"This news is so unexpected, don't be sad. This is God's will."
After Eder received the news of the death of Emperor Franz Joseph from Austria-Hungary, he tried to persuade his wife, Queen Sophie Marie, who was about to burst into tears.
This telegram was sent from Vienna early this morning. In the telegram, the Austro-Hungarian government notified Romania of the death of their emperor. As the emperor's great-niece and grandson-in-law, Edel immediately thought of informing himself of the news.
Queen, the result is this scene.
In fact, the death of the 80-year-old Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph was not surprising to anyone. After all, time is not forgiving, and the emperor was already too old. And Edel was very concerned about this 80-year-old man.
The emperor's evaluation is not high. Mainly because he established the Austro-Hungarian dual empire, which actually kidnapped the Austrians to the side of the Magyars in disguise. This made the ethnic issues more prominent in this old empire, which already had many multi-ethnic issues.
.
That is to say, Franz Joseph could suppress these problems with his own prestige during his lifetime, but it also caused many problems in the Austro-Hungarian society and the army. This can be seen from the fact that the Austro-Hungarian army can only fight with Italy.
In fact, these problems are not just the responsibility of Franz Joseph alone. I also have to bear some responsibility for the previous rulers of the Habsburg family.
This can be seen from the title of Franz Joseph. His specific titles are as follows: Emperor of Austria, blessed by God; Hungary and Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slovenia, Galicia and Rodomori
King of Asia, Illyria, Lombardy and Venice; King of Jerusalem; Duke of Austria; Grand Duke of Tuscany and Cracow; Lorraine, Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola
and the Duke of Bukovina; the Grand Margrave of Nibelungen; the Count of Moravia; the Dukes of Upper and Lower Silesia, Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Ragusa and Sala; etc.
Most of these titles are nominal titles, and many of them are titles of Italian territories. Therefore, this also resulted in poor relations between Austria-Hungary and Italy even after the Alliance of Three Emperors was signed.
Edel was comforting Queen Sophie Marie and planned to attend the funeral of his great-uncle Franz Joseph with her. This was not because Edel wanted to respect the founder of the dual empire, but to get a closer look at Austria-Hungary.
As for the social situation, let’s take a look at the situation of brother-in-law Karl, who is about to take over the throne of Austria-Hungary.
Edel assigned the main military and political work to Prime Minister Bretianu and General Presan. The day after receiving the telegram, Edel and his family boarded the royal train to Vienna.
After the train left Romania and entered Austria-Hungary, Edel began to observe.
"Most of the people working in the farmland are old, weak, women and children. We don't see many young and middle-aged people, and many of these young and middle-aged people are disabled."
When the captain of the guard accompanied Edel to observe the scenery outside the car window, he told Edel what he discovered.
Edel replied to Captain Kallust: "The war had a great impact on Austria-Hungary. It seems that there is no longer much potential in the country to support it."
There were only Edel and the captain of the guard in this carriage. His wife Sophie Marie and her son Victor were in another carriage. This was the reason why Edel dared to criticize Austria-Hungary so boldly.
Captain Kallust replied, "Your Majesty is right, now Austria-Hungary's domestic potential has been almost exhausted."
There is a reason why the captain of the guard said this, because so far, Austria-Hungary has mobilized 2.78 million young men into the army, of which 376,400 were killed in the Austro-Hungarian battle, 1.3416 million were injured, and 1.1265 million were missing and captured.
.However, it is said that the troops mobilized by Austria-Hungary were severely weakened in this war. Now Austria-Hungary has expanded the scope of mobilization to 17 years old and 40 years old.
Don’t think that with Austria-Hungary’s population of about 50 million, it will be easy to mobilize such a small army. Because Austria-Hungary is no better than Germany. As a multi-ethnic country, and the two main ethnic groups combined are less than half of the country, its military mobilization capacity is
It also has a bad reputation among several major powers. Because too many ethnic groups speak different languages. For example, the Serbs, Croats and Bosnians who also come from Bosnia and Herzegovina have three languages. And it is difficult to understand each other's words.
.This made it difficult for the Austro-Hungarian army to dispatch people with several languages to integrate them together, and it was also very inconvenient during mobilization.
After a day and night of train travel, Edel and his family finally arrived in Vienna under the early morning sunshine. The Austro-Hungarian government sent his father-in-law, Archduke Otto Franz, to greet them.
As soon as Edel got out of the car, he said to Archduke Otto Franz who was coming to greet him. "Father-in-law, I didn't expect you to come to greet us."
"Congratulations to Karl this time. He should indeed inherit the throne of Austria-Hungary."
Archduke Otto Franz said to Edel with a wry smile. "This throne has almost become a curse for our family, from cousin Rudolf to Ferdinand, and then it fell to my son Karl.
.And the current situation in Austria-Hungary is not good, and the current situation can only be guaranteed by the support of Germany. If one day Germany cannot win, we, the Habsburg family, don’t know what to do."
Archduke Otto Franz was more pessimistic, but he may have been a bystander because his father-in-law had never been interested in politics.
Edel felt that he could not continue to discuss this issue at this time, so he pointed to his son in the arms of his wife Sophie Marie and said, "This is your grandson Victor."
Sophie Marie also carried Prince Victor to her father, Archduke Otto Franz, and asked him to look at the little guy carefully.
Archduke Otto Franz saw his grandson stretching out his hand to tease him. Unexpectedly, Victor was not afraid of strangers at all and started playing with his grandfather. Seeing Victor who was very excited by being teased, Otto Franz
Da Fang said with a heartfelt smile, "This is such a happy little guy. He is so carefree and enviable."
Edel smiled and said to Archduke Otto Franz, "Father-in-law, you already have several grandchildren."
"But this is the only grandson I have."
Watching the two people chatting all the time, the Austro-Hungarian officials waiting aside were already anxious. Sophie Marie said to the two of them, "You can continue chatting in private. Don't make others wait now."
Sophie Marie's words made the two of them remember that they were still in a public place, so they ended their chat.
Then the Edel couple, along with little Prince Victor, were led by officials to rest in a palace in Vienna. They would stay here until Emperor Franz Joseph's funeral and Karl's accession to the throne, before returning to Romania.
