If Prussia could not be persuaded to support it, the Habsburgs would lose their throne in the Holy Roman Empire, which was simply unacceptable to Joseph II, who did not want to face the accusations of the Habsburg martyrs in heaven.
Free eBook download Of course, Austria did not have to get the support of Prussia, and the Habsburgs could defend their throne with an army, but this was not a good idea for Joseph II at all.
The Habsburgs, once dominant in Europe, had lost their power, and it was clear that Joseph II was not willing to suffer another blow after his death, because the throne of the Holy Roman Empire had allowed the Habsburgs, who had managed to regain some strength.
Although Joseph II did not specify his heir, everyone knew that the heir to the throne after Joseph II was in doubt that it was Archduke Leopold, and Joseph II was very satisfied with his younger brother.
As the second daughter in the family, Maria.
Although Anna is not the most favored child in the family, she still won the favor of her family because of her cheerful personality, especially Joseph II, because Anna is somewhat similar to his eldest daughter who died early, which makes the emperor still take great care of this niece.
But what Joseph II did not know was that his niece, Anna, who had high hopes for him, was sitting alone in the room at the moment and angry.
When Anna learned that Joseph II was going to take her with her to Frankfurt, the girl was very happy.
After all, as the lord of the Habsburg Dynasty, the family still controlled Anna quite strictly.
But it didn't take long for Anna to learn from her best friend.
When her own emperor's uncle took her to meet the Prussian devil, Anna's heart was full of reluctance.
Although William was a promisinge of Prussia and only nineteen years old, Wilhelm had a large number of fans across the continent, but it was clear that Anna was not included in these fans, and Anna would never forget the horror and panic on the faces of everyone in the city when the Prussian army arrived in Vienna.
Especially when Anna learned that she had become the fiancée of the young king of Prussia, Anna's heart was filled with extreme rejection of this marriage.
As the pearl of the Habsburg royal family, Anna has the capital to stand out from the crowd, but the superior environment has also made Anna develop a bad habit of arrogance.
In Anna's opinion.
Prussia, located in the north, is simply a representative of the barbarians, and it is said that when Prussian men basically only take a bath once a year, when she learned about this rumor from her best friend, Anna saw that there was a hidden sadness in her best friend's eyes looking at her.
How can Anna, who has always been arrogant, accept this!
For this matter.
Anna went to her father no less than three times.
But Archduke Leopold did not give Anna a satisfactory answer, in Leopold's words, Anna is already an adult, then she must contribute to the prosperity of the Habsburg dynasty!
Today was the time for Joseph II and his entourage to leave for Frankfurt, and Anna sat in her carriage, her eyes full of sadness, but after a while, Anna's face became firm.
She had already decided, even if Joseph II agreed to marry herself to the Prussian king.
I will also defend my rights with actions.
The two monarchs of Prussia and Austria both set off for Frankfurt, and Frankfurt can be said to be in a stormy situation at this moment.
After Wilhelm and Joseph II agreed to go to Frankfurt, the whole city began to be enveloped in a cloud, and several people with unknown intentions poured into the city, although the influx of these people made Frankfurt's market instantly prosperous like never before, but the mayor of Frankfurt was happy and at the same time felt a crisis.
William and Joseph II were both monarchs at the top of Europe, and behind them were a vast empire, and their words and deeds could influence the whole of Europe.
If for some reason the two were unhappy with Frankfurt, the mayor thought about it, and a cold sweat began to break out on his forehead.
Not only is the market in Frankfurt no longer quiet, but even the nobles in the city are uneasy about the arrival of the two monarchs, yes, uneasy!
Although Frankfurt was the seat of the Holy Roman Diet, the last time Joseph II visited Frankfurt was when he was crowned Emperor, and now this is the second time the Emperor has visited, and the King of Prussia has never been to Frankfurt.
In this way, the greeting of the two monarchs was enough to give all the nobles in the city a headache, and it was important that these nobles knew that both monarchs had come with a large number of guards, which could even level the whole of Frankfurt!
If the two of them did not talk and fought in Frankfurt, wouldn't the nobles in the city become fish in the pond that were affected by the disaster!
While everyone in the city was still thinking about it, the early diplomats of Prussia and Austria had arrived in Frankfurt, and at the Imperial Diet, the diplomats of both sides began to quarrel over the etiquette of the arrival of their respective monarchs.
The Austrian side believed that the Prussian king should arrive in Frankfurt before the arrival of the emperor, and then personally lead all the deputies of the Reichstag at the gates of Frankfurt to greet the emperor.
But Prussia considered Austria's demands to be entirely justified, and although Joseph II was nominally emperor, Wilhelm was also the elector of the empire, and the elector did not have to assume such a low posture towards the emperor.
Prussia believed that Wilhelm's carriage could reach Frankfurt before the emperor, but that the Reichstag had to go to the gates to meet Wilhelm, who would then welcome Joseph II not at the gates, but at his own residence or at the gates of the Reichstag.
Not only in terms of the place to greet them, but also the salute used by the two sides began to fight.
Austria considered it the highest etiquette for Frankfurt to fire a twenty-one gun salute when Joseph II came, while Prussia fired a nineteen-gun salute of the second class.
(The salute originated in Europe, and between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries was the "Age of Discovery" in Europe, when the naval powers represented by Spain, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom competed for colonies and maritime supremacy, and their fleets were almost all over the world's oceans.)
When a warship meets a friendly or neutral ship at sea, or when it enters the port of the above-mentioned country, it will use its naval guns to fire air cannons that only have shè medicine but no pills to show friendship or no hostility, and salute the other side in this way, and of course the other side will also fire air cannons in return.
Since the etiquette of firing a salute originated from the navy, the early artillery was a front-loading smoothbore gun without a fixed charge, which was not only laborious but also took a long time to reload (this is also the reason why firing an empty cannon can become a sign of friendship, so it is generally based on the standard of firing a round of guns from the whole ship).
Moreover, the tonnage of early naval battleships was generally not large, and the number of guns loaded was limited, and the largest battleship at that time, the number of guns of early battleships was only twenty-one at most, so the highest specification of firing a salute was generally twenty-one.
In the eyes of the Prussians, although Joseph II, as the nominal emperor of the empire, did have the qualifications to fire a twenty-one salute, Prussia, as one of the European powers on a par with Austria, was fully qualified to fire a twenty-one salute!
To be continued. ）