Author's Note: From intermission we move to...
Interlude II: Hungary and the Fate of an Emperor - February, 1853
"Though the idea of placing a Romanov relation on the throne of Hungary and destroying the backbone of Austrian power presented Tsar Nicholas with an intriguing opportunity for mischief, he was not interested in subverting the young emperor's power - yet. Challenging it, certainly, but Tsar Nicholas was after all a conservative and a firm monarchist, who took his role as 'Gendarme of Europe' quite seriously. The Habsburgs were rivals, but necessary ones.
Then there was the matter of the offered candidate. Maximillian had contracted pneumonia which had then quickly become tuberculosis on an expedition in the Urals in the winter of 1846-47 [1], and was told his illness was terminal. He resided with his wife, the tsar's daughter, at court in St. Petersburg, but often undertook journeys across the continent in search of someone who could find him a cure. Of course, his dire condition was kept secret and Kossuth could not have known that his proposal was dead on arrival.
As the war wrapped up, Hungarian commanders were instructed to surrender only to their Russian counterparts, who treated them with respect and honor. This would stand in stark contrast to principal men of Görgei's army captured by the Austrians further west, who were brutally and summarily executed. General Paskievich promised the Hungarians he would see to their good treatment once they were handed over to the Austrians, but reports out of Italy and the example of Görgei cast doubt among the Russians and Hungarians alike of whether fair treatment could truly be guaranteed.
Thus several key leaders of the revolution including Kossuth and Guyon quietly 'escaped' through Russian-occupied Wallachia into the Ottoman Empire, where some would stay but most arranged for further passage onto Britain, France, or even America. The role of Russian officers in facilitating their departure from Hungary was never fully clear, but Austrian General Jacob von Haynau was particularly infuriated that his so-called allies from Russia refused to help him hunt down missing Hungarians, and so it can be said that even if Paskievich and his generals did not assist the revolutionaries, they did not hinder them.
This final Russian jab at Franz Joseph and Austria gave von Haynau an excuse during his brief time as military governor of Hungary to instigate a reign of terror, furiously seeking out suspected revolutionaries and arresting or executing them..."
excerpted from Michael Simakov's Prelude to Winter: Russia's European Role before the Eastern War, 1815-1853, Saint Petersburg, 1997.
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"Inspired by hard-liners like Schwarzenberg and frustrated by Russian obfuscation, Franz Joseph was convinced to punish Hungary harshly for almost succeeding in its uprising. The 'hyena of Brescia', von Haynau, had been appointed to lead the army that finally defeated and captured Görgei, and was the one to order his execution. He then swept further east behind the Russian army advancing further south, undertaking reprisals and conscripting prisoners.
As the Russians slowly began to retreat from Hungary and Austrian authority was restored, von Haynau became a virtual military dictator on the ground while at court in Vienna every possible official legal measure was taken against the Magyar kingdom. As in Italy, all constitutional privileges were revoked and manifestations of local government, including the county system, abolished. Though the emperor would retain the title 'Apostolic King of Hungary', any special status guaranteed to Hungary within the Empire was taken away, including its suzerainty over other lands.
Any pretense of Hungarian control over Transylvania was formally struck down as Ludwig von Wohlgemuth, an Austrian general, was appointed as military and civilian governor in Hermannstadt. The kingdoms of Croatia and Slavonia were legally separated from Hungary and placed under direct imperial control. The border of Slavonia was extended west to include the largely Slav areas of Bačka and near Petrovaradin, with the military frontier extended accordingly. A newly created Duchy of Banat [2] was carved out of the remaining southern portion of Hungary, designed to accomodate the local German and Romanian minorities.
Though these actions saw ethnic minorities rewarded as a result of punishing Hungary, Austrian officials felt direct control and territorial restructuring would placate them for a time. And in any case, a strict crackdown on nationalist publications hampered efforts, especially in Croatia and Slavonia, to organize the people politically. As a punishment to Josip Jelačić for his independent actions during the war and a further check on nationalist sentiments, he was confirmed as Ban only in Croatia, while Slavonia received another Croat, Josip Šokčević, as its leader and Dalmatia an Austrian deemed more loyal to the emperor. Suddenly the triune kingdoms were truly three, and further efforts to reunite them were, at least for the time being, severely hampered by political separation."
excerpted from Robert Morgan's Revolutionary Twilight: the Conservative Reaction to 1848 in Europe, New York, 1973.
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"von Haynau served as military governor of Hungary for less than a year, but his legacy would continue even after his resignation through the next several years, as the Austrian military occupation devoted to imposing harsh punishment on the rebellious Hungarians continued. The administration of the country chafed aristocrats and the poorer classes alike, and resulting in near-universal simmering hatred for the Austrian army. The official line was for Hungarians to embrace passive resistance, but many more radical nationalists, even those living outside of Hungary, were less inclined to do so.
As Emperor Franz Joseph walked along the Kärtnertor bastion in the afternoon of February 18th, 1853, he paused to watch infantry training below him. Dressed as always in full military uniform, he was accompanied by his aide-de-camp Count Maximillian O'Donnell. From behind approached János Libényi, a Hungarian nationalist and former soldier turned tailor. It is not definitively known whether Libényi's supposed radicalism was his primary motivation that day, but among historians today it is widely held as such.
Apparently inspired by anger over the reprisals against Hungary and enraged by the sight of the emperor in military garb, Libényi tackled the emperor from behind and stabbed him the back and side [3] several times before O'Donnell could wrench him off. In the ensuing scuffle Libényi himself was stabbed and killed while the emperor lay dying. Every effort was made to move the emperor so that he could receive medical treatment, but the knife had done its damage and bleeding both internal and external was too much for rudimentary medical assistance to be effective. By the end of the day, Franz Joseph was dead at 22.
Vienna, and indeed the entire empire, was sent into a state of shock..."
excerpted from Karl Scheider's The Last Emperor: the Reign of Franz Joseph, 1848-1853, Munich, 1965.
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[1] As his sickness's origins predate the PoD, this is as OTL. He died in late 1852.
[2] This is different from the OTL creation called the Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temesvar. I'll work on a map so one can see the differences.
[3] As you might know, iOTL Libényi attempted to stab the emperor in the neck, where he was most protected by the stiff material used to make collars in Austrian military uniforms. The emperor was wounded but recovered, and Libényi was apprehended and executed after a snap trial. Franz Joseph's survival was inspiration for the building of the Votivkirche located on Vienna's Ringstrasse.
. Regardless I'll follow it still simply because of the larger role of its survival Austria has played in this TL than so many others.