Soundtrack:
Nicola Porpora - Ezio - Se tu la reggi al volo [1]
*exterior* *Venice* *we see a funeral procession passing along the canal to the Church of Santa Maria della Salute*
*Interior* *the church is filled with a host of Bonaparte faces* *even the wastrel, Jérôme, is there* *although he is keeping a wary distance from Frankie who is standing bareheaded between Desirée, Dowager Queen of Sweden, and Julie Clary, Dowager Queen of Spain* *also present are the Bonaparte women: Elise, Princesse de Craon, Mathilde, duchesse d'Uzès, Julie, princesse de Polignac* *even the French ambassador to Venice, the marquis de Rumigny [2] is present in full diplomatic uniform*
*Cut to the coffin being lowered*
*Cut to the gravestone* *it reads Louis Bonaparte, Comte de Saint-Leu [3]* *we pan to the rest of the "crypt" as the funeral party leaves and see gravestones for "Joseph Bonaparte, Comte de Survilliers", "Caroline Murat, Comtesse de Lipona", "Charlotte Bonaparte, Comtesse de Saint-Leu" and "Lucien Bonaparte, Prince de Canino and Musignano"*
*Cut to La Fenice* *Frankie is sitting in his box* *alongside Amalie with his daughters and their sons* *none wear any trace of mourning garb [4]* *in fact Léopold is dressed in a miniature hussar uniform* *on stage Verdi's
Attila is playing out* *the baritone is singing the aria "E gettata la mia sorte" [5]*
Frankie: *not taking his eyes from the stage* what is it Marmont?
Marmont: news from Urbino, sir
Amalie: what news could
possibly come from Urbino? *but we see her pose shifts, tenses* *in fact, everyone in the box seems to stiffen*
Frankie: *puts his hand over Amalie's* *then lifts it and kisses it* nothing for us to worry about.
15yo Therese: perhaps it is the pope telling you that you can march in, Papa.
Frankie: if things go my way, Therese, I won't
need to march
anywhere.
7yo Eugène: *climbing onto his father's knee* and will things go your way?
Frankie: it's not my way I'm worried about *kisses his son's head*
*cut to Urbino* *exterior of the Piazza Nuova [6]* *we see women emerging into the piazza from the five streets that converge on it [7]* *these women are all dressed alike in red skirts and yellow blouses [8]* *on one of their signs is painted "Cittadini dello Stato"* *or "L'Amarezza e l'Umiliazione!"* *the soldiers around the piazza are looking nervously as the women assemble and a woman - wearing trousers - climbs on horseback and starts addressing the crowd*
*cut to similar thing happening in Perugia, Foligno, Ancona, Macerata and other cities that have declared against the pope* *in all of them, the women - young, old, married, widowed, some leading children by the hand or on the hip, others with husbands or sons in tow - have turned out at the "town square"* *all with similar banners*
*cut to Palazzo Barberini - aka HQ for the Republicans - at Rome*
Aurelio Saliceti: *irritably* my question is what do these women want? It's one thing for them to proclaim that they're citizens of the Papal States, but what is this "humiliation and bitterness" they speak of?
Mazzini: the fact is that the troops are useless against them. Most of them won't dare arrest these women for causing a disturbance, and those that are
willing to do so, well...they get
shunned by their fellows. One was even shot by his commanding officer.
Danduccio, Crown Prince of Etruria: what disturbance are they causing, exactly? They don't seem to be making a nuisance of themselves. In fact, aside from the work at home that remains undone, I'd rather have female protesters in the streets- it all seems rather...orderly.
Clémentine: of course you would think that, you fool.
Danduccio: one would think that you would be on the side of these women, Clementina
Clémentine: this is all Bonaparte's doing. I'm sure of it.
Danduccio: Clementina, if it rains or it doesn't, you blame Bonaparte. That is you and your father's problem-
Clémentine: and you don't think these women are just a
little too organized?
Danduccio: what's wrong with a woman being organized *looks pointedly around the room that is clearly
not organized* *pointedly* next you'll be criticizing the fact that I say I
like a woman who can keep a tidy house
and march in a protest at the same time.
Clémentine: then why don't you go back to Emma [9] and leave the
actual business to me.
Danduccio: *stands up* *lighting a cigarette* personally, I'd
love to find out what your solution to this problem is. You have women who are down in the piazza, shouting "long live the pope" and soldiers who are too terrified to do anything about them. *walks out of room twirling his cane*
*cut to the Galleria of the Palazzo Barberini* *Danduccio is standing at the window puffing on a cigarette* *his ADC, Salvatore Morelli [10] is there with a woman* *in similar red skirt-yellow blouse to the ones outside*
Morelli: your Royal Highness, this is Signorina Amelia d'Abbraccio, she's part of the Cittadini in the piazza.
Danduccio: *suddenly at his most charming* enchantée, Mademoiselle. *kisses her hand*
Morelli: I thought that she could explain to us exactly what the women outside want.
Danduccio: and those women know what they want?
Amelia: *looks him in the eye* yes, your Royal Highness. We do.
Danduccio: and what is that?
Amelia: exactly what Signor Mazzini promised us.
Danduccio: *looks at Morelli*
Morelli: *shrugs* I knew your Royal Highness would want to hear this.
Danduccio: and what did Signor Mazzini promise you. I honestly can't think at the moment.
Amelia: that the right of citizens to petition can be exercised both individually and collectively, that the right to associate - so long as we do not bear arms and have no malicious intent - is free- [11]
Danduccio: *looks at Morelli*
Amelia: but most importantly, we want
redress as promised in article thirteen, that nothing shall be taken away without just compensation by the republic: we were not allowed to vote in the elections last month. Despite article seventeen of Signor Mazzini's constitution
guaranteeing us that
every citizen who enjoys civil and political rights is an elector and eligible for election [12].
Danduccio: *now visibly struggling not to laugh at the foolishness of Saliceti, Mazzini himself and Clémentine*
Amelia: and, as women, we have decided, that since we were promised this in the constitution, and then ignored, we would rather take our chances with his Holiness and the College of Cardinals than with your tinpot republic.
Danduccio: *grinning broadly* if I may, for a moment, signorina, could I trouble you to explain that to my wife? *leads Amelia back to the room where Clémentine and the others were politicking *
*fade to black*
[1] title of the aria translates as "if you can handle it". The plotline of "Ezio" has little to do with Assassin's Creed and everything to do with the Roman general, Aetius, the guy who defeated Attila the Hun
[2] Rumigny was the French ambassador to Sardinia-Piedmont in the 1840s. His wife was a daughter of the Bonapartist duc de Treviso, his brother had been a.d.c. to Louis Philippe, despite their dad owing his title to Louis XVIII. This aside, Rumigny was a capable diplomat, both in Turin and prior to that, in Spain. The Lombard-Venetian court didn't have ambassadors accredited to it or from it OTL (that I can find)
[3] Louis dies some months earlier than OTL. The stress of the war probably finished him earlier
[4] There's two ways of looking at this: the first is that Frankie (as titular emperor) would not wear mourning. He has precedent since while his dad obliged court mourning for General Leclerc (and forced Pauline to wait 13 months before marrying Borghese), there's no record that Napoléon himself wore mourning, either for his brother-in-law, his nephew/heir (Louis-Hortense's son) or for when Josèphine died. And Frankie is simply following this tradition. Explanation two is that this is a calculated insult to his uncle - theatre performances and mourning dress were (at least) expected for the first six months. Given the fact that his uncles have caused him little but headaches, and
both Louis' sons know which side their bread is buttered, I tend to lean towards the latter.
[5]
. Title roughly translates as "the die is cast, I'm ready for anything"
[6] nowadays the Piazza Repubblica
[7] the OTL via Raffaello, via Battisti, via Veneto, via Mazzini and corso Garibaldi. Obviously in 1846 they did not have those names (and likely won't here) but they were already laid out in 1829-1835
[8] the colours of the papal flag
[9] Countess Emma Guadagni, Carlo's OTL maîtresse-en-titre. Carlo met her in Florence and became infatuated with her, even taking her as his date to official events (like meeting Queen Isabel II, for instance). It got so bad that there were rumours that Carlo planned to seek a separation from his wife so he could marry "Emma the Liberal". Carlo's dad - aware of the problems this was causing - called in her mom to find Emma a suitable husband. Unfortunately Emma turned down three eligible Austrian bachelors one after the other. The husband they ended up finding for Emma was Pompeo Schmucker. If the name is making you go "who?" his dad, Eduard Schmucker is also the second husband of Maria Isabel of Spain, Dowager Queen of Sicily (and father of her son, Enrico)
^the Countess Guadagni^
[10] by birth, a Neapolitan subject, but he had Mazzinian ideas and he got into trouble for burning a picture of Ferdinando II in the town square back in Brindisi/Carovigno. Instead of getting a decade in jail, he escapes to Rome and winds up embroiled in the city's politics
[11] Article 10 and 11 of Mazzini's Constitution
[12] this was a major oversight of Mazzini's constitution OTL. It did not specify gender in terms of who
could vote/stand for election. This was a point raised when the Italian Suffragette movement petitioned the Italian Chambers in 1866 for the restoration of their rights. [13]
[13] Clémentine is right in seeing Frankie's hand behind this. Even if not "deliberately", with his "school for girls" and his "teacher training schools", he has lit the touch paper. It doesn't hurt that, in 1846, the only states in Italy that give women the right to vote? Lombardy-Venetia and Tuscany (this precedent had existed since the 16th century already, codified circa 1849, and abolished under the Unification of Italy). Let's face it though, Frankie stirring up trouble by infiltrating and destroying them from inside, plus discrediting Clémentine-Danduccio and the liberals by letting them hang themselves is pretty much up his alley.
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