Soundtrack:
Richard Wagner - Overture to 'Rienzi'
*exterior* *Rome* *just after midday* *the Piazza degli Campidoglio* *a man crosses the square* *passing the statue of Marcus Aurelius/Constantine [1]* *he gives an involuntary shudder as a gust of wind blows through the square* *fluttering his cloak* *he carries on walking*
*we have several views of various places in the city* *everybody is going about their daily lives* *but the sound of the Campidoglio's solitary bell tolling is like an electric shock* *women - maybe nurses - on the steps of the Ospedale Ludovica, hear the bells and cross themselves before shepherding the children playing in the street inside*
*in the city's fishmarket* *people stop in the middle of what they're doing* *some even immediately close up shop in the midst of a sale*
*across the city, people look as though this is a Western and they've just announced that the crooks are coming*
*the next shot of the city shows what looks like a ghost town* *the shutters and blinds are drawn* *not a soul to be seen*
*two days later* *we see the Papal Gendarmerie taking down posters that have been pasted over the notice of the pope's death* *we catch a glimpse of the "broadsheet" they're removing* *it shows a woman - not unlike Britannia - except instead of a trident, she wields a gladium, and instead of a shield, she wields a tricolore* *an eagle flies ahead of her crying "Fratelli de Roma, l'Italia s'è desta!"*
*we see the pope's funeral procession disrupted by men throwing stones at the hearse and the horses* *one strikes a child who is killed instantly*
*cut to Modena* *Duke Francesco - dressed in mourning for his Holiness - is about to climb into his carriage when a gunshot is heard* *the duke is shown collapsing against the side of the coach* *then sliding down - leaving a bloody streak down the carriage wall - to crumple in a heap in the street*
*cut to Rome* *the anxious cardinals are filing into the Sistine Chapel for conclave*
*cut to the Palazzo Barberini - home of Danduccio, the Prince of Lucca and Clémentine d'Orléans[2]* *we see there are posters, like the gendarmes removed, strewn all about the place* *we see both their daughters - 5yo Adelaide and 3yo Luisa - running riot* *a nurse hands their year-old son, Luigi Filippo Ferdinando, to his father* *while his mother speaks to Aurelio Saffi, Carlo Armellini, Giuseppe Mazzini and Luigi Farini* *the last of whom is eagerly taking down notes of what she's saying*
*cut to Vienna* *Frankie is walking in the Prater* *alongside him are his son, Leopold, and Archduke Franz Joseph, both on horseback*
Franzi: it is terrible what happened to our cousin in Modena.
Frankie: that it is, your Imperial Highness. Sadly, that is the knife blade all kings must live under. Not all of us die in our beds.
Leopold: but they won't kill you, pappa. They tried that already.
Franzi: *smiles at his cousin* I think Onkel Klemens' favourite saying about Cousin Frankie was that "ill weeds grow apace".
Frankie: *half-smile* funny, I have a plant saying for him as well.
Franzi: one rotten apple ruins the bunch?
Leopold: the apple doesn't fall far from the tree?
Frankie: *tips his hat respectfully to a passing couple* *serious voice* and of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die
*both boys burst out laughing*
Frankie: unfortunately, Onkel Klemens
has eaten of the fruit. And he has been put
out of the garden. And now he is doomed to wander the earth, forever regretting what he's lost.
Franzi: is that why he writes to Onkel Michei [Miguel of Portugal]? Asking to come back in.
Frankie: among other things. But aren't we fortunate that Onkel Michei forwards those letters to us?
Franzi: but I thought he and Onkel Klemens would be on the same side: disliking you.
Frankie: that is a lesson of life that is important for you to learn, Franzi. Not
liking someone is
no reason to collaborate with someone else who doesn't like them. Take Maxi, for example.
Franzi: *grimaces*
Frankie: Maxi didn't like being told that he couldn't come riding with us-
Franzi: Maxi doesn't like being told "no".
Frankie: I could say the same for my brother.
Franzi: the Comte Leon?
Frankie: the same. Walewski I'm told the foreign ministry finds rather useful [3]
Franzi: you always say he's not your brother.
Frankie: *smiles* I'm sure you say the same about Maxi some days too.- Now...Maxi can sit at home and plot revenge because he couldn't come with. Not unlike Onkel Klemens does at the moment. But, Maxi needs someone bigger and stronger than you to take you on, no?
Franzi: like mamma?
Frankie: or Onkel Ferdinand.
Leopold: or Oma.
Frankie: *actually looks worried at that mention* *implying that yes, he is shit scared of his grandma* or Oma. Now...which of those do you think is going to
help Maxi?
Leopold: none of them
Frankie: do you know why?
Franzi: because they have nothing to gain from it.
Frankie: *nods* and that is how life works, Franzi: no matter how much you dislike someone, if someone asks you for help, you look at whether it benefits you or not.
Franzi: so what do you benefit from encouraging the duke of Parma to go to Dresden?
Frankie: what is the duke's son doing?
Franzi: working with the revolutionaries to take Rome. I hear his wife is even signing herself "Queen of Rome".
Frankie: *wryly*I must've been drunk that I don't remember the wedding. And I
certainly would not marry a harridan like
her even if you paid me
twice that ridiculous dowry her father did.
Leopold: he'd marry mamma instead.
Frankie: *narrow look at his son*
Franzi: why don't you?
Frankie: you sound like Opa now. I will tell the pair of you as I told him. It's complicated. When you grow up, you'll understand. -as to what I'm benefitting from Parma going to Dresden...I didn't "encourage" him. Your uncle [the king of Saxony] may have just proved a tad...suggestible.
Franzi: and you did that because...
Frankie: what does it benefit Austria?
Franzi: the future king of France marries my cousin.
Frankie: *snarkily* and I can
just hear the French Jacobins quaking in their boots at that. -sadly, your cousin- as much as there are some pushing for her in Paris- has the facts against her. Of her mother's siblings, three of her aunts have had no children. France currently has a king with no children... The king's father succeeded a king with no children. Do you see where this is going?
Franzi: they don't want to sit with this situation repeating in ten years.
Frankie: exactly. Now, while I am
sure that in ten years, Austria will have a fine crop of archduchesses to offer...France needs an heir. The Grand Duchess' sister in Baden has already had two children by age twenty. Her mother's first child was born roughly a year after the wedding. This goes above whatever petty grievance the Queen [of France] may have against the Russians. The pope already granted the dispensation before he died. *tiredly* and honestly, if I have to deal with the Grand Duke's hypochondria for
another summer, listening to all his imaginary aches and illnesses, I'll spare Onkel Klemens the work and shoot myself [4]
Franzi: and the situation in Italy?
Frankie: no doubt things will settle down once we have a new pope. Then this can be dealt with. [5]
Franzi: but aren't the liberals saying that the pope agreed to their demands before he died.
Frankie: and everyone else is saying that the liberals poisoned him because he wouldn't agree to them. To be honest...they killed that little child at his funeral. They murdered the duke of Modena...do you think
anyone taking what the liberals are saying quite seriously now?
Leopold: so you're just going to do nothing?
Franzi: *looks at his cousin like "what he said"*
Frankie: different sort of nothing
*fade to black*
*cut to Rome* *we see somebody hurriedly pasting up a poster* *he runs away, the poster half peeling* *the gendarmes arrive* *they rip the poster down* *expecting it to be another of the ones they've been taking down all day* *instead it isn't* *it shows Frankie in Roman garb with a laurel wreath on his head* *in front of him, the diminutive figure of Danducciois looks more like a baby in an oversized diaper than a statesman in a toga* *behind him stand Sts. Peter and Paul* *Frankie is holding the papal tiara out of Danduccio's reach* *the caption reads: we would advise him [Parma] to not make us soil our robes, since while Rome is incapable of the noble art of self-defense, she may yet find "troops of friends" when the occasion requires- Numa Pompilius , Rex Romae[6]*
[1] the equestrian statue is said to be both
[2] the Palazzo Farnese - from what I can make out - belonged to the kings of Naples. Chalk Danduccio and Clémentine living here to the fact that, until the duque of Cadix and his children returned to Spain/Paris, Danduccio's father and aunt were both staying there.
[3] Comte Walewski going into the Austrian foreign ministry - especially if his half-brother is regent - doesn't sound that odd to me. As much as Frankie dismisses him as the "son of a carpetbagger", Walewski would be a useful "fifth column" as it were that Frankie can send on personal missions. Not unlike he does with Max de Beauharnais
[4] Grand Duke Mikhail actually
did have health problems that he
did seek treatment for, both at Karlsbad and Teplitz. However, given that Mikhail's often described as "curt" and having "no conversational skills", I could see that any conversation with him inevitably turns back to either the army or his aches/pains.
[5] while Frankie sounds blasé/offhand here, this is, essentially, the "pope's problem", since it's happening in the Marche/Romagna. Even if he
wanted to, he can't mobilize the Austrian army
[6] this isn't Frankie using his title of king of Rome. It's him - in the guise of Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, renowned for his wisdom, statesmanship and piety- showing that he will not allow Danduccio to try anything. Or rather, that should Danduccio do so, he will face the consequences.
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? That D. Carlos - more Catholic than the pope - is so desperate to get rid of the liberals, he's willing to send them to go fight the pope. He clearly hasn't thought this one through.
