Soundtrack:
Carolus Anton Fodor, Symphony no. 4 in C Minor
*establishing shot* *we see a train "racing" across the open countryside* *cut to inside a coach* *young man practically bouncing in his seat* *opposite sits a portly older gentleman in a Dutch army uniform*
Henri: *keeps looking out the window at the countryside* I've never gone this fast. I've also never been to the Netherlands. So I'm not sure which I'm more excited about. *the way he says "Netherlands" you can hear he means the Low Countries in general not just part of it*
Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar [aka the man in the Dutch army uniform]: they do not have trains in Vienna, your Royal Highness?
Henri: Monsieur Barrrande told me that Chevalier von Gerstner had been lobbying for it for a while before he died, his son's taken over. And they're busy laying some tracks for a new line between Vienna and Prague. But all we have at the moment are still horse-drawn trams. Which are fun and all, but they don't go anywhere near as fast. The Prince Furstenberg has just bought the Prague-Pilsen line, and there's talk that he plans to extend it all the way to Lundenberg-[1] I'm babbling aren't I?
Bernhard: *smiles indulgently at the prince* not at all your Royal Highness
Henri: François- the duc de Reichstadt- says I speak like I ate bullets for breakfast.
Bernhard: I'm sure he'd know.
Henri: *astutely* now you disapprove *phrased but not meant as a question*
Bernhard: it's not my place to say.
Henri: I know the tone, Prince. My mother and aunt use it to speak of the duc d'Orléans.
Bernhard: not of the duc de Reichstadt?
Henri:
that varies from day to day. Hour to hour, one might say. Mostly when they use it nowadays, it's when he does something they disapprove of.
Bernhard: like sending you to Brussels?
Henri: that was my decision to accompany your son and Prince Albert. François supported it, but he didn't suggest I go. No...their disapproval is more him establishing his "boarding house" - as my aunt calls it - in Venice. Or that he could get his grandfather to sign off on a match between the duke of Modena's son and Mademoiselle Théodelinde-
Bernhard: *surprised* the emperor approved it? I thought the duke of Teschen and the duke of Modena were both trying to get an archduchess for the hereditary prince?
Henri: *smiles* that's partially
why the emperor agreed. While he refused to allow it for the grand duke of Tuscany some years ago, he feels that the duke of Teschen has no interests in Italy. And the grand duke of Tuscany and Archduke Rainier both backed him up on it. Of course, neither were thrilled by the idea of Mademoiselle Théodelinde, but not having much in the way of alternative options. The duke of Modena refused the Archduchess Adélaïde for his son - courtesy of his wife hating her mother - and the grand duke of Tuscany's daughter is seen as...too young and the grand duke as too liberal. The only other option was the Prince of Salerno's daughter and Modena thought that she was too low.
Bernhard: but Mademoiselle de Beauharnais is not?
Henri: Mademoiselle de Beauharnais is sister to the Empress-Dowager of Brasil and the Queen of Sweden, daughter of the viceroy of Italy...perhaps the duke harbours ambitions of filling his father's shoes as viceroy of Milan? Plus, there's her name-
Bernhard: her name, sir?
Henri: Theodelinde, Queen of the Lombards. She is to Italy what Saint Clothilde is to France or Saint Olga is to Russia.
Bernhard: *nods*
Henri: -and the fact that her mother is a Wittelsbach princess, goddaughter of my aunt's mother. Also, having a sister who is a Catholic queen of a Protestant Sweden is less of a hassle to sell the pope than having a who's mother is still an active Protestant.
Bernhard: *clearly not getting why this makes an issue* of course, sir
Henri: plus François has arranged with the crown prince of Sweden to "grant" - by which he means sell - the dukedom of Galliera and the Palazzo Galliera in Bologna to Mademoiselle Théodelinde as a dowry. The duke was - when that idea was suggested - more than willing to pay double what the Marquis de Ferrari was willing to buy it for.
Bernhard: and where does he get this seemingly endless supply of funds? As I heard, his mother is still in charge of his inheritance.
Henri: *smiles* that is the only reason he hasn't shuttered his...boarding house. If only until the railways that he's letting them build through his dukedom in Bohemia are done-
Bernhard: I don't follow
Henri: he asked Monsieur Barrande and Chevalier von Gerstner's son, think Prince Furstenberg and Prince Starnberg were also involved...to examine the dukedom of Reichstadt for potential railways. Then, after the duchess of Parma realized her jewellery had been...removed-
Bernhard: stolen
Henri: considering he paid for them, potentially in full, possibly more than they're worth, he simply neglected to tell his mother that he was taking them as recompense.
Bernhard: he paid for them?
Henri: to build the railways through Reichstadt's territory, he needs his mother's permission. So...he went to Parma and convinced her that since she seldom visits Vienna to "free her of the cares of management" by signing over Reichstadt into a sort of "regency" - although he called it an administration. - He has free rein to deal with any business or industry - including railways and mines - regarding the dukedom, and she gets the money. Reichstadt already has a textile industry, a sugar mill, breweries, brickyards, glassworks, more than a bit of farmland...but the roads are so bad that he says it would be easier to get around on horseback than by coach. He took Monsieur Leitenberger[2]
Bernhard: the industrialist?
Henri:
oui, with him to look at the place, and apparently, Leitenberger saw that there was a lot of potential but almost as much waste. For instance, the roads will have to be repaired[3]. A school built to train the workers before they can even
think of building a railway[4]
Bernhard: and the duchess sold her diamonds for that?
Henri: if there's one thing François is good at- I dare
specializes in- it's that he's the sort of man who could sell sand in the desert. Modena is a case in point, my sister's wedding...how many princes do you think would want a match with my sister? He convinced the biggest fish in Italy to wave off a match with the queen of the Belgians' sister and one of the richest Austrian archduchesses around...to marry Louise. He calls it "the art of the possible"[5].
Bernhard: so how does...this...connect to the boarding house?
Henri: in order to "develop" Reichstadt and make it profitable. He needs money. Basically he's just got his army pay and the odd gift of cash from the emperor...the rest is all controlled by his mother according to the Congress of Vienna-
Bernhard: in other words, not a brass centime.
Henri: exactly. So, the money has to come from somewhere. And since he gave his portion from his grandmother to the city of Rome to build a new hospital, to train midwives to assist in the births of poor women-[6]
Bernhard: prostitutes?
Henri: them too. he's doing it in Venice, too. And encouraged the grand duke of Tuscany to give it a try. My sister is...working...on convincing her husband to allow it[7]. He told her that once she gives him a duke of Calabria he'll consider it.
Bernhard: and they've all agreed to a Spedale Napoleone?
Henri: he named it in his mother's honour, the Spedale Maria Ludovica.[8]
Bernhard: *visibly touched*
Henri: -he also tried to establish a school, but he and his Holiness couldn't come to an agreement about it. The pope wanted it to have priests for teachers, he was trying for it to be a sort of...Ecole Polytechnique in Rome. Not so much free-thinkers but technically minded men who can encourage industry. It's why he's
neglecting to call his boarding house a school-
Bernhard: hardly a school.
Henri: but it is, sir. The girls will be taught the same things Louise learned...dress, deportment, dance...traditional girly things. But Louise was also given the same education as most archduchesses: history, geography, economics, languages, music [9]. When you compare that with my cousin in Brussels: taught to knit and net purses, or her sister in Pisa...taught to draw and paint...speaking as a man, I know which one I would prefer.
Bernhard: so its the Scuola degli' Infantas *smiles at his joke*
Henri: not exactly, sir. Calling it a "scuola" or a "collegia" means there's immediately going to be a demand by the pope for it to be staffed by nuns. Which then turns it into my grandfather's failure that was Saint-Cyr after the priests got involved. I do not agree with the duc d'Orléans that priests should be taken out of education entirely, but I do agree with François that they should be there to teach religion and nothing else. The duke of Modena's daughter serves the purpose admirably. She takes the older girls - who wish to - to the orphanage of San Gerolamo to teach the little ones to count, read and write. When even the emperor thought it was too much for an archduchess, all François said was: who knows, Opapa, one of them might be the next pope or the next minister-prasident.
Bernhard: *snorts* only a Napoléon would say something as revolutionary as that.
Henri: so your Highness doesn't agree that as sovereign we are bound to look after the welfare of even the youngest of our subjects?
*train whistle is heard*
Henri: it seems we're almost at the Hague, sir[10], I'd best go change before we disembark. Can't let the Dutch king think he's receiving a coachman
*fade out*
[1] modern day Breclav in Moravia
[2] this would be Ignaz/Ignac Leitenberger, who expanded and developed the Leitenberger industrial empire spread throughout northern Bohemia (in 1802 they were the largest industrialists in Bohemia, in 1828 the factories were producing over 600km of printed fabric
annually, an amount that increased tenfold by 1850). Ignaz received a prize at the Prague Industrial Exhibition in 1833. His son, Eduard, was a successful chemist (he was a published writer on the subject from 1845) and politician (he was an adviser to the Austrian Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Trade as well as elected to the Frankfurt Diet of 1848), but a shoddy businessman. He got into a lot of debt due to a bad purchase of a factory at Mimon that failed. He had to sell some of his business in 1851 and by 1854 those that he'd sold were out of business. His nephew, Friedrich, took over the operation in 1858 and by 1860 they were producing 13 million meters of fabric (for which the biggest purchaser was the Austrian army, and which counted for 15% of the gross Austrian exports by 1892). All from only 2000 workers. Friedrich also took care of his workers with health insurance, pensions and supported a school for his workers' kids, set up a company canteen - which sold food made/grown in other Leitenberger holdings. - etc.
[3] Reichstadt was only connected to the "actual" road network of the empire in 1855 OTL (while it was under Sisi's management, although Sisi was about as absentee landlord as Marie Luise)
[4] Reichstadt only got a railway in the 1880s
[5]as in driven by pragmatism instead of idealism
[6] no idea if there was an organization like this -or it would even be allowed - in 1830s Rome OTL, but I know there was one in 1800s London
[7] again, something that Louise's daughter, Marguerite did in Spain during the Carlist Wars The Red Cross was seen by many Carlists as too full of socialists, Freemasons and liberals, so the Carlists established a parallel organization called the "Caridad". Spanish readers can tell me if the organization survived the war, I can't find much on Marguerite's work there outside of my copy of Aronson's
A Royal Vendetta.
[8] while this sounds very sweet, knowing Frankie, it was intended with a sting in the tail: it's a hospital for prostitutes (and other poor people) with his mother's name squarely on the side.
[9] this was the education given to Frankie's mother/aunts and to Henri's great-grandmother/Madame Royale's mother, Maria Theresia's sisters. So its nothing "new" or that Frankie is pushing for women's lib. It's simply a case of him being a salesman: none of these girls are necessarily "Victoria's Secret Models" pretty, but even the plain ones have a "better shot" at attracting a decent husband than if they are educated by nuns. The late queen of Spain, Maria Josepha of Saxony, is a case in point, her marriage to Fernando VII was such a disaster that he declared, when they were on the lookout for a new wife for him "no more rosaries!" Which, given this was uberCatholic Spain and uber-de-uberCatholic Fernando, should tell you all you need to know.
[10] I know the Netherlands only started with its railways in 1839 OTL, but I figured with a POD in 1826, it's not impossible that they've got a bit of a jumpstart and there's at least a line from the Hague to Amsterdam or the Hague to Rotterdam. Particularly when one compares how dense Belgium's railways were from a standing start between 1830-1840
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