The Second Mother-in-Law War
It had been a year already since Austria joined the Crimean War.
Which meant it had been a year since I'd been locked in this eagle's nest battle with the Archduchess.
What's the point of a soldier-emperor?
Is he a real soldier? He's the emperor!
"Whitey, you think so too, right?"
I stroked the mane of the white horse Franz Joseph had gifted me.
Didn't like the name I gave you?
"Franci, you think so too, right?"
When I switched to calling him Franci, the horse finally let out a satisfied whinny.
"What's so great about Franci? Whitey suits him better."
The oh-so-noble emperor had abandoned me here and marched off.
"Empress."
Even out here in the riding grounds, that voice I didn't want to hear drifted over.
"Archduchess."
"Mind your manners."
"If you show me some manners first, I'll be happy to oblige."
"Where did you learn that it's proper etiquette to stay mounted while speaking to someone?"
"Picked it up in Bavaria, I suppose."
She knew full well that was nonsense. The Archduchess had grown up in Bavaria herself.
She glared up at me from her position on horseback for a moment, then spoke in a voice cold as ice.
"Fine. Bavaria it is."
The way she said it dripped with contempt—not the tone of someone invoking her homeland.
"While His Majesty the Emperor bleeds on the front lines for the empire, the Empress wastes her days frolicking with beasts in the stables and sassing her mother-in-law... It seems that freewheeling Bavarian spirit has made you forget your duties entirely."
Her gaze drifted downward to my white horse.
"And calling a beast by His Majesty's pet name—is that another Bavarian custom?"
"Franci isn't His Majesty's pet name. Joscha is, Archduchess."
I glanced back at my maids, who had retreated in fear.
"But... have you been intimidating my maids again?"
"Intimidating? Ha, don't make me laugh."
"Is that so? Then why do they look so terrified?"
I kept looking down at her from atop my horse.
"It's hard to believe that the busy Archduchess, so devoted to the empire, would come all the way out here just to teach courtly order to me and my maids."
I lightly gripped Whitey's reins. He stamped contentedly in place at my subtle cue.
The Archduchess didn't shout or lose her temper at my provocation.
"They're not afraid because I've intimidated them. They're terrified that the fallout from you undermining your own dignity will splash onto them."
She stepped closer, inch by inch.
"I'm not here to school some maids. I'm here to restore the imperial order that the Empress has cast aside."
"Order?"
"With the Empress shirking her responsibilities, I'm forced to chase after you and clean up this unseemly mess."
So I'm to blame for all this chaos?
"The palace wouldn't grind to a halt without me. Do I even have any duties in the first place? Is an empress someone who can't even appear at official functions without the emperor?"
They strip me of all responsibility and authority, then demand I fulfill my duties.
"Do you want me confined to the empress's quarters?"
That's what she thinks, but she can't say it outright.
She snorted derisively.
"Do I have the wrong idea of what 'confinement' means? While His Majesty sheds blood on the Lombardian battlefield for the empire in this dire hour, the Empress holes up in the warm, safe stables. I'm just interrupting your little seclusion."
Confinement as neglect of duty. Donning her Archduchess mask once more, she continued.
"If you think an empress's duty is just showing her face to nobles at banquets, that's proof you're still a child. Right now, your true duty as the empire's mother is to visit charity hospitals so the people don't feel His Majesty's absence, to comfort the wounded soldiers, and to maintain order in this palace."
She scanned me up and down, taking in my riding attire.
"But look at you now. With that vulgar Bavarian free-spiritedness, you're dismantling the imperial dignity... I haven't treated you as empress because I'm still trying to correct my immature niece. The authority you crave comes only after you've fulfilled your responsibilities."
Fine. Give the people what they want.
With Ferenc's help, I dismounted.
"What are you all standing around for? The ride's over."
Sophie watched her daughter-in-law dismount.
Finally getting down.
She felt not satisfaction, but profound exhaustion.
The girl hadn't dismounted out of respect for imperial etiquette. She was just tired of the nagging and wanted to escape the situation.
"What are you all standing around for? The ride's over."
That curt, willful tone she spat at the maids—no trace of an empress's dignity anywhere.
She craves only authority and freedom.
Sophie had sacrificed even her husband's succession rights to protect order, placing her young son on the throne as emperor.
Yet Sisi was infecting that hard-won empire with the plague of "freedom," gnawing away at everything Sophie had built.
Joscha.
The unfamiliar pet name Sisi had dared utter burned on Sophie's tongue.
The Empress had seduced the Emperor with such frivolous means, driving him to the battlefield.
And yet she voiced complaints about the very emperor fighting on the front lines—Sophie couldn't comprehend it.
"If the ride is over, review the list of charity hospital donations and bring it to me by tonight."
With that, Sophie and Sisi turned and left the riding grounds in opposite directions.
How long until I can mold this immature, stubborn niece into a proper Habsburg empress?
The road was still long.
Sophie returned to her office and tackled the backlog of work.
She opened the secret police report that Interior Minister Bach had sent late last night.
Vienna city sentiment trends. Salons divided between her and the Empress, trading barbs. Even open grumbling against the Bach regime.
"Fools."
Sophie picked up her pen.
The empire was in crisis, and it irked her that they would fracture over something so trivial.
She began writing a letter to her son, the emperor.
Your victories on the front lines are most gratifying. However, in Vienna, the heart of the empire, unseemly elements are exploiting Your Majesty's absence to sow disorder—
The emperor's absence from Vienna wasn't just a gripe for Sisi.
Sophie viewed Joseph with the same dissatisfaction—he had abandoned his role as emperor to play soldier.
You said an emperor must be without emotion.
Time dragged on, and realizing the charity hospital list review from the Empress still hadn't arrived, Sophie headed back to the empress's palace.
"You cannot enter now."
The guard blocked the Archduchess.
"There must be a reason you're barring my path."
His face unchanging, he calmly carried out his duty.
"Her Majesty the Empress has declared she will receive no audiences at present."
Sophie blinked in disbelief.
"Audiences?"
She'd expected restricted access, but "audiences"?
"It's Her Majesty's decree, Your Highness."
Sophie stifled a hollow laugh.
I demand duty, and she responds with authority.
She didn't bother arguing with the soldier. It would only diminish her own dignity.
Straightening, she turned and returned to her office.
The next day, and the day after, still no report.
"Head maid, has the Archduchess requested to see the young lady in the past week?"
"No, she has not."
Thoroughly suspicious behavior.
Hard to believe this was the same empress who used to visit daily, even if just for five minutes.
The Battle of Solferino had ended in victory thanks to Field Marshal Radetzky's seasoned defensive lines.
The enemy had been shredded against those lines, inflicting massive casualties on the Franco-Piedmontese alliance comparable to Austria's own, ultimately holding the field.
Water... water...
Help... please...
Italian, German, French, Hungarian... agonized cries in every tongue echoed relentlessly in his ears.
Sisi's supplies had saved soldiers' lives, but he himself had shoved those survivors into this Solferino slaughterhouse today.
He clutched Sisi's photograph tightly.
"Sisi..."
Joseph sought solace from the absent Sisi to escape this horrific reality.
The tent flap parted, and his adjutant saluted.
"Your Majesty. Field Marshal Radetzky wishes to discuss tactics."
Joseph hastily pocketed the photo.
His mother's appointee—if he saw it, it'd reach her ears immediately.
"Tactics discussion in one hour."
Confirming the adjutant gone, Joseph pulled out the photo again.
Murmurs rose outside the tent, but he ignored them.
"Your Majesty."
Must be missing her. Hearing her voice in his head.
"Is that photo that pretty?"
Beautiful, isn't it?
Joseph caught a whiff of perfume in the tent.
...Perfume?
He looked up slowly.
There stood the Empress, having entered without a sound.
"Empress!"
Joseph was dumbfounded. Why was she here?
He shook his head to clear the hallucination.
No, no.
"Empress, do you know where this is? Go back at once. It's dangerous here."
"Mother gave her permission. She told me to visit the wounded."
Not what Sophie had meant.
"My mother said that?"
Sisi nodded, tidying his desk.
"Enough." She perched on the empty spot on his desk, meeting his eyes. "She said to fulfill my duties as empress. And to come visit."