Lectures: Illustrated and Embellished with Views of the World's Famous Places and People, Being Identical Discourses Delivered During the Past Eighteen Years Under the Title of the Stoddard Lectures, Volume 9

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899 edition. Excerpt: ...of this palace a young Austrian princess who, on account of illness, had been unable to leave the city with the rest of the imperial household. When this fact was made known to Napoleon, he at once ordered that the direction of the guns should be changed, and that great care should be exercised to ... Read More

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899 edition. Excerpt: ...of this palace a young Austrian princess who, on account of illness, had been unable to leave the city with the rest of the imperial household. When this fact was made known to Napoleon, he at once ordered that the direction of the guns should be changed, and that great care should be exercised to avoid injuring the imperial residence. Little did he imagine that the young lady, whose life he perhaps thus saved, would a few years later be A VIENNESE FOUNTAIN. A COL'RTYARD OF THE PALACE, AND STATUE OF JOSEPH 11. come his wife, and, as Marie Louise, Empress of France, take the place of his discarded Josephine. In a little square, adjoining the Imperial Palace, stands the bronze equestrian statue of another famous sovereign of Austria, --Joseph II., son of Maria Theresa. Few men have been actuated by nobler motives than he, and few have been more cruelly disappointed in the execution of their plans. In Joseph's case the difficulty lay in the fact that he was in advance of his time. All the great reforms which he endeavored to inaugurate, such as the emancipation of the serfs, religious freedom, reduction of taxation, met with relentless opposition from both his clergy and nobility, and the Hungarian magnates openly threatened insurrection. Accordingly, in 1790, Joseph found himself compelled to revoke his proposed reforms, and confess that his noble aspirations and endeavors had ended in disastrous failure. Always delicate in health, he never recovered from the blow, and, in a few weeks, sank into an untimely grave. The lives of few European sovereigns present a more interesting study than that of Joseph II. In the performance of his public duties he worked as hard as Frederick the Great, whom, though the enemy of Austria, he greatly admired.... Read Less

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2016, Palala Press ISBN-13: 9781357161040 Hardcover See All from $61.07