Chapter 211: Internal Dissention
1814 - Winter
Madrid
Queen Maria Louisa was not in the best of health. Taking a inter chill, the old woman would retreat from Court for several months, perhaps leaving her husband to his own devices for the longest period since their marriage. Even those times when separated by pregnancy were not terribly long. In truth, the Queen was not worried that her weak and malleable husband may begin to assert his own authority. That hadn't happened in the decades they had known one another and Carlos IV was unlikely to start thinking for himself now.
In truth, a number of nobles, courtiers and other powerful men (often excluded from power or out of favor by the Queen) would encourage the King to change Ministers. Some even approached the new Infante, Carlos, after he returned from his trip across Europe. But the Prince would not accept anything that undermined his family's Royal Authority. Instead, the Prince duly informed his father....whom didn't even bother to inform his Ministers of the dissent. Without his wife, Carlos IV would merely wait for instruction from the men whom his wife ordered him to obey.
In the meantime, the insurrection in New Spain continued and even expanded somewhat as another peasant revolt would rise up in the area of the silver mines of Zacatecas. Beyond the annoyance of having to put down yet another revolt, this also cut off a large amount of badly needed hard currency.
As it so happened, trouble was brewing elsewhere in the House of Spanish Bourbon realms. Naples itself remained peaceful enough but the aging King Victor Emmanuel of Italy, whom had pronounced his daughter his heiress rather than follow Salic Law and grant title to his brother Charles Felix, would face significant resistance from both high and low born at this arrangement. This was not due to Charles Felix' popularity. Far from it. More the people of the Kingdom of Italy, whom had united most of the Italian people and half the territory under one flag, was about to be subsumed (in the Italian mind) by the unification with the House of Habsburg.
The German/Hungarian/etc Habsburgs possessed more prosperous regions and the northern half of the Italian peninsula would likely take a subservient role when united dynastically at some point in the future by the King's grandson, the boy Francis Victor of Austria, whom was also the son of Emperor Francis of Austria. Technically the boy's parents would rule each domain separately, potentially for decades, before the young Francis Victor would see them unified under his own personal union. But Princes Maria Beatrice was already intent upon allowing her husband direct control over her domains when her father passed.
Given King Victor's ill-health, this seemed likely sooner rather than later.
Many Italians were unhappy with the situation and went so far as to approach the King's younger brother, Charles Felix, to press for his own claims under Salic Law. The downside of this was that Charles Felix was a notorious reactionary and would be aghast at siding with rebels, even to put himself on the throne. Another modest problem was that Charles Felix was childless and the last of the direct (Salic-Law) male descendants of the main Savoyard line.
An alternative option was Charles Albert, a distant cousin whom would be next in line. He was reportedly sympathetic to the reform faction in Rome and Milan...but also not inclined to rebel, not least because he didn't believe rebels would win.
Many Spanish nobles would look upon the situation and consider throwing Spain's considerable weight behind one or the other of these challengers but doubted that anything short of total war with Northern Italy...and therefore Austria...was likely to alter this state of affairs. And with the poor performance of the Spanish Army in the recent war with America and putting down the rebellion in New Spain, it was apparent that even a total war with some support from Northern Italian factions would hardly be a given.
This was one of the reasons why the Spanish Court was quietly re-approaching Bourbon France, itself carrying on a number of internal problems related to the ill-health of Louis XVI and the weakness of his heir.
Later historians would look upon this era with a level of contempt for the general paucity of impressive leaders throughout Europe. Francis II, Victor Emmanuel, Carlos IV, Louis XVI, Frederick William III (Prussia), Paul of Russia, William IV of England (now Wessex), Christian of Denmark (died childless in 1808 and left the government to his brother Frederick VI), etc, etc.
As such, the Spanish Ministers could not find adequate allies to oppose this unification between Northern Italy and Austria which would leave Naples so terribly in danger. Ironically, the only other power whom seemed to care and might potentially be willing to aid Spain was the newly renamed "Northern Confederation", a protestant-led assortment of northern German, Scandinavian and others states. The Spanish Court was aghast at the idea of allying with Protestants and redoubled their efforts at reminding France of the danger of a united Austria-Italy.
However, the French court, after over 60 years of continuous expansion, had fortified its own borders over the years to the point that the French believed themselves invulnerable to invasion (they might have been right). In addition to their own lands, the French had client states like the Palatinate, Baden, Wurttemberg and other western German Catholic states along their frontier. Thus the French were not inclined to make this unification, which seemed to far away anyway, a political priority.
Madrid
Queen Maria Louisa was not in the best of health. Taking a inter chill, the old woman would retreat from Court for several months, perhaps leaving her husband to his own devices for the longest period since their marriage. Even those times when separated by pregnancy were not terribly long. In truth, the Queen was not worried that her weak and malleable husband may begin to assert his own authority. That hadn't happened in the decades they had known one another and Carlos IV was unlikely to start thinking for himself now.
In truth, a number of nobles, courtiers and other powerful men (often excluded from power or out of favor by the Queen) would encourage the King to change Ministers. Some even approached the new Infante, Carlos, after he returned from his trip across Europe. But the Prince would not accept anything that undermined his family's Royal Authority. Instead, the Prince duly informed his father....whom didn't even bother to inform his Ministers of the dissent. Without his wife, Carlos IV would merely wait for instruction from the men whom his wife ordered him to obey.
In the meantime, the insurrection in New Spain continued and even expanded somewhat as another peasant revolt would rise up in the area of the silver mines of Zacatecas. Beyond the annoyance of having to put down yet another revolt, this also cut off a large amount of badly needed hard currency.
As it so happened, trouble was brewing elsewhere in the House of Spanish Bourbon realms. Naples itself remained peaceful enough but the aging King Victor Emmanuel of Italy, whom had pronounced his daughter his heiress rather than follow Salic Law and grant title to his brother Charles Felix, would face significant resistance from both high and low born at this arrangement. This was not due to Charles Felix' popularity. Far from it. More the people of the Kingdom of Italy, whom had united most of the Italian people and half the territory under one flag, was about to be subsumed (in the Italian mind) by the unification with the House of Habsburg.
The German/Hungarian/etc Habsburgs possessed more prosperous regions and the northern half of the Italian peninsula would likely take a subservient role when united dynastically at some point in the future by the King's grandson, the boy Francis Victor of Austria, whom was also the son of Emperor Francis of Austria. Technically the boy's parents would rule each domain separately, potentially for decades, before the young Francis Victor would see them unified under his own personal union. But Princes Maria Beatrice was already intent upon allowing her husband direct control over her domains when her father passed.
Given King Victor's ill-health, this seemed likely sooner rather than later.
Many Italians were unhappy with the situation and went so far as to approach the King's younger brother, Charles Felix, to press for his own claims under Salic Law. The downside of this was that Charles Felix was a notorious reactionary and would be aghast at siding with rebels, even to put himself on the throne. Another modest problem was that Charles Felix was childless and the last of the direct (Salic-Law) male descendants of the main Savoyard line.
An alternative option was Charles Albert, a distant cousin whom would be next in line. He was reportedly sympathetic to the reform faction in Rome and Milan...but also not inclined to rebel, not least because he didn't believe rebels would win.
Many Spanish nobles would look upon the situation and consider throwing Spain's considerable weight behind one or the other of these challengers but doubted that anything short of total war with Northern Italy...and therefore Austria...was likely to alter this state of affairs. And with the poor performance of the Spanish Army in the recent war with America and putting down the rebellion in New Spain, it was apparent that even a total war with some support from Northern Italian factions would hardly be a given.
This was one of the reasons why the Spanish Court was quietly re-approaching Bourbon France, itself carrying on a number of internal problems related to the ill-health of Louis XVI and the weakness of his heir.
Later historians would look upon this era with a level of contempt for the general paucity of impressive leaders throughout Europe. Francis II, Victor Emmanuel, Carlos IV, Louis XVI, Frederick William III (Prussia), Paul of Russia, William IV of England (now Wessex), Christian of Denmark (died childless in 1808 and left the government to his brother Frederick VI), etc, etc.
As such, the Spanish Ministers could not find adequate allies to oppose this unification between Northern Italy and Austria which would leave Naples so terribly in danger. Ironically, the only other power whom seemed to care and might potentially be willing to aid Spain was the newly renamed "Northern Confederation", a protestant-led assortment of northern German, Scandinavian and others states. The Spanish Court was aghast at the idea of allying with Protestants and redoubled their efforts at reminding France of the danger of a united Austria-Italy.
However, the French court, after over 60 years of continuous expansion, had fortified its own borders over the years to the point that the French believed themselves invulnerable to invasion (they might have been right). In addition to their own lands, the French had client states like the Palatinate, Baden, Wurttemberg and other western German Catholic states along their frontier. Thus the French were not inclined to make this unification, which seemed to far away anyway, a political priority.