To highlight Archduchess Marianne’s family connections and help the reader understand her background and motives, it is time to introduce her father, the Emperor. Marianne was very much her father’s daughter, bearing a strong resemblance to him in both appearance and personality, and sharing his scientific and intellectual interests. On the foundation of these shared inclinations and a similar sense of humour, they developed a close relationship that, due to Marianne’s illness, only continued to deepen.
Emperor Franz Stephan (1708–1765) was described as a gentle and amiable person — friendly, sociable, easy-going and fond of pleasant company. The Imperial marriage was a relatively happy union in which personal preferences and dynastic interests did not clash too harshly. Nevertheless, the leading position was firmly in the Empress’s hands. Such a reversal of traditional gender roles surely caused some tension between the couple; however, thanks to the Emperor’s composed nature — and given that the Empress was anything but a troublemaker — their occasional disputes faded without leaving real harm.
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