Fanny Cotte's life was the stuff of legend. More importantly, she carried an immense amount of gold and silver, and Louis Philippe naturally welcomed her with open arms. At the same time, he needed to set an example for his followers.
Louis Philippe might not have possessed much political wisdom, but there was no shortage of clever people around him.
Thiers, for example, was both shrewd and shameless. But no one could deny that his political acumen far surpassed that of the men sitting in the halls of Parliament of Paris at the time.
Under Thiers's guidance, Louis Philippe chose to receive Fanny Cotte in Metz, appoint her deputy commander-in-chief of the Orleans Army, and order her to garrison Strasbourg.
In addition, he allowed Duchess Fanny Cotte to recruit and train an army loyal to Louis Philippe himself.
The so-called deputy commander-in-chief was not really an official post, but more of an honorary title. At the time, Strasbourg was considered a place where fighting could never possibly break out.
As for recruiting and training new soldiers, the Orleans government gave her neither provisions nor equipment. And even if she managed to train an army, it would ultimately have to swear loyalty to the royal family.
Thiers's actions took his shameless political style to its absolute limit. Yet Franz knew all too well that, given the chance, Thiers could be even more shameless.
Still, Fanny Cotte had some ability. The thirty thousand Orleans troops serving in the allied forces were proof enough.
Thirty thousand troops might not seem like much to great powers such as Austria and France, but at the time, Alsace and Lorraine had a combined population of less than a million.
So Duchess Fanny Cotte still wielded considerable influence and popular support in the region.
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