Chapter Summaries

Franz II left Vienna as Hungarian forces crushed the poorly organized uprising, while the rebels’ leader faltered and the city descended into disorder. In southeastern Austria, Baron Kossuth and Hungarian independence activists seized on the Emperor’s absence and the Debrecen Legion’s departure to plan a rebellion with Romanian and Serbian allies.

• Franz II traveled safely from Vienna to Hammersdorf under the escort of more than a thousand Court Guard soldiers.
• Grasalkovich’s Hungarian army routed Ehlers’s undertrained recruits, while Ehlers gathered civilians to defend Vienna and learned that Franz II had fled.
• After the Hungarian cannons began firing, Ehlers collapsed into despair, and Lieutenant Schwarz took command of the dwindling resistance as the Sans-culottes fled or looted the city.
• Five days later, Schwarz and more than a thousand rebels were trapped in western Vienna, while the uprising’s original demands and goals had largely been forgotten.
• Baron Kossuth told Sandor, Claudiu, and other Hungarian independence leaders that Franz II’s departure and the Debrecen Legion’s redeployment left the southeast vulnerable.
• Kossuth ordered the leaders to gather their forces and establish contact with Romanian and Serbian allies before launching a rebellion in about half a month.

As rebellions spread across Austria’s southeastern provinces, Count Kaunitz and his allies gathered to urge an end to the war with France and recruit Kobzl to their side. Kobzl learned they intended to make him State Minister after removing Baron Thugut, but his response was left unstated.

• Hungarian, Serbian, and Romanian rebels captured towns and spread their uprising across the southeastern provinces, while Slovakia began to stir.
• Kobzl learned that the Emperor had rejected the Hungarian Parliament’s request to send the Bajachaza Legion to Transylvania.
• A messenger summoned Kobzl to a villa, where he met Count Kaunitz and several ministers and advisers.
• Metternich warned that the Empire faced collapse from rebellion and French attacks, and argued that it should seek a truce with France.
• Johann von Kobzl said the Kobzl family would support Kaunitz and abandon Baron Thugut, while Metternich offered Kobzl the post of State Minister after Thugut’s removal.

Kobzl joined Kaunitz’s faction and helped Franz II accept a ceasefire with France, while France’s Joseph ordered Napoleon not to invade Austria. The chapter ended with Joseph expecting Austrian negotiators to arrive in Paris soon.

• Kobzl agreed to support Kaunitz, and the allied families divided Austria’s political offices among themselves.
• Franz II sent Thugut back to Vienna, where soldiers placed Baron Walter under house arrest.
• Kobzl and the other ministers persuaded Franz II to approve a ceasefire and remove Thugut as State Minister.
• Joseph ordered Berthier to signal Napoleon not to attack Austria proper, explaining that an invasion would unite Austria and benefit Prussia.
• Joseph told Berthier he expected Vienna’s ceasefire representatives to reach Paris soon.

Joseph rejected using the army to suppress unrest in Rhineland and directed ministers to stabilize the region through police, intelligence, propaganda, and economic development. At the World Expo ball, he set officials to work on a detailed plan for incorporating Rhineland into France.

• Berthier asked Joseph how he had predicted Franz II would compromise, and Joseph attributed his conclusion to the international and battlefield situation.
• Brienne reported protests and anti-government groups in Rhineland, and Joseph rejected Count Moranshiton’s proposal to send the Cologne garrison into the city.
• Joseph ordered German-speaking Police transferred to Rhineland and outlined longer-term reforms to improve the economy, weaken the great nobility, and change taxation.
• At Queen Mary’s ball, Joseph raised a toast to Rhineland and instructed Brienne, Fouche, and Besançon to coordinate policing and intelligence to prevent unrest.
• Joseph ordered Fouche and Denico to prepare a propaganda plan promoting Rhineland’s historical ties to France, including connections to the Frankish Kingdom.
• Joseph told Brienne that France would invest in Rhineland’s coal, iron, and salt resources to secure stability and economic returns.

Joseph outlined a plan to integrate the Rhineland into France by first developing its salt, basalt, limestone, and especially potash resources, while postponing large-scale coal mining. He argued that potash fertilizer could raise farm yields, attract French-speaking settlers, and spur France’s chemical industry.

• Archbishop Brienne proposed using the Luxembourg Model to develop the Rhineland’s coal mines and build railways, but Joseph said the region was too vast for the Industrial Development Fund to finance alone.
• Joseph planned to buy the Rhineland’s coal-mine rights while delaying extraction, and to begin with salt, basalt, limestone, and potash instead.
• Joseph explained that Palatinate potash could support fertilizer production, improve grain yields, and attract French-speaking immigrants to the Rhineland.
• Joseph planned to combine potash with North African phosphate ore to produce Potassium Dihydrogen Phosphate and expand France’s chemical industry.

Joseph arranged industrial development and tax reforms for Rhineland before leading a dance at Versailles Palace. During the ball, he learned Madame Adelaide was stirred by seeing Count Moses and considered helping his great-aunt.

• Joseph directed Brienne to prepare a fundraising plan for fifty million francs to develop Rhineland.
• Joseph began arranging tax reforms, then invited his cousin Sophie to dance when Therese danced with Ludovico.
• Joseph noticed Madame Adelaide crying and heard Sophie suggest that Count Moses had stirred old memories of her love for Joseph II.
• Sophie recounted rumors about Madame Adelaide’s past loves, and Joseph reflected that her unmarried life might have resulted from Louis XV refusing to provide a suitable dowry.
• Joseph thought of someone who might help make amends to Madame Adelaide.

Joseph decided to hold a World Football Hercules Cup in Cologne to improve public order in the Rhineland, then proposed that Madame Adelaide become queen in an expanded Modena. The chapter ended with her reaction to his offer still unknown.

• After the ball, Mirabeau suggested staging the Star of France finals in Cologne, but Joseph chose a football tournament instead.
• Joseph told Mirabeau to distribute five thousand free footballs in the Rhineland and outlined the World Cup’s rules and prizes.
• Joseph spoke privately with Madame Adelaide and suggested she leave Versailles to seek a romantic match.
• Joseph named Ercole III, the Grand Duke of Modena, as a prospective match and then offered Madame Adelaide the chance to rule an expanded Modena as queen in her own right.

Joseph arranged for Madame Adelaide to marry Ercole III and become Queen of Modena, then guided Queen Mary through a discussion of ending the war with Austria without making definite promises. The chapter ended as Austria’s envoy Count Moses Argento began private armistice talks with Joseph.

• Joseph told Madame Adelaide that she could become Queen of Modena by marrying Ercole III, and she agreed to his arrangements.
• A French marriage envoy arrived in Modena, where Ercole III signed the marriage agreement and sent a formal proposal to Versailles.
• Queen Mary raised the possibility of ending the war with Austria, and Joseph fed her desserts while echoing and steering her argument.
• Queen Mary left believing she had fulfilled Count Moses’s request, unaware that Joseph had made no definite promises about Austria’s compensation.
• Count Moses Argento met with Joseph and sought private discussions about an armistice on behalf of Count Kaunitz.

Joseph laid out France’s harsh ceasefire terms to Count Moses, who tried to use Austria’s liberal unrest to win concessions. Joseph dismissed his fears and began questioning why people rioted, leaving their discussion focused on the causes of unrest.

• Count Moses revealed that Count Kobzl had become State Minister and said he would urge the Emperor to accept a ceasefire.
• Joseph demanded that Austria recognize French influence over Wallonia, Flanders, Northern Italy, Tuscany, and the Rhine’s Left Bank, surrender Venice, avoid an alliance with Britain, and pay thirty million Florins.
• Moses objected to the terms, especially Venice and reparations, and warned Austria lacked the means to suppress its riots.
• Moses showed Joseph pamphlets promoting human rights and resistance, arguing that Austrian liberals threatened Europe’s monarchies.
• Joseph dismissed the pamphlets as dangerous and said people rioted because life was hard or they had suffered extreme injustice.

Joseph agreed with Count Moses to hold ceasefire negotiations with France in Venice in half a month. As Austria moved toward surrender, Thugut was framed as its architect and dismissed, while Scheller left Vienna for France to seek money to save his son and began writing about the city.

• Joseph told Count Moses that Austrian Liberals would not threaten France, and Moses hurried to take Joseph's demands back to Vienna.
• Joseph agreed to hold ceasefire negotiations in Venice half a month later.
• Thugut learned that Franz II had decided to seek a ceasefire, but a newspaper falsely claimed that Thugut had advised the Emperor to do so.
• Franz II dismissed Thugut and replaced him with Kobzl, while angry young nobles drove Thugut away from the temporary palace.
• Scheller left Vienna with his family to seek a loan in France to save Lucas, and began writing an article titled “Vienna, the Hell of Sin, Corruption, and Debauchery.”

Austria signed a ceasefire with France, surrendering territory and agreeing to pay reparations, then faced widespread rebellion as Archduke Karl tried to restore order. In Prussia, Wilhelmine considered exploiting Austria’s weakness, but the Minister of War questioned whether the kingdom could afford a war.

• Talleyrand led the signing ceremony in Venice, where Austrian representatives signed the Ceasefire Agreement and completed several public ceremonies.
• European newspapers reported that Austria had left the Anti-French Alliance, recognized French control over several territories, and agreed to pay 30 million Florins in war reparations.
• Protests and rebellions spread across Austria, and Baron Thugut fled to Galicia after surviving assassination attempts and the burning of his residence.
• Archduke Karl suppressed rebellions in most Austrian cities and received the title of Marshal, but Hungarian and Romanian rebels in Transylvania stalled his forces.
• Wilhelmine asked Marquis Grollmann and Baron Heinrich von Stein whether Prussia should take advantage of Austria’s troubles, and Grollmann warned that Prussia might not be able to fund a war.

After Austria surrendered, Wilhelmine’s government sought British funding and prepared to seize Silesia, while unrest in Rome challenged Papal rule. In Portugal, Junot encouraged the Spanish commander Talavera to attack Porto, whose defenders outnumbered the forces he could readily bring against them.

• Wilhelmine ordered Schulenburg to seek a British loan, warning that Prussia might turn to France if Britain refused.
• Stein proposed putting Prince Hohenlohe in command of the campaign and sending Scharnhorst with him, while Wilhelmine delayed Scharnhorst’s staff reforms until Silesia was recovered.
• Thousands of Romans marched for autonomy and a parliament, and a protest leader called on them to petition the Holy Father as the outnumbered Papal Guard stood by.
• At Braga, Talavera told Junot that his forces might struggle to capture Porto, and Junot praised him as the finest commander on the Iberian Peninsula.

Marquis Talavera resented Junot’s withdrawal from Porto, while Junot secretly moved the French Army toward the Tamega River to prepare for a war of attrition against the Anglo-Portuguese forces. In Madrid, Campos demanded that Spain’s dioceses fund the war and threatened the Archbishops with removal by the Holy See.

• Marquis Talavera complained that Junot was withdrawing east instead of helping him take Porto, then led his Spanish army toward the city.
• Junot told Major Renier that the French Army was heading to the Tamega River to establish a defensive line, while pretending to march to Real to mislead Portuguese spies.
• Junot explained that the allied forces planned to retreat farther toward the upper Douro and launch diversionary attacks in southern Portugal to stretch the English Army’s supply lines and forces.
• Campos presented the King’s edict requiring each Spanish diocese to contribute 300,000 to 800,000 Escudos toward military expenses within two months.
• Archbishop Jimenez and another Archbishop objected, but Campos revealed that the Holy See’s envoys were already on their way to remove several absent Archbishops from office.

Campos used the Holy See’s need for French help in Rome to force Spain’s church leaders to surrender money and accept reforms, while Joseph planned to use Spain as a trial for future church reforms in France. The chapter then shifted to Worms, where a crowd gathered for a football match that Joseph was expected to attend.

• Campos told Spain’s Archbishops that the Holy See had removed three Spanish Cardinal Archbishops and would continue its corruption investigation until the dioceses paid their military contributions.
• Joseph had secured the Holy See’s cooperation by offering to hire the Republic of Milan’s army to suppress unrest in Rome, in return for reforms to the Spanish Church.
• Campos revealed that Carlos IV’s edict would transfer church monopoly taxes and land income to the government and place clerical appointments under the King’s authority.
• Campos expected Spain’s dioceses to be divided into sixteen, with new dioceses led by royal loyalists who would enforce the reforms.
• Hundreds of spectators gathered in Worms to watch a football match, paying high ticket prices because the Crown Prince of France would attend.

Joseph watched a violent football match in the Rhineland before learning that smugglers had been caught transporting French Sugar Beet seeds to Prussia. A week later, Joseph discussed the threat with Achard, who revealed he had bred an even higher-sugar variety that would be ready for large-scale planting within six months.

• Joseph watched Württemberg Team and Palatinate Team turn their football match into a brawl, while the crowd cheered and the referee issued numerous cards.
• After gunshots sounded, Kexer sent the Crown Prince's Personal Guard to secure the stadium, and the Police Commissioner told Joseph that smugglers had been caught with more than a thousand kilograms of Sugar Beet seeds bound for Magdeburg.
• Joseph considered how Prussia's use of French seeds could threaten France's beet sugar industry and left the match to think about a response.
• A week later, Eman told Joseph that Achard had arrived, and Joseph returned to the temporary palace to meet him.
• Achard told Joseph that seed smuggling was difficult to prevent but announced that he had bred a higher-sugar Sugar Beet variety that could be planted on a large scale within six months.

Joseph learned that Achard had bred a sugar beet with an 11.5% sugar content and explained that it was a polyploid, whose offspring could be sterile triploids. He and Achard planned to produce and sell triploid seeds, leaving Prussia dependent on French sugar beet seeds.

• Achard told Joseph that his new sugar beet variety had an 11.5% sugar content and that he had discovered it could not reproduce with earlier varieties.
• Joseph identified the plant as a polyploid and explained how differing chromosome sets could produce sterile triploids.
• Achard realized that triploid sugar beets could grow sugar-rich roots but would not produce seeds, and proposed mass-producing them for farmers.
• Joseph suggested selling the seeds to Prussia, making its sugar refineries dependent on French varieties and allowing France to set trade conditions.
• Joseph considered expanding seed sales to Russia to support sugar beet cultivation and strengthen the Sugarcane Franc.

Joseph planned to use French sugar refineries and the Paris Futures Exchange to draw Prussian sugar production into France’s commercial system, while Denmark reconsidered its diplomacy as France emerged as Europe’s leading power. The chapter ended with Denmark weighing whether the weakened British Navy gave the Armed Neutrality League a chance to defend neutral trade.

• Joseph discovered that Sugar Beets grown in Königswinter had been smuggled from Lorraine and ordered an investigation that would not punish the farmers.
• Joseph ordered new refineries in Kempenich and Amberg, with high purchase prices to attract Sugar Beets and draw Prussian production toward France.
• Bernstorff and Frederick agreed that Denmark needed to adjust its diplomacy as France became the core of continental Europe.
• Schulenburg proposed using the Armed Neutrality League to protect neutral shipping while the British Navy was occupied blockading France.
• Schulenburg explained that Britain had initially restrained itself before recognizing the league’s weakness and striking back.

Denmark planned to revive the Armed Neutrality League with French support, while the Ottoman court learned of Austria’s defeat and considered reclaiming Wallachia. Selim III weighed the risks of war with Russia and looked to France for help.

• Frederick approved sending Count Bernstorff to Saint Petersburg to urge the Tsar to revive the Armed Neutrality League, while he planned to visit Versailles Palace himself.
• A Genoese merchant captain’s account informed Selim III and Melek that France had defeated Austria and that riots had followed there.
• Melek urged Selim III to seize the opportunity to reclaim Wallachia from weakened Austria.
• Selim III questioned whether the Ottoman Empire had enough troops and warned that Russia might intervene.
• Melek proposed seeking French help for the campaign to take Wallachia.

Selim III sought French weapons and diplomatic support as Melek mobilized the Ottoman Army, while Irish rebels planned to seek foreign aid for their struggle against United Kingdom rule. The chapter ended with an officer reporting that the Dutch army had suffered a crushing defeat at Utrecht.

• Selim III ordered an envoy to negotiate with Talleyrand for French weapons and directed Melek to mobilize the Ottoman Army.
• Lord Fitzgerald, McCracken, and other Irish rebels discussed building a trained force and seeking support from France, Austria, and the United States.
• McCracken agreed to travel to Paris despite the group's lack of funds.
• An officer rushed into Amsterdam's Parliament Building and reported that the army had been crushed at Utrecht.

Dutch Prime Minister Schimmelpenninck faced the loss of Utrecht and decided to seek French help against the noble rebels. In Paris, Joseph learned that Prussia was preparing to attack Austria in Silesia and considered creating a Military Intelligence Bureau as part of a broader government reform.

• General Bronckhorst reported that the noble rebels had defeated his army and besieged Utrecht Fortress, leaving him with supplies for only two months.
• Schimmelpenninck learned that the Netherlands had only about one thousand soldiers available and rejected sending Dandels's troops away from the Flemish border.
• Schimmelpenninck agreed to travel to Paris to ask France for help restraining the Flemings.
• Fouche informed Joseph that Prussia was massing troops in Silesia while Austria had no more than six thousand soldiers at Liegnitz.
• Joseph weighed whether France should intervene to protect Austria and concluded that a Military Intelligence Bureau and wider government reforms were needed.