, you might be waiting a while for that. I gathered he was not particularly interested in meeting. Either with a side who murdered a king *looks at Dufour* [12] or with men who are- for want of a better term- rebels *looks at Siegward-Müller*
Siegward-Müller: *draws himself up* we are not rebels sir. We are-
Frankie: freedom fighters? Patriots? Call the game what you will, Monsieur, but it is a very old game. A very tired game. In fact, if I remember my history correctly, wasn't it the patriots who murdered Caesar, Monsieur Titot [13]?
Titot: I believe that is correct, sir.
Frankie: *looks at Siegward-Müller as though to say "see"* now...let me boil down the king of Rome's demands for you gentlemen and then you may...go boil your own heads if you will. *pauses to see if they will agree* *unfolds a piece of paper he takes from inside his coat* on the matter of the Jesuits, he is not particularly concerned either way, but he would propose a compromise.
Titot: *suspiciously* what sort of compromise?
Frankie: you have no doubt seen the types of school he established first in Venice and then at Eichfeld, yes?
*some of the men look suspicious* *others shake their heads*
Titot: they are rather marvellous blend of the traditional and the modern.
Frankie: he would propose that schools of this type- not necessarily identical- be established. Whether a canton wishes to have Jesuits as the teachers or laymen, that is entirely their prerogative. That way, the Jesuits are not expelled but religion is not excised from the school entirely.
Dufour: what denomination would these schools be?
Frankie: it's a school, not a church. If France can have churches that serve both Protestant and Catholic congregations, why can a school not do the same?
*some mutterings from Titot's side of the room* *but they confer and seem to find this "acceptable"*
Frankie: *looks at the other side* going once?
Blösch: it is a good idea, but-
Frankie: why is there always a but?
Neuhaus: the king of Rome is minister of education for the Austrian Empire, not for the Swiss Confederacy.
Frankie: *sighs* Malsach, will you bring that thing I asked you to.
*Malsach sets a book on the table*
Frankie: gentlemen, this is the king of Rome's dictionary of the German language. It has been compiled by some of the most brilliant minds at universities across the Reich. It has been a near decade long labour that has finally come to fruition. So that he could introduce - from the beginning of the year - a standard German to be taught at school. The children will be instructed in their native Boarisch or Pälzisch, but they will learn to speak a single German that will enable them to travel and work throughout the Reich [14]. -now...if he was able to successfully implement such a design across the Deutsche Bund, if he could manage to get more than half of them to agree to sign onto that Constitutio of his...not through treachery or armies...don't you think he's someone who at least merits being heard out?
Neuhaus: the Swiss will not be part of the Bund.
Dufour, Siegwart-Müller: *simultaneously* agreed.
Frankie: *sarcastically* would you look at that. You gentlemen found common ground.
*the men look rather reviled at the thought*
Frankie: and hopefully, by the time his Majesty, the king of Rome graces us with his presence, you gentlemen have perhaps not killed one another and instead found several things you can agree on. *stands up*
Burkhardt: you're leaving?
Frankie: I see no reason to stay.
Burkhardt: but the list of demands... *points*
Frankie: the list of demands was merely to get you gentlemen talking. Since you could agree after the very first point, I see no further reason to waste time reading out the rest.
Abys: and if we do not agree on anything else?
Frankie: no concern of mine. He simply asked me to remind you that he has been relieved of his duties in Austria. And replaced in office by Prince Metternich. Since this whole...kerfuffle...that you have is in contravention of the terms agreed to at the Congress of Vienna, I need not paint a picture for you gentlemen of what would happen there. Prince Metternich lept the hangman's noose ready for the king for twenty years, his Majesty should hate to see the Swiss fall prey to the same noose. After all, last he heard, the man was already negotiating with the king of Hannover to withdraw his support [15]. And then those nice friendly Austrian soldiers marching up and down your countryside won't be so friendly if Prince Metternich persuades the emperor that the Habsburgs really want Switzerland.
Burkhardt: he wouldn't.
Frankie: have you met Prince Metternich? He persuaded the king of Saxony to trade his inheritance for a will o' the wisp in Poland. He would love to be able to claim once again the title of "Europe's peacemaker". If that means sending the entire Austrian army to their doom on the slopes of your damned mountains? He'll do that too. So...you gentlemen understand why the king of Rome is so eager to have you reach an accord before that happens?
*fade to black as he walks out*
[1] my apologies that there's no link to this 1826 work. I can't find any on youtube or even naxos, although there was a 2002 CD (Aargauer Symphony Orchestra and Marc Kissoczy) released with this- and I did have the piece in my music library at one point, but it seems to have disappeared. (if anyone either has a copy or knows where to find it, I'd be very much obliged)
[2] we haven't been back to Arenenberg since Chapter Eliza, ou Le voyage aux Glaciers when Hortense de Beauharnais died. I don't think she left it to Frankie or anything , simply that it makes a very convenient base of operations for him
[3] let's face it. They've just been to Frankfurt (possibly for the first time) and prior to that, Vienna, with it's "dizzying" round of soirées and balls and parties (let's face it, given the way Franzi objects to Frankie "going overboard" with celebrations in Chapter The Man in the Iron Mask, I suspect it was replicated in Frankfurt. Difference being that in Frankfurt, Franzi took the excuse to go deal with his uncle in Saxony). There they were the "centrepieces" (no mention is made that there were any senior archduchesses/empresses), maybe got treated as "women", now they're here. On a family vacation. On Lake Constance. To two "city girls"- raised first in Venice, then Vienna- it's probably "boring".
[4] while Frankie is touchy about that style, given the fact that Arenenberg is likely "too" out of the way to see any regular use aside from occasional visits, the staff might still be locals inherited from Hortense, rather than that Frankie travels with dozens of personal staff
[5] the portrait in question:
[6] Swiss politician, merchant, and soldier and liberal advisor the Grand Diet of Switzerland
[7] Frankie's used a similar tactic of "deception" in Chapter Room With a View. Even if he's been at the forefront of Austrian policy for nearly the last decade, I expect he regularly leans into how unBonaparte he looks: over six-foot, blond and blue-eyed, with a pink-and-white complexion. Even Marmont noted that the only parts of him that resembled his father were his nose, chin and hands
[8] Eduard Eugen Blösch, an fierce opponent of the Swiss Constitution of 1848, even though he supported the ideas of the liberals (mostly). He attempted to "reconcile" the factions- so that the Jesuits could return to Switzerland and the matter of the Aargau monasteries- but was ultimately unsuccessful
[9] Karl Neuhaus, the so-called "dictator of Berne" who was forced to resign his seat due to being overtaken by the liberal radicals
[10] Constantin Siegwart-Müller, one of the main leaders of the ultramontane party, exiled first to Lombardy, then settled in Innsbruck, after the liberals' exposure of his correspondence with Prince Metternich requesting assistance to the secessionists. Since Metternich is not in office, Siegwart-Müller avoids getting exiled.
[11] I can't find out which side he was on, although given the fact that he was Protestant, my money's on anti-Sonderbund
[12] Carlo Alberto fell in battle, not to an assassin's blade, but the point stands
[13] Heinrich/Henri Titot. Again, not sure which side he was on, although he was Protestant. But he was a philanthropist and big supporter of education (for both boys and girls), establishing schools for them in 1846 and 1847
[14] from what my German lecturer told us, this only happened after 1871 OTL, which is why "standard German" is really just "Prussian" German and why there's such a wide divergence between standard German and Austrian/Bavarian/Alemannic German
[15] oddly enough Ernst August of Hannover sent three times as many soldiers to fight in the Sonderbund War as what the Prussians (who kinda ruled Neuchatel) did. I have no idea whether this was that Ernie just paid for the equippage of soldiers, or whether they were actual Hannoverian soldiers, or even why he sent them, but it does sort of explain why Lord Palmerston warned the Swiss to settle this "as quickly as possible". PS, Abys was actually a soldier (quartermaster) in the Dutch army, Titot was a Württemberger, Burckhardt was formerly in the French army, so there was definitely an "international aspect" to it
Damn, Frankie really escaped the unfortunate Habsburg traits while keeping the fashionable colouring. An absolute win
I figure it's unlikely that Hortense was allowed to keep the "main" portraits- David and Ingres' portraits of him in his coronation robes or as first consul. -However, Eugène de Beauharnais was a patron of Appiani's (as evinced by numerous portraits he made of the extended Beauharnais clan), so I figured nobody would object to her having a "minor" one. Or perhaps it was part of Eugène's estate that he retired to Bavaria with (most of which passed to Hortense's namesake niece, who sold most of it off*).
*although without her brother, the duke of Leuchtenberg, having married a Russian grand duchess here, he likely sticks around in Germany, so she doesn't do that. Unless, perhaps, Leuchtenberg bought Arenenberg from Hortense's sons. After all, her elder son's dowry to marry a Polignac likely didn't come cheap. And Napoléon le Petit has the rank of tutor/governor to the late duc de Chartres' sons. Meaning that both are expected to keep a regular appearance at court- and very little time for junketings off to Switzerland-. The cost of which was practically ruinous OTL (why so many aristocrats married rich). And if there was one thing that Eugène had left in spades: it was money. Something likely helped by the fact that his sole surviving son married the daughter of a very wealthy Belgian aristocrat (Mérode).
he certainly lucked out genetically. If his daughters manage to similarly favour their mom's side (the "velvety eyes" and the "tall and slender, beautiful from head to toe") rather than their dad's, one can see why they would've had the Frankfurt scene in such raptures. Only "features" from their dad they can inherit: the Bonaparte eyes (in her old age, Madame Mère's were described as "they could challenge even the young women's in their melting expressiveness"), mouth, and maybe dark/brown hair. Anything else...like the Battenbergs OTL, the Bonaparte genes were too strong for women*. If they have those looks, Sisi would look like the homely cousin from Iowa at the barn-dance
*most of the Bonaparte women who were beauties (Josephine, Hortense, Alexandrine de Jouberthon, Betsy Patterson, Eugènie de Montijo, etc) were Bonapartes by marriage, not by blood. Letizia (Madame Mère) was certainly a beauty- even in her old-age- and Pauline's was certainly something, but in general, the women in the family were awkward (Napoléon's sister, Elisa), mannish-looking (Elisa's daughter or Caroline), or short, so that rather than statuesque (a kind description of Mathilde by a contemporary**) they looked dumpy.
**Victoria called them "the cook" (Mathilde) and "the assassin" (Plon-Plon), which tells you all you need to know about their appearances IMO. Victoria's pen portraits of people tend to be rather accurate. Since another contemporary noted that Plon-Plon resembled "nothing so much as a worn out basso profundo at a third rate Italian opera house". And while they dwelled on Mathilde's "fine head of Venetian [red] hair" or "profile like a Greek cameo", none ever went so far as to call her beautiful.
How do you think it would happen if Croatia are either "given their head" and allowed to secede? After all, anti-Magyar Metternich is at the helm of policy, alongside a relatively "new" Franzi. Regardless of his education, Franzi is only 18yo. And Metternich might see it as a good way to undermine Palatine Stephan to have Vienna endorse it
AFAIK Metternich wasn't anti-Hungarian per se, but he did vehemently oppose liberal political reforms in the country. For the lack of better alternative, he was supportive towards the forming Conservative Party. The matter with Croatia could provide opportunity to him to disarm the Liberals and increase the influence of the Conservative Party (which in turn becomes indebted to him).
Mecklenburg, Metternich & Murat
Soundtrack: Wagner: Tännhauser - Wie Todesahnung, Dämmerung deckt die Lande
*Exterior* *we see large crowds of protesters on the march* *in the next shot, we see them battering down the palace gates* *next shot shows them unfurling a black-red-gold tricolor from the windows of the schloss at Strelitz*
V/o: our wishes are not exaggerated. We Mecklenburgers are only masters and servants, nothing but the air is common to us, the duties and rights should be equal,
we should be free citizens! the nobility must be destroyed. The Jews must be expelled from German soil. All kings and dukes must go and Germany must become a free nation like America. All officials may be murdered with impunity in pursuit of this goal! [1]
*Cut to Windsor* *night* *Queen Victoria- clearly pregnant- is walking with Prince Albert on the terrace at Windsor Castle*
Victoria: I cannot help but feel sorry for the dreadful fate we have forced on dear Augusta [of Cambridge]. To send her to Mecklenburg only to find herself held prisoner by those awful men.
Albert: *calmly* it is not just her. The emperor's cousins [2] are also in danger of being toppled. In fact, in Strelitz they have already.
Victoria: yes, but the grand duke of Strelitz was not there when this happened. That makes all the difference, Albert. The grand duke, his son, and daughter-in-law were in Genoa for the birth of the Governor's child [3]. They could just as well be on the moon. *looks wistfully up at the sky*
Albert: Victoria, they have still lost their home, whether they be in Genoa or on the Galapagos Islands.
Victoria: yes, but the emperor did not have to agree that President Murat should keep their home [4]
Albert: the signatories to the treaty of Erfurt between Austria and Prussia are Princes Metternich and Murat, it's unclear whether the regent will uphold it. After all, he overturned Prince Metternich's accord with Saxony before the ink even had time to dry.
Victoria: do you really think a Bonaparte will side against his own family here? Just because he hates Metternich?
Albert: Franz is no longer regent, Victoria. He hasn't been since August-
Victoria: that is not what Lord Derby thinks [5]. He says that this whole...bread and circuses distraction that Bonaparte laid on in Frankfurt is-
Albert: the same as bread and circuses he lays on every August?
Victoria: a distraction.
Albert: from what?
Victoria: he says he's not sure. But he gets the feeling the man is more dangerous now than when we knew he was nailed to the floor in Vienna.
Albert: except he wasn't.
Victoria: wasn't what?
Albert: nailed to the floor, Victoria. I daresay he travelled more around the empire he was steward of in his tenure than what Metternich has in his lifetime. To Franz, that was the true lesson of 1789. Not that a king can be killed-
Victoria: *shudders*
Albert: -but that a king cannot exist in a Versailles gilded-cage or be a prisoner in Vienna. He needs to go out. He needs both to see the people and be seen. It is why I wish you would reconsider your stance on allowing Ned to go to Wales.
Victoria: what would he do in Wales that he cannot do in London?
Albert: he is their prince, Victoria.
Victoria: and no prince of Wales has spent time in Wales since Henry VII's son died there. Besides, he's a child-
Albert: at that age, Franz had the now regent of Germany awarding prizes and cutting ribbons already. The boy has a good memory, he is not addressing parliament *tone implies "yet"* but he can be given a few lines to say when he visits Cardiff. He doesn't have to speak Welsh. After all, isn't that what Edward Longshanks promised them?
Victoria: Albert, I said "no". -And we're getting off topic. Surely the emperor is not willing to allow President Murat to remain in place?
Albert: as I understand the terms of Erfurt, the Prussian Rhineland- or what is left of it after the last treaty- will remain in the hands of the king. Once the treaty is ratified, they will allow he and the queen to depart. And Murat and Brandenburg have no interest in the Polish lands, so they are willing to allow Prince Wilhelm to remain there. So long as he agrees to lay down his arms.
Victoria: and in exchange, he is allowed to keep Mecklenburg?
Albert: if it is to guarantee that Berlin will not take anything more-
Victoria: that sounds like the rather naïve British foreign policy at Amiens: we let France keep what we did on the understanding that she would not take any more territory. Have we forgotten who President Murat's uncle was?
Albert: *idly* have we forgotten who Emperor Napoléon's son is? The one who left his cousin to languish in a Prussian prison? The one who killed his own brother? Prince Murat has no reputation of which to speak. He might be the darling of the liberals in Berlin, but there are many- Uncle Léopold, Ernst and Count Bismarck chief amongst them- who have not forgotten his treachery that landed him in that prison to start with. Berlin has chosen him to lead in the hopes that he will be able to do for Prussia what Franz was able to do for Austria. Sadly, from everything I've heard on the man, it seems that he inherited far too much of his father's arrogance, his mother's talent for intrigue and far too little of the shrewdness or capabilities of his uncle. He does not even have the late king of Holland's [6] talent for disguising his mediocrity by adopting his countrymen's habits as his own, since I gather he speaks no German-
Victoria: the first two King Georges didn't speak English and yet here we are. That's hardly to be an issue.
Albert: but King George had Walpole to rule for him. Who does Murat have? Most of the older German administrators - except the liberal ones - are holding themselves aloof. The aristocracy who turn out at his receptions usually spend the night in Berlin after spending the day at Potsdam [7]. Still more importantly, unlike when Franz became regent in Austria, the Bonapartes, Bernadottes, the Murats, the Bachiochi, the Beauharnais...they are not descending on Berlin in the hopes of seeking favours. Is that because they are satiated? Or because he has no favours to bestow?
Victoria: the Vicomtesse de Rochechouart [8] has travelled to see her uncle in Berlin. I gather she's been acting as his hostess.
Albert: presumably because she wants to avoid the vicomte. Or she wishes for her uncle's help in arranging an annulment.
Victoria: it would put his regime off to a rather bad start were he to do that. The scandal-
Albert: imagine...Victoria, a Catholic president - the son of a upjumped atheist cavalryman - of a Calvinist country opening negotiations with his Holiness for the first time in three hundred years...to ask for an annulment of his niece from a good royalist Catholic French aristocrat. The pope must risk irritating France- so lately returned to the church- Austria- since Franz agreed to the match- and no doubt the conservatives in his own church by indulging a heretic? If Franz will not pressure his Holiness to not grant the annulment, Henri likely will. And even if neither of them do anything, the conservative cardinals will have the excuse they are looking for to declare his Holiness unfit for the role. One little annulment that could have as massive repercussions as Henry VIII divorcing Queen Katherine.
Victoria: especially if the rumours are true.
Albert: rumours?
Victoria: the vicomtesse has been acting as her uncle's hostess in other ways as well *grimaces* they even say her child might be his [9]
*fade to black*
[1] from the 1847 Friends of the Fatherland combined with what Hoffmann von Fallersleben wrote in 1848 Mecklenburg
[2] Augusta of Cambridge is grand duchess of Schwerin; Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria (eldest daughter of the Palatine Joseph and his third wife) is the Erbprinzessin of Strelitz
[3] the governor of Genoa is Friedrich of Austria-Teschen. His wife is Mariane of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (OTL queen of Denmark), both Strelitz matches date from Chapter I Wish They All Could Be Californios
[4] Prussia's goals of annexing Mecklenburg have been around since Friedrich the Great tried to do it in the Seven Years' War. Unfortunately, in the 1848 OTL, many of the Mecklenburger liberals/protesters (particularly in the cities of Rostock, Schwerin and Wismar) were in favour of rather being annexed to the Berlin Government than continuing under ducal rule.
[5] the British prime minister
[6] Louis Bonaparte
[7] i.e. waiting on the king and queen
[8] Caroline Murat (Lucien Murat's daughter), mentioned as marrying in Chapter Kabale und Liebe
[9] ah, those Bonapartes. Or Murats. What would one do without them being food for scandal?
*Exterior* *we see large crowds of protesters on the march* *in the next shot, we see them battering down the palace gates* *next shot shows them unfurling a black-red-gold tricolor from the windows of the schloss at Strelitz*
V/o: our wishes are not exaggerated. We Mecklenburgers are only masters and servants, nothing but the air is common to us, the duties and rights should be equal,
we should be free citizens! the nobility must be destroyed. The Jews must be expelled from German soil. All kings and dukes must go and Germany must become a free nation like America. All officials may be murdered with impunity in pursuit of this goal! [1]
*Cut to Windsor* *night* *Queen Victoria- clearly pregnant- is walking with Prince Albert on the terrace at Windsor Castle*
Victoria: I cannot help but feel sorry for the dreadful fate we have forced on dear Augusta [of Cambridge]. To send her to Mecklenburg only to find herself held prisoner by those awful men.
Albert: *calmly* it is not just her. The emperor's cousins [2] are also in danger of being toppled. In fact, in Strelitz they have already.
Victoria: yes, but the grand duke of Strelitz was not there when this happened. That makes all the difference, Albert. The grand duke, his son, and daughter-in-law were in Genoa for the birth of the Governor's child [3]. They could just as well be on the moon. *looks wistfully up at the sky*
Albert: Victoria, they have still lost their home, whether they be in Genoa or on the Galapagos Islands.
Victoria: yes, but the emperor did not have to agree that President Murat should keep their home [4]
Albert: the signatories to the treaty of Erfurt between Austria and Prussia are Princes Metternich and Murat, it's unclear whether the regent will uphold it. After all, he overturned Prince Metternich's accord with Saxony before the ink even had time to dry.
Victoria: do you really think a Bonaparte will side against his own family here? Just because he hates Metternich?
Albert: Franz is no longer regent, Victoria. He hasn't been since August-
Victoria: that is not what Lord Derby thinks [5]. He says that this whole...bread and circuses distraction that Bonaparte laid on in Frankfurt is-
Albert: the same as bread and circuses he lays on every August?
Victoria: a distraction.
Albert: from what?
Victoria: he says he's not sure. But he gets the feeling the man is more dangerous now than when we knew he was nailed to the floor in Vienna.
Albert: except he wasn't.
Victoria: wasn't what?
Albert: nailed to the floor, Victoria. I daresay he travelled more around the empire he was steward of in his tenure than what Metternich has in his lifetime. To Franz, that was the true lesson of 1789. Not that a king can be killed-
Victoria: *shudders*
Albert: -but that a king cannot exist in a Versailles gilded-cage or be a prisoner in Vienna. He needs to go out. He needs both to see the people and be seen. It is why I wish you would reconsider your stance on allowing Ned to go to Wales.
Victoria: what would he do in Wales that he cannot do in London?
Albert: he is their prince, Victoria.
Victoria: and no prince of Wales has spent time in Wales since Henry VII's son died there. Besides, he's a child-
Albert: at that age, Franz had the now regent of Germany awarding prizes and cutting ribbons already. The boy has a good memory, he is not addressing parliament *tone implies "yet"* but he can be given a few lines to say when he visits Cardiff. He doesn't have to speak Welsh. After all, isn't that what Edward Longshanks promised them?
Victoria: Albert, I said "no". -And we're getting off topic. Surely the emperor is not willing to allow President Murat to remain in place?
Albert: as I understand the terms of Erfurt, the Prussian Rhineland- or what is left of it after the last treaty- will remain in the hands of the king. Once the treaty is ratified, they will allow he and the queen to depart. And Murat and Brandenburg have no interest in the Polish lands, so they are willing to allow Prince Wilhelm to remain there. So long as he agrees to lay down his arms.
Victoria: and in exchange, he is allowed to keep Mecklenburg?
Albert: if it is to guarantee that Berlin will not take anything more-
Victoria: that sounds like the rather naïve British foreign policy at Amiens: we let France keep what we did on the understanding that she would not take any more territory. Have we forgotten who President Murat's uncle was?
Albert: *idly* have we forgotten who Emperor Napoléon's son is? The one who left his cousin to languish in a Prussian prison? The one who killed his own brother? Prince Murat has no reputation of which to speak. He might be the darling of the liberals in Berlin, but there are many- Uncle Léopold, Ernst and Count Bismarck chief amongst them- who have not forgotten his treachery that landed him in that prison to start with. Berlin has chosen him to lead in the hopes that he will be able to do for Prussia what Franz was able to do for Austria. Sadly, from everything I've heard on the man, it seems that he inherited far too much of his father's arrogance, his mother's talent for intrigue and far too little of the shrewdness or capabilities of his uncle. He does not even have the late king of Holland's [6] talent for disguising his mediocrity by adopting his countrymen's habits as his own, since I gather he speaks no German-
Victoria: the first two King Georges didn't speak English and yet here we are. That's hardly to be an issue.
Albert: but King George had Walpole to rule for him. Who does Murat have? Most of the older German administrators - except the liberal ones - are holding themselves aloof. The aristocracy who turn out at his receptions usually spend the night in Berlin after spending the day at Potsdam [7]. Still more importantly, unlike when Franz became regent in Austria, the Bonapartes, Bernadottes, the Murats, the Bachiochi, the Beauharnais...they are not descending on Berlin in the hopes of seeking favours. Is that because they are satiated? Or because he has no favours to bestow?
Victoria: the Vicomtesse de Rochechouart [8] has travelled to see her uncle in Berlin. I gather she's been acting as his hostess.
Albert: presumably because she wants to avoid the vicomte. Or she wishes for her uncle's help in arranging an annulment.
Victoria: it would put his regime off to a rather bad start were he to do that. The scandal-
Albert: imagine...Victoria, a Catholic president - the son of a upjumped atheist cavalryman - of a Calvinist country opening negotiations with his Holiness for the first time in three hundred years...to ask for an annulment of his niece from a good royalist Catholic French aristocrat. The pope must risk irritating France- so lately returned to the church- Austria- since Franz agreed to the match- and no doubt the conservatives in his own church by indulging a heretic? If Franz will not pressure his Holiness to not grant the annulment, Henri likely will. And even if neither of them do anything, the conservative cardinals will have the excuse they are looking for to declare his Holiness unfit for the role. One little annulment that could have as massive repercussions as Henry VIII divorcing Queen Katherine.
Victoria: especially if the rumours are true.
Albert: rumours?
Victoria: the vicomtesse has been acting as her uncle's hostess in other ways as well *grimaces* they even say her child might be his [9]
*fade to black*
[1] from the 1847 Friends of the Fatherland combined with what Hoffmann von Fallersleben wrote in 1848 Mecklenburg
[2] Augusta of Cambridge is grand duchess of Schwerin; Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria (eldest daughter of the Palatine Joseph and his third wife) is the Erbprinzessin of Strelitz
[3] the governor of Genoa is Friedrich of Austria-Teschen. His wife is Mariane of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (OTL queen of Denmark), both Strelitz matches date from Chapter I Wish They All Could Be Californios
[4] Prussia's goals of annexing Mecklenburg have been around since Friedrich the Great tried to do it in the Seven Years' War. Unfortunately, in the 1848 OTL, many of the Mecklenburger liberals/protesters (particularly in the cities of Rostock, Schwerin and Wismar) were in favour of rather being annexed to the Berlin Government than continuing under ducal rule.
[5] the British prime minister
[6] Louis Bonaparte
[7] i.e. waiting on the king and queen
[8] Caroline Murat (Lucien Murat's daughter), mentioned as marrying in Chapter Kabale und Liebe
[9] ah, those Bonapartes. Or Murats. What would one do without them being food for scandal?
@Kellan Sullivan ! incredible chapter! Love the family drama! Good thing that Albert is pushing for ned to be given proper duties
Caroline was rather the énfante térrible of the Second Empire as well. She never had a kind word for either her cousin, the emperor, nor for Empress Eugènie. She was a vain, spiteful and vicious creature ("it seemed that the Caroline Bonaparte who had tormented the first empire had come alive in her granddaughter to torment the second"), so her upping sticks from Paris to Berlin to take advantage of her aunt's absence, seemed right up her street
he's a little less "exacting" on his son TTL for no real reason than he's had exposure to a "paternal presence" aside from Uncle Léopold. Still, whether Victoria's refusal to let Ned go is her OTL possessive streak rearing it's ugly head early, or the typical Hannoverian distrust of the monarch for the heir...is open to question. Sure...the little boy is barely out of short pants, but as Albert points out, Franzi was too. And if Ned has anything of OTL Bertie's charm, I suspect he made a decent impression on the French court and the way Victoria reacts seems in a tone of "not this again".
With regard to Frankie? Or Ned? Because in her defense re: Frankie, she hasn't seen him interact with his Bonaparte relatives. Albert has (at Madame Mère's funeral). Derby wasn't the brightest bulb in the box and likely recoiled in horror when the 1848 happened, so it's very easy for him to fall back on British xenophobia that this is 1789 all over again. Something both Victoria and Albert seem to recognize as "not true". But Derby/Victoria are probably not the only ones who believe Frankie is still treating Europe as his personal puppet theatre.
With regard to Ned, as mentioned, it's debatable whether it's possessiveness or distrust. Albert/Henri/Frankie all seem to recognize the struggle of the periphery (Wales/Ireland/Cornwall, Navarre/Lorraine/Brittany; Genoa and Silesia) to identify with the capital (London, Paris, Vienna). They all seem to be making an effort to "correct" that. Even Wilhelm of Prussia- as archconservative as he is- is probably travelling more in Poland than any other Hohenzollern has- ever- while there's no mention that Murat has even stirred from the confines of Berlin. Maybe Victoria, who knows that she was dragged up and down the country-side by her mother as an "locus for opposition" to the crown, is perhaps afraid that that's the same thing that will happen with Ned?
Didn't know about that. ThanksAntisemitism is the socialism of fools - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
does anyone know about any other fashion designers active in mid-19th century Paris besides Charles Worth- who only seems to have come to prominence with Empress Eugènie in 1855? I've tried googling all sorts of combinations "couturier", "marchande des modes" even "dress" but it would seem that between Hippolyte Leroy (designer to Empress Josephine) and Worth (to Eugènie) Paris had a shortage of fashion designers (didn't think that was possible)
I couldn't find anyone before Worth - he seems to have been the inventor of Haute Couture in France. But from what I found a few months ago while researching one of my ancestors' life it seems that in pre-1850s France, textile workers both designed and produced their own clothes. Lyon especially was the capital of silk in the 19th century, trading with China, and started to decline in the 1880s only.
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