Chapter 235: The New Holy Roman Empire

  Chapter 230: The New Holy Roman Empire

Vienna Palace

After learning that Franz took out the throne of the King of Lombardy and the Wittelsbach Dynasty deal, the Empress Dowager Sophie breathed a sigh of relief, this result can be accounted for to most of the family members.

European aristocratic relations are intricate and complicated, and the whole body will be affected by one hair. If the Austrian government is determined to force a Serbian crown to the Wittelsbach dynasty, the Empress Dowager Sophie will not have the face to go home to see people.

You should know that when the war broke out, Franz made a promise to the Bavarian royal family, and the Empress Dowager Sophie was also pulled out as a guarantee.

Munich can be taken down by negotiation, on the one hand, it really can not be beaten, on the other hand, everyone’s interests are guaranteed, naturally, no one and Austria dead.

If the royal family had not chosen to give up, with the Wittelsbach family’s hundred years of operation, not even the defense of Munich could not be fought.

The Duke of the Duchy of Pfalz can only be regarded as a hitchhiker, which was originally ruled by the Bavarian royal family, and even if Austria did not support them, the knighthood would most likely be theirs in the end.

The foundation of the great nobility has been preserved. Politically, Lombardy is certainly no match for Bavaria, but economically the Bavarian royal family has not suffered any losses.

Even if the most important power was taken away by the central government, it was impossible to really turn the king into a rubber stamp, at least not allowed in a system like Austria.

Being hollowed out was only temporary, the king could get most of his power back if he was somewhat competent, and there was no way that as emperor Franz would tolerate bureaucratic licentiousness.

Otherwise today can hollow out the king underneath, tomorrow these people will dare to hollow out the emperor.

Jealousy is an emperor’s instinct, taboo things must be resolutely suppressed, can not give the bureaucrats to leave half a chance.

At the Munich palace, the Bavarian royal family has begun to move. They are no longer welcome here. Neither the people, nor the bureaucrats, wanted him to stay on.

In everyone’s opinion, it would be best for the Bavarian royal family to exchange the throne with Austria so that everyone can get along happily.

People who had declared neutrality during the war no longer had to worry about being settled. The royal family had a good place to go, and they could be at peace with their allegiance to the Habsburgs.

Looking at the slowly closing palace doors, Maximilian II sighed, the Wittelsbach Dynasty’s rule over the Kingdom of Bavaria came to an end, and it wouldn’t be long before he was Maximilian I of the Kingdom of Lombardy.

As if it was a curse, the Wittelsbach Dynasty had ruled over many places, but basically they did not stay long, and Bavaria was just one of them.

The Wittelsbach dynasty still had some family background, even after leaving there were still a lot of people to follow, and soon gathered a team of thousands of people, under the escort of the royal guards to the capital of the Lombardy Kingdom, the city of Milan.

This is also the reason why the Austrian government is reluctant to use force, the deep-rooted royal family is not so easy to deal with, and now this is so good, they left of their own accord.

If the face is torn, these people engaged in sabotage, it is estimated that three years and five years Bavaria can not be peaceful.

……

Paris.

Napoleon III smashed an unknown number of vases in anger for the very simple reason that his marriage was in trouble and most of the royal families of Europe could not see him as an outburst.

Not long ago he had been rejected for a marriage to Countess Carola of the abdicated royal family of Sweden, and now an offer of marriage to Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg had been rejected once again.

Not only he, in fact, even the famous Napoleon has been worried about this problem, the big nobles do not look at them these outbreaks of family, but the European continent is the world to see the pedigree.

If the blood is not noble enough, the legitimacy of the rule will be questioned. Their own blood is not noble enough, then rely on marriage to make up for it.

Napoleon III is deeply felt, he is only Napoleon’s nephew, the domestic public recognition of him is not high, urgent need for a political marriage to stabilize the position.

Since 1851, he had been in a headache over this problem. Until now there are no results, the big nobles can not see him, and he can not see the small nobles.

Do not blame him for being angry, at least is the emperor of France, even if the first line of princesses can not marry, side princesses can always be right? As a result, not to mention the full-fledged princess, the princess of the abdicated royal family can’t see him.

Being rejected three times, this kind of thing he can endure is strange.

Perhaps after venting, Napoleon III coldly asked, “What other alternatives are there?”

The Palace Minister whispered, “Your Majesty, the latter alternatives are a bit low in status, not worthy of your status!”

Napoleon III glared at him fiercely, isn’t this a pot calling the kettle black? Those who are worthy, he can’t marry ah!

In this context, there is a Scottish blood of the Spanish female aristocrat Eugenie de Montijo appeared in the French court.

Napoleon III did not want to continue to toss, can not marry the status of a comparable, then marry one of their own favorite.

On December 1, 1853, Napoleon III announced his impending marriage to all senior officials. At the same time it was pointed out that he wanted this marriage to be free from both French and foreign dynasties:

“I prefer a woman whom I love and respect more than a stranger whose marriage will have both advantages and disadvantages.”

A pioneer of free love appeared, and it may be said that Napoleon III. made a good beginning, and many others followed his example.

This after-dinner giggle in the eyes of the aristocracy soon passed to Vienna, where it attracted the attention of the Viennese court, and the immediate consequence was that Franz’s days of singleness were about to come to an end.

……

Metternich reminded, “Your Majesty, is it true that there is no need to prepare for the Grand Ceremony? It will be a laughing stock!”

The new empire was about to be established, and Franz’s head was about to have another crown added to it, so a grand ceremony was naturally indispensable.

Now Franz actually ordered that there was no need to prepare in advance, a simple ceremony would suffice, which seemed like child’s play to many.

Franz smiled bitterly and said: “There is no way, although a few months have passed, but the people are still haunted by the division of the German region.

If we make it too grand at this time, it will easily cause discontent, so we might as well keep it simple and forget about it, as a sign of our protest to the outcome of the Paris conference.”

The persona couldn’t collapse, right now he was a hot-blooded, benevolent emperor in the eyes of the outside world, so being dissatisfied with the Paris Conference was what he should do.

Whether it’s making statements bashing the conference or just writing articles and pretending, it’s all centered around that persona.

There was nothing wrong with a young, impetuous emperor making this decision in a fit of rage, just in time to gain the approval of the populace and avoid an undeserved disaster.

Cumberland I, who had just been upgraded from King of Hanover to Emperor of the German Federal Empire, was such an unlucky man, and he was cursed by the literati in the German region for doing nothing from beginning to end.

The countries were all comedy empires, and the emperor was naturally a comedy emperor. This elegant name is expected to stay with him for the rest of his life and continue to be passed down.

Of course his throne came originally very comical, before 1837 Hanover and England was the era of co-ownership, in this year William IV died Queen Victoria succeeded to the throne, the situation has changed, because of the content of the misquoted Salic succession law, the throne fell to his head.

The reason for the comedy is that it was overlooked at the time that prior to that, Emperor Karl VI of Shinra’s Edict of Statehood could be used as a legal basis for a woman’s succession to the throne, and that’s how the legal line of succession to Empress Maria Theresa came about.

When it was sought out, the throne was already determined. Those displeased with Cumberland I often took up the issue, and now it escalated even further to Emperor of Comedy.

It was his limited power as emperor to control the public opinion of the various local states, and when the people were in a bad mood, they caught him as emperor cursing out their anger.

In fact, Cumberland I is very peaceful, almost not much to do things, including the crown can fall on his head, are the result of the game of all parties.

Austria naturally favored Franz as the emperor of the German Federal Empire, citing the highest popular support.

Obviously this is unacceptable to all parties, if Franz became emperor, it is estimated that in a few decades the German region will be unified.

The Habsburgs are experienced in this area, and this is how the Austrian Empire is now integrated, so what’s the difference between having Franz concurrently Emperor and Shinra regeneration?

The British introduced the Hanoverian royal family, the newly established federal empire was centered on Hanover, they were competitive, the downside was that the Hanoverian king didn’t have enough prestige in the German region.

If Franz had launched a younger brother to compete for the throne, with the prestige of the Habsburgs and the fact that the state government didn’t want Hanover to get bigger, the likelihood of being elected would have been almost 100%.

Obviously this was impossible, Austria still wanted to unify the German region, if some younger brother became the Emperor of the German Federal Empire, wouldn’t he be getting himself into trouble?

Habsburg family out of the game, the only thing left is the royal family of these states to fight, have the British support of the Hanoverian royal family naturally beat many competitors, picked the fruit of victory.

……

At Franz’s insistence, on December 22, 1853, he was crowned “Emperor of the New Holy Roman Empire” at the Vienna Palace.

The coronation ceremony was a child’s play, no guests were invited, only the people of the “New Holy Roman Empire”, and after receiving the oath of allegiance from several states, it was over.

From the beginning to the end, all the people were solemn, not seeing any joyful color.

Once the ceremony was over, Franz made a self-deprecating speech to the National Assembly:

“Today another crown has been added to my head, and the pressure on my shoulders is a few points heavier.

To be honest, I don’t feel happy, rather than the New Holy Roman Empire, it would be more appropriate to say the Southern Holy Roman Empire.

No matter what the Holy Roman Empire is finally re-established, even if it is laughed at and becomes the laughing stock of the world, that is still better than nothing.

There is still a long road ahead that we need to travel. Today we are one step further than yesterday, so can tomorrow be one step further than today?

Since the mission of history has fallen upon us, it must be accomplished.

Someone has asked me when the German region will be reunited, and the answer I gave was: When we become the number one power in the world, then we can consider this question!

We are very close to this goal, because there are only so many two countries ahead of us that we need to surpass; we are also very far from this goal, because the gap in national strength is really big.

The road is ahead, are you afraid?

……”

It’s a good thing Franz had the self-control to know that there are some things you can’t say, or else “neither Holy, nor Roman, nor Imperial” would have almost come out.

Now the new Holy Roman Empire, although there is no Holy and Rome, but at least it is barely an empire ah! As for the first two, unfortunately this can never be accomplished.

Franz is not God, where is the “holy”?

And what good is “Rome” except for its reputation?

It seems that Franz’s self-deprecation has struck a chord with everyone, or the Austrian government has paid attention to guiding the public opinion, and the new Holy Roman Empire has not aroused the ridicule of the masses at all.

(End of chapter)