Chapter Summaries

Joseph weighed proposals for a European Settlement Bank headquarters while Doctor Lemonnier asked to move the medical laboratories to Montreuil. Joseph saw a way to turn the nobles’ demand for medical tests into funding for the laboratories.

• Gaudin and Baron de Breteuil told Joseph that the Royal Palace was too crowded for the European Settlement Bank, and Joseph refused to move the nearly completed House of Representatives from Luxembourg Palace.
• Baron de Breteuil suggested several other Paris locations for the bank, but Gaudin rejected each one as unsuitable.
• Doctor Lemonnier told Joseph that nobles seeking urine tests were disrupting his experiments and asked to move the laboratories to Montreuil.
• Eman warned Joseph that moving the laboratories would cost more than a hundred thousand Francs, and Joseph considered charging nobles for dedicated medical services.

Joseph planned a luxury Royal Sanatorium at the Palace of Fontainebleau and then expanded his ideas for moving France’s financial institutions out of Paris. He began considering Marseille as the site of a new financial center, leaving the ministers’ discussion poised for his proposal.

• Joseph chose the Palace of Fontainebleau for a Royal Sanatorium and told Doctor Lemonnier to prepare to move the medical laboratories there.
• Joseph reassured Eman that examinations would cost at least 800 Francs and calculated that treatments, services, and nearby villas could make the project profitable.
• Joseph resumed discussing the European Settlement Bank with the ministers, then proposed moving France’s major financial institutions to another city.
• Joseph compared Marseille, Lille, Cologne, and Bordeaux, eliminating Cologne and Bordeaux and weighing the advantages of Marseille and Lille.
• Joseph favored Marseille because it was safer from enemy fleets and could benefit from future changes to Mediterranean trade after the Suez Canal opened.

Joseph planned to move France’s financial institutions from Paris to Marseille while considering regional industrial development, and he helped his parents begin exercise at Asclepius Hall. As the first House of Representatives election neared, Parisian business elites debated which candidate and faction to support.

• Joseph told Gaudin and Baron de Breteuil that Marseille would host the European Settlement Bank, the Paris Stock Exchange, and the futures market, with priority funding for a railway to Lyon.
• Joseph assigned Baron de Breteuil responsibility for organizing the financial relocation and left the Senate to develop the plan.
• Joseph took Louis XVI, Queen Mary, and Charles to Asclepius Hall, where he supervised his parents’ health checks and exercise.
• Joseph considered developing regional centers for light industry, steel, agriculture, and mechanical processing, but prioritized Marseille’s financial growth.
• Broad criticized Walsh for giving Nestor 50,000 francs, while Walsh argued that Nestor’s Trade Faction candidacy made him a strong choice.
• Paris candidates formed several factions as business elites debated their election strategy.

Rochefoucauld helped Bouchard and Rocher form the Crown Prince Faction, which surged in Paris during the House of Representatives election. By late July, the faction had won enough seats to become a leading force, and Louis XVI welcomed its likely Speaker.

• Rochefoucauld persuaded Bouchard and Rocher to form the Crown Prince Faction rather than join an existing faction.
• On July 5, Bouchard and another Crown Prince Faction candidate rallied voters in Paris as veterans cast open ballots.
• Bouchard received more than six hundred votes at one Paris polling station on the first day of voting.
• On July 27, Joseph encouraged Louis XVI to continue exercising and said the election was nearly over.
• Joseph told Louis XVI that the Crown Prince Faction had won fifty-seven seats in Paris and was likely to take the Speakership, and Louis XVI approved.

Joseph reassured Louis XVI that the House of Representatives would not threaten the state, then brought him to see Queen Mary. He presented her with an electric bell invented by Kulen and Volt, who credited Joseph’s guidance.

• Joseph told Louis XVI that professional civil servants and limited legislative powers would keep the House of Representatives from endangering the government.
• Joseph and Louis XVI found Queen Mary secretly eating reduced-sugar cherry cake, and Joseph let her finish it if she exercised longer afterward.
• Joseph introduced Knight Coulomb and Mr. Ford, who demonstrated an electric bell made by the Royal Third Laboratory.
• Queen Mary tested the bell and asked to have one installed in every hall of Versailles Palace.
• Louis XVI suggested Kulen should receive the Supreme Louis Prize in Physics, and Kulen and Volt said the invention had originated from Joseph’s guidance.

Joseph discussed the upcoming European Drama Festival with Queen Mary, while in Vienna Franz II and his ministers considered how to respond to France’s House of Representatives election. The chapter ended with Franz II weighing a tightly limited parliament to appease public opinion.

• Joseph credited Kulen and Volt with the electrical experiments, and Queen Mary ordered fourteen sets of Electric Bells for Versailles Palace.
• Joseph explained the European Drama Festival’s cultural and political aims to Queen Mary and asked her to perform; she agreed and proposed adapting The Count of Monte Cristo.
• Kobzl briefed Franz II on France’s House of Representatives election and warned that it could cause a stir in Austria.
• Franz II objected to giving common people political power, but Kobzl suggested creating a parliament with narrowly restricted powers to calm merchants and lawyers.

Metternich worked to unite northern Swiss states into a Swiss Federation with Austrian funding, while criticizing Vienna’s concessions to the State Council. Basel approved joining the federation, and two pro-France parliamentarians traveled to seek French help as they saw the city being transformed by Parisian investment.

• Franz II expanded the State Council to three hundred members, restricted its powers, and limited its election to people designated by the Emperor.
• Metternich condemned the State Council reforms to Friedrich von Gentz and planned to advise Franz II in person after finishing his work in Switzerland.
• With six hundred thousand Florins from Franz II, Metternich pressured Zurich, Schwyz, Uri, and Basel to join a Swiss Federation, arguing that unity would help them resist unrest.
• Metternich used one hundred and fifty thousand Florins in bribes to secure the support of Basel’s seven-man political core, and Parliament approved joining the federation.
• Freno and Gosselin, two pro-France Basel parliamentarians, traveled toward French Upper Germania Province to seek assistance against the decision.
• After arriving in Basel, Freno explained that the workers were building Paris’s Steam Tram lines, and Gosselin blamed Baron Boiswill for Basel’s lost prospects.

Gosselin and Freno sought help from the French governor as Bern’s booming tourism drew people from Basel. In Vienna, Metternich urged Franz II to reject State Council reforms and suppress liberal influence, and the emperor approved his proposals.

• Gosselin and Freno learned that crowds had flocked to Bern for its restored Roman ruins and feared Basel would lose its people.
• Gosselin and Freno received an audience with Baron Bodley, Governor of Upper Germania Province.
• Metternich reported to Franz II that five northern Swiss cantons had agreed in principle to form a federation.
• Metternich asked Franz II to withdraw the State Council reform decree and argued that Austria must resist French political influence.
• Metternich proposed expanding Secret Police powers, banning French books and liberal publications, surveilling schools and newspapers, and punishing unauthorized gatherings.
• Franz II approved of Metternich’s proposals to suppress liberal ideas.

Metternich persuaded Franz II to appoint him Royal Secretary and advance a sweeping program of Austrian political and economic reforms. In Paris, Joseph learned that Austria had helped form a Swiss Federation and heard Talleyrand urge support for pro-French factions in Zurich and Basel.

• Metternich proposed suppressing liberal dissent and reforming serfdom, industry, trade, and the Empire’s finances, and Franz II approved his plans.
• Metternich urged Franz II to seek British industrial and market assistance by threatening closer ties with France and proposing a broad Austro-British-Russian-Ottoman market.
• Metternich recommended weakening local Parliaments, imposing Germanization, and creating a national bank, and Franz II appointed him Royal Secretary to draft and advance reforms.
• Talleyrand told Joseph that Austria had facilitated the formation of a Swiss Federation among the Five Northern Cantons.
• Talleyrand advised Joseph to support the Pro-France Faction in Zurich and Basel, even if France did not openly obstruct the federation negotiations.

Joseph sought to weaken Austria’s influence in Switzerland by using trade incentives to divide Basel from the Swiss Federation while keeping France publicly uninvolved. He approved a secret treaty with the United States to attack Canada and wrote to the governor of Louisiana, as Basel merchants learned their city had joined the Austrian-backed federation.

• Joseph told Talleyrand to send Basel’s councilors home, publicize France’s apparent disinterest in northeastern Switzerland, and praise Austria’s diplomacy.
• Joseph directed France to secretly encourage Württemberg and Augsburg to invite Basel into the Stuttgart Trade Agreement, pressuring Basel to choose between trade and the Swiss Federation.
• Talleyrand explained that political turmoil in the United States had delayed its envoy, Smith, and Joseph ordered him to sign the secret treaty for a joint attack on Canada.
• Joseph instructed Talleyrand to send most future matters to the Senate and wrote a secret letter to Louisiana Governor Elcano.
• Jagger complained about Basel’s failing trade and learned that Parliament had decided to join the Swiss Federation, which the Austrians had established.

Jagger helped Marty smuggle more than four hundred Flintlock Guns from Württemberg into Basel, where Freno’s allies planned to use them against Vienna’s influence. Meanwhile, the Polish commanders debated whether to exploit a possible opening in the Russian defenses, leaving Kościuszko to weigh a renewed advance toward Smolensk.

• Jagger agreed to transport contraband for Marty after a messenger promised that someone would handle the Anti-Smuggling Squad.
• Jagger steered the Red Violin toward Basel with more than four hundred Flintlock Guns in its hold, and an Anti-Smuggling Squad ship let it pass.
• Freno’s butler led men in moving more than a hundred crates of weapons from the dock to a village south of Basel.
• General Mokronovsky urged Kościuszko to send Lithuania’s reserve force to Mogilev and push toward Smolensk.
• General Madalinski warned Kościuszko that Kutuzov might be setting a trap, while the Polish officers disputed whether to risk another offensive.

Kościuszko accepted the Society of Happiness’s proposal to coordinate a Polish offensive with a Russian revolt, hoping to break through the Dnieper defenses before Poland ran out of supplies. The Society’s leaders prepared to strike Kutuzov’s flank, but Chaddov warned that their small force could be trapped.

• Kościuszko decided to march into Left-bank Ukraine and ordered Polish forces to gather at Mogilev, while the Great Sejm passed a new armaments tax.
• Kishchenko learned that the Polish envoys had refused payment and would not join the Society’s uprising, but he insisted the revolt could proceed without them.
• The Society of Happiness’s leaders discussed their limited strength and the danger that Russian troops might attack before they could gather enough soldiers.
• A messenger reported that the Poles had agreed to launch a full-scale offensive at the right time.
• Kishchenko celebrated the chance to strike Kutuzov while he fought the Poles, but Chaddov cautioned that their thousand men could be bogged down by a quick Russian response.

Chaddov persuaded the Russian rebels to expand southwest and recruit Serfs and Cossacks, while Ottoman commander Mustafa promised Persia a major assault on Tbilisi. The chapter ends with the assault beginning ten days later and the first European Drama Festival opening in Paris.

• Chaddov proposed seizing Lubny and Poltava, then joining forces with Cossacks near the Danube to build an army large enough to threaten the Tsar.
• Kishchenko, the Liberal officers, and the radical members of the Society of Happiness tacitly accepted Chaddov's plan despite their differing aims.
• Ahmed Pasha told Mustafa that Prince Mirza threatened to withdraw Persian troops unless the Ottomans attacked.
• Mustafa promised to send at least twenty thousand soldiers against Tbilisi, relying on French cannons and muskets supplied to the Ottoman New Army.
• Ten days later, Persian and Ottoman forces launched an unprecedented bombardment and assault on Tbilisi.
• The first European Drama Festival opened at the Tuileries Palace in Paris, with two plays performed to packed halls.

Joseph’s Drama Festival opened successfully with Puss in Boots, which delighted the royal family and narrowly beat Turandot in the audience and judges’ scoring. The next morning, Joseph learned that the English Army had withdrawn from Porto, leaving the port surrounded by Portuguese forces.

• Joseph watched Puss in Boots with his family, and the audience cheered as Hinze helped Gottlieb win the princess and the Ogre’s wealth.
• Alexandra asked to return for the late-night show, and Joseph promised to buy the play’s rights and write two continuations.
• The next morning, Joseph saw that Puss in Boots had scored sixteen points, beating Turandot’s fifteen.
• Joseph reflected on the upcoming performances of The Count of Monte Cristo and his own Braveheart script.
• Berthier told Joseph that the English Army had withdrawn from Porto and that Marquis Talavera had surrounded the port with two Infantry regiments.

Joseph reviewed how the British loss of Porto had weakened their supply lines and discussed Gibraltar’s siege and Spain’s request for naval escorts. He rejected a risky large-scale escort deployment and proposed increasing French maritime trade to stretch the English Fleet’s blockade.

• Berthier reported that the Junot Corps had received eight 330mm Mortars and planned to capture Gibraltar before year’s end, and Joseph ordered him to prioritize minimizing casualties.
• Marquis Leissard reported that the British had fled Porto and that Spain wanted French warships to escort merchant ships to the Americas.
• Leissard said the Navy Department opposed sending a large fleet into the Atlantic and recommended continuing small merchant convoys through gaps in the British patrols.
• Joseph agreed that large-scale escorts risked drawing the fleet into a destructive battle and said France could help Spain by expanding maritime trade instead.
• Joseph proposed using French and Spanish ports to force the English Fleet to spread out its blockade and create more openings for merchant ships.

Joseph devised a system of subsidies, port expansion, coastal signals, and transshipment to help French and Spanish merchant ships evade the British blockade. He then ordered Marquis Leissard to arrange a joint fleet exercise with Spain to distract Britain and improve naval coordination.

• Joseph counted nearly thirty French, Spanish, and Dutch ports that could divide the British Navy’s blockade forces.
• Marquis Leissard warned that merchants feared capture and that most small ports lacked the capacity and local demand to handle large ships.
• Joseph proposed better insurance, shipyard services, sailing subsidies, expanded ports, coastal signal towers, and compensated berthing and transshipment.
• Joseph argued that increased trade with the Americas would cover the subsidies and benefit France and its colonies.
• Marquis Leissard agreed to develop the merchant-shipping plan with the Trade Minister, but Joseph also directed him to Madrid to form a Combined Fleet with Spain and stage conspicuous exercises.

Joseph discussed plans to divert British naval forces while learning that The Decisive, France’s first steam-powered Fourth-rate Battleship, was nearing its maiden sea trial. Marquis Leissard warned that Britain was building improved sailing warships, and proposed using surplus Oak Wood to build traditional ships as a precaution.

• Marquis Leissard proposed that the Combined Fleet threaten a surprise attack on Britain or raid the St. George's Channel shipping route to draw British ships away from the blockade.
• Marquis Leissard reported that The Decisive was expected to undergo its first sea trial at the end of August, and Joseph promised to attend its maiden voyage ceremony.
• Joseph reviewed the shipyard’s manufacturing breakthroughs and noted that it had prepared materials and facilities for future Decisive-class construction.
• Marquis Leissard warned that Britain was building a fast, heavily armed Third-rate Battleship intended to retake control of the Mediterranean Sea.
• Joseph dismissed the threat because the British ship lacked Steam Engine propulsion, while Marquis Leissard suggested building traditional warships from surplus Oak Wood.

Joseph arranged to sell France’s stored shipbuilding oak to England at a steep price, intending to use the proceeds for more steam battleships while encouraging England to spend on sailing ships. He then organized publicity for maritime trade and commissioned playwrights to develop a pirate adventure, while France prepared to keep Poland fighting Russia with a loan.

• Joseph ordered the Navy to announce fifteen Alexander-class battleships, though France would build none, and directed Marquis Leissard to sell the oak to England for gold and seek special passes.
• Joseph signed Poland’s request for a nine-million-franc loan so it could continue its war against Russia while other forces pressured the Russians.
• Joseph told Baron Denico to publicize maritime trade incentives and publish stories presenting ocean commerce as profitable and manageable.
• Joseph asked Beaumarchais to recommend playwrights and introduced Louis Benier Edan and Pierre LeBlanc to his planned play, Pirates of the Caribbean.
• Joseph outlined a story about French pirate Jacques Hébert and the Black Rose, with an English first mate and the daughter of Florida’s governor as the heroine.

Joseph developed a plan to promote French maritime trade through both theater and illustrated Sequential Art, and proposed turning the Drama Festival Committee into a permanent propaganda bureau. The first European Drama Festival then concluded after a popular run in Paris.

• Joseph told Edan and LeBlanc to write their play in simple language for sailors and shipowners, then agreed to subsidize performances after Beaumarchais warned that sailors could not afford tickets and theater troupes might cheat the government.
• Joseph decided to expand the Drama Festival Committee into the French Literary Propaganda Bureau to oversee subsidized productions and promote French interests abroad.
• Baron Denico suggested distributing illustrated pamphlets, and Joseph introduced Sequential Art as a way to tell complete stories mainly through pictures.
• Joseph assigned Edan to study comic scripts and asked Denico to find Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture students to illustrate them, while continuing work on the play.
• More than ten days later, the first European Drama Festival ended after its two finale plays received two extra performances at the crowd’s request.

The Drama Festival ended with French-favored plays winning most awards and European troupes licensing them for performances. Joseph arranged a possible seaside escape for Queen Mary, while Lucas von Scheller learned that his fellow Austrian conspirators were abandoning their activities.

• The Count of Monte Cristo won Best Drama and Best Screenplay, while Saviano won Best Actor and Thirty Days in Iberia won Best Set Design.
• More than ninety European theater troupes signed agreements to stage the plays, including three British troupes.
• Joseph invited Queen Mary to recuperate near the seaside by pretending to visit Château de Meudon, and she proposed disguising herself as his guard.
• Lucas von Scheller heard that Basel rioters had routed troops and that Austrian forces were preparing to suppress the Swiss uprising.
• Pagani told Lucas that Baron Imperator and the others had withdrawn, and said he would no longer take part in their activities.