Every reform came at a price, and Franz soon experienced that firsthand. As victims of this military reform, his three younger brothers came to protest.
Without question, the three little brats were ruthlessly suppressed by him. He argued them into speechlessness, and they slunk away in disgrace.
In truth, Franz had also wanted to establish a military academy for young noble officers, but poverty had forced him to abandon the idea for the time being.
There was no helping it; Austria's national conditions dictated it. At present, military education for noble children was paid for by the nobles themselves. Once the government established an academy for young noble officers, that expense would have to be borne by the government.
The upbringing of these noble children could not be handled carelessly. They had to receive elite education. The educational costs for tens of thousands of noble children would amount to at least tens of millions of florins each year; even exceeding a hundred million would not be surprising.
Besides military and academic classes, there also had to be etiquette, art, riding, hunting, fencing, religion, ballroom dancing...
In short, how could one word—expensive—possibly cover it all? Even ordinary noble families could not sustain this kind of elite education, so what could they do?
The answer was very simple: parents educated the next generation themselves, or sent their children to study under relatives and friends.
Naturally, that applied to nobles with deep foundations. Newly risen nobles did not have the means to provide their children with such high-end education. Unable to cultivate noble bearing, they were called nouveau riche.
In any case, aside from academic courses, ordinary Austrian schools also provided basic military training. This was a tradition in the German lands.
As the saying went, "Those above set the example, those below