Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn told the story of an arrogant Teddy Roosevelt calling on Franz Josef and asking what possible point there could be to a monarch in the modern 20th century. "To protect my peoples from their governments," replied the Emperor

That is a man I could follow to the death. My mom (who should know, being one herself) says I've always been a monarchist at heart, even when I was a little kid. I was a great admirer of a select few monarchs of Britain (Henry II, and the mythical Arthur especially) as a child.

Reading this was a treat, but I wonder, for all the Empire's positive qualities, all it takes is one greedy or bad leader to take over. After the "Good Emperors" of Rome, Aurelius had a son, and then they got Commodus. After Henry II, his empire got Richard and John, and their successors promptly lost a lot of it. At the same time, those were differntly designed institutions from the Austria-Hungarian one.

Still, I can't help feeling that any good king may be succeeded by a bad one, but that's not much more different than the American Republic, is it?

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