Chapter 23: Chapter 23 – Baby Officers

Through a series of personnel transfers, Franz finally managed to obtain control of the Palace Guard. Archduke Louis never interfered with any of the personnel transfers, almost as if he wasn’t aware of Franz’s intention. However, it was more likely that he was pretending to be ignorant.

The Palace Guard was composed of a single regiment, meaning it only had around 3000 troops, but it played an important symbolic role in defending the royal family. Therefore, the actual control of this regiment had always been in the hands of the emperor and his court in Vienna; Archduke Louis was just the nominal commander.

Franz had only informed Archduke Louis about his intention to enter the Palace Guard as a formality; he had already become a part of it after he gained the approval of the Court of Vienna through an imperial edict from his uncle, Emperor Ferdinand I.

The Hapsburgs had been preparing for Franz’s ascension for a long time. It had been planned that he would become a member of the Regency Council within three years. After a few years, the Regency Council would be dissolved, and Franz would rule alone as the Crown Prince Regent.

Even though the Emperor was unwilling to hand over his power, unfortunately, he suffered from epilepsy; on average, he had four seizures a day, leaving him unfit to rule. He was also often out of his mind and did some ridiculous things; occasionally, he also suffered from paranoia.

His uncle’s situation created an opportunity for Franz. The Emperor often made extraordinary remarks. Franz made sure to record any such remarks which could prove useful. By now, he had many “imperial edicts” in his hands, but the extent of their legality was debatable. If he attempted to use them right now, the Regency Council would probably veto them all; however, when the time was right, he could make these “imperial edicts” public without passing them through the Regency Council, turning the emperor’s rambling into reality.

Although the government was controlled by the Regency Council, there had been no explicit announcement that the Emperor was unfit to rule, which meant that his edicts were still valid.

 

***

 

The news of the January Revolution quickly spread throughout the European continent. When the news reached Vienna, people were initially surprised, but got over it quickly. However, when the news reached Paris, the public reaction was very different.

The current Prime Minister of France, , was elected in late 1847, however, he had been the leader of the since 1832 which had ruled for much of the previous two decades. This had been possible due to the immoral ties between the party and capitalists. Through their financial backing, François Guizot was able to bribe other members of Parliament and the bureaucracy to consolidate the party’s regime.

In exchange, since 1840 when was elected prime minister, the appointment of capitalists to government departments had become much more common. The government also abused its power to arbitrarily approve commercial contracts to please financial conglomerates.

As corruption and bribery in the government was becoming the norm and various scandals such as Guizot's ban on the emerged one after another, the public gradually lost faith in the government. By this point, bankers and industrialists were the only supporters of the July dynasty.

Since the British industrial crisis had spread to France in late 1847, food riots had been springing up all over the country. The Labor Protection Act enacted in Austria had also ignited the enthusiasm of the workers as strikes became frequent.

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In this context, where a single spark could light the fire of revolution, the people of Paris, who were already full of revolutionary spirit, were naturally deeply affected upon hearing the news of the revolution in Sicily.

However, the decadent July dynasty turned a deaf ear to the pleas of its people. Instead, they violently suppressed the civil disobedience by the people. The campagne des banquets was also stopped by the government. The meeting originally scheduled for January 19th, 1848, was postponed to February 22nd.

After checking the intelligence in his hand, Franz breathed a sigh of relief. Thankfully, history had maintained its course and his future knowledge would continue to remain his ace. In fact, he had been worrying for nothing. His influence was still limited to just the upper class of Vienna, so there was no way his actions would have affected the revolution in Paris.

Still, Franz improved his relation with generals in the military, including the governors of the various districts of the Empire. Franz also revealed his concern about the internal situation of Austria by mentioning the January revolution in Sicily, and boldly made a prediction that it would cause a chain reaction across the European continent.

Whether his remarks would elicit any serious action, Franz couldn’t know; he could only listen to destiny and do his best. After all, he couldn’t directly reveal that Austria would also have a revolution. If he did, he would be regarded as either a prophet or a madman. Considering the current situation of the Hapsburgs, Franz felt that the latter was more likely.

 

***

 

Currently, Franz was doing his best to play the role of a military enthusiast as he inspected the training of the troops around Vienna. However, the more he saw, the more disappointed he felt.

“Albrecht, what can you do to improve the combat effectiveness of the soldiers of the City Defense Force in the short term?” Franz asked, cautiously.

Archduke Albrecht answered with a playful smile, “Franz, there is a very simple solution to this. As long as you can force the incompetent noble officers to retire and replace them with competent  officers, the combat effectiveness of the City Defense Force will improve by leaps and bounds!”

Franz shook his head and replied, helplessly, “Don’t joke around, Albrecht. If I could’ve forced them to retire, I would’ve done that long ago! What I meant was, is it possible for them to play a role at a crucial time?”

Despite what he had said to Archduke Louis previously about the City Defense Force being garbage, his opinion of them was not that low. The noble officers may be a scourge that lowered the combat effectiveness of the Army during peacetime, but they were very different during wartime. If nothing else, at least their loyalty was much higher than commoner soldiers.