Granada, Spain: 1492

The second stop on our cruise, Malaga, is a well-known destination in its own right, but we would again be boarding an Oceania tour bus, this time a guided tour called "Granada, the Soul of Andalucia."

We were provided narration on our long bus ride, but when we arrived in Granada, a local specialist, Martin, greeted us.

Martin's amiable face resembled Dennis Quaid.  He must be about about 6'8", so it was easy to find him in a crowd.  Born in the Netherlands, he'd attended the world-renowned University of Granada, where he fell in love with his future wife and her hometown of Granada.

I doubt a native of Granada could have known its history or cherished the city more than its adopted son Martin.

Ahead of us we saw the Alhambra, which is the primary attraction of Granada.  Our guide soon explained that the Alhambra meant "the Red One" in Arabic, alluding to the color of the castle walls of sun-dried bricks formed from the red clay of the surrounding countryside.

With its massive walls and steep slope for relatively narrow approach roads, the Alhambra was deemed insurmountable, a reputation that discouraged enemy armies from even attempting an assault.  Nonetheless, on January 2, 1492, the last of the Moorish rulers in Spain surrendered the stronghold to Queen Isabella of Castile.  It was not a frontal assault, but rather a long siege, basically holding the Moors captive in their own city so their food stores gradually depleted, that eventually brought the Muslims to their knees.

Like me, you probably associate Queen Isabella and the date 1492 with another major event, but without the capture of Granada, which marked the successful conclusion for the Reconquista, the Spanish may not have found the military resolve or courage to explore the world.

Notably, it was also at the Alhambra where Queen Isabella empowered Christopher Columbus to seek a potentially lucrative ocean route to the East Indies.  That trip, of course, "discovered" America, which turned out to be extremely lucrative for Spain and the rest of  Europe for hundreds of years.  It's often said that Isabella used her royal jewels to finance the voyage.

That easy-to-remember story makes it sound like Queen Isabella was a pampered wife pawning gifts from her husband, when in fact she certainly brought much greater wealth into their marriage than her husband, King Ferdinand II, of the smaller kingdom of Aragon.

It had been a planned marriage to create a united Spain, but make no mistake, Isabella was one of the most powerful women in history in her own right.  The Moors surrendered to Queen Isabella, not King Ferdinand II.

Interestingly, at the tombs which we saw later at the Royal Chapel in Granada (photos not allowed inside), Isabella's head sinks deeper into the pillow than her husband's head.  Some say that was because she couldn't be higher than the King, but in fact, it was a metaphor for hers was the more substantial Crown.  There has been conjecture that she also had the larger brain.  Few monarchs of either sex have played such a monumental role in changing the world, that's for sure, because she authorized financing the explorations of Columbus.

A theory persists that it was actually rich Jews, hoping to escape the religious intolerance of the infamous Spanish Inquisition that began in 1478, who secretly financed the voyage of Columbus. More specifically, the persecution of Jews had come to a head with the Alhambra Decree on March 31, 1492, which gave Jews three months to either convert to Catholicism or leave Spain without any of their possessions, including gold and silver.

The wealthy Jews had strong incentive to convert, but Jews probably played at least some part financing the voyage of Columbus one way or another.  Some theorize that Christopher Columbus was a Jew himself who had motives beyond seeking a new trade route for Spain, such as finding a safe place for Jews or hiding their treasures to be retrieved later.

Trying to see the persecution of Jews in the most positive light, Catholic monarchs and clergy might have rationalized they were using temporal coercion to save immortal souls, but it is another example of why Israel needed to be re-established to give Jews a safe homeland, one where, contrary to popular belief, all religions are tolerated.

Regardless of motivations, soon after Christopher Columbus sailed boldly west, Spain would become the richest, most powerful country in Europe.

As an extended postscript to 1492, I found it fascinating that the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, Joanna of Castile, married Philip the Handsome, Archduke of the House of Habsburg, in 1496, when she was 16 years old.  Joanna moved to join her husband in Flanders (modern day Belgium), where they had three children together.

When Queen Isabella died in 1504, Joanna nominally became Queen of Castile, but Joanna's father claimed actual rule of Castile for himself as Governor.

King Ferdinand II could rationalize his actions to keep the kingdoms of Spain united as being for their mutual benefit, which after all had been been the intent of their arranged marriage in the first place. That union had, after all, proven to be highly successful.  Having been "King of Spain" as the co-ruler of the combined kingdoms of Castile and Aragon for 30 years, he certainly wouldn't want to split the kingdoms and give up the bigger portion before his own death.  He would reason that his daughter would have her chance to rightfully rule both kingdoms as Queen of Spain when he died.

Queen Joanna and her husband had different thoughts on the matter.  Philip I stood up to his father-in-law to claim his wife's place on the throne, with himself beside her as King rather than her father acting as a regent.  In 1506, Ferdinand II apparently had a change of heart and renounced his throne in Castile, clearing the way for his son-in-law to be King.

Shortly thereafter, however, Joanna's father and husband collaborated to declare Joanna insane and therefore unfit to rule.  That same year, Philip I died, and I don't think it strange to think some kind of monkey business was involved, especially considering the royal court of Castile didn't like the idea of a foreigner rather than a Spaniard becoming their King.  In any case, Joanna was sent to the nut house, and upon the death of her husband, her father continued to rule until his death in 1516.

Martin theorized that Joanna the Mad, as she became known, wasn't crazier than anyone deprived of her rightful life, especially one of great privilege in which she should have been ruling a rich and powerful kingdom as her mother had.  In any case, Joanna's son was crowned King Charles I of Spain and, with his Habsburg connection and incredible wealth, eventually he became Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire.  He left his mother imprisoned until her death in 1555.  Queen Joanna nominally remained co-monarch of Castile and Aragon.

In 1526, King Charles I enjoyed a wonderful extended honeymoon in Granada with his beautiful, intelligent new bride, Isabella of Portugal, who also happened to be his cousin. She was named after their mutual grandmother. Entranced by the magic of the moment, he decided to build a fabulous palace in the Roman Renaissance style within the Alhambra.

Unfortunately, a huge earthquake rattled Granada before they returned home, and Isabella reportedly refused to ever return again despite otherwise enjoying their stay.

Construction nonetheless commenced on the palace.  The project would not be completed in the lifetime of Emperor Charles V or used as a royal palace ever.

In fact, it didn't get completed until the 20th century, when the dictatorship of Francisco Franco restored and completed the building, putting it into service as a national museum.

Nonetheless, Habsburg rule in Spain continued several generations after Charles I passed away.

The last Habsburg King of Spain was Charles II, who suffered many physical problems attributed to inbreeding, though his sister wasn't similarly affected.

All eight of his great-grandparents were descendants of Philip the Handsome and Joanna the Mad.  His parents were also his great uncle and first cousin.

King Charles II of Spain died childless, leading to the War of Spanish Succession.  You may recall that turmoil set the stage for the reign of Empress Maria Theresa in Central Europe, which I wrote about previously.

Maria Theresa and the Habsburgs, Pt. 7: Belvedere Palace

Belvedere Palace

The train ride to Vienna was pleasant enough,and we easily found Zeitgeist, the hip hotel an easy walk from Wiener Hauptbahnhof (Vienna Central Station).

We immediately headed out to find Belvedere Palace, which had been in the middle of nowhere when constructed for Prince Eugene of Savoy as his summer palace following his decisive victory over the Ottomans at the Battle of Zenta in 1697.

We enjoyed wandering through the huge wooded park, Schweizergarten, but somehow we couldn't locate the massive palace museum surrounded by acres of meticulously maintained gardens.

Instead, we found the majestic, historical Arsenal, which certainly is impressive in its own right.

In retrospect, it was a somewhat appropriate place to start, considering that Eugene of Savoy's claim to fame was being one of the greatest military officers in history.

Eugene had been raised in the Parisian royal court of King Louis XIV and sought a military career in France, but Eugene's frail appearance led Louis to reject his service and forced Eugene to find glory serving the Habsburgs of Austria.

Exhausted and realizing Julie might have a stress fracture in her foot after walking well over six miles a day for a week and a half straight, we decided to put off the Belvedere until morning and instead doubled back to a beer garden we'd passed inside the park.




Plopping down at a garden table at Klein Steiermark proved to be a great decision.

Sipping Gösser Dunkel revealed it to be not only the best beer I had on the trip but one of the best I've ever had anywhere.

Surprisingly, it doesn't seem to garner high praise from beer aficionados.  They're missing out on a good thing, just as Louis XIV had overlooked the genius of Prince Eugene.

Learning of Eugene's battlefield accomplishments against the mighty Ottomans undoubtedly gave Louis XIV pause to reflect, but it was just three years later, while the Belvedere was still under construction, that Eugene made Louis truly sorry for his oversight.

When Charles II of Spain, head of the senior branch of the Habsburg family, died childless on November 1, 1700, he declared on his death bed that Duke Philip of Anjou would inherit Spain's vast kingdom, probably the wealthiest in the world at that time.

Philip was the great-grandson of King Louis XIV, so this would surely lead to the eventual union of Spain and France, strengthening the legacy of the greatest King of France, or at least that's how other European governments interpreted it.

This was totally unacceptable to Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, another Habsburg, who felt he had a strong claim to the Spanish kingdom which he wanted to add to his realms of Austria, Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia.

The wealthy Dutch Republic also stood against this Spanish imposition.

France's arch nemesis England couldn't let any French power-grab go unchallenged either, fearing dire consequences should French and Spanish power be consolidated permanently.

The Habsburg kingdom of Austria, which had been the junior branch of the family until Charles II's death, sent its greatest general, Prince Eugene of Savoy, across the Alps with 30,000 men in May of 1701.

Prince Eugene of Savoy by Jacob van Schuppen, circa 1718

As often seemed to be the case despite the Austrian Habsburg's lavish displays of wealth in other areas, when it came to supplying the military, the administration in Vienna failed to properly fund its war efforts, but Eugene still managed to win many victories over superior forces by outsmarting his opponents and using unconventional tactics.

Eugene also represented Austria in peace negotiations.

By the end of 1708, it looked like the Allies could force France to surrender, but the terms included forcing Louis XIV to use his own army to oust Philip from the Spanish throne. That was too much to ask.

In April of 1710, a promising treaty was rejected by England.

Finally, in November of 1714, Eugene pushed through a treaty to end the War of Spanish Succession. While Philip V remained King of Spain, the terms were purportedly better than they would have been before years of bloodshed and draining treasuries.

In any case, the Turks were again threatening on Austria's eastern front, so Eugene was needed there, providing further impetus for peace on Austria's western front. Louis XIV died in September of 1715, and Spain and France never had a complete merger as feared.

After defeating the Ottoman Turks once more, Eugene concluded his brilliant career as a skilled diplomat for Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI.

Prince Eugene was also a patron of the arts, so it is appropriate that the Belvedere is now a museum.

In 1736, Eugene died in his sleep without a will at the age of 72. Charles VI ruled that Eugene's niece should inherit Belvedere Palace, but she did not wish to live there, despite having no luck selling it for years.

Maria Theresa finally bought the Belvedere in 1752, though she never took up residence there, apparently not finding time away from her other palaces which included Schönbrunn, Prague, Bratislava and, of course, Hofburg in central Vienna.

Maria Theresa took the Belvedere out of mothballs in 1770 for a masked ball celebrating the marriage of her daughter, Marie Antoinette, to the Dauphin of France.

Years later, after the French Revolution raged, Marie Antoinette's only surviving child, Marie Thérèse Charlotte, moved into the Belvedere, along with other royals who escaped France to avoid the guillotine.

Mostly, however, it served as a Habsburg Family art museum, until in 1896, Emperor Franz Joseph I decided it would make a perfect Vienna home for his nephew and heir presumptive, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whom I'll write more about in my next post.

"Better service leads to better trips!"

P.S. I have to add that the enticing, mouthwatering ribs at Klein Steiermark are fit for a king!

Maria Theresa and the Habsburgs, Pt. 5: Schönbrunn Palace

We had glimpsed Habsburg grandeur elsewhere on our voyage, including at Prague Castle, a 750,000 square foot complex remodeled by Maria Theresa that she only visited three times in her forty year reign.

Nothing would compare to Vienna, where the magnificent Hofburg Palace in central Vienna wasn't sufficient for the royal family.

Their summer palace a short train ride --- admittedly a considerably more time consuming walk or carriage ride  --- provided a place to escape the confines of city life.

Schönbrunn Palace has 1440 rooms and acres of magnificent gardens, but it was considered a hunting lodge.

Maria Theresa remodeled it to its magnificent culmination, which is essentially what you may see today on a tour during your river cruise.

We opted out of AmaCerto's afternoon guided tour of Schönbrunn and took a self-guided audio tour during our two night stay in Vienna at the end of our cruise, but because you really should do this tour when on your Danube River cruise and most likely won't return to Vienna at the end as we did, I thought I should include some photos and thoughts along with the rest of our port day experience.

Photos are not allowed inside Schönbrunn, as is the case at many historic castles, museums and churches, but you can find assorted photos online, including at the website for the palace.

The Rococo splendor of Maria Theresa's era dazzles our eyes even today, so imagine a time when most people barely earned a living.

At some point, even the most ardent royal follower must come to the conclusion that it's incredibly excessive.

Photo from Schönbrunn Tour website

While most royals considered themselves to be placed on their thrones by God, giving them the right to inherit the kingdom from ancestors, I found it over-the-top for the glories of Maria Theresa's reign to be represented in paintings on a large ballroom ceiling at Schönbrunn, like representations of the Bible and God in the Sistine Chapel.

With that perspective, we gain greater respect for our 13 colonies that banded together to establish an entirely new form of government of the people, by the people and for the people.

Habsburg Family photo from Schonbrunn Habsburgs website

Interestingly, the Habsburgs saw themselves as living like simple country folk when at their summer palace.

They dressed more comfortably and enjoyed family activities together.

Maria Theresa loved her husband, even if he was something of a philanderer on the side.

Photo from Schönbrunn Tour website

When Emperor Francis unexpectedly passed away in 1765 at age 56, Maria Theresa was heartbroken.

She cut her beautiful hair and began packing on weight, becoming quite obese rather than seeking another husband.

Nonetheless, M.T. carried on with the affairs of state, naming her son Joseph to be her co-ruler of Austria and its domain.

Photo from Schönbrunn Tour website

Joseph was always under his mother's domineering control right up until she passed away in 1780, but he nonetheless succeeded his father as Holy Roman Emperor in 1765.

When Emperor Joseph II died without heirs in 1790 at the age of 48, he was succeeded by his younger brother, who became Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II.

Leopold died two years later at age 44.

It seems no matter how much wealth and power you had in the eighteenth century, life could be short, and in fact it seemed to be getting shorter rapidly for Holy Roman Emperors.

Leopold II's son succeeded him, becoming Holy Roman Emperor Francis II.

You may recall that Francis II turned out to be the last Holy Roman Emperor when the Empire lost a decisive battle to Napoleon, the self-titledEmperor of France.

Photo from Schönbrunn Tour website

Perhaps seeing the writing on the wall, Francis II had proclaimed Austria to be an empire, and declared himself Emperor Francis I of Austria a couple of years before the Holy Roman Empire fell.

Despite that fact that M.T.'s grandson Francis had fought against Napoleon, he nonetheless understood the Habsburg method of conquest through marriage rather than battles, and his daughter married Napoleon in hopes of assuring peace between these empires.

Preceding that, Maria Theresa had also married off her daughters, all of whom had the first name Maria, to create similar alliances, including Maria Antonia, who was moved up in the lineup to marry the Dauphin of France when the betrothed prince of an older sister died.

Maria Antonia had not been a diligent student.

In fact, her teacher, who apparently wanted to be more of a friend than instructor --- or perhaps didn't want to jeopardize her position by admitting failure --- did most of Maria Antonia's writing assignments for her.

So, this pre-teen girl who could barely read and write found herself preparing to become the assumptive Queen of France.

Her teeth were straightened and her wardrobe was updated with the latest French fashions, emphasizing the natural beauty that graced her.

Lessons intensified until Maria Antonia could speak French fluently and also have at least an overview of worldly knowledge so that she could be presented to the public.

At 13 1/2 years old, she passed the scrutiny.

She was given a small picture of her fiancé, Daughin Louis-Auguste and began to fantasize about what he might be like.

Maria Theresa, who had for the most part focused on ruling her kingdoms rather than raising her children, for which she gave responsibilities to governesses and others, began to share her room with Maria Antonia.  They even traveled the countryside together, becoming quite close for the first time.

Maria Antonia cherished this time together with her remarkable, imposing mother, but eventually the time came to leave.

After an official wedding with a stand-in groom in Vienna, Maria Antonia left her home forever, accompanied by 57 coaches carrying "ladies in waiting, officials, couriers, doctors, cooks and dressmakers" plus 20,000 horses "commissioned to ensure that journey stages went as smoothly as possible," according to the linked book that I've been reading on my new Kindle.

The first night away from Vienna, Maria Antonia spent the night at Melk Abbey, which we had ourselves recently visited.

It would take 2 1/2 weeks for Maria Antonia and her huge retinue to reach the French border.

On an island in the Rhine River, the official handover took place in a five room building that had two Austrian chambers and two French chambers flanking a neutral room.

Maria Theresa took off all of her clothing in the Austrian chambers and became re-clothed in the French chambers, signifying renouncement of all things of her past life.

Keep in mind, her mother had spent a fortune on this new wardrobe that was being discarded to prepare Maria Antonia for her wedding, so those ladies in waiting who accompanied her to the handover must have been thrilled with the castoffs.

Her French attendants quickly robed her in a new dress of the finest gold cloth.

Her natural complexion "literally blending lilies and roses" and her strawberry blonde hair were powdered heavily in the fashion of Paris.

They might have even painted her face white with pink circles on the cheeks as was the style in Versailles at the time.

Someone from her new entourage addressed Maria Antonia in German, and in perfect French, she said she was now French and would no longer converse in her former tongue.

Soon after marrying, she became thoroughly entranced by French fashion, spending lavishly on her wardrobe and jewelry, but she was goaded to do so by the equally frivolous courtiers who surrounded her from the moment she arrived in France.

Photo from Schönbrunn Tour website

Like all of us, this teenager wanted to fit in, though admittedly she did become addicted to the Paris nightlife and gambling, which did harm to her image in the eyes of the vast majority of the French populace, who already had doubts because she was Austrian and so a natural enemy in their minds.

At age 19, Maria Antonia became Queen of France when the King Louis XV died.

Her husband was now King Louis XVI, monarch of a super power of its day.

In 1776, perhaps she and Louis should have read the tea leaves from across the ocean, where rebels made a stand against royal rule, but alas ---or should I say fortunately? --- they did not.

Instead, France was convinced by an ambassador named Benjamin Franklin to eventually send military advisers and subsequently French war ships and troops.

Photo from Schönbrunn Tour website

Committing so much military might to help rebels against France's longtime enemy Britain came at a steep financial cost, just as had the War of  the Austrian Succession.

Costs of wars tend to be hidden from citizens, while Maria Antonia's frivolous spending had been on full display.

Photo from Schönbrunn Tour website

The fact that her husband also liked to lavish her with expensive gifts, and that various hucksters popped up with scams designed to take advantage of these assumptions about "that Austrian woman" to line their own pockets, made Queen Maria Antonia an easy scapegoat.

It should be noted that just as cities and countries are frequently given names different from what they call themselves, so are people.

The Empress generally called Maria Theresa in the USA is called Maria Theresia in Austria (I think that is a silent "i" in Theresia, based on how everyone pronounced it there), and her youngest daughter, Maria Antonia, became famous with the French accent as Marie Antoinette.

Photo from Schönbrunn Tour website

You may find it ironic that the King and Queen of France who were beheaded for their extravagance in the face of poverty of the masses were actually happiest pursuing less grand activities.

King Louis XVI was a socially awkward science geek who most loved his books and was something of a slob, eschewing the glamorous royal life whenever possible.

Dramatization at Petit Trianon from Sophia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette"

When Queen Marie Antoinette settled down into adulthood in her mid-twenties, she savored her time in Petit Trianon, a botanical garden with a small palace where she dressed rustically without the powdered hair and heavy makeup, trying to recapture her carefree childhood days at Schönbrunn.

As absurd as it may seem, she considered herself living the life of a simple country girl at Petit Trianon.

The rumor mill conjured up images of her having wild orgies inside diamond-encrusted walls.

She did spend a good deal of money on the gardens at Petit Trianon but otherwise lived relatively simply, especially compared to palace life in Versailles or Vienna.

While Marie Antoinette may forever be remembered as the Queen who, when told that here people had no bread laughingly said, "Let them eat cake," there's actually no record of her having said that.

The genesis of the phrase was a joke in "Confessions," the autobiography of the philosopher Rosseau, published in 1765, when Marie Antoinette was still a child in Austria.

Photo from Schönbrunn Tour website

The French Revolution did not put an end to the excesses of the aristocracy in general or the Habsburgs in particular.

Maria Theresa had sixteen children, eleven of whom lived to adulthood.  The lives of her descendants make for many colorful anecdotes during Schönbrunn tours.

We would also learn about her favorite child, Maria Christina, in our next port, Bratislava.

"Better service leads to better trips!"