Vienna, headquarters of the German Confederation.
Once upon a time, there had been an unwritten rule that kings did not attend Confederation meetings in person.
This time, however, things were different. Since Franz had announced that he would attend in person, all the German monarchs had said they would be there themselves.
That even included William IV, King of Prussia, who had long been at odds with Austria, as well as the newly enthroned King of Hanover, George V.
Historically, George V had not taken the throne until 1851. But his father, Ernest Augustus I, had an appalling reputation and always seemed to choose the wrong path at the worst possible moment.
Ernest Augustus I was an extreme religious zealot. On the one hand, he persecuted Catholics in his realm; on the other, he even opposed the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1828, which had been introduced in Britain.
On top of that, as soon as he ascended the throne, he repealed the previous king's liberal policies and insisted that he himself was the rightful heir to the British throne.
Ernest Augustus I had been born in Buckingham Palace, so he claimed to be a noble Anglo-Saxon, not a barbaric German.
In the early nineteenth century, that was not much of a problem. But with nationalism on the rise in the mid-nineteenth century, his words had become somewhat out of step with the times.
Ernest Augustus I had only meant to say that he was the person best suited to be King of Britain. Yet his words deeply wounded the nationalists of the Kingdom of Hanover.
Ernest Augustus I's personal morals were also questionable. There was no evidence behind the rumors that he had committed incest with his sister or brutalized innocent people on his estate.
But whenever people heard Ernest