The Iron Mother's Weakness
"Before asking who's behind it, you should first admit that the Empress made a mistake."
Just the title of Empress, huh. What mistake did I supposedly make?
"Me?"
"Yes. Didn't this all happen right after Bach's power was diminished?"
"Should I apologize or something?"
"It doesn't matter. He would have had to step down eventually anyway. If you hadn't been Empress, I would have handed it over to Franz five years ago."
"I didn't come here to fight with you, Archduchess."
"I didn't bring it up to quarrel with you either."
My mother-in-law sat in silence for a long while before slowly opening her mouth.
"You said you wanted to know who's behind this, right?"
For the first time, the Archduchess met my eyes directly.
"You know, don't you."
"There are no secrets in the Empire that I don't know."
"…You have to protect Joseph. He's your son—and the Emperor—before he's my husband."
"That's what I intended to do. Until I found out where their funding is coming from."
I quietly uttered the name in place of her tightly pressed lips.
"…Archduke Maximilian."
The only weakness of the woman called the Iron Lady, the sole man of the Habsburgs.
Motherly love.
In reality, after Maximilian was shot in Mexico and she collapsed in shock...
"Archduke Maximilian is their patron."
"Max probably thought he was just sponsoring artists and helping poor nobles with charity."
The mother-in-law wouldn't stand by and watch a rebellion. But.
"Even if it had been Joseph, would you have done the same?"
"Don't misunderstand. I just showed my love in a different way—I never once stopped cherishing Franz."
Her words weren't an excuse; they were sincere. It was just that her methods were far too harsh and political for Joseph.
"Give me the list."
She glanced at me before ringing a bell.
"Hand the list over to the Empress."
The document folder handed over by the Archduchess's lady-in-waiting bore a red "Interior Ministry Secret" stamp on the cover.
Achilles' heel of the opposition that Alexander Bach had investigated.
I immediately opened the folder and quickly scanned through it.
1. Count Franz Pollio de Krennevill.
Military supply corruption and abuse of authority.
During the recent Italian war, monopolized supply contracts for our troops to companies run by relatives.
Baron Burck attempted an audit of the corruption; the military shifted blame for defeat onto him.
2. Count Bernhard von Rechberg.
Severe alcohol dependency.
Highest-ranking member of Vienna's Black Rose social club.
Blind advocacy for Prussian alliance, deliberately sabotaging relations with Russia.
3. Count Agenor Goluchowski.
Embezzlement of public funds and sale of offices.
Misappropriated relief funds donated by the court for the Galician famine; used to expand his mansion.
Sold major offices to Polish nobles regardless of ability, in exchange for bribes.
"…Why are you giving this to me?"
To be honest, I had asked for it, but I never expected it to be handed over so easily.
"Because you wanted it, Your Majesty."
"No sarcasm, please. Why didn't you handle it yourself? You could have made them disappear without a trace."
"If I move against them, they'll sell out Maximilian to save themselves."
It meant they might even use Joseph to drag Maximilian down in a mutual destruction.
"But Empress. Isn't what matters to you only my eldest son Franz and your children?"
"So you want me to make the move."
"Yes. But in return, don't touch Max. End it with cutting off the tails. That's my condition for handing over the documents."
I picked up the document folder.
"Maximilian wasn't on this list from the beginning anyway."
Before leaving the room, I turned back to the Archduchess.
"…Go back to your hometown with Little Aunt and Big Aunt."
"I am a Habsburg."
She called me back just as I was about to leave for good.
"Empress. Not once was 'for your sake' ever a lie."
The Archduchess stared piercingly at me for a long time before indifferently lowering her head to her desk.
What was that all of a sudden? Are you that worried about Maximilian?
"I told you I won't touch Maximilian."
With those words, I turned and left the room.
Upon returning to her office, Sophie wrote the day's events in her diary as usual.
— Shared power with the daughter-in-law.
'She still doesn't quite get it.'
She still didn't like Elisabeth wandering around outside, but she judged that if she stepped down and handed over power, the Empress would stay in Vienna. Given Joseph's personality, he'd resist if Sophie said it herself, but if Sisi handled it, he'd grudgingly tolerate keeping Maximilian alive even if he didn't like it.
Knock knock.
"Who is it."
"The Chief Chamberlain of the Empress's apartments."
Her longtime friend, but now aligned with the Empress: Countess Esterházy.
"Come in."
Esterházy approached after curtsying.
"What brings you here?"
"Do you intend to fully hand over duties to Her Majesty the Empress now?"
"I must. A bit late, but yes."
If it had been the modest, well-mannered, well-educated Helene, she could have stepped down sooner, more gently. But Joseph had chosen the headstrong Sisi.
"…That's quite late, considering how fond you were of her."
Sophie let out a chuckle at Esterházy's pointed jest.
'Yes, that's true.'
She still didn't show it, but even now. Everything except her snapping back at adults.
"Are you here as a friend today?"
"If you wish, I'll remain as Chief Chamberlain."
Instead of calling a maid, Sophie personally poured two glasses of wine.
One for her friend, one for herself.
She flipped her diary forward and pointed to the page from the Empress's wedding day long ago.
The Empress was beautiful like an angel, humble, and moving to all who beheld her.
The ink had faded, but the emotions from then were vivid.
"Who knew my eye for people would fail me so."
"In what way?"
"Beautiful like an angel, moving to behold… but not humble."
She set down her empty glass and gazed out the window toward the palace where the Empress resided.
"A child who knew no etiquette, no politics, not even how to dress."
That's why she had tried to teach her from one to ten, to make her a proper mother of the nation. Her expressions were still so varied, her imperial dignity as Empress… At least she maintained it in public settings, which felt like tremendous progress.
Just as she loved Joseph, she loved Sisi too.
"Isn't it fortunate she isn't humble?" In another sense, she was. She still used formal speech with strangers.
"Yes, she could be the Emperor's wife… but never the mistress of the Empire."
It felt like finishing a long assignment.
Until the next morning.
"Where did she go?"
"She departed for vacation at the Procuratie Nuove."
She had given her power on the condition she stay in Vienna, but instead, she went traveling to Venice.
"…Maybe it's old age, but my eye for people is off." The lessons weren't over yet.
Venice's sea and gardens are always a delight, no matter how many times I see them….
"Your Majesty… is this alright?"
What's the problem?
For starters, staying at Schönbrunn is a hard no.
I didn't like it much even in summer—asking me to winter there too?
No bathrooms, no toilets.
"You know I always travel in summer anyway."
Joseph would understand.
Besides, it's the warm south.
Thanks to the Mediterranean, it's not too cold, and the Venetians….
"Your Majesty, there's a risk of falling…."
See? They love it when I just wave from the window.
Unlike Milan, Venice is practically won over.
"Baron Anton von Schmerling has arrived."
"Send him in."
The man I chose to replace Bach.
The issue? He's a liberal who hates Hungary.
No, he's closer to hating anything that obstructs centralization.
"Baron Schmerling."
"I pay my respects to Her Majesty the Empress."
A bureaucrat who believes parliaments exist for the Emperor.
That's why no blade is sharper than him.
"Your Majesty, what brings a mere bureaucrat like me all the way to distant Venice? I can't dance, nor recite poetry with any skill."
I tilted my chin up slightly in arrogance toward Schmerling, eyes looking down disdainfully. Just as I'd learned on day one.
"If I needed a dance partner, I'd have called Johann Strauss. What I need is a butcher to carve out the Empire's rotten flesh."
A man with plenty of ill will toward conservative nobles.
"I've pondered why Your Majesty summoned me, but found no answer."
"Give it a try."
"…Your Majesty led the Emperor's Bohemian coronation, and show great interest in Venice and other imperial subjects."
"What's the problem with that? It doesn't seem wrong for the Empress of the Empire to care for its peoples."
"But Your Majesty's actions align with the federalism Count Goluchowski advocates." No multiculturalism yet, huh?
Schmerling adjusted his glasses like a picky scholar and continued.
"I desire a strong German central government centered in Vienna. Not splintering power among local nobles, but an efficient Empire moving in unison under His Majesty the Emperor."
Me too.
"Parliaments can be helpful. Obviously. If we create the parliament you want."
How many years would that take?
"Five years. At minimum five."
"Five years means…."
"The time for the parliament to take root and implement our first agenda."
By then, Prussia will have dissolved the German Confederation, right? Better to unify first and have Joseph keep a parliament as compromise with liberals.
"Baron. Surprisingly, His Majesty listens to his ministers' opinions. If he ignored them and tried to handle everything alone, could conservative nobles shake the Empire now?" No.
"The strong centralization through parliament you want—fine. But who will those parliament members be?"
"Why, the educated, propertied German bourgeois class and…."
"Wrong. Hold elections now, and local magnates—the great nobles—will seize the seats. They'll legally gut the Emperor's power in the parliament you create and drag it to the provinces."
He didn't back down and asked again.
"Understood, Your Majesty. But one more question."
"Speak."
"Why do you help the Empire's subjects? Simple compassion? Or to win their favor?" No pan-Germanism term yet.
"Why do you treat the Empire's peoples so well? Merciful queen in Bohemia, beautiful mother in Italy. Don't you know such appeasement plants false hopes of autonomy?"
Poison to centralization.
"Acknowledging their cultures isn't the same as acknowledging their autonomy."
"It'll plant the idea that they need parliaments too."
"Baron. How many Germans are in our Empire?"
"Around 8 million, estimated."
"And non-Germans?"
"…Combining Hungary, Slavs, Italians—about 25 million."
I nodded slightly.
"That's exactly why. Do you think you can suppress them forever with just 8 million swords and guns?"
"That's why only His Majesty commands the army."
"We can occupy. But that's not ruling. Occupation forces always get driven out eventually."
I pointed to the peaceful Venetian scenery outside the window.
"Smiling at them, learning their languages, respecting their cultures—it's not for their sake. It's because I'm the Empress of the Empire."
Bohemia 1526, Hungary 1526, Croatia 1527, Lombardy 1714, Venice 1797. If we'd focused on the Empire instead of Germany, we could have become one like France.
"The Habsburgs are not a family that rules nations. We are the family that rules the Empire." The Habsburg family motto.
Viribus Unitis (With United Strength).