foundations. Hungary was in open rebellion. The young Austrian Emperor appealed to Russia for help. Nicholas I sent an army to quell the revolution and established his cousin on the Hungarian throne. It is unnecessary to add that Francis Joseph was as loyal and as grateful to Russia as Frederick the Great had been.
Alexander I had refused to accept Napoleon I as a brother-in-law. Even so did Nicholas I refuse to recognize Napoleon III as Emperor of the French. It was a gratuitous insult inspired by Prussia, it was opposed to Russian interests and it was one of the main causes of the Crimean War.
X
Under Alexander II the alliance of the three reactionary empires of Central Europe was welded even more firmly than under his predecessor. Bismarck during his tenure of the Prussian Embassy at Petersburg was the chosen favorite of the Russian Court. An understanding with Russia became the chief dogma of his political creed and it remained so until the end. It was Bismarck's adherence to the Russian-Prussian Alliance which was one of the causes of the dismissal.
