Act One, Scene One

Ferdinand and Herald step unto stage. Ferdinand stands on stage right, facing stage left, Herald occupies center-stage. Otto enters from stage left.

Herald: All behold his royal highness, the Archduke of Budapest. (Ferdinand moves forward) All hail his highness, the Grand Duke of Bohemia. (Otto moves forward, Ferdinand and Otto are now face to face)

Ferdinand appears happy for his brother’s safe return and embraces Otto.

Ferdinand: (Joyous) An entire month the empire has squandered in your absence, brother.

Otto: I highly doubt that, with you being at the helm, Ferdinand. Besides, I would think it better to visit our German allies that waste away in my castle being beaten at chess by my servants day after day.

Ferdinand: And how has our good friend, Wilhelm been holding up?

Otto: The Kaiser grows restless again. Hunting game seems to have lost its touch.

Ferdinand: I’m sure he will visit Africa soon and bring himself back a pair of elephants.

Otto: (Serious) He is not so fickle, Ferdinand. He was miserable and irritated, he yelled at his servants, he snapped at his ministers, he went through two desks during my visit just by smashing them in fits of rage. Yet, when he sees his armies dance around and march outside his palace, he turns giddy as a schoolboy at Christmas unwrapping his presents.

Ferdinand: (Soberly) He has indeed moved to bigger game.

Otto: We should be glad that we chose him as an ally Ferdinand. Last week the Kaiser proudly showed me another of his military demonstrations in Berlin. The men were beyond count, my prince. The hammer of their boots on the pavement was thunderous. Their bayonets glistened in the sun so as to blind the onlooker with a million points of light. And then their machines came by. What terrors could reside in a man’s heart to produce such things I don’t know. That night I thanked God for being an Austrian, for I shall never have to face them in battle.

Ferdinand: The Kaiser cannot be allowed to continue building his forces. The other powers in Europe are growing nervous.

Otto: Let them sweat! Soon they will be subjects of the Germany and Austrian empires. War is coming brother; we can all feel it in the wind and smell it in the air, just as we know we will prevail.

Ferdinand: Europe has been at peace for forty-three years, Otto. I will not let it dissolve so easily.

Otto: Then we will have to agree to disagree. Farewell, my prince.

Exeunt

Act One, Scene Two

Count and Servant enter from stage left. Serb is hiding in a hole. Count and Servant are slowly walking across the stage to Serb’s position.

Count: What disgusting people these Bosnians and Serbs. They truly don’t deserve to live in a city as magnificent and beautiful as Sarajevo.

Servant: They say the same about you and Vienna.

Count: (snidely) They didn’t conquer Vienna.

Count stops perilously close the Serb’s hole.

Count: No, they just laid down and surrendered to the might of Austria-Hungary, like the filthy, cowardly sheep that they are. (spits) They make me sick.

With a roar of “For Serbia” Serb charges out of his hole. He attacks Count and slices open his throat. Servant falls in shock and his face is painted with horror. Serb runs off stage.

Exeunt

Act One, Scene Three

Otto sits at his table. Ambassador enters from stage left. Otto stands and bows.

Otto: Ambassador Hohenzollern, I am pleased to see you, but my work is incredibly concerning.

Ambassador: I may aid you in your work.

Otto: (Unsure) I’m afraid I don’t understand.

Ambassador: Am I correct in understanding that an Austrian Count, of your house of Hapsburg, was murdered today in Sarajevo?

Otto: Yes, I’ve spent all day trying to dampen the wildfire that has spread from this.

Ambassador: I would beg of you to do the opposite.

Otto: (Ridiculing) So I should allow my people to scream their chants, to burn their buildings and violate imperial law!

Ambassador: The good count was killed by a Serbian, a certain amount of unrest from your less-than-Serbian-loving subjects is quite reasonable and can be used to our advantage.

Otto: How, might I ask?

Ambassador: It puts pressure in the right places, my lord. The Council of Nobles meets in the Imperial Palace tomorrow. Perhaps you should suggest a way to punish Serbia for its crimes.

Otto: There is no proof that this murder was orchestrated by the Serbian government. We annexed Sarajevo only a few years, our own citizens of the empire could have done him in.

Ambassador: And which looks better on the front page? Count killed by Austrians. Count killed by Serbs. That’s all the proof people need.

Otto: Need for what?

Ambassador: War, my duke. Go to the Council of Nobles tomorrow and propose war with Serbia!

Otto: (Insulted) Go to war over the death of some obscure member of my house, that’s lunacy.

Ambassador: My orders come from Kaiser himself. To defy him is lunacy.

Otto: The Kaiser does not give orders here in Austria.

Ambassador smiles an awful self-satisfied grin and turns to leave.

Ambassador: Do whatever you feel is right Grand Duke, I return to Germany in a week.

Exeunt

Act One, Scene Four

Otto, Ferdinand and Emperor enter from stage left. Emperor sits down center stage looking distraught and fatigued. Ferdinand sits on his left, Otto sits on his right.

Emperor: (Grumbling, absent) The petition to the Council from the Grand Duke of Bohemia will now commence.

Otto rises.

Otto: My fellow nobles, two days ago Mikael, Viscount of Sarajevo was murdered in his own streets. This vicious, brutal assault against a dear relative of mine was not only carried out by a Serbian, but it is obvious to me that the Serbian government was involved, possibly in organizing this attack. We must, as Austrians, show that we are not a nation to be trifled with. I submit a petition to this Council to invade Serbia as soon as the army can be readied.

Ferdinand: (Rises in anger) What is this! Send us to war as punishment for the death of one count!

Otto: I do not propose that we take Serbia purely out of vengeance for my second cousin, Mikael. This is merely a pre-emptive strike to save the future of Austria-Hungary and its royal family. So long as Serbia remains a free and independent nation, every Hapsburg that goes to sleep in Bosnia is in danger of awaking without his head.

Ferdinand: We have held Bosnia for five years now. What has changed so suddenly to make it death for my house to go there?

Otto: I cannot say, brother. The Serbs have never been happy with us taking Bosnia, perhaps they plan to take it back.

Ferdinand: They are a tiny backwater kingdom in the Balkans; we are a superpower.

Otto: Even superpowers can bleed. I only wish to ebb the flow of blood.

Ferdinand: (Enraged) Ebb the flow! Do you have any idea what will happen if you invade Serbia. Europe is but a collection of wealthy nations waiting for an excuse to do battle. If you go to war now it will be the perfect opportunity for the fragile peace across Europe to explode.

Otto: How will a simple conflict between a tiny nation and massive one ignite the “Great Fire of Europe”, my prince?

Ferdinand: The Serbians are very dear to the Russians, they will surely join on their side.

Otto: The last time we fought Russia we ended up with Ukraine, I’d be glad to see what else the Russians hand us this time when they inevitably capitulate.

Ferdinand: And what if the French try to make a few quick gains while our forces are occupied in Russia.

Otto: I am assured that the Germans will have our flank.

Ferdinand: And of course, Britain will simply stand by and watch as Germany marches the largest army in the world across Europe.

Otto: The Ottomans will challenge the British at sea. And besides, the Kaiser and King George V are cousins.

Ferdinand: Brothers have shed each other’s blood in war before. Cousins don’t even recognize each other the heat of a battle.

Otto: And so we are afraid of Britain now? We, the people that felled the Roman Empire that had stood for a thousand years.

Ferdinand: (Heartfelt) Yes, we destroyed the Roman Empire in the days when were all but a tiny tribe known as the Vandals. But it took us five hundred of the millenia that Rome stood for us to make it fall. And we did it with the help of the Saxons, Goths, Visigoths, Gauls, Franks, and Picts, the very people you plan to do war with. The world has changed in the fifteen-hundred years since that conquest. War is no longer a game that can be stretched out centuries; it is a hell that takes a few seconds to shed the blood of thousands. Fellow Hapsburgs, hear me out. If Austria, Germany, Russia, France, Britain, and Turkey all go to war, then every great power that has ever stood in Europe will be engaged in one conflict. Which one of you would dare venture a guess at who would win it? Who here can predict the outcome? (waits) I thought so.

Otto: Gentleman, Gentleman, let us get back to the heart of the issue. We aren’t discussing war with Russia, or France, or Britain for god’s sake. We are debating the merits of us, Austria-Hungary, one of the largest empires on Earth invading the Kingdom of Serbia, one of the smallest, and poorest. I can predict the outcome of that.

Ferdinand: Very well, I will allow the emperor to decide in this matter, as is his right. Emperor.

Ferdinand bows to Emperor, and Otto follows suit. The Emperor looks upright and is confused.

Emperor: (Bewildered) What, what is it?

Otto: (Steely) We are asking your judgement on my petition.

Emperor: What is Ferdinand’s counsel?

Ferdinand: (Patiently) I am against it, my dear uncle.

Emperor: Very well, very well, motion defeated.

Otto rises in fury and strikes down his chair. He storms away. Ferdinand looks troubled.

Exeunt

Act Two, Scene One

Otto and Ambassador are conversing outside the palace.

Ambassador: That was somewhat of a disappointment.

Otto: My Uncle, Emperor Franz-Joseph is eighty-four years old, ambassador. He has in all those years become but a face on the back of a coin, my brother, the Archduke, he is a voice in all men’s hearts. He is without a doubt the leader of Austria.

Ambassador: If he is unwilling to go to war, Germany could support a new leader of Austria.

Otto: (offended) A coup! Are you Germans all completely insane. You wish me to ask millions of men to lay down their lives for their country. And do you think they will do it for a false king? No, I cannot have bloodied hands when ask my people to bloody theirs.

Ambassador: If Ferdinand remains in power, they won’t bloody their hands at all. And that would make the Kaiser very disappointed.

Exeunt

Act Two, Scene Two

Ferdinand is standing in an open market square. Beggar is in the background, looking downtrodden and despairing. Otto approaches from stage left.

Otto: (Saddened) Why does a future king still have shop for his own vegetables?

Ferdinand: The vegetables aren’t the point, Otto, my servants still go oat every day for them. The idea is being one with the plebeians.

Otto: You are a noble, a leader. What does it help to mingle with the refuse of society?

Ferdinand: You want us to go to war and you don’t even know the people fighting it?

Otto: They fight whether I know them or not.

Ferdinand: That is exactly why I cannot allow you to invade Serbia. I know these people, I know the mothers that lose their sons, I know the girls and boys and that lose their brothers, I love the country that loses its soldiers.

Otto: Then these people will die of hunger in empty fields. Die of flu in the diseased back allies. Die even of murder from their fellow citizens. Is it not better for them to die helping their country than alone and aiding no one but the crows and worms whose bellies their flesh fill.

Ferdinand: If I do not order their deaths, my conscience is clear.

Otto walks up to Beggar and picks him up. He puts a knife to Beggar’s throat and drops him.

Otto: There, say this man is dead. You didn’t order his killing, so your conscience is clear. Yet you were the one that sent me here to speak with you. If you hadn’t have said what you just did I might not have killed him. Just because you didn’t hold the knife doesn’t mean you didn’t shed the blood.

Ferdinand: (Horrified) You’d be a murderer.

Otto: (Smiles) No, I’m a prince. I would be culling the flock.

Ferdinand: What are you trying to say?

Otto: You’re a hypocrite, brother. You trod on the roads paved by the poor. You eat food plucked from the hands of the wanting. You live in a castle made from the blood and bones of the conquered. Your estate sells the wheat that would keep your subjects alive. It taxes those whose last coins couldn’t buy but a cup of wine and it kills those who disagree. And all the while you claim to be one of the People. I hope you sleep well on your bed of tyranny, my prince, a pair of orphan girls probably died sewing it.

Ferdinand: So what if there is some blood on my hands. If we go to war I will never be able to wash them clean again. None of us will. The death of millions haunts even the purest souls.

Otto: Fine, then, try and save whatever innocence you have, brother. You may not have the death of millions on your conscience, but you will bring about the death of Austria.

Exeunt

Act Two, Scene Three

Otto and Ambassador are conversing over a table.

Otto: The Archduke is not going to change his mind, ambassador.

Ambassador: But a coup is still out of the question?

Otto: Yes.

Ambassador: I suppose there another option available to us.

Otto shrugs.

Ambassador: Assassination. Ferdinand is travelling to Sarajevo with his family tomorrow. This would present the perfect opportunity for a certain group to rid the world of him.

Otto: How can I kill my own brother?

Ambassador: If you know it will save your country. I will return to my Kaiser now. I trust you understand what must be done.

Otto: (Distant) Yes, I understand it all.

Exeunt

Act Two, Scene Four

Ferdinand is eating a meal at his table. Otto quietly enters from stage left.

Ferdinand: (Without turning) Otto, I didn’t know you were going to join us in Sarajevo. What a wonderful surprise.

Otto raises a gun at Ferdinand’s head. Ferdinand slowly oscillates to face Otto, a look of disinterest on his face.

Ferdinand: On second thought, I don’t think I’ll be so hospitable.

Otto: Ferdinand, you have to understand, I don’t have any choice.

Ferdinand: (Disgusted) How exactly, might I ask?

Otto: Don’t you get it Ferdinand! If Germany can’t have Europe, it will take Austria. “I don’t do this because I love Caesar less, but that I love Rome more”. 

Ferdinand: So what, you’re Brutus now?

Otto: I won’t make the mistake he did.

Ferdinand: My wife, my children?

Otto: Already dead. Tragic really, all killed by Serbian terrorists.

Ferdinand: (Crying) And am I too to be slaughtered by these terrorists. We’re brothers for God sake!

Otto: Brothers! Hah! We grew up in different castles, hundreds of miles apart. We were raised by different nannies, trained by different teachers, loved by different people. If our cousin the Crown Prince had not been assassinated and we forced to move to Vienna, I doubt we would have seen each other at all.

Ferdinand: Fine then, Otto. Despatch my family and I like a herd of sick animals.

Otto: I will. But don’t despair, my prince. You and your family will be held as martyrs to our cause. Men will sign their names in droves to avenge you. Austria will only grow more wealthy and more powerful thanks to your sacrifice.

Ferdinand: Is that what you’ll say to yourself when my ghost haunts your sleep.

Otto: No, it’s what I am telling myself right now.

Otto shoots Ferdinand in the chest. Ferdinand slowly falls to his knees.

Ferdinand: (Dying) Long live Austria!

Otto shoots Ferdinand in the head. Ferdinand dies.

Exeunt

Act Two, Scene Five

Emperor sits centre stage. Otto sits to his right. Lord sits to his left, in Ferdinand’s place. Otto arises.

Otto: Gentlemen. The world woke up this morning to the news that the Archduke of Budapest, the Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, and my loving brother had been slaughtered by a group of Serbian gunmen. And as the world heard this they collectively held their breath. They sat at their tables and sweated with anxiety, they shuddered with anticipation at the mere thought of what Austria would do in retaliation. And, gentleman, are we going to disappoint them? Are we going to let our beloved duke die without revenge? Are we going to let the world think that we are cowards? No, we aren’t. I say let the floodgates open and the world know what an angry Austria can do. Let the thunder of our boots shake the earth. Let the echoes of our war horns deafen the ears of our enemies. Let the blood of our foes redden the dampest plains and whitest snows. Let the world know the fury of Austria-Hungary. The road ahead is not easy, my fellow nobles. Lives will be lost, houses burned, families destroyed, but I promise you my lords, Austria will prevail. We are a nation of fifty millions, if by nothing else, we will be crowned victors by the sheer weight of our bodies! To war gentlemen! In the name of Hapsburg, in the name of Ferdinand, for the love of Austria, to war friends!

Otto sits down and Lord stands to thunderous applause.

Lord: The emperor will now make his decision.

Emperor: (As if awaking from a long dream, dazed) What, What. Oh yes, yes, do it.

Lord: Emperor Franz-Joseph has accepted the petition of the Archduke of Bohemia. All hail Otto von Hapsburg, Crown Prince of the Empire of Austria-Hungary.

Emperor hobbles off stage. Otto and Lord stand from their chairs and Lord moves to congratulate him.

Lord: Good work sir, this is truly a fine day for Austria.

Otto: Yes, now all we can do is watch and hope that God is on our side.

Lord: You know I was thinking of something.

Otto: (Annoyed) Yes...

Lord: Well, Canada and Australia are going follow Britain into war, and my agents in Japan say that the emperor there is considering entering as well. We won’t be able to call this Europe’s war anymore.

Otto: It’s the world’s war now.

Lord: (Bemused) Our First World War. So glad to be on the winning team, eh?

Otto: Yes, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

Lord: Well so long, my prince. Long live Austria (salutes)

Lord exits. Otto stands centre stage, looking uncertain.

Otto: Yes, long live Austria.

                                                                  -Fin-