The Habsburg Paradox
As Mother-in-law said about the Great Compromise, we didn't lose.
Even among liberals like me, we're not all the same kind of liberal.
"It sounds contradictory somehow for a nationalist to call themselves a liberal."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Well, freedom is about individual rights... but these days, it feels like freedom is more often used as a weapon for the group."
It might sound like a joke, but no imperial house grants as much personal freedom as the Habsburgs.
An absolutist state that guarantees individual freedoms.
Proclaiming neo-absolutism, yet religion is free, language and privacy are free, local customs are respected, property rights are protected, and as long as you don't engage in anti-state actions, the secret police won't drag you away.
These new subjects could live ordinary lives even if thrown into the 21st century, right?
"Freer than Britain or France."
Franz Joseph and Mother-in-law might not care, but even more than America.
Hungarians getting beaten for wandering around Vienna? It happens occasionally to German liberals, but the police arrest and detain the perpetrators.
In Prague, it's the opposite—if Bohemian liberals assault Germans, the police haul them away.
City folk don't welcome them with open arms either.
The opera tonight is more important; ethnic issues are secondary.
Even if anarchists rant in cafes right now, the police won't touch them.
The criticism over the Hungarian affair was about Franz Joseph's direct reprimand for the 'excessive loyalty' of attempting censorship despite doing nothing to prevent it in advance.
Not that they didn't threaten me, the empress, either.
"So, Mother-in-law."
Individuals are protected... but what's sorely lacking for us Habsburgs right now is something to represent instead of ethnicity.
"What could represent us instead of nations?"
"I don't see why we need that."
Hmm, it's truly ironic, but if the Habsburgs had existed in America, we'd be just like them.
Conversely, if America were in the position of the Austrian Empire, it would have fallen apart.
"Just mix the nations themselves."
"What do you mean?"
"When convening the assembly, do it like France instead of by nation."
"Like France...?"
"I told you to study history."
Mother-in-law expressed her displeasure by tapping the desk twice with her fan.
"Divide by estates like peasant representatives, factory representatives, and elect that way."
Could that even work? With nationalism running so high right now? Mother-in-law answered her own question.
"Yes, there's a reason we couldn't."
"...In the end, it's the nobles."
Those who can read, who are eloquent, who have time.
In the end, representatives become nobles again.
It looks like reform, but the result is the same.
Still, this might be the most feasible option.
"You're saying to turn the Imperial Diet into an Imperial Parliament?"
I figured Mother-in-law was thinking of the diets from the Holy Roman Empire days.
"It could end up like France's Estates-General or Poland-Lithuania's Sejm, but still."
If the Habsburgs can't become a nation-state, this is practically the only choice.
"I have a good idea."
"Speak."
"...Do you know about Nightingale?"
"The nurse from the Oriental War?"
Mother-in-law's expression soured.
Probably because it was the war where she and I first clashed over policy.
"This charity project is about training nurses too, I hear..."
That's not important now.
"I wanted to talk about statistics, not nursing."
"Statistics..."
In 1858, Nightingale became the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society.
Mother-in-law couldn't possibly be unaware of that.
The key is the Royal Statistical Society.
"I know why you're bringing that up to me."
I couldn't bring this up to Franz Joseph, but Mother-in-law could advise him.
"...Don't you regret missing the chance for unification, Mother-in-law?"
"What are you talking about?"
"If—if we'd won this war—"
"To be swayed by such nonsense... you still don't know your place."
What nonsense? What did I even do?
"Nonsense? Excuse me?"
"Are you so afraid of being pointed at by those yearning for German unification?"
"I'm the Habsburg empress, not planning to be empress of the Germans. Mother-in-law, I'm not scared of fingers from one nation—it's just Franz Joseph's overprotectiveness."
Mother-in-law stared at me with eyes full of surprise.
...Why that look?
"You're not... a liberal?"
"I am a liberal. That's why Franz Joseph doesn't understand me."
"Why do you defend the other nations?"
"Because it's only natural for the state to protect its individuals."
"...I can't understand you at all."
I never expected her to.
Just that being called a liberal and the liberals ranting in cafes now are different things.
"I don't understand you either, Mother-in-law. I thought you were a Greater German nationalist."
"Tch! Me, a nationalist? My ancestors in the grave would gasp and leap out."
"Didn't you tell me the 'Germans' Holy Roman Empire successor"?
"Germany is merely an appendage to protect our empire."
What does that mean?
She's the one who supported German as the administrative center and worked to maintain Austrian leadership in the German Confederation.
"Do you misunderstand me like Franz does?"
Misunderstand? Wasn't she the one who made Franz Joseph dream of being German emperor?
Uncharacteristically, Mother-in-law sighed.
"How could leading the German Confederation mean the same as German emperor? Franz saw himself that way, so I didn't bother denying it."
So, in summary...
"You respected Franz Joseph's ambitions...?"
"Isn't Franz my son?"
No, I... thought she only favored Max.
"Do you think your marriage could have happened without my permission?"
"...You could have opposed it a bit more."
"My son rebelled against me for the first time over love—how could a mother stand in the way? You'll understand when you're a mother."
"I'd oppose it if my child wanted to marry someone like me."
Honestly, she wasn't a great empress or parent...?
I'm trying to be a good mother and wife. Mother-in-law looked like she had more to say but held back.
"You're dangerous, but a good empress."
"...Pardon?"
Am I hearing things at this age?
"I must have cholera."
Cholera's been going around; it finally reached the palace.
"Your ways are risky, but they're what you've come up with as Habsburg empress."
"Pretend you didn't say that. I'm not refusing your approval."
Just...
"Hungary can't have both me and you on the same side."
The Great Compromise happened after Mother-in-law stepped back from politics.
With compromise underway now, we couldn't reconcile.
The reason Hungarians love me is because I stand opposite their view of the German nationalist mother-in-law.
The moment we reconcile and look like one side, from Hungary's perspective, I'm no longer theirs but just another Habsburg.
"The tea's gone cold."
Mother-in-law changed the subject.
"Do you plan to persuade Franz?"
No subject stated, but I knew what she meant.
"No, we can't help."
That's why Franz Joseph and I tried to stop Maximilian.
There was no way we could help.
"Ideals and reality... are different. Even staring at the sun, people must always stand on the ground."
"You don't just spout ideals."
"Choose wings over stairs, and you'll end up as Icarus."
If I fly toward the sun, Franz Joseph will build stairs.
He's cautious like that.
"I kept telling him not to go. Britain opposed, only France supported. Without France, no one to protect him—it was doomed from the start."
I took a sip of cappuccino and painfully—oh so painfully—dragged the words out.
"...Sorry to you, Mother-in-law."
She brushed it off.
"No need to apologize. I never liked it from the beginning either."
"Pardon? But in Venice before..."
"That was to test how well you read international affairs. Even if Max, not raised as emperor, sat on the throne, it'd be nothing but dangerous."
"Why oppose it? Back then, you clearly voiced dissatisfaction with Max being under Franz Joseph."
"I do favor Max, but I can't love anything that undermines Franz's authority."
That means...
"...Franz Joseph permitted it."
"Yes... you know how soft he is with family."
Against imperial protocol, Sophie Chotek's coffin lacks the glove signifying a lady-in-waiting.
The only one who can make exceptions to imperial protocol... is Franz Joseph.
"I know. He just doesn't know how to express it."
A man who ultimately yields in the end.
"But you know his stubbornness too, right?"
The problem is how long it takes to break that stubbornness.
"Not stubbornness—patience. Franz has that strength, that's why I made him emperor. Don't try to break it. Understand and use it—that's your role."
I suddenly realized.
Mother-in-law is stepping back now.
"Please watch so Rudolf doesn't get lost in vain dreams."
"Sophie must have already wagged her tongue."
"Esterházy is my person. If she doesn't want to retire, she'll listen."
Seeing Gisela and the others grow well, she's definitely less harmful than when raising Franz Joseph.
Sons and grandsons must be different stories.
Come to think of it, my parents barely nagged me unlike my siblings.