0:00:02 > 0:00:07For two centuries, Vienna was the frontier between East and West.
0:00:10 > 0:00:12It was the capital of the Habsburgs,
0:00:12 > 0:00:16Archdukes of Austria and Holy Roman Emperors.
0:00:16 > 0:00:19They were the champions of Catholicism,
0:00:19 > 0:00:22the guardians of European Christendom
0:00:22 > 0:00:24against Islamic conquest.
0:00:28 > 0:00:32In 1683, catastrophe had loomed when the Ottoman Turks
0:00:32 > 0:00:35laid siege to Vienna.
0:00:35 > 0:00:39With the city in peril, a pan-European army
0:00:39 > 0:00:40rushed to the rescue,
0:00:40 > 0:00:44unleashing the largest cavalry charge in history.
0:00:44 > 0:00:45The city was saved.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50In the camp of the defeated Ottomans,
0:00:50 > 0:00:53they found a treasure trove of spoils.
0:00:53 > 0:00:58They found gold and diamonds, they found ostriches and camels.
0:00:58 > 0:01:01And they found 300 abandoned cannons.
0:01:01 > 0:01:05And with those cannons melted down they built this,
0:01:05 > 0:01:08the Pummerin, the Boomer.
0:01:08 > 0:01:10The victory ushered in a new age.
0:01:10 > 0:01:15Power and prestige were given visceral and visual form,
0:01:15 > 0:01:17recast into art, music and architecture.
0:01:19 > 0:01:20The bell was so big
0:01:20 > 0:01:24it almost destroyed the Tower of St Stephen's Cathedral,
0:01:24 > 0:01:26where it still hangs.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30But when the Viennese
0:01:30 > 0:01:36heard it ring, heard it boom, they heard the sound of victory.
0:01:36 > 0:01:37PUMMERIN RINGS
0:01:40 > 0:01:44This is the story of Vienna triumphant.
0:01:44 > 0:01:47The house of Habsburg in its golden age.
0:01:48 > 0:01:51The emperors now surged east and west,
0:01:51 > 0:01:53dreaming of European supremacy.
0:01:55 > 0:02:01Wealth and power awoke Vienna, artists projected Habsburg majesty.
0:02:01 > 0:02:04The fortress city became a cosmopolitan capital.
0:02:06 > 0:02:10Vienna was reborn a city of palaces, peoples and ideas.
0:02:10 > 0:02:14A beacon of the arts, a capital of music,
0:02:14 > 0:02:17and a laboratory of enlightened and despotic ideologies.
0:02:19 > 0:02:24I'll see how Vienna would inspire the incandescent genius of Mozart,
0:02:24 > 0:02:29survive the depredations of Napoleon Bonaparte,
0:02:29 > 0:02:33and become the cultural and diplomatic capital of the world.
0:02:34 > 0:02:41Vienna, Imperial City, dynastic city, city of art and music.
0:02:41 > 0:02:46City of ideas. This is the crucible and the crossroads of the great
0:02:46 > 0:02:49struggles of history.
0:02:49 > 0:02:53Protestantism versus Catholicism, Islam versus Christendom,
0:02:53 > 0:02:58democracy and tolerance versus nationalism and intolerance.
0:02:58 > 0:03:03This is the story of the city where the modern world was invented,
0:03:03 > 0:03:05and poisoned.
0:03:05 > 0:03:11Vienna. The capital of annihilation and civilisation.
0:03:23 > 0:03:28The victory over the Ottoman Turks left Vienna euphoric.
0:03:28 > 0:03:32The reigning Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor was Leopold I,
0:03:32 > 0:03:34and he now vowed to transform his capital
0:03:34 > 0:03:36into the world's greatest city.
0:03:38 > 0:03:42For Vienna and for the house of Habsburg, it was a new beginning,
0:03:42 > 0:03:44a new era.
0:03:44 > 0:03:46The empire was striking back.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50Emperor Leopold offered fame and fortune to the knights
0:03:50 > 0:03:54who'd saved Vienna.
0:03:54 > 0:03:59One of them was an unlikely Viennese hero, adopted by the city,
0:03:59 > 0:04:01but who achieved such glory
0:04:01 > 0:04:05that he would build the city's most magnificent palaces.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08He would outshine three emperors,
0:04:08 > 0:04:11become the greatest Habsburg warlord in history,
0:04:11 > 0:04:14and make Vienna the capital of a European superpower.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19This was Eugene, Prince of Savoy.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22His story became inseparable from Vienna,
0:04:22 > 0:04:25but he arrived as a penniless refugee from France
0:04:25 > 0:04:28when the city was under Ottoman siege.
0:04:30 > 0:04:34Prince Eugene grew up at the Court of Louis XIV, the Sun King,
0:04:34 > 0:04:36sworn enemy of the house of Habsburg.
0:04:36 > 0:04:40His mother, an ex-mistress of the King himself,
0:04:40 > 0:04:46was a promiscuous intriguer who is ultimately implicated in
0:04:46 > 0:04:51The Case Of The Poisons and had to flee Paris in disgrace.
0:04:51 > 0:04:53Escaping execution for the murder plot,
0:04:53 > 0:04:58his mother was vilified by Louis XIV, who ridiculed Eugene
0:04:58 > 0:05:02for his looks, his homosexuality, and his diminutive stature.
0:05:04 > 0:05:06He wanted to be a soldier.
0:05:06 > 0:05:08"No," said Louis XIV,
0:05:08 > 0:05:12"you're only good enough to be a little vicar in the church."
0:05:12 > 0:05:16But Eugene defied the Sun King.
0:05:16 > 0:05:18He ran away to Austria.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23He offered his service, his life, his very blood,
0:05:23 > 0:05:26to the house of Austria, and Leopold accepted.
0:05:26 > 0:05:31He then joined the army that was rushing to relieve besieged Vienna.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34And outside these gates he made his name
0:05:34 > 0:05:36in the battle that saved the city.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42Eugene joined Emperor Leopold's counteroffensive,
0:05:42 > 0:05:45he became a commander, renowned for ruthless discipline
0:05:45 > 0:05:47and brilliant ingenuity.
0:05:47 > 0:05:51During the campaigns against the Ottomans he rose to fame,
0:05:51 > 0:05:53becoming the hero of Vienna.
0:05:56 > 0:05:58At 22, he was a Major General.
0:05:58 > 0:06:02At 24, he helped take Hungary and Budapest.
0:06:02 > 0:06:04At 29, he was a Field Marshal,
0:06:04 > 0:06:09and such was his success and his share of the spoils of the Ottomans,
0:06:09 > 0:06:12that he was able to build this, the Winter Palace,
0:06:12 > 0:06:15his residence right in the centre of Vienna.
0:06:16 > 0:06:20Eugene's Palace shows off the baroque taste for symbolism,
0:06:20 > 0:06:24muscle-ripped statues project his power and virility.
0:06:27 > 0:06:29In 1697, Eugene, aged 33,
0:06:29 > 0:06:33was given command of the Imperial Army.
0:06:33 > 0:06:35He would face his greatest test.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42In the 14 years since the Ottomans had been repelled
0:06:42 > 0:06:47from the walls of Vienna, Leopold had seized vast swathes of land.
0:06:47 > 0:06:51Now, the Turkish sultans desperately needed to stem their losses and
0:06:51 > 0:06:55launched a final, brutal, all-or-nothing assault.
0:06:55 > 0:06:59100,000 men marched on Vienna.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06Eugene had been ordered by Emperor Leopold to go on the defensive,
0:07:06 > 0:07:08but he defied those orders.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11When he heard that the Ottoman army was crossing the river Tisa
0:07:11 > 0:07:14in strength, he force-marched his army to the place
0:07:14 > 0:07:17and then fell upon them, taking them completely by surprise.
0:07:17 > 0:07:19And as you can see from this painting,
0:07:19 > 0:07:22he annihilated the Ottoman troops.
0:07:22 > 0:07:27They are being slaughtered as they ran into the river.
0:07:27 > 0:07:31Defeat at Zenta forever ended the Ottoman hopes
0:07:31 > 0:07:33of holding back the Viennese advance.
0:07:35 > 0:07:37Eugene had almost single-handedly
0:07:37 > 0:07:40made the Austrian Habsburgs a great European power,
0:07:40 > 0:07:45and to make his success palpable, he turned his victories into art.
0:07:45 > 0:07:48He became Vienna's greatest patron, its greatest connoisseur.
0:07:54 > 0:07:57Habsburg expansion seemed unstoppable.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00It even harked back to the glories of the 16th century
0:08:00 > 0:08:05when Emperor Charles V had ruled over a vast Habsburg empire
0:08:05 > 0:08:08stretching from the Americas to the Balkans.
0:08:09 > 0:08:13Vienna thrived on the trade between East and West.
0:08:15 > 0:08:18But to maintain this overstretched empire,
0:08:18 > 0:08:23Charles V had divided his lands between two branches of the family.
0:08:23 > 0:08:25One ruled Austria, one ruled Spain.
0:08:27 > 0:08:32For decades, the two branches of the Habsburg family had intermarried.
0:08:32 > 0:08:36Nieces married uncles, first cousins married each other.
0:08:36 > 0:08:40The idea was to keep the sprawling Habsburg lands
0:08:40 > 0:08:42within the same family.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45But it was ironic that the very policy
0:08:45 > 0:08:48that was meant to strengthen the house of Habsburg
0:08:48 > 0:08:51actually destroyed the Spanish branch.
0:08:52 > 0:08:56The last Spanish Habsburg was King Charles II.
0:08:56 > 0:09:00He was the gruesome living aberration of what was, in effect,
0:09:00 > 0:09:02generations of royal incest.
0:09:02 > 0:09:06He struggled to walk, to talk, and he was infertile.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10With no heir, he lay dying in 1700.
0:09:10 > 0:09:14And in Vienna, Emperor Leopold wanted his own younger son,
0:09:14 > 0:09:17Charles of Austria, to succeed in Spain.
0:09:17 > 0:09:19But he had a rival.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22There were two candidates for the Spanish throne.
0:09:22 > 0:09:24One was Charles of Austria,
0:09:24 > 0:09:29and the other was the grandson of Louis XIV,
0:09:29 > 0:09:31the French candidate.
0:09:31 > 0:09:36But when Charles II died, he left Spain to the French.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39The outraged Austrian Habsburgs denounced the will as fake
0:09:39 > 0:09:42and in 1701, declared war.
0:09:48 > 0:09:53Emperor Leopold faced the superpower of the early 18th century.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56France fought the Austrians back.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01There was a very real danger that Europe would find itself
0:10:01 > 0:10:06under the domination of Louis XIV and France.
0:10:06 > 0:10:11Only the alliance of Austria and Britain would stop him.
0:10:11 > 0:10:13The French had the biggest and best armies,
0:10:13 > 0:10:16but the Austrians had Prince Eugene.
0:10:16 > 0:10:21Now, a French army marched south to attack and capture Vienna -
0:10:21 > 0:10:23the capital was in peril.
0:10:25 > 0:10:29Eugene's armies marched to protect Vienna,
0:10:29 > 0:10:31but he was vastly outnumbered.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35He needed reinforcements, and fortunately, the British commander,
0:10:35 > 0:10:39the brilliant Duke of Marlborough, came to the rescue.
0:10:39 > 0:10:42Marlborough was every inch Eugene's equal,
0:10:42 > 0:10:46and a like-minded disciplinarian and superb strategist.
0:10:46 > 0:10:51He outmanoeuvred the French and marched unopposed across Europe.
0:10:51 > 0:10:55John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, came to his aid.
0:10:55 > 0:10:59When the two rendezvoused near the village of Blenheim,
0:10:59 > 0:11:01it inaugurated one of the great partnerships
0:11:01 > 0:11:03in all of military history.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06Eugene and Marlborough instantly became friends.
0:11:06 > 0:11:11"I really love Prince Eugene," Marlborough told his wife.
0:11:11 > 0:11:15And when the battle came the next day, the Battle of Blenheim,
0:11:15 > 0:11:17they routed the French
0:11:17 > 0:11:21and forever shattered the invincibility of the Sun King.
0:11:24 > 0:11:29When Leopold died in 1705, the war over Spain was unresolved.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32His oldest son, Joseph, inherited Austria,
0:11:32 > 0:11:37and Eugene's victory at Blenheim now meant his younger son, Charles,
0:11:37 > 0:11:38could march towards Madrid.
0:11:39 > 0:11:43Charles was a dim and unimpressive leader,
0:11:43 > 0:11:47but he was determined to rule Spain as king.
0:11:47 > 0:11:51But when his brother, Joseph I, died unexpectedly,
0:11:51 > 0:11:54he was recalled to Vienna to be Holy Roman Emperor.
0:12:00 > 0:12:02Now that France had been humbled,
0:12:02 > 0:12:05the British were afraid that Spain and Austria
0:12:05 > 0:12:09would be united under one Habsburg emperor.
0:12:09 > 0:12:13And so they betrayed the Austrians and made peace.
0:12:13 > 0:12:17Poor Charles had to give up forever his Spanish dream.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24When Charles realised he was never going back to Spain,
0:12:24 > 0:12:28he decided to recreate Spain in Vienna.
0:12:28 > 0:12:33He imported Spanish dress, Spanish court rituals, and this,
0:12:33 > 0:12:36his pride and joy, the Spanish Riding School.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39And I'm sitting right in Charles' Imperial Box.
0:12:44 > 0:12:46Charles finally agreed peace.
0:12:46 > 0:12:51He exchanged his claim to the Spanish throne for parts of Italy
0:12:51 > 0:12:52and the Low Countries.
0:13:03 > 0:13:06At last, Vienna could take centre stage
0:13:06 > 0:13:10as the sole Habsburg capital of a much-expanded empire
0:13:10 > 0:13:12enjoying an economic boom.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19Now a multinational empire of Hungarians, Italians,
0:13:19 > 0:13:21Bohemians and Austrians,
0:13:21 > 0:13:25the monarchy and the nobility celebrated their prestige
0:13:25 > 0:13:27and Vienna's status
0:13:27 > 0:13:31as THE imperial city by building palaces, churches, and monuments.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35Every aristocrat worthy of their name
0:13:35 > 0:13:37had to build a palace in Vienna.
0:13:37 > 0:13:42400 new summer residences were constructed in the next 50 years.
0:13:44 > 0:13:48'But of all those palaces, none rivalled Eugene's.'
0:13:48 > 0:13:50This is the Belvedere Palace.
0:13:50 > 0:13:52One of the glories of 18th-century Vienna.
0:13:52 > 0:13:56Everything here is designed to project, to trumpet,
0:13:56 > 0:14:00the victories of Eugene over his two great enemies.
0:14:00 > 0:14:02On one hand, the Ottoman sultans,
0:14:02 > 0:14:05and on the other hand, Louis XIV of France,
0:14:05 > 0:14:09the Sun King, who had humiliated and disdained him as a young man.
0:14:11 > 0:14:16Eugene's Summer Palace projects his victories and his personality.
0:14:16 > 0:14:18The roofs resemble conquered Ottoman tents,
0:14:18 > 0:14:22the gardens are meant to outdo the glory of Versailles.
0:14:23 > 0:14:27Inside, his ceilings show him as the god Apollo,
0:14:27 > 0:14:29the symbol of artistic patronage.
0:14:29 > 0:14:33Signs and spoils of his victories are everywhere.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46Still concealed in a small room of Eugene's Palace is a statue
0:14:46 > 0:14:49that reveals the great general's confidence in his own grandeur.
0:14:51 > 0:14:53Rather than use symbolism,
0:14:53 > 0:14:56he commissioned his own image as supreme warlord.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01He is clothed in the lion pelt of Hercules,
0:15:01 > 0:15:04he stamps down on a defeated Turk.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07The symbol for eternal legacy shines upon him.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13This statue couldn't be exhibited during his lifetime -
0:15:13 > 0:15:16only emperors could enjoy that sort of adulation.
0:15:18 > 0:15:22Eugene had been military commander, and effectively chief minister,
0:15:22 > 0:15:25of the Habsburg monarchy for 30 years,
0:15:25 > 0:15:28and was now serving his third emperor.
0:15:28 > 0:15:31But Charles VI was jealous of his famous paladin,
0:15:31 > 0:15:33and secretly undermined him.
0:15:33 > 0:15:37He sent Eugene on foolish campaigns that bankrupted the Treasury.
0:15:39 > 0:15:41He was still fighting into his 70s.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44When Eugene returned exhausted to Vienna,
0:15:44 > 0:15:46he caught pneumonia and died.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50His achievements had driven the imperial family
0:15:50 > 0:15:51to the zenith of their power.
0:15:51 > 0:15:56Now the future of the dynasty, and the city of Vienna,
0:15:56 > 0:15:59would be defined by holding together this vast empire.
0:16:08 > 0:16:12Charles VI was haunted by the loss of Spain.
0:16:14 > 0:16:20He stamped the Habsburg's God-given right to rule on his city, Vienna,
0:16:20 > 0:16:24using the sensuous magnificence of baroque architecture.
0:16:25 > 0:16:30Vienna rang to the majestic compositions of his court composers.
0:16:30 > 0:16:34This was truly a city of art, music and masses.
0:16:39 > 0:16:43Yet all this was worthless if Charles could not produce an heir.
0:16:47 > 0:16:52I'm in the sumptuous library of the Emperor Charles VI,
0:16:52 > 0:16:54in the Hofburg Palace,
0:16:54 > 0:16:56and this was the Habsburg monarch
0:16:56 > 0:16:59whose life was dominated by his quest and need
0:16:59 > 0:17:01for a male heir.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05He chose his wife for her beauty, fecundity and health.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08Elizabeth of Brunswick was her name.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11She dazzled everyone with her gorgeousness.
0:17:11 > 0:17:15But, as children came, the male ones died.
0:17:15 > 0:17:17And only the daughters survived.
0:17:17 > 0:17:19Charles was desperate.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22First of all, he painted their apartments with erotic paintings
0:17:22 > 0:17:27of nubile girls and boys, then he consulted his quack doctors.
0:17:27 > 0:17:29First they proposed alcohol.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32She was given more and more booze until she was an alcoholic,
0:17:32 > 0:17:35then they proposed food.
0:17:35 > 0:17:38She was almost force-fed until she became obesely fat.
0:17:38 > 0:17:43But still, the result was the same - no male heir,
0:17:43 > 0:17:44just the two daughters.
0:17:46 > 0:17:49Charles's only option was to declare his daughter the heir.
0:17:49 > 0:17:51There'd never been a female archduchess,
0:17:51 > 0:17:54'and Charles knew his nobility and the kings of Europe
0:17:54 > 0:17:56'may not accept his choice.'
0:17:57 > 0:18:00He desperately tried to get their agreement,
0:18:00 > 0:18:04and created a series of new laws known as the Pragmatic Sanction.
0:18:05 > 0:18:09It was only half complete when, in 1740, he went hunting,
0:18:09 > 0:18:12gorged on mushrooms and died.
0:18:18 > 0:18:24He was succeeded by his daughter, Maria Theresa, aged just 23.
0:18:24 > 0:18:28Austria's nobles knew her only as a card-playing, dancing,
0:18:28 > 0:18:30and rather beautiful young woman.
0:18:30 > 0:18:33She was completely unprepared for the appalling crisis
0:18:33 > 0:18:37that would befall her monarchy, her empire and herself.
0:18:37 > 0:18:41But what no-one knew was that she had a will of steel.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45Her reign would dazzle Vienna.
0:18:52 > 0:18:55Maria Theresa's first duty was in the Imperial Crypt.
0:19:05 > 0:19:09This is where Maria Theresa came to bury her father, Charles VI.
0:19:09 > 0:19:14It's the Kaisergruft, the imperial crypt of the Habsburg dynasty.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24And on his sarcophagus here, right behind me,
0:19:24 > 0:19:29you can see among all its elaborate decoration, his various crowns,
0:19:29 > 0:19:34as the Archduchy of Austria, the crowns of Bohemia and Hungary,
0:19:34 > 0:19:35and the Holy Roman Empire.
0:19:39 > 0:19:42These were the crowns she would have to fight for.
0:19:42 > 0:19:46If she was to succeed, this is what she had to keep.
0:19:49 > 0:19:52Maria Theresa faced an uphill battle -
0:19:52 > 0:19:56her father's mismanagement had weakened the Empire.
0:19:58 > 0:20:02Vienna was now an artistic, palatial, imperial capital
0:20:02 > 0:20:05thanks to the wealth of its empire.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08But the muddled succession offered an ideal opportunity
0:20:08 > 0:20:12for rivals to seize Austria's richest provinces.
0:20:12 > 0:20:15The vultures began to mass on the Empire's borders.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26And luckily for Maria Theresa,
0:20:26 > 0:20:29the first raider was the most brilliant -
0:20:29 > 0:20:33Frederick the Great, the newly-crowned King of Prussia.
0:20:33 > 0:20:36He was the military and political genius of his age,
0:20:36 > 0:20:39with a superb army and a full treasury.
0:20:43 > 0:20:48He unleashed war, capturing Maria Theresa's richest province, Silesia.
0:20:49 > 0:20:55Next into the fray came the heir of a medieval Habsburg rival,
0:20:55 > 0:20:58Charles Albert of Bavaria.
0:20:58 > 0:21:00Austria's armies were surrounded and routed
0:21:00 > 0:21:03when Spain and France also declared war.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06The Bavarians marched onwards, capturing Prague
0:21:06 > 0:21:09and crowning Charles Albert King of Bohemia.
0:21:11 > 0:21:15In 1742, Charles Albert went further.
0:21:15 > 0:21:19He was elected the first non-Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor
0:21:19 > 0:21:20in three centuries.
0:21:25 > 0:21:30The extinction of Maria Theresa and the Habsburgs seemed inevitable.
0:21:30 > 0:21:34Her armies were in retreat, her geriatric advisers were in panic,
0:21:34 > 0:21:36she'd lost two of her father's crowns,
0:21:36 > 0:21:40and her enemies were preparing to march on Vienna.
0:21:40 > 0:21:42The story of what happens next
0:21:42 > 0:21:44is preserved in a series of paintings
0:21:44 > 0:21:46in Vienna's Hungarian embassy.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51She rushed to Hungary and there she showed herself
0:21:51 > 0:21:54not only the wilful politician,
0:21:54 > 0:21:58but also the consummate actress.
0:21:58 > 0:22:00Wearing mourning black for her father,
0:22:00 > 0:22:02she charmed the Hungarian nobles.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06She appealed to them, she said, "My son, my baby son,"
0:22:06 > 0:22:09who she showed them, the future Joseph II,
0:22:09 > 0:22:11"My son, the monarchy, the crown
0:22:11 > 0:22:16"and the Kingdom of Hungary itself are in peril. Help me."
0:22:16 > 0:22:17And they did.
0:22:20 > 0:22:24The Hungarians enthusiastically crowned Maria Theresa
0:22:24 > 0:22:26queen of Hungary.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29But what she really needed was the troops.
0:22:29 > 0:22:31And they provided that too.
0:22:31 > 0:22:34There's her army. She'd save the monarchy.
0:22:36 > 0:22:40Funded by a war chest from the old ally, Great Britain,
0:22:40 > 0:22:43Maria Theresa turned the tide of the war.
0:22:43 > 0:22:47Charles Albert retreated, Frederick the Great betrayed him
0:22:47 > 0:22:52and, alone, the Bavarian fell ill and died in 1745.
0:22:56 > 0:23:00She'd lost Silesia, but she'd survived.
0:23:00 > 0:23:02She made peace to secure her borders
0:23:02 > 0:23:05and in return, the apologetic German electors
0:23:05 > 0:23:08crowned Maria Theresa's husband, Francis,
0:23:08 > 0:23:11as the new Holy Roman Emperor.
0:23:11 > 0:23:16She regained Bohemia, she ruled supreme in Hungary, and at last,
0:23:16 > 0:23:17she was an empress too.
0:23:24 > 0:23:26'This library holds a secret.
0:23:26 > 0:23:30'It's the former throne room of the Favorita Palace.'
0:23:30 > 0:23:31Between these bookcases
0:23:31 > 0:23:36sat the thrones of Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis.
0:23:36 > 0:23:40There was never any doubt that she was in charge.
0:23:40 > 0:23:45He was a feckless politician, an incompetent military commander.
0:23:45 > 0:23:49He was good only at making money and chasing actresses.
0:23:49 > 0:23:54She, on the other hand, was a consummate stateswoman.
0:23:54 > 0:23:59She knew exactly who to appoint, she chose excellent courtiers,
0:23:59 > 0:24:02and politicians, and generals.
0:24:03 > 0:24:08The Empress Queen reformed Austria's sprawling government.
0:24:08 > 0:24:13This palace even became a school for a new civil service,
0:24:13 > 0:24:17sometimes even chosen for merit, not high birth.
0:24:17 > 0:24:19She centralised control of the army
0:24:19 > 0:24:22and reorganised the imperial finances.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25She managed, within a few years,
0:24:25 > 0:24:28to balance the budgets of the Habsburg monarchy
0:24:28 > 0:24:30for the first time in its history.
0:24:40 > 0:24:46Seeing herself as the mother to a reborn Habsburg Vienna,
0:24:46 > 0:24:50Maria Theresa wanted rid of the formal, rigid past of her childhood.
0:24:50 > 0:24:55Now she commissioned a magnificent new palace, the Schonbrunn.
0:24:58 > 0:25:00She personally oversaw its construction
0:25:00 > 0:25:03and the fitting of almost 1,500 rooms.
0:25:03 > 0:25:07In 1746, she moved in here with her family.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13This is the great gallery of the Schonbrunn Palace.
0:25:13 > 0:25:19And as you can see, the decoration is open, gilded, playful, humane.
0:25:19 > 0:25:24No longer the Catholic oppression of earlier decades.
0:25:24 > 0:25:28And that's because we're now in the age of the playful Rococo.
0:25:29 > 0:25:33After the formal symbolism of Baroque,
0:25:33 > 0:25:37Rococo celebrated character, joy, emotion, eroticism.
0:25:40 > 0:25:44When you look up at this painting, the centrepiece,
0:25:44 > 0:25:47amidst all the territories, principalities and duchies
0:25:47 > 0:25:50of the Habsburg monarchy is a golden carriage.
0:25:50 > 0:25:51And in it is Maria Theresa
0:25:51 > 0:25:55and her husband, the Holy Roman Emperor, Francis.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58Because, unusually, this was a happy marriage.
0:25:58 > 0:26:00This was a love match.
0:26:01 > 0:26:03But it had a price.
0:26:03 > 0:26:09Because Francis was openly and notoriously unfaithful
0:26:09 > 0:26:14with virtually every Italian singer, courtesan, prostitute in town.
0:26:14 > 0:26:18And this caused Maria Theresa much pain.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22She founded a chastity commission to hunt down immorality.
0:26:22 > 0:26:27Italian sopranos were thrown out of the city, prostitutes were arrested,
0:26:27 > 0:26:31and 3,000 of them were loaded on to barges and sent off
0:26:31 > 0:26:34to populate new towns in the east.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38'Because despite her anger, Maria Theresa knew'
0:26:38 > 0:26:41they would provide the ideal, fertile settlers.
0:26:42 > 0:26:44And there you have it all over.
0:26:44 > 0:26:49That's Maria Theresa, the prim, the pious pragmatist.
0:26:54 > 0:26:58A new intellectual movement was gaining force in Vienna.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01This was the age of the Enlightenment.
0:27:01 > 0:27:06Reason was replacing tradition as the basis for authority.
0:27:06 > 0:27:10This sat uncomfortably with the Empress queen
0:27:10 > 0:27:12who never forgot her zealous childhood.
0:27:12 > 0:27:14She was both modern and medieval.
0:27:14 > 0:27:18On one hand she made attempts to expel Jews and Protestants,
0:27:18 > 0:27:22on the other she introduced a form of universal education.
0:27:23 > 0:27:26Above all, Maria Theresa was practical.
0:27:26 > 0:27:30Despite being conservative, she permitted gradual reform.
0:27:30 > 0:27:33There was just one thing she couldn't let go.
0:27:33 > 0:27:34Revenge.
0:27:35 > 0:27:37Maria Theresa never gave up the dream
0:27:37 > 0:27:41of getting back her province, Silesia,
0:27:41 > 0:27:45stolen from her by that amoral arch-predator of genius,
0:27:45 > 0:27:48Frederick The Great of Prussia.
0:27:48 > 0:27:52But in 1756, she realised that she needed help to do so,
0:27:52 > 0:27:56and that meant allying Austria with the ancestral enemy, France.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02This diplomatic revolution so alarmed Britain
0:28:02 > 0:28:06that she allied herself with Prussia.
0:28:06 > 0:28:08Russia joined Austria.
0:28:08 > 0:28:11This became the Seven Years' War.
0:28:11 > 0:28:15Fought across the world from America to India,
0:28:15 > 0:28:18the world's first global conflict.
0:28:18 > 0:28:20In Europe, Maria Theresa's army
0:28:20 > 0:28:23defeated a Prussian invasion of Bohemia,
0:28:23 > 0:28:28and to celebrate that victory, they hastily built this monument,
0:28:28 > 0:28:29the Gloriette.
0:28:30 > 0:28:36Yet the ponderous Austrian, French and Russian generals floundered.
0:28:36 > 0:28:39They were no match for the genius of Frederick the Great.
0:28:42 > 0:28:49By 1763, Maria Theresa had to admit that Silesia was lost forever.
0:28:49 > 0:28:51And this grand victory monument
0:28:51 > 0:28:53became something of an embarrassment.
0:28:53 > 0:28:56She used it for family picnics.
0:29:00 > 0:29:04Maria Theresa had failed to restore Austrian dominance in Europe,
0:29:04 > 0:29:07but she did ensure there was no problem with the succession.
0:29:07 > 0:29:10She and Francis were blessed with 16 children.
0:29:12 > 0:29:13In her characteristic fashion,
0:29:13 > 0:29:16Maria Theresa had a practical use for them, too.
0:29:16 > 0:29:19To secure the Franco-Austrian alliance,
0:29:19 > 0:29:23she arranged for her 14-year-old daughter, Marie Antoinette,
0:29:23 > 0:29:26to marry Louis, the French Dauphin.
0:29:27 > 0:29:29From the very start,
0:29:29 > 0:29:33the marriage of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI of France
0:29:33 > 0:29:35was a mismatch.
0:29:35 > 0:29:41She was not only young, but also foolish, unwise and tactless.
0:29:42 > 0:29:46For seven years, the couple remained awkward,
0:29:46 > 0:29:47failing to consummate the union.
0:29:49 > 0:29:53Marie Antoinette's big brother, Joseph II, hurried to Paris.
0:29:53 > 0:29:59This unlikely sex therapist interviewed both husband and wife.
0:29:59 > 0:30:02And what he discovered was that the problem
0:30:02 > 0:30:06was a mixture of sexual incompetence, youthful clumsiness,
0:30:06 > 0:30:11premature ejaculation and physical abnormality.
0:30:11 > 0:30:14He advised instant circumcision of the King.
0:30:14 > 0:30:16The problem was solved.
0:30:16 > 0:30:20Consummation and a large family of children followed.
0:30:28 > 0:30:31Despite matters easing in the bedchamber,
0:30:31 > 0:30:35Marie Antoinette's behaviour continued to outrage the French.
0:30:35 > 0:30:40She was seen as profligate, silly, promiscuous, and pro-Austrian.
0:30:43 > 0:30:47Maria Theresa's old age was ruined by her worry
0:30:47 > 0:30:49about her daughter Marie Antoinette's
0:30:49 > 0:30:52disastrously scandalous behaviour.
0:30:52 > 0:30:56"You've thrown yourself into a life of pleasure
0:30:56 > 0:30:58"and preposterous display,"
0:30:58 > 0:30:59she wrote to her.
0:30:59 > 0:31:04"And going from pleasure to pleasure without your husband
0:31:04 > 0:31:07"will end in misery for you."
0:31:07 > 0:31:10Soon, she was to be proved only too right.
0:31:13 > 0:31:18In 1765, Emperor Francis fell ill and died.
0:31:18 > 0:31:21Maria Theresa was devastated.
0:31:24 > 0:31:28A note was found in her Bible that recorded the exact length
0:31:28 > 0:31:31of her marriage down to the number of hours.
0:31:33 > 0:31:36She fell into a pit of depression,
0:31:36 > 0:31:40and to rule, first in her stead, and then as co-regent,
0:31:40 > 0:31:42her 24-year-old son, Joseph II,
0:31:42 > 0:31:45was elected the new Holy Roman Emperor.
0:31:48 > 0:31:53Joseph was now the co-ruler with his mother, Maria Theresa.
0:31:53 > 0:31:56He was one of the most extraordinary of the Habsburgs.
0:31:56 > 0:32:02Personally, he was clumsy, awkward, impossible, dogmatic, egotistical,
0:32:02 > 0:32:05but he was also highly intelligent.
0:32:05 > 0:32:08A believer in reason. A man of the Enlightenment.
0:32:08 > 0:32:11A radical zealot for reform.
0:32:11 > 0:32:12A man of tolerance.
0:32:12 > 0:32:17His relations with his mother were fond, but extremely tense.
0:32:17 > 0:32:20He pushed her towards more expansion abroad,
0:32:20 > 0:32:24like the partition of Poland, and more reforms at home.
0:32:24 > 0:32:28But his mother was still alive. She was formidable.
0:32:28 > 0:32:29He had to wait.
0:32:29 > 0:32:32For the moment, he had to get everything past his mum.
0:32:38 > 0:32:42Joseph had an unyielding belief in the power of reason.
0:32:42 > 0:32:44He rejected emotion.
0:32:44 > 0:32:47And that was partly due to tragic failed romances.
0:32:49 > 0:32:53In October 1760, Maria Theresa held a wedding
0:32:53 > 0:32:55and as you can see from this painting,
0:32:55 > 0:32:57she didn't do it by halves.
0:32:57 > 0:32:59Her son, Joseph,
0:32:59 > 0:33:04was married to the beautiful, blonde, alabaster-skinned
0:33:04 > 0:33:05Isabella of Parma.
0:33:07 > 0:33:11It was a wedding that seemed ideal for the family.
0:33:11 > 0:33:16She was gorgeous, and Joseph was wildly in love with her.
0:33:17 > 0:33:20But things weren't all they seemed.
0:33:23 > 0:33:25Soon after her marriage,
0:33:25 > 0:33:28the 18-year-old Isabella fell in love,
0:33:28 > 0:33:30but she didn't fall in love with her husband.
0:33:30 > 0:33:34Awkwardly, she fell in love with her husband's sister,
0:33:34 > 0:33:37Archduchess Marie Christine.
0:33:37 > 0:33:42It soon turned into a full-blown, physical, lesbian love affair.
0:33:44 > 0:33:45Joseph, the doting husband,
0:33:45 > 0:33:49who was passionately in love with his bride, was in denial.
0:33:49 > 0:33:52After three years of marriage,
0:33:52 > 0:33:55she caught smallpox and died aged only 21.
0:33:55 > 0:33:57Joseph was heartbroken.
0:33:57 > 0:33:59He felt he could never love again.
0:34:04 > 0:34:07But Maria Theresa persuaded her son to marry a second time,
0:34:07 > 0:34:09with the hope of new lands and an heir.
0:34:10 > 0:34:12The marriage was a disaster.
0:34:12 > 0:34:16Joseph complained his wife was hideously ugly.
0:34:16 > 0:34:18And when she also died of smallpox,
0:34:18 > 0:34:21he didn't even bother to attend the funeral.
0:34:27 > 0:34:30Joseph decided to remain single.
0:34:30 > 0:34:32And he approached his sex life
0:34:32 > 0:34:34with the same efficiency as he approached government.
0:34:34 > 0:34:39As a rationalist, he decided love was simply absurd.
0:34:39 > 0:34:44And as a Catholic he regarded onanism as sinful self-abuse.
0:34:44 > 0:34:48Instead, he visited his gardener's daughter for sex
0:34:48 > 0:34:51in the potting shed at the same time every day.
0:34:51 > 0:34:55Or he came here to the red-light district to visit a brothel
0:34:55 > 0:34:57like the one that stood right here.
0:35:03 > 0:35:07Hidden in this restaurant is this somewhat mysterious sign.
0:35:07 > 0:35:14It says, "In 1778, Emperor Joseph II flew through this archway."
0:35:14 > 0:35:18Joseph, wearing disguise, had visited this brothel.
0:35:18 > 0:35:24He'd mistreated some of the girls, been confronted and then recognised.
0:35:24 > 0:35:29And such was his embarrassment, or fear of his prudish old mother,
0:35:29 > 0:35:32that he didn't just walk out of here, he actually ran.
0:35:40 > 0:35:45Joseph and Maria Theresa endured 15 troublesome years of co-rule.
0:35:45 > 0:35:47Joseph's reforms were long restricted
0:35:47 > 0:35:49by his conservative mother.
0:35:49 > 0:35:52He made vain threats to resign and run away.
0:35:54 > 0:35:59In 1780, Maria Theresa's long reign came to an end.
0:35:59 > 0:36:00She died in Joseph's arms.
0:36:02 > 0:36:06The monarchy was now solely Joseph's to command.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11He redrew Vienna according to his enlightened ideas
0:36:11 > 0:36:14and with his over-controlling nature,
0:36:14 > 0:36:16devoted hours to each detail.
0:36:16 > 0:36:20He crafted open spaces for his subjects to meet and talk,
0:36:20 > 0:36:23and one of them is the Prater Park,
0:36:23 > 0:36:26where he designed every walkway and food stand.
0:36:27 > 0:36:32Joseph started his reign with ferocious impatience
0:36:32 > 0:36:34and radical zeal,
0:36:34 > 0:36:38trying to change everything in his vast Austrian monarchy
0:36:38 > 0:36:40at the same time, in every place.
0:36:42 > 0:36:44His own best friend, the Prince de Ligne,
0:36:44 > 0:36:49described him as a raging erection that can never be satisfied.
0:36:49 > 0:36:53His tragedy, said Ligne, was that he governed too much,
0:36:53 > 0:36:55and reigned too little.
0:36:55 > 0:36:58But he really was the revolutionary Emperor.
0:37:01 > 0:37:04Under his mother's era of gradual reform,
0:37:04 > 0:37:07100 new edicts were announced annually.
0:37:07 > 0:37:11At the height of Joseph's reign, that number rose to 700.
0:37:15 > 0:37:20Joseph's openness to change was music to the ears of artists
0:37:20 > 0:37:23seeking to escape traditional formality.
0:37:27 > 0:37:28ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS
0:37:34 > 0:37:38Ambitious musicians and composers flocked to Vienna.
0:37:38 > 0:37:40One of them was Mozart.
0:37:41 > 0:37:46For years, he'd toured Europe as a musical child prodigy,
0:37:46 > 0:37:49encouraged and trained by his ambitious father.
0:37:49 > 0:37:53Now he was 25, and he wanted to make it at court.
0:37:56 > 0:38:02In 1781, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart arrived here at court in Vienna
0:38:02 > 0:38:06celebrating the accession of Joseph II.
0:38:06 > 0:38:09He was small, slight, pale,
0:38:09 > 0:38:13but with a huge head of wild, blonde hair.
0:38:13 > 0:38:18He was irrepressible, untameable, exuberant and shameless.
0:38:18 > 0:38:19He was uninhibited,
0:38:19 > 0:38:24and his taste for the scatological was soon notorious in Vienna.
0:38:24 > 0:38:26For example, as he wrote to his cousin,
0:38:26 > 0:38:28"Good night, my darling.
0:38:28 > 0:38:32"Sleep well, shit in your bed, and let it all burst out."
0:38:32 > 0:38:35It's impossible to understand Mozart
0:38:35 > 0:38:38without some sympathy for the earthy.
0:38:41 > 0:38:43It was in the Schonbrunn Palace
0:38:43 > 0:38:48that Mozart and Joseph II, the musical Emperor, worked together.
0:38:48 > 0:38:51After the concert, conductor Vinicius Kattah
0:38:51 > 0:38:54agreed to tell me more about Mozart
0:38:54 > 0:38:58and play me some of his work on the clavichord.
0:38:58 > 0:38:59- Simon.- Hi.
0:38:59 > 0:39:02- Nice to see you.- Nice to see you, too.- Lovely to hear you playing.
0:39:02 > 0:39:05- Thank you.- So let me ask you first of all,
0:39:05 > 0:39:07why did Mozart come to Vienna?
0:39:07 > 0:39:11Vienna was, and I think still is, the world capital of music.
0:39:11 > 0:39:15And Mozart wanted to come to Vienna to become the court composer.
0:39:15 > 0:39:18And, of course, Mozart wanted to present his art
0:39:18 > 0:39:21to the musical Emperor, Joseph II.
0:39:21 > 0:39:26What in Mozart's music, what in his personality, what in his talent,
0:39:26 > 0:39:27made him so special?
0:39:27 > 0:39:31So what Mozart did was just improvise.
0:39:31 > 0:39:35Somebody would give to him just a small thing like...
0:39:35 > 0:39:38HE PLAYS SIMPLE TUNE
0:39:39 > 0:39:44And tell him with those four notes, improvise and do something.
0:39:44 > 0:39:47So he would sit on the piano and play something like that.
0:39:47 > 0:39:49PLAYS COMPLEX TUNE
0:39:55 > 0:39:57He would just play with music.
0:39:57 > 0:40:00He would enjoy it. He would just go with it.
0:40:00 > 0:40:02Mozart was no ordinary man.
0:40:02 > 0:40:06He was for sure really somebody who had a lot of energy.
0:40:06 > 0:40:09And he was... I would say, he was a rock star.
0:40:09 > 0:40:12He was something like a jazz musician from nowadays.
0:40:12 > 0:40:13How did Vienna...
0:40:13 > 0:40:18This great cosmopolitan city, how did it influence Mozart's music?
0:40:18 > 0:40:20Vienna was huge at that time.
0:40:20 > 0:40:24So you had a lot of influences from Germany, Turkey and everything.
0:40:24 > 0:40:28So for example you would hear a German dance in his music.
0:40:28 > 0:40:31HE PLAYS RHYTHMICALLY
0:40:31 > 0:40:35And then you would hear also an Italian canzonetta.
0:40:35 > 0:40:36HE PLAYS IN A DIFFERENT STYLE
0:40:44 > 0:40:48Or even the famous alla Turca, a Turkish March.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52HE PLAYS IN NEW STYLE
0:40:59 > 0:41:00And I think, only in Vienna
0:41:00 > 0:41:03you could have such a huge diversity of music.
0:41:03 > 0:41:07And Mozart was clever enough to write it down.
0:41:07 > 0:41:09- I love that. Thank you. - Thank you very much.
0:41:11 > 0:41:14Mozart never became court composer,
0:41:14 > 0:41:17but Joseph II found him a role that allowed him
0:41:17 > 0:41:20'to compose some of his finest works.'
0:41:20 > 0:41:24But much of what we remember of Mozart today, historically,
0:41:24 > 0:41:29is based on the great film and play Amadeus.
0:41:29 > 0:41:35Joseph II appears as the bumbling, simplistic Emperor who complains
0:41:35 > 0:41:38that Mozart's music has too many notes.
0:41:38 > 0:41:41But, in fact, actually he meant exactly the opposite.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44He was complaining that Viennese audiences
0:41:44 > 0:41:48might not appreciate Mozart's music as much as he did.
0:41:49 > 0:41:53Joseph wanted the Viennese to rethink everything.
0:41:53 > 0:41:55As well as appreciating new artists,
0:41:55 > 0:41:59he issued an edict of tolerance that gave unprecedented rights
0:41:59 > 0:42:00to religious minorities.
0:42:00 > 0:42:03He reformed the legal system. He abolished serfdom.
0:42:05 > 0:42:10He even wanted to challenge the Viennese obsession, death.
0:42:11 > 0:42:15In the 18th century, Vienna had doubled in size.
0:42:15 > 0:42:17There was no space for burials.
0:42:17 > 0:42:21Funerals became so lavish they were bankrupting the mourners.
0:42:22 > 0:42:27A little-known fact about Joseph is that he micromanaged a solution.
0:42:27 > 0:42:29To see it, I've come to one of his new cemeteries
0:42:29 > 0:42:32that he established on the outskirts of Vienna.
0:42:35 > 0:42:39Hidden in its storage is the Emperor's ingenious attempt
0:42:39 > 0:42:41to revolutionise the coffin.
0:42:43 > 0:42:45From now on, he decreed,
0:42:45 > 0:42:49everyone must be buried stark naked in a sack.
0:42:50 > 0:42:54And, they must use this new design of coffin.
0:42:54 > 0:42:59All this was to accelerate decomposition and save wood.
0:42:59 > 0:43:00And this is how it worked.
0:43:00 > 0:43:04The body was placed inside, it was lowered into the grave,
0:43:04 > 0:43:08and then this lever was pulled to open it.
0:43:08 > 0:43:10And out would fall the body.
0:43:15 > 0:43:20Joseph's new reusable coffin proved a step too far.
0:43:20 > 0:43:21It was too plain,
0:43:21 > 0:43:22and the Viennese demanded
0:43:22 > 0:43:25the freedom to pursue their lavish funerals,
0:43:25 > 0:43:29what they called "schone Leiche" - a lovely corpse.
0:43:29 > 0:43:31The coffin riots broke out.
0:43:31 > 0:43:34And Joseph was forced to rescind his decree.
0:43:37 > 0:43:40Joseph's enlightened despotism was creating chaos.
0:43:40 > 0:43:45A rationalist at home, he was an expansionist abroad.
0:43:45 > 0:43:48He entered into an alliance with Catherine the Great of Russia.
0:43:48 > 0:43:52Together they would carve up the crumbling Ottoman Empire.
0:43:52 > 0:43:55But the war failed, Joseph fell ill at the front,
0:43:55 > 0:43:57and staggered back to his capital, sick.
0:43:57 > 0:44:02His Treasury was empty, the Empire was in revolt.
0:44:02 > 0:44:05In 1789, the French Revolution erupted.
0:44:05 > 0:44:08If rebellion spread throughout the Habsburg monarchy,
0:44:08 > 0:44:11disaster awaited Austria.
0:44:11 > 0:44:15To preserve his dynasty, Joseph began to repeal his reforms.
0:44:15 > 0:44:20Lying fatally ill, his last edict was how he, himself,
0:44:20 > 0:44:22should be interred in the Imperial Crypt.
0:44:34 > 0:44:36Here's his coffin.
0:44:36 > 0:44:38designed by the Emperor himself,
0:44:38 > 0:44:42and its simple austerity is in marked contrast
0:44:42 > 0:44:46to the sarcophagus of his mother, Maria Theresa.
0:44:46 > 0:44:49Look at its macabre magnificence.
0:44:51 > 0:44:54And yet Joseph II himself
0:44:54 > 0:44:59was much more impressive than history has given him credit for.
0:44:59 > 0:45:03He was an autocrat. But he was way ahead of his time.
0:45:03 > 0:45:07His emancipation of minorities, especially the Jews,
0:45:07 > 0:45:13helped create the unique Viennese culture of the late 19th century.
0:45:13 > 0:45:17But he felt himself a terrible failure.
0:45:17 > 0:45:20He wrote his own epitaph, and this is what it reads.
0:45:20 > 0:45:24"Here lies a prince whose intentions were pure
0:45:24 > 0:45:30"but who had the misfortune to see every one of his projects collapse."
0:45:30 > 0:45:34And yet, he was more successful than he ever knew.
0:45:34 > 0:45:38MUSIC: Requiem Mass in D Minor by Mozart
0:45:38 > 0:45:43Joseph's radical reforms dragged Austria into the modern age.
0:45:43 > 0:45:47Although many laws were repealed, his reign introduced new ideas,
0:45:47 > 0:45:49and changed Viennese attitudes.
0:45:52 > 0:45:57As for Mozart, he barely outlived the musical Emperor.
0:45:57 > 0:46:01While the myth persists that Mozart was buried like a pauper,
0:46:01 > 0:46:04he actually chose to have a rational burial
0:46:04 > 0:46:07in one of Joseph's unmarked mass graves.
0:46:11 > 0:46:15The French revolutionaries despised the traditional order
0:46:15 > 0:46:17of kings and queens.
0:46:17 > 0:46:20And they especially loathed their own Austrian queen,
0:46:20 > 0:46:23Marie Antoinette.
0:46:23 > 0:46:27Indeed, they hated everything Austria and the Habsburgs stood for.
0:46:29 > 0:46:32In 1792, their aggression led to war.
0:46:32 > 0:46:36Austria failed to contain the energies of the French Revolution.
0:46:36 > 0:46:39Many battles and lands were lost.
0:46:39 > 0:46:42And finally, to the horror of the Habsburgs,
0:46:42 > 0:46:46Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were beheaded at the guillotine.
0:46:52 > 0:46:56Pressure was growing on the new Habsburg emperor, Francis II.
0:46:57 > 0:46:59He vowed to annihilate the French,
0:46:59 > 0:47:04but to do so, he would have to beat the embodiment of the revolution.
0:47:05 > 0:47:06Napoleon Bonaparte.
0:47:08 > 0:47:13The brilliant general Napoleon was the Superman of his age,
0:47:13 > 0:47:16representing the dynamism of the new.
0:47:16 > 0:47:19The Holy Roman Emperor Francis represented
0:47:19 > 0:47:22the obsolescence and weakness of the old.
0:47:22 > 0:47:24They were complete opposites.
0:47:24 > 0:47:27While Napoleon wanted to rule the world and win battles,
0:47:27 > 0:47:32Francis was happiest boiling toffee in the imperial kitchens.
0:47:34 > 0:47:39In 1804, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French.
0:47:39 > 0:47:42He already dominated Germany and Italy,
0:47:42 > 0:47:44at the expense of the Habsburgs.
0:47:44 > 0:47:48And when Francis challenged him again on the battlefield,
0:47:48 > 0:47:51Napoleon defeated the Austrians and the Russians
0:47:51 > 0:47:53at the Battle of Austerlitz,
0:47:53 > 0:47:56his greatest battle at the height of his genius.
0:47:58 > 0:48:02Whilst many now feared Napoleon's expansionist ambitions,
0:48:02 > 0:48:05he was welcomed when he rode into Vienna triumphant.
0:48:07 > 0:48:09The Viennese watched him
0:48:09 > 0:48:13with a surprising degree of admiration and fascination.
0:48:13 > 0:48:15Francis had to sue for peace.
0:48:15 > 0:48:20But now even he realised that the Holy Roman Empire was finished.
0:48:20 > 0:48:24He'd already given himself a grand new title, Emperor of Austria.
0:48:24 > 0:48:27But it was a sign of his own embarrassment
0:48:27 > 0:48:31that he chose this beautiful, but obscure church to announce
0:48:31 > 0:48:35the end of an institution that had lasted 1,000 years.
0:48:39 > 0:48:41Francis was defeated.
0:48:41 > 0:48:43The Holy Roman Empire was no more.
0:48:43 > 0:48:46Vienna had fallen to his nemesis.
0:48:46 > 0:48:48Francis' vast empire was crumbling.
0:48:48 > 0:48:52And he believed its culprit was diversity.
0:48:52 > 0:48:54His troops came from so many different territories,
0:48:54 > 0:48:57they had their own languages, cultures, traditions.
0:48:57 > 0:48:59And so to create unity,
0:48:59 > 0:49:03Francis tried to introduce the rising idea of the time,
0:49:03 > 0:49:05German nationalism.
0:49:06 > 0:49:10By 1809, Francis was able to assemble a new army.
0:49:10 > 0:49:12Once again, he declared war on France.
0:49:17 > 0:49:19Two armies met here at Aspern,
0:49:19 > 0:49:22right on the River Danube, just outside Vienna.
0:49:22 > 0:49:25The Austrian commander was Archduke Charles,
0:49:25 > 0:49:28a much more intelligent and dynamic brother
0:49:28 > 0:49:31of the plodding Emperor, Francis.
0:49:31 > 0:49:33As the French army crossed the river,
0:49:33 > 0:49:37Charles ingenuously floated barges packed with explosives down.
0:49:37 > 0:49:41They destroyed the French bridges, cutting off the French army.
0:49:41 > 0:49:43The Austrians fell upon them.
0:49:43 > 0:49:45Charles managed to defeat Napoleon,
0:49:45 > 0:49:49the first time the French emperor had been defeated for ten years.
0:49:49 > 0:49:51It was quite an achievement.
0:49:55 > 0:49:57But victory turned to ashes.
0:50:00 > 0:50:03The Austrian army was paralysed with heavy losses.
0:50:03 > 0:50:07Napoleon called in reinforcements and planned his vengeance.
0:50:09 > 0:50:10The French emperor marched north
0:50:10 > 0:50:14and obliterated what remained of the Habsburg forces.
0:50:15 > 0:50:19Napoleon returned to Vienna and this time he decided to stay.
0:50:27 > 0:50:29In the coffee houses, palaces and theatres,
0:50:29 > 0:50:33a French-occupied Vienna, ideas flourished.
0:50:33 > 0:50:37The French idealised freethinking.
0:50:37 > 0:50:40Nationalism, romanticism, rationalism,
0:50:40 > 0:50:43intermingled and surged in popularity.
0:50:43 > 0:50:45And this had the most lasting impact
0:50:45 > 0:50:48on the city's greatest product, music.
0:50:56 > 0:50:58This is the musical concert hall
0:50:58 > 0:51:01in the Palace of Prince Franz Lobkowitz.
0:51:01 > 0:51:03And it was here
0:51:03 > 0:51:07that one of his proteges performed for the first time
0:51:07 > 0:51:10his new Third Symphony.
0:51:16 > 0:51:19His name was Ludwig von Beethoven.
0:51:19 > 0:51:20He was famously irascible,
0:51:20 > 0:51:23if anyone talked or laughed during one of his concerts,
0:51:23 > 0:51:26he would storm out.
0:51:26 > 0:51:31He had produced a great symphony that celebrated the new, rational,
0:51:31 > 0:51:34enlightened revolutionary age that he so admired.
0:51:34 > 0:51:38And to him, the personification of this age was Napoleon Bonaparte.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41And hence he named the symphony The Bonaparte.
0:51:44 > 0:51:49But when he saw that Napoleon had not only crowned himself emperor,
0:51:49 > 0:51:52but was set on conquering a personal empire across the whole of Europe,
0:51:52 > 0:51:54he was disgusted.
0:51:54 > 0:51:57And the irascible Beethoven furiously crossed out
0:51:57 > 0:51:59the name Bonaparte on his scripts,
0:51:59 > 0:52:01so hard that it went through the page.
0:52:01 > 0:52:07And he renamed this celebration of the heroic age The Eroica.
0:52:07 > 0:52:09And that's how it's known to posterity.
0:52:19 > 0:52:22Joseph II's cultural ideas were back in favour.
0:52:22 > 0:52:24Public theatres were established.
0:52:24 > 0:52:27The arts became accessible to the masses.
0:52:27 > 0:52:30And Beethoven, he became a Viennese star.
0:52:36 > 0:52:39Napoleon had conquered most of Europe.
0:52:39 > 0:52:43And he wanted to establish his own Bonaparte dynasty.
0:52:43 > 0:52:44But he had no heir.
0:52:44 > 0:52:47He blamed his wife, Empress Josephine,
0:52:47 > 0:52:48who'd had children in her youth,
0:52:48 > 0:52:51but a botched abortion left her infertile.
0:52:51 > 0:52:57Napoleon divorced her and began to look for a new, child-bearing bride.
0:52:59 > 0:53:02From the dynasties of Europe, two options emerged,
0:53:02 > 0:53:05the Russian Romanovs, or the Habsburgs.
0:53:05 > 0:53:10Austria's brilliant new Foreign Minister Klemens von Metternich
0:53:10 > 0:53:14knew his country needed time to recover from its defeats.
0:53:14 > 0:53:18He used the opportunity to create a new alliance with France.
0:53:18 > 0:53:21When the Romanovs procrastinated, Metternich proposed.
0:53:23 > 0:53:25To find out the result of this match,
0:53:25 > 0:53:28I've come to meet Dr Monica Kurzel-Runtscheiner,
0:53:28 > 0:53:30a historian who wants to show me the carriages
0:53:30 > 0:53:33that survive from this time.
0:53:34 > 0:53:39Napoleon himself decided that he needed to marry Marie Louise,
0:53:39 > 0:53:42the favourite daughter of Emperor Franz of Austria.
0:53:42 > 0:53:43How did it come about?
0:53:43 > 0:53:47The interesting thing is that it was a very bad start.
0:53:47 > 0:53:49Marie Louise was suffering a lot,
0:53:49 > 0:53:52and she really thought she was sacrificing herself for her father,
0:53:52 > 0:53:53and for the country.
0:53:53 > 0:53:56But, as we know, Napoleon was a man
0:53:56 > 0:53:59who really knew how to deal with women.
0:53:59 > 0:54:01And how to satisfy women.
0:54:01 > 0:54:04When she arrives in France, finally,
0:54:04 > 0:54:07Napoleon was so impatient that he came to meet her.
0:54:07 > 0:54:10And in the very first night he made her his wife,
0:54:10 > 0:54:13even though they were not finally married.
0:54:13 > 0:54:15So it was a big shock for the court society.
0:54:15 > 0:54:17She writes her father a letter telling,
0:54:17 > 0:54:20"People really do not do him justice.
0:54:20 > 0:54:22"You have to know him in order to understand
0:54:22 > 0:54:24"what a wonderful person he is."
0:54:24 > 0:54:26So in the end, they were both really in love with each other.
0:54:26 > 0:54:28And it was quite a good marriage.
0:54:28 > 0:54:32It's just one year after the marriage she gave birth to the heir,
0:54:32 > 0:54:36to the little Napoleon II, who was getting, by his father,
0:54:36 > 0:54:39the very prestigious title as King of Rome.
0:54:39 > 0:54:42Le Roi de Rome. And this is his carriage.
0:54:44 > 0:54:47Not just a carriage, it's an insignia,
0:54:47 > 0:54:49and the symbol for the future of the little prince.
0:54:49 > 0:54:51And we know that the little prince
0:54:51 > 0:54:54was really riding this carriage on the terrace
0:54:54 > 0:54:58of the Tuileries Gardens in Paris, pulled by a team of two Merino sheep
0:54:58 > 0:55:01trained by the director of a circus in Paris.
0:55:01 > 0:55:05What happened to Marie Louise and what happened to the King of Rome?
0:55:05 > 0:55:06After the fall of Napoleon,
0:55:06 > 0:55:09Marie Louise went back to Vienna to join her father with her son,
0:55:09 > 0:55:13and so he grew up here in Schonbrunn Palace.
0:55:13 > 0:55:16In fact, in Vienna he was very beloved.
0:55:16 > 0:55:19But on the other side, everybody, especially the politicians,
0:55:19 > 0:55:23feared that he could, one day, want to become like his father,
0:55:23 > 0:55:25or recreate the empire of his father.
0:55:25 > 0:55:27And therefore, they took care that he could never become
0:55:27 > 0:55:30too important in political means.
0:55:36 > 0:55:41The marriage forced the Habsburg army to support Napoleon
0:55:41 > 0:55:43on his fatal Russian campaign.
0:55:43 > 0:55:48But, after Napoleon catastrophically retreated from Moscow,
0:55:48 > 0:55:51Metternich switched sides.
0:55:51 > 0:55:54Austria joined a new anti-French coalition,
0:55:54 > 0:55:59and in 1814 the coalition army proudly commanded by the Austrian
0:55:59 > 0:56:05Field Marshal, Prince Schwarzenberg, defeated Napoleon and took Paris.
0:56:05 > 0:56:09Napoleon, ranting against Austrian betrayal, abdicated.
0:56:21 > 0:56:24Napoleon had redrawn the map of Europe
0:56:24 > 0:56:27to promote his own personal empire.
0:56:27 > 0:56:32And 20 years of war had torn the continent apart.
0:56:32 > 0:56:35Now the Austrian minister, Metternich, would invite
0:56:35 > 0:56:38all the rulers of the continent
0:56:38 > 0:56:41to Vienna to put it back together again.
0:56:41 > 0:56:47This congress would be the greatest summit meeting in history.
0:56:47 > 0:56:50And the most decadent junket.
0:56:50 > 0:56:55Unparalleled in its power-broking and pleasure-seeking.
0:56:55 > 0:56:58Emperor Francis would be the host of Europe.
0:56:58 > 0:57:00Metternich would be the arbiter of Europe.
0:57:00 > 0:57:06And for six months in 1814, Vienna would be the capital of the world.
0:57:12 > 0:57:16216 kings, princes and leaders,
0:57:16 > 0:57:2020,000 officials and just about every con artist,
0:57:20 > 0:57:23prostitute and mountebank in Europe
0:57:23 > 0:57:26arrived in Vienna and revelled in this new era
0:57:26 > 0:57:29of possibilities and depravity.
0:57:33 > 0:57:37Five years after humiliation and defeat by Napoleon,
0:57:37 > 0:57:40Vienna was back and bigger than ever.
0:57:40 > 0:57:43More imperial, more majestic.
0:57:43 > 0:57:48A city of composers and conquerors and courtesans.
0:57:48 > 0:57:50Palaces and coffeehouses.
0:57:50 > 0:57:53But it was about to evolve into something much more.
0:57:55 > 0:57:58In the final chapter of the story of Vienna,
0:57:58 > 0:58:03I will discover how the city created the modern age while the Habsburgs
0:58:03 > 0:58:04headed for extinction.
0:58:04 > 0:58:08The Imperial City became the capital of ideas,
0:58:08 > 0:58:11and a battlefield of extremes.
0:58:11 > 0:58:13Monarchy versus revolution.
0:58:13 > 0:58:16Fascism versus communism.
0:58:16 > 0:58:19Wild decadence versus Catholic piety.
0:58:19 > 0:58:23It all happened here, in Vienna, the world's city.
0:58:24 > 0:58:27Would you like to explore further the history
0:58:27 > 0:58:28of the Habsburg monarchy?
0:58:28 > 0:58:33Find out more about its rulers and royal marriages
0:58:33 > 0:58:36through the Open University's family tree.
0:58:36 > 0:58:37Go to...
0:58:40 > 0:58:42..and follow the links to the Open University.