Alternative Plan

The ensuing commendation ceremony naturally praised those who had performed exceptionally during the suppression of the rebellion. Their reward was noble status.

In truth, the Austrian Empire was a rather peculiar country. It had always striven to increase the number of nobles, even periodically granting noble status to Jews who converted to the Catholic Church.

At this time, anyone could become a noble by paying 1,000 florins to the House of Peers in Vienna. But this sort of noble status brought no real benefits. For 3,000 florins, however, one could become a title-bearing noble.

A title-bearing noble was someone entitled to add an extra epithet to their postcards or epitaphs, such as "Sword of the Oak" or something of the sort.

Noble titles could not usually be bought with money, but if you could afford it, someone would find a way to help you.

In fact, many traditional monarchies, Britain included, had been doing everything they could since the sixteenth century to expand their ranks of nobility. But the only country as peculiar as the Austrian Empire was Spain.

There was no helping it. What could you expect, when they came from the same line?

The reason Franz was using noble status as a reward was self-evident. The old nobility was finished, but someone had to fill their place in the ecosystem.

And so these new nobles became the perfect substitutes. They were relatively more loyal and easier to control, since they had shallow roots and no powerful backers.

There was another advantage to this prize: it cost nothing. For Franz, taking a register of nobles from the House of Peers was as easy as reaching into a bag and pulling something out.

Besides, increasing the number of nobles benefited both the country and the ruling house. After all, the