Chapter Text
As the French Revolution was happening, Emperor Francis II knew that it was only a matter of time before the French would militarise themselves which could lead to even more war within Europe. He wanted to protect his children from such a horrible fate should something similar happen in Austria-Hungary, and initially made arrangements for all his children to leave Vienna.
But his wife, Maria Theresa, didn’t want to let go of her children.
Hence the oldest son of the late Leopold II could only send away the only surviving child he had with his first wife Elisabeth of Württemberg: Archduchess Elisabeth Nicole of Austria. Thus, the young girl was sent away to the United Kingdom and housed with the Duke of Clarence & St Andrews who had a son about 2 years older.
The young Prince and Earl of Munster had lost his mother Princess Christiane of Saxe-Hildburghausen too, when he was only 1.5 years old.
At least little Niki would have a playmate as well as someone who she could study with for the foreseeable future, as it was unknown how long the threat would remain.
The Austrian didn’t want to be separated from his eldest child, as she was his only link to his first wife who died giving birth to their twin girls, but it was the safest thing to do with everything that was happening.
So, a 11-year-old Niki was shipped off to London.
The Archduchess hadn’t wanted to leave Vienna, the place that was her home and the home of her people, but she understood her father’s concerns despite not yet understanding politics. What she did understand though, was the effect of the French Revolution on the rest of Europe.
There had been more civil unrest and the rise of anti-monarchist movements on the continent.
The United Kingdom was safe. Anti-monarchists weren’t very prevalent there due to the people’s love for Queen Caroline and her daughter Charlotte, who people saw as a great hope for the nation.
Niki was received by a younger son of the King, the Duke of Clarence, and his son.
The pair of them resided at Kensington Palace, a stone’s throw away from the King’s seat at Buckingham Palace. The Prince of Wales and his family resided at Carlton House, north-east of Buckingham.
The 2 Royal children were tutored together in German, though the 11-year-old got a fairly good grasp of English during her first 6 months in the UK, and they played together in the Palace gardens.
Despite having a great time in London as a young teen, the Archduchess longed for Vienna. It was the only place she had known to be home, but a definitive return was out of the question once the War of the Third Coalition ended in 1806.
The Holy Roman Empire was dissolved with the Treaty of Pressburg after the Battle of Austerlitz.
It devastated then then 16-year-old teen, who had hoped to go home to see her father and half-siblings again. Yet she would remain in London for potentially many more years.
There was only 1 thing Europe could rely on, and that was a strong British Navy who would be able to stop a transfer of French troops across the Channel to England. Should it be needed, Royals could flee / go into exile in the overseas Kingdom.
Yet, a problem was emerging.
Niki was coming of age, and she was living with two men who were not her immediate family. It would mean she’d have to move. Either she’d have to go live with one of King George III’s 3 unwed daughters or stay in a nunnery if she didn’t get engaged or married.
Once that became clear to the Earl of Munster, the young Prince began making an effort to woo the young woman he’d nearly done everything with for the last 5 years. He also wrote the Austrian Emperor in the hopes to receive his permission to potentially wed his eldest daughter.
A father of 8 surviving children by the time of his ‘fall’, Emperor Francis I of Austria was touched by the emotional letter originating from London as it was written by the young Earl of Munster.
Prince James of Clarence, as he was titled besides being Earl, had been growing up with Niki since her arrival in London and he’d grown rather fond of her presence on his side. He expressed that Niki did have a wish to return to Vienna, but he sincerely did not wish to lose her forever. He proposed a marriage, one which would strengthen the links between the House of Hanover and the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. After all, he was the future Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg as he was the most senior legitimate male-line descendant of his grandfather George III.
It was most definitely a proposal the 38-year-old would consider. But the outcome of the Fourth Coalition War, when Prussia was defeated, made him realise that the Brits were close to being his only hope to ever defeat the Napoleonic French. He immediately authorised the proposal and wrote his eldest daughter about the continental war developments.
Elisabeth Nicole wasn’t exactly happy that the engagement had been arranged behind her back, but she was not going to resist a proposal coming from the British Prince as she’d grown fond of him too.
That letter made the former HRE happy again, and with the marriage of his eldest daughter arranged he could turn to potential marriages for his children with Maria Theresa. It was necessary for him to arrange marriages for his 2 surviving sons as soon as possible as otherwise the Austrian Imperial throne would come in the possession of his younger brother Charles and his sons.
And he’d rather have his own descendants on the throne.
Prince James of Clarence, Earl of Munster, and Archduchess Elisabeth Nicole of Austria were engaged for 4 years before the marriage finally took place.
There had been a lot of delays. First, the Pope didn’t want to authorise the Archduchess’s conversion to Anglicanism despite her father’s approval. It took many letters from the Austrian Emperor to the Pope before final authorisation was given and the young woman was officially no longer a Catholic. Second, Niki preferred to marry after her 19th birthday. Thus, the wedding date became 16 November 1810.
The Royal wedding was held inside Saint James’s Palace and the couple would take up temporarily living arrangements at Holyrood House in Edinburgh until their private quarters at Kensington were finished.
They would remain there for 5 years.
In those 5 years, 1 singleton daughter named Sophie Caroline and a pair of twins named Elizabeth Christiane & Edward were born and baptised. It was also during those years that the Napoleonic wars finally ended after 1 failed invasion of Russia and 1 battle at Waterloo, Belgium.
That final battle on 18 June 1815 restored most of Europe back into what it had been before the unrest and peace returned on the continent after the Congress of Vienna was concluded.
The Archduchess by birth visited her birth city in March 1816 with her husband in tow while their children remained in the care of James’s aunt Princess Sophia. During that visit, she was finally able to reconnect with her father and half-siblings. Yet she would also meet her father’s 3rd wife, Maria Beatrix of Modena.
At that point in time, she was only in line to become Queen Consort of Hanover as neither of her husband’s elder uncles George and Frederick had managed to produce a son.
But her position changed when James’s cousin Princess Charlotte, the only child of the Prince of Wales, died during childbirth. Suddenly, she and James were in line of becoming King and Queen Consort of the United Kingdom as well as Hanover.
It would change their lives as well as the lives of their children.