"Your Highness, those are rather strong words. I don't think the Spanish side did this intentionally.
"As for Carlos's proposal..."
Franz deliberately paused for a moment, then asked,
"What do you all think?"
Franz had effectively sidestepped Prince Schwarzenberg's suggestion that Spain might be insulting the Austrian Empire. He also treated the Carlists' conditions with great disdain, not even calling their claimant Carlos VI, but simply Carlos.
In truth, the title Carlos VI was a trap set for Franz by Austrian officials. If Franz called him Carlos VI, that would amount to recognizing the Carlos regime, and they could make a great deal of it.
However, their calling him Carlos VI was also highly problematic. It was just that no one would pursue such matters in an internal meeting. If they said it in public, it could easily be interpreted as an official Austrian recognition of the Carlists.
Of course, if they really did so publicly, that would be easy enough to handle: Franz could simply deal with them.
But now they would only admit it was a slip of the tongue. Franz could do little more than issue a verbal warning; if he reprimanded them too harshly, people might even think he was making a mountain out of a molehill.
Franz detested this kind of convoluted political maneuvering, but these officials regarded laying traps for the emperor as a point of pride.
In fact, from Franz's words, tone, and gestures just now, any clever person should have understood what he meant.
However, the chancellor, Schwarzenberg, was a hardliner. Interior Minister Giovanni Battista was bedridden at home, and Finance Minister Baron Bruck didn't care about any of this; he only spoke in numbers.
The Minister of War was a blockhead, while Foreign Minister Karl von Ficquelmont was a traditional nobleman.