1802
Vienna
Emperor Francis II was a rather bland personality. He wasn't beloved and feared like his grandmother, Maria Theresa. He wasn't as idealistic as his uncle Joseph II. He wasn't as coldly pragmatic as his late father, Leopold II.
Francis long desired to reform...though at a moderate pace.
He desired a strong central government...but feared the dizzying array of local diets in the Empire's constituent parts which opposed even the most reasonable and well-intentioned of legislation.
He was a German first...and the Emperor of a diverse ethnic and religious corporation second.
Like his predecessors, Francis considered the Germans to be a superior people based upon the level of economic development, scientific and technological advances as well as the obvious desire by the German people to continue along a "rationale" path. This was supported not only by German Royals of the "Enlightenment" but the common people and intellectuals as well.
Nowhere else in his domains did Francis II see any particular desire for parting with archaic, obsolete and counterproductive institutions, traditions and other remnants of the past. Reforms sponsored by the last three Emperors had been stillborn as the peasants whom the legislation had been intended to aid would rally behind the local Hungarian, Bohemian, Transylvanian, Serbian, etc nobility which had oppressed them socially, politically and economically for centuries.
It was as if the other peoples of the Habsburg Empire WANTED to remain ignorant, poor and backwards.
On more than one occasion, Francis wondered why he bothered trying to help these damn people. On no occasion did he compare them favorably to his German subjects. On the contrary, he began to hold them in contempt.
Only the fear of a repeat of the mass-scale rebellion of a few years prior would stay Francis II's hand in pressing for more reform. Not a particularly courageous man, Francis would opt to forsake any particularly aggressive reform legislation, at least until the Empire's shattered economy recovered and Francis was certain of his control over key territories.
What he did not expect was that resistance to his rule would continue even in absence of these provocative actions. He did not realize just how much the Hungarians, Serbs, Transylvanians, Bohemians, etc absolutely hated him. Throughout 1802 and 1803, no less than three assassination attempts were made and his secret police would foil another half-dozen plots. No longer hopeful of bringing the Habsburg Empire into the 18th century, the Emperor took his chastening with ill-humor and was content to let the Empire drift for a few years.
But the Empire was no longer content (even if the nobility of the assorted ethnicities were) to allow things to drag on. Peasants would continue to rise up despite the nobility happy to retain their own positions in the age-old power scheme. Cities would become hotbeds of political radicalism and nationalism. The countryside would seethe with discontent.
A few years of peace led some to believe that normality had returned.
It would seem that it did not.
London
King William IV of England (Wessex) had reached his sixtieth year (quite the accomplishment given the lifespans of the era) and was visibly fading after a lifetime of worry and defeats. Though he was the rightful ruler of all of Britain, Ireland and America, only the southeast of Britain (the best part of the island) remained under his rule. Six other monarchs reigned on Britain...naturally all recognized by the King of France. By 1803, it was so obvious that France's only interest in Britain was to keep the island from reuniting (naturally under William IV's rule) that no one bothered to comment upon it.
Instead, each local monarch had grown skilled at playing up the differences between each region with the intent of fortifying his own power. Scotland, Northumberland, Mercia, Anglia, Wales and Cornwall (Devon) each viewed themselves as unique nations with local crowns, laws, economies, dialects (or languages like Welsh), etc.
As the only legitimate monarch (in his own mind) of the bunch, William IV was experienced enough to know he remained the most hated man on the isle of Britain (including his own Kingdom) and that was unlikely to change. With his health in decline, Willian would begrudgingly turn over more and more decisions to his son and heir, Prince William. It had been the Prince whom had pressed for the reopening of Oxford and Cambridge as he viewed the loss of these Universities as detrimental to the nation's economy which had long been dependent upon manufacturing and science.
But the nation remained mired in depression (no mere recession here) as inter-British trade with the other Kingdoms would be opposed by William IV. Manufacturers in the south often had trouble gathering raw materials from coal mined in Wales (for heat and many forms of manufacturing) to soda ash produced from Scottish kelp (which was required for glass, paper and soap), dyes, cotton and wool (obviously textiles), etc, etc, etc.
Prince William even spoke of reopening Parliament, arguing that the autocratic reign of his father had proven deeply unpopular throughout the island. But the King refused to countenance this while he lived.
Instead, the Prince would assume greater and greater authority (though with limits) and found the problems intractable. With a continued drop in tax revenues, the Prince was forced to lease one of the great castles still under his family's control, Kensington, to a...new money manufacturer. Society was scandalized to an extent not seen since the rich nabobs of India returned home to Britain with their ill-gotten gains.
This was not the only Royal Palace lost to the family for lack of funds. Another old Royal Palace, the Dutch House at Kew, had burned to the ground in the war. The Banqueting House at Whitehall (the last remnant of the palace which had been destroyed by fire a century earlier) had been segregated into offices for the bureaucracy while the Tower of London now served as barracks for those soldiers withdrawn from the courtyards of Oxford and Cambridge. The old House of Parliament, Westminster Palace, had burned in the riots of previous years.
Only St. James (the London center of government), Hampton Court (the residence of Prince William) and Windsor (the King's country residence) remained of the great Royal Residences of England.
