Chapter Summaries

Nicholas I approved Austria's annexation of Wallachia and Moldavia after declaring his larger goal was the restoration of Constantinople. In Vienna, Maximilian boasted to Sophie about freeing enslaved people, and she cautioned him about the limits and costs of moral action.

• Russian officials argued over whether Nicholas I should grant Austria Wallachia and Moldavia, while pro-Austrian and pro-British factions clashed.
• Alexandra ordered the royal band to play Franz's Tsar March, and Nicholas I announced that Wallachia and Moldavia had been assigned to Austria as Russia pursued the restoration of Constantinople.
• The Austrian delegation hurried to spread Nicholas I's decision.
• Maximilian returned to Schönbrunn Palace and told Sophie that he had secured the release of enslaved people from the Ottomans and planned to stop the slave trade.
• Sophie warned Maximilian that countries avoided acting when it did not serve their interests and urged him to understand his position.

Sophie warned Maximilian that his arrogance and decision to accept Ottoman slaves had created political dangers, then gave him eight million Florins as he prepared to become King of the Two Sicilies. Franz later asked Maximilian to let Austria station two regiments and build a military base on Lampedusa, but Maximilian refused and accused Franz and Louis Philippe of interfering in Switzerland.

• Sophie told Maximilian that his acceptance of the slaves had given Franz the chance to demand that the Ottoman Empire identify them and honor the Flower Hall Declaration.
• Sophie warned Maximilian that the slaves could include Russians or Britons and might later accuse him of kidnapping them, then gave him eight million Florins as a gift.
• Maximilian left Sophie and went to Franz, accusing him of asking their mother to lecture him instead of confronting him directly.
• Franz asked Maximilian to allow two more regiments and a new military base on Lampedusa Island, offering to pay double its tax revenue.
• Maximilian refused, saying he would not let his country be dragged into a struggle with Britain, and blamed Franz and Louis Philippe for Switzerland's dissolution.

Maximilian was lured into an Ottoman slave trader’s tent in Constantinople, where Camila impressed him with her languages and lavish displays. The story left off as a commotion broke out outside the tent.

• Franz warned Maximilian that the Two Sicilies’ finances depended on his funding and ordered him to remain in Vienna until the war ended.
• Maximilian protested that Franz had no right to imprison him, and Franz reminded him of his behavior in Constantinople.
• Camila invited Maximilian into a lavish tent and offered him a night of imperial luxury among female slaves.
• Maximilian questioned Camila about her price and was surprised when she demonstrated that she spoke French, Italian, English, and Russian.
• A commotion suddenly erupted outside the tent.

Ludwig discovered enslaved people in Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar and attacked the Tatar slave traders, sparking a gunfight that Maximilian helped bring under control. The Archdukes arranged for the captives to be freed and sent home, but their intervention drew public attention and left the Ottomans fearing Austria’s involvement in the Russo-Turkish War.

• Ludwig found people imprisoned in a filthy enclosure and began tearing down its fence to free them.
• Ludwig beat the slave trader who threatened him, and the traders’ companions clashed with his guards in a firefight.
• Maximilian rejected his guards’ suspicion of an Ottoman plot, revealed his identity, and left the matter to Hulaid Pasha.
• Hulaid Pasha and Saris Palaev sent troops to defeat the Tatar gang, and the Archdukes agreed that the freed captives would be sent home through Austria.
• Ludwig asked to take a freed girl with him, while Maximilian accepted the Ottomans’ request to help repatriate the slaves.
• Newspapers publicized the Archdukes’ rescue, and the Ottomans’ hope that Austria would stay out of the Russo-Turkish War was dashed.

Franz reprimanded Maximilian for his reckless intervention in the Ottoman slave crisis and comforted Ludwig after his injury, while Olga questioned Franz’s plans. As Russian and Austrian forces gathered in Dobruja, the Holy Alliance gained a decisive numerical advantage over the Ottomans.

• Franz confronted Maximilian over photographs that made his slave rescue look improper, warned him about taking on the Ottoman crisis, and ordered him to dispose of the unreliable people around him.
• Franz told Maximilian to leave for abroad rather than cause trouble in Northern Italy, then comforted Ludwig, praised his efforts to save the slaves, and arranged an orphanage in his name.
• Franz asked Ludwig to rest his injured hand and assigned him to attend several ceremonies and balls in his place the next day.
• Olga asked whether Franz intended to force the Ottoman Empire to abolish slavery, and Franz clarified that he was demanding the release of white slaves and dismissed the Ottoman threat as weak.
• Nicholas I led Russian forces toward the front at exceptional speed while Austria reinforced Dobruja, bringing the Holy Alliance’s strength there to roughly four hundred thousand troops and undermining Pasha Omar’s confidence.

Omar Pasha sought British naval support to defend the Danube while Nicholas I planned the Holy Alliance’s campaign against the Ottomans. At the Tsar’s headquarters, Albrecht proposed advancing through South Serbia and Bulgaria before attacking Dobruja, leaving Franz confident Russia would bog down in the Balkans without threatening the Suez Canal.

• Omar Pasha worried that the Austro-Russian army had arrived too quickly, but Colin Campbell suggested asking the British navy to enter the Danube.
• Omar Pasha wrote to potential allies seeking naval help, hoping British intervention would force a stalemate and peace talks.
• Nicholas I planned a joint Austrian and Russian assault on Tulcea, and Albrecht warned that Dobruja was not the Holy Alliance’s ultimate objective.
• Albrecht proposed attacking South Serbia and advancing through Bulgaria before destroying the Ottoman force in Dobruja.
• Franz judged that Russia’s rule in the Balkans would likely become costly and unstable, but he remained determined to prevent Russia from threatening the Suez Canal.

Nicholas I agreed that Austria would campaign independently in South Serbia while Russian troops rested in Dobruja. When British envoy Viscount Stratford offered Russia Wallachia and Austria Moldavia in exchange for peace, Nicholas refused, unwilling to abandon his ambitions against the Ottoman Empire.

• Albrecht persuaded Nicholas I to let Austria handle the campaign in South Serbia while the Russian army rested and kept the Ottomans occupied in Dobruja.
• Nicholas I declined Albrecht’s offer of Russian troops after learning Austria would deploy three hundred and fifty thousand soldiers.
• Viscount Stratford arrived to seek peace, but Nicholas I rejected his appeal and threatened to send him to the riverbank under Ottoman fire.
• Viscount Stratford offered Wallachia to Russia and Moldavia to Austria as compensation, but Nicholas I refused the proposal.

Nicholas I rejected Britain’s efforts to divide Russia and Austria, insisting that the Ottomans withdraw from Europe. In Vienna, Franz reviewed the latest reports and remained wary of Britain as Austria prepared to move against South Serbia.

• Viscount Stratford urged Nicholas I to reconsider his demands and tried to draw Archduke Albrecht into criticizing Russia, but Albrecht refused to take the bait.
• Nicholas I declared that the Ottomans must withdraw from Europe, and Stratford left after failing to sway him.
• Nicholas I celebrated the Holy Alliance with Albrecht, who sent news of the meeting to Wallachia for transmission to Vienna.
• Franz read the reports in Vienna and judged that Britain had surrendered only to wait for a better opportunity.
• Franz considered Austria’s planned attack on South Serbia and kept the Austrian Imperial Navy on alert despite the British fleet’s arrival in Istanbul.

Friedrich weighed the risks of a British return while Russia faced a British-Ottoman blockade and struggled to supply its army. Nicholas I accepted Greece as an ally despite his hatred of Otto I and Greek ambitions, because he wanted Constantinople more.

• Friedrich remained wary of the British navy and recognized how difficult it would be for Austria to recover from a major naval defeat.
• Viscount Stratford chose to send the British Mediterranean Fleet into the Black Sea to block Russian resupply rather than shield the Ottomans.
• Nicholas I learned that Britain and the Ottoman Empire had declared against Russia, then accepted Vronchenko’s proposal to buy supplies from Austria.
• Russian officials realized that the lower Danube could not easily supply both the Russian army and Austria’s 350,000 troops.
• Ludwig von Oman offered Greece’s support against the Ottomans, and Nicholas I accepted Greece as an ally after negotiations.

Austria invaded South Serbia while Otto I led Greece into the war and fought the Ottomans in West Thrace and Macedonia. Britain struggled to push for peace as the expanding conflict strengthened Russia’s position, leaving Nicholas I’s army awkwardly idle across the Dobruja river.

• Austrian forces invaded South Serbia from three directions and routed the Ottoman garrisons with help from local collaborators.
• Otto I expanded Greece’s army and launched a campaign to take West Thrace and Macedonia instead of attacking Constantinople.
• The Ottomans transferred troops from Anatolia and reinforced their western defenses, turning West Thrace into a bloody, congested battlefield.
• Britain refused the Ottomans’ request to use its fleet against Greece, fearing it would provoke Austria and expose the British fleet to Russia.
• Nicholas I’s more than three hundred thousand Russian troops remained across the Dobruja river, watching the Ottoman army while Austria and Greece advanced.

Nicholas I ordered his generals to devise a way to take Dobruja, and Russia launched a surprise crossing of the Danube against the Ottoman defenses. Ahmed Yilmaz struggled to contain the scattered Russian beachheads until the main Russian force attacked from Wallachia.

• Nicholas I demanded a plan to capture Dobruja, and his generals settled on attacks at multiple points to disperse the Ottoman defenses.
• Omar Pasha's sentries saw no clear signs of an impending crossing, and the Ottoman troops grew complacent.
• Russian vanguard troops secretly crossed the river, killed Ottoman sentries, and began building pontoon bridges as several thousand Russians landed at multiple points.
• Omar Pasha ordered stronger guards and sent Ahmed Yilmaz to retake the beachhead.
• Ahmed Yilmaz found the Russian troops tenacious and his forces too few to cover the gaps in the line, while the main Russian force launched a frontal attack from Wallachia on the tenth day.

After the Holy Alliance drove the Ottoman army back into Bulgaria, Greece and Russia faced heavy losses, while Britain prepared to intervene diplomatically. At Topkapi Palace, Ottoman leaders urged Queen Mother Shevkyevza to move the capital from Istanbul, leaving her torn between retreat and defending the city.

• Russian forces crossed the Danube into Wallachia as the Austrian Empire and Greece advanced, forcing Pasha Omar’s New Army to retreat into Bulgaria.
• Greece suffered more than twenty thousand casualties in West Thrace, but its factions united with Otto I to continue resisting the Ottomans.
• John Russell sent George Villiers to Near East affairs after rejecting Viscount Stratford’s request for British troops to aid the Ottomans.
• Ottoman ministers argued over whether to recall the New Army, fight to the death, or move the capital, while Queen Mother Shevkyevza denounced abandoning Istanbul.
• Queen Mother Shevkyevza recalled the Ottoman Empire’s Great Interregnum and feared both the consequences of Istanbul’s fall and the empire’s permanent loss of Europe if she fled.

Empress Dowager Shevkyevza publicly rejected abandoning Istanbul while secretly ordering a plan to relocate the Ottoman capital, as George Villiers tried to preserve British influence in the Near East. In Washington, Zachary Taylor planned a northern expansion into British territory and secretly prepared an expedition to Cuba.

• Empress Dowager Shevkyevza ended the court conference by declaring that the Ottoman Empire would not surrender, then secretly ordered her confidants to prepare a capital-relocation plan.
• Ottoman officials weighed Ankara and Bursa as possible new capitals, while George Villiers feared that losing Istanbul would let Russia dominate the Black Sea and threaten British interests.
• George Villiers wrote to Prime Minister John Russell, met Empress Dowager Shevkyevza, and then sailed to Dobruja to meet the Tsar.
• Zachary Taylor met Palmerston and chose to expand north into the sparsely defended British territory in North America rather than risk a war against Mexico and Austria.
• Zachary Taylor dispatched 8,000 United States Army soldiers to Oregon and secretly backed an expedition to Cuba under the banner of helping it gain independence.

Franz advanced Plan B as the Ottoman Empire’s resistance and the Holy Alliance’s massive deployment made the war more dangerous, while Britain sought peace to protect the Black Sea Straits. In Constanza, Nicholas I rejected George Villiers’s offer of Ottoman territorial concessions and remained determined to conquer Constantinople despite supply failures and warnings of a huge Ottoman force.

• Franz reviewed the scale of the Holy Alliance’s Balkan campaign and decided to activate Plan B early after the Ottomans considered moving their capital.
• John Russell worried that the Ottomans could not hold the Black Sea Straits, blamed Viscount Stratford for the crisis, and resolved to seek peace with Russia.
• Nicholas I stayed in overcrowded Constanza, where Russian troops plundered the city as he focused on taking Bulgaria before Austria or Greece could reach Constantinople.
• A collision on the Nistru River sank tens of thousands of tons of Austrian supplies and blocked the route, while Russian reinforcements continued arriving.
• George Villiers urged Nicholas I to accept Ottoman territorial concessions and stop the war, but Nicholas rejected negotiations and vowed to plant Russia’s flag atop Hagia Sophia.
• George Villiers warned Nicholas that Omar Pasha was assembling five hundred thousand troops and that the coming battle could be unprecedentedly brutal.

Nicholas I weighed a British proposal to support the Ottomans as Russian and Austrian offensives bogged down in the Balkans. As the Ottoman defenders held their ground, a Greek rocket and artillery attack devastated Ibn Hassan Pasha’s positions.

• George Villiers told Nicholas I that Britain had sent weapons to Varna and would support the Ottomans for Europe's peace, and Nicholas I considered the proposal while facing Russian supply and battlefield problems.
• Nicholas I read Albrecht’s report that the Austrian army had been stopped in the mountains, then resolved to commit his forces to capture Bulgaria’s plains.
• Omar Pasha gained confidence as Bulgarian Pomaks resisted Russian attacks, Ahmed Yilmaz blocked the Austrian advance, and British supplies and Anatolian reinforcements reached the Ottomans.
• Ibn Hassan Pasha’s battered troops repelled Greek attacks in West Thrace and received reinforcements from Istanbul.
• Ibn Hassan examined captured Greek rifles and realized the Greek soldiers were poorly trained, then watched rockets and accurately directed artillery set the Ottoman positions ablaze.

Austria’s intervention destroyed the Ottoman army in West Thrace, while Russia’s losses, supply crisis, and the Greek advance pushed Nicholas I to agree to peace talks. Fighting was suspended without returning occupied lands, and Otto I received two stern warnings.

• Albrecht sent Austrian troops into battle after the Greek army’s disastrous losses, and Austria annihilated the Ottoman West Thrace Legion in six hours.
• Empress Dowager Shevkyevza and Ottoman officials heard of the defeat as Murad V vowed to fight, then began discussing moving the capital and replacing him.
• Nicholas I learned that Russia faced severe casualties, supply shortages, disease, and British intervention while Greek forces advanced toward Constantinople.
• George Villiers asked Nicholas I to end the war, and the Tsar agreed to peace negotiations in Saint Petersburg with hostilities suspended but occupied lands retained.
• Otto I received two stern warnings within a single day.

After the war’s ceasefire, Austria’s officials argued over Franz’s decision to exchange South Serbia and East Bosnia for the Danubian Principalities. Franz’s envoy then offered Russia support in acquiring Bulgaria’s northern plains, leaving Nicholas I praising Franz as a good man.

• Along the Strymon River, Otto I buried Greek soldiers and vowed to make Britain and Russia pay for blocking his expansion.
• Count Latour protested Austria’s plan to hand South Serbia and East Bosnia to Russia in exchange for Wallachia and Moldavia, while Prince Schwarzenberg insisted it was Franz’s order.
• Baron Bruck and Count Giovanni Battista backed the exchange, arguing that the Danubian Principalities were more valuable than loss-making Balkan territories.
• At the Tsar’s field headquarters, Nicholas I regretted failing to capture Constantinople and blamed his commanders and Otto I for the failed campaign.
• Franz’s envoy told Nicholas I that Austria would support Russia’s acquisition of Bulgaria’s northern plains and would reject peace if the Ottomans and Britain refused.

Napoleon III abandoned plans to attack rival dynasties after learning that Franz had anticipated France’s move and proposed investment instead. He weighed the economic opportunities and political risks of Austrian money in France while ruling out war over Alsace-Lorraine, Fribourg, and North Africa.

• Armand-Jacques Leroy de Saint-Arnaud and the French ministers regretted shelving the planned attack on Alsace-Lorraine but recognized the danger of war with the German Confederation and Austria.
• Alexander Walewski’s plan to eliminate the House of Orleans, the House of Bourbon, and the Duke of Aumale was set aside after Napoleon III received the latest intelligence.
• Franz prepared to expand Austrian influence by investing in French railways, telegraphs, and the United Power department store chain while protecting core technologies.
• Louis Napoleon considered Austrian investment as a way to restore France’s economy and balance British influence, while retaining the option to reject the arrangement if necessary.
• Napoleon III ruled out military campaigns in Alsace-Lorraine, Fribourg, and North Africa because France lacked the strength to fight the German Confederation or the Duke of Aumale.

Britain tried to exploit tensions between Russia and Austria by encouraging Greece to propose Vienna as the peace conference venue. Franz uncovered the British role and Otto I’s adviser Antigonus, while Nicholas I insisted the conference remain in Saint Petersburg.

• John Russell chose Greece to press for holding the peace conference in Vienna and weakening relations between Russia and Austria.
• After Otto I proposed Vienna, Franz questioned him and ordered him to make Antigonus disappear and investigate his contacts.
• Otto I instead had Lucas investigate Antigonus and discovered that he had abused the king’s trust, amassed wealth, and built a faction.
• The news reached Nicholas I, and British ambassador George Villiers argued that Vienna was more suitable than Saint Petersburg.
• Count Pillersdorff disclaimed responsibility for Otto I’s proposal, while Nesselrode demanded an official document if Britain wanted to change the agreed conference venue.
• Nicholas I left the dispute to Nesselrode and resented Britain for trying to undermine his position.

Franz avoided competing with Britain to host the peace conference and tried to limit conflict, but Nicholas I’s ambitions to divide Ottoman territory threatened the Holy Alliance’s unity. A month later in Saint Petersburg, negotiations remained deadlocked as Britain offered separate territorial concessions to Austria and Greece and challenged Russia to declare war.

• Franz sent Count Pillersdorff to the conference and chose not to oppose Nicholas I openly, while asking Otto I to support a counterbalance to Russian ambitions.
• Nicholas I demanded that the Ottoman Empire withdraw from Europe and that the Holy Alliance divide its Balkan territories, prompting George Villiers to object and seek instructions from Britain.
• A month later in Saint Petersburg, Nicholas I rejected Britain’s proposed Ottoman cessions and demanded that Bulgaria be included.
• Pillersdorff and the Greek foreign minister also rejected the proposed terms, while George Villiers offered the Danubian Principalities to Austria and Macedonia to Greece in exchange for ten years of peace.
• George Villiers told the Austrian and Greek representatives to take the terms back to their governments, and Nicholas I threatened war before Britain answered that it awaited a declaration.