Chapter 47: Chapter 47 – First Austro-Sardinian War

On March 27, 1848, the Vienna government announced the abolition of domestic tariffs and prohibited the regional government from collecting any form of tariffs for trade within Austria. Hearing this news, unsurprisingly, the Hungarian ambassador in Vienna strongly condemned the actions of the central government as “tyrannical.”

Ironically, the Hungarians had previously proposed the abolition of domestic tariffs, however, their proposition had stated that Austria should unilaterally abolish tariffs on Hungarian businesses, not that Hungary and Austria should bilaterally abolish tariffs. If not, the domestic tariffs would’ve been abolished almost a century ago during the tenure of the most famous female Habsburg monarch, , who had abolished domestic tariffs in Bohemia and Galicia in 1775.

 

***

 

One piece of bad news after another!

Before the problem of the rebellious Czechs in Bohemia could be resolved, another troubling news reached Vienna: the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, or simply Sardinia, had declared war on Austria!

On the evening of March 23, 1848, , the king of Sardinia, delivered a speech on the palace square and declared war on Austria. Due to the turmoil in the Empire, the news didn’t reach Vienna until the 27th.

Franz questioned the Cabinet, “Have the reinforcements we sent to Marshal Radetzky arrived?”

After the suppression of the rebellion in Vienna, the Cabinet had transferred 50,000 troops to reinforce Marshal Radetzky in Milan. This step had been taken under strong persuasion by Franz, who was aware of the imminent war with the Kingdom of Sardinia; otherwise, just the suppression of a simple rebellion in Milan would not have required so many reinforcements.

If there had been no reinforcements, history would’ve repeated itself: Marshal Radetzky would’ve held off the larger Sardinian army and would’ve routed them after the arrival of domestic reinforcements. However, history had changed: the rebellion in Vienna had been suppressed quickly and relatively easily, and all-out rebellions had yet to occur in other regions, so Vienna could afford to invest heavily on the Italian front.

Minister-President von Schwarzenberg answered, “They reached Venice the day before yesterday, so they should have begun to suppress the rebellion by now!”

He felt nothing but scorn and disdain for a puny country like Sardinia which dared to invade a behemoth like Austria.

Franz was of a different opinion. The anti-Austrian war started by the Sardinians was not just limited to them, but to all of the Italian states, including the , the , and the , which had been forced into this war due to the will of their people who had been infected by nationalism. The Cabinet had already ordered the military to remain on high alert after receiving troubling reports from the embassies in the various Italian states.

After much deliberation, Franz ordered, “Inform Marshal Radetzky that he has full authority to deal with the rebellion however he wants, but if he needs more reinforcements, tell him to wait one month!”

He did not intend to discuss military issues with the Cabinet. These people were skilled politicians, but laymen in the art of war, and their understanding of the military was likely even inferior to him. A group of laymen giving arbitrary orders to an expert was doomed to end badly. Besides, after the outbreak of the rebellion in Milan, the telegraph lines between Vienna and Milan had been sabotaged by the rebels.

Franz was unaware of the details on the Italian front, so the only thing he could do then was to place his trust in Marshal Radetzky, a veteran of the battlefield and ensure that the logistics and supply line was intact. Historically, he had suppressed the rebellion in Milan and thwarted the Sardinian invasion. This time, Austria had a greater advantage, so there was no reason for him to fail.

In addition to suppressing the rebellion, they also had to worry about foreign forces that might take advantage of the instability in Austria. Therefore, since the suppression of the rebellion in Vienna, the government had been conscripting soldiers and expanding the army to prepare for war.

You are reading story Holy Roman Empire at novel35.com

In fact, Franz really had the urge to send the army to finish all the nobles and capitalists who might rebel and forcefully carry out land reforms to obtain the land for the released serfs which would solve all the problems. Unfortunately, this was impossible. He still had to comply with the customs and allow other nobles to decide the fact of the nobles who participated in the rebellion.

In European society, it was rare to kill defeated, enemy nobles, let alone one’s own nobles. As a result, the nobles’s council only sentenced 12 rebel nobles to death, and even the charge was that they had killed other nobles to seize their land and title. This was the result despite Archduke Louis taking a hardliner stance against them due to the pain of losing his son.

Still, Franz didn’t plan to let them go so easily. He seized the property of the 28 rebels nobles (of which only 12 were executed) and deemed it to be government property, barring any heirs who had not proven their ignorance of the rebellion from inheriting the titles. This was an impossible task. Even if the heir hadn’t taken part in the rebellion, his relatives or friends might have. Even if simply a neighbor or an acquaintance had been part of the rebellion, the heir would be unable to clear his name.

Franz couldn’t decide on this, so he gave the right to decide the heir’s guilt to the nobles themselves. If at least 80% of the nobles believed that the heir was innocent and was the legal first heir, he could inherit the title. However, the relationship between the nobles was extremely chaotic. Each noble had many greedy relatives with inheritance claims, so such internal matters were difficult to settle.

If it was proven that the first heir had been privy to the rebellion, the title and fief would go to the second heir. Because of the nobles’ marriage practices, the first heir and the second heir were often not from the same family, and might even be hostile to each other, which made the situation even more difficult to settle. Each noble had plenty of relatives, so it was very likely that they would hinder the first heir from inheriting the title if the second heir was from their family.

 

***

 

“Your Imperial Highness, if all Italian states unite against us, Marshal Radetzky may need more troops to keep Lombardy-Venetia. Maybe we should transfer the reinforcements from other regions?” Minister-President von Schwarzenberg suggested.

“The Italians are not truly united. The other Italian states may have been forced by public sentiment, but they still don’t want to go to war with us for the Kingdom of Sardinia.

As for the Kingdom of Sardinia, I don’t think they will launch an attack until the revolutionaries in Milan and Venice agree to merge with them and fight with them.

We had already stationed 40,000 soldiers on the Italian front, plus the 50,000 reinforcements we just sent; even if Marshal Radetzky is unable to defeat the invaders, he should still be able to hold them back for some time.

Currently, the situation in the various regions is also unstable. If we transfer troops from other regions, in case of a rebellion occurring there, we will be left overwhelmed and defenseless.

Inform Marshal Radetzky that he doesn’t need to worry about the loss for a few cities; as long as he can win the war, there is no harm in losing a few battles.”

Franz held himself back from the temptation to defeat the Italians quickly and chose to fight steadily. Historically, even though the Vienna government had ordered him to give up Milan, Marshal Radetzky, without support, had been able to hold off the invaders. He had not lost, even without reinforcements.

Franz was not able to gauge the skill of the Austrian army, which, over the past century, had continued to lose against the likes of ’s Prussia and ’s France, but, then again, no European nation had been able to defeat either Frederick II’s Prussia or Napoleon’s France, alone. When he thought of the Italians’ military record, however, he felt a sense of relief.

Historically, Austria and Italians had fought many times, and, except for the time when the original Franz Joseph had personally commanded Austria against the Franco-Italian coalition, Austria had always defeated the Italians soundly, even after the establishment of the decadent Austro-Hungarian Empire.

You can find story with these keywords: Holy Roman Empire, Read Holy Roman Empire, Holy Roman Empire novel, Holy Roman Empire book, Holy Roman Empire story, Holy Roman Empire full, Holy Roman Empire Latest Chapter