I Am Louis XIV

  Chapter 125 Some trivia about Charles II on the run and the king's spies

   "Your Highness."

The king's brother Philip nodded to the trusted female official beside the queen mother, and walked into the queen mother's sun room. In this small hexagonal room, which was almost entirely surrounded by lead-framed glass parquet windows, the ladies named Montpensier. The Duchess is the head of the group, and the Queen Mother is surrounded by them. Although her years have passed, she has an outstanding temperament. Her brilliance, like every queen from a foreign country, blooms almost only after the death of the king. King Louis treated her to her. Her respect and tolerance have deepened people’s understanding of this point. It can be said that, apart from the fact that more than a year ago, the king almost stayed in Dunkirk forever because of his assassination, which caused her to whiten the other half of her hair. Few can pick anything from this graceful woman.

But the Queen Mother will no longer be picked on by others, she will only pick on others, just like now, she can't see the Queen's maid beside her, which explains a lot of problems, although the Queen is her niece and her daughter-in-law , but the queen dowager is not satisfied with the queen, neither with her mediocrity, nor with the love she has received—mainly the king’s. A few days after the arrival of the Crown Prince, the Queen Mother still remembers that when she gave birth to Louis, she only received an ordinary gift. The King, Louis XIII's father, did not even kiss her, because of this matter, Her status in the court fell again and again, and all the noble ladies laughed at her behind her back, but she could only cry behind the bed curtains in the dark.

   Moreover, Queen Teresa became pregnant almost as soon as she got married, but Queen Anne had to wait 23 years before she finally had her first child, Louis.

She is not going to do anything because of jealousy, but first, she proposed to the king that she would raise the crown prince, second, she hardly wanted to see the queen, the relationship between the queen mother and the queen was not very good, in the court It is well known that all the ladies followed the Queen Mother and pretended that there was no such person in the court.

Thinking that Mary had been treated like this, maybe this is inevitable, the mother's jealousy for the person who took away her beloved son, thinking of this, Philip can't help but soften his heart, of course, this is not for Mary. Or Teresa, he loves her mother, only the king brother is better than his mother, and as long as the king brother doesn't mention it, he is also happy to fulfill his mother's little wish.

The crown prince's cradle is placed at the feet of the queen mother. In less than a month, this child has grown a lush blond hair, which is the same as when Louis and Philip were children, but when they grow up, the light golden hair The hair slowly turned golden brown, and perhaps it would deepen later, to chestnut or dark brown, but it also depended on whether he was like his mother or his father, because Queen Teresa was light-colored. long hair.

According to tradition, even as a baby, the little prince wore a long lace dress. He slept right, holding two small fists. The feeding of the two nurses made his cheeks like bulging white bread, and Philip wanted to squeeze With a pinch, he would definitely be stopped and reprimanded by the Queen Mother, so he deliberately sat at the Queen Mother's feet to see if there was a chance to attack once or twice.

   "Your Highness, have you been to His Majesty's place?" The Queen Mother asked nonchalantly while flipping through a picture album.

   "Yes." Philip replied, and then he remembered that the Queen Mother had said, don't always disturb his brother, so he added quickly: "The king asked me to go."

The Queen Mother nodded: "Can you tell me? What does he want you to do?"

"We talked about some interesting things," Philip said cautiously. "Maybe it's because the king has been reading documents for too long and is too boring, so he wants to talk to someone." There was Bishop Mazarin before. At the time, I didn't realize that, now that Bishop Mazarin had gone to see his venerable God, there were very few people around the king who could speak at will.

   "Your Majesty also let you see the document?"

"Little things that don't matter." When he said this, Philip's mood suddenly turned gloomy, because he was able to detect the intention of the Queen Mother-after Dunkirk, given his loyalty to the king, Louis trusted him like It is to trust the other self, but although the queen dowager also promoted the so-called king regent at that time, after Louis came back, she immediately fell to her eldest son, and became more wary of her youngest son. Philip was really speechless. It was the Queen Mother and the bishop who asked him to go further, but it was they who turned the sword at him, but he could say he was used to it, so he just smiled and said: " If you want to know, mother, I can tell you what happened to Charles II, and I guarantee you will laugh when you hear it."

   "Can you?"

   "Yes," said Philip, "I said, Brother Wang just shared some interesting things with me."

   Then he spoke vividly. Of course, these are extremely new stories for the court ladies, especially since they are all related to a king.

What Philip is describing is exactly what happened in the six months between Charles II's flight from England to France after the defeat of the First Restoration, when he was defeated, the army was scattered, and he was alone in exile, And Oliver Cromwell gave him a bounty of a thousand pounds. At that time, the annual income of a farm family was only twenty pounds. It is conceivable how attractive this bounty was, and Charles II was bad for his height. Outstanding - about six feet six inches, or almost 1.9 meters, dark skin, three-dimensional features, impressive, it's not easy to hide yourself.

At this time, Philip skipped a paragraph, mainly because Charles II was able to escape from the battlefield at that time, because of the rescue of the werewolf Breland and his family, but this cannot be said, he cannot say to those noble girls, the king of England Relying on evil dark creatures to survive, not to mention that now Charles II has completely abandoned Brayland and his people - so he simply pulled the timeline directly to Charles II and was finally killed by Wilmert When the Lord found this person, the name of this person was only spoken, and all the people present showed ambiguous smiles. For no other reason, just because the Lord Lord has an elegant posture and a handsome appearance, he is Queen Mary's "attendant", it is difficult to say. , whether his loyalty to Charles II came from his father or his mother. However, this person did have outstanding force and amazing courage, as well as, extremely chivalrous, and has a high self-esteem - even when the crisis was full, he never made any disguise of his identity.

When Charles II was fortunate to have the support of King Louis of France, but this support could only guarantee his personal safety, but was unable to support him in his battle with Cromwell, it was also the knight who went to Spain alone, intending to persuade Spain The king, together with Spain to deal with France, in order to obtain more practical "help" from Philip IV... Fortunately, Louis at that time insisted on the same position as Charles II because of his disgust with Cromwell. Philip IV felt that this The words of the lord may not be so true, so he refused, otherwise, the international situation of France at that time was probably even worse.

In short, this gentleman, although he failed to do this, his loyalty to Charles II is beyond doubt. After Charles II was wandering on the battlefield for more than a month, he was found by him. The lord was always on the side, he was wounded for Charles, almost died, and his property and land were confiscated by Cromwell because he was recognized. He can say that he gave up everything for Charles II, Philip Speaking of which, these noble ladies couldn't help but sigh, even on the other hand, he could be said to be Louis' enemy.

However, at this time, the relationship between the country and the country, the king and the king, the nobility and the nobility is always changing, and it will not be remembered for something like this that did not happen, so Philip said A few things happened to the lord and Charles II on their escape—those things are the real anecdotes.

Here we have to deal with the issue of religious belief in England at this time. The king of Britain abandoned Catholicism and believed in Protestantism during the time of Henry VIII. Although the king who single-mindedly wanted a biological son to be his heir failed to get his wish , but the problem he left behind nearly ruined the entire religious world in England—perhaps to avenge his own mother and himself, who frantically persecuted all Protestants during the reign of Queen Mary, which continued until Queen Elizabeth I Ascension to the throne, although this virgin queen was inclined towards Protestantism, she adopted a tolerant attitude for domestic stability, allowing the coexistence of the two religions, as did the subsequent kings of the Stuart Dynasty, but Cromwell, as a Puritan, was deeply Deeply disgusted with all Catholics, destroying churches, icons and relics, etc., he also asked his soldiers to ensure that every Catholic is under his strict supervision, which is of course easy to do It made Catholics feel dangerous and hated, so when Charles II fled all the way from Worcester to Shoreham, he got the help of many Catholics.

   For these believers, the weight of faith is obviously greater than the thousand pounds, and the most famous ones are the Pendra Five Brothers and Jane Lane.

The five Pendra brothers were not nobles, not even businessmen or officials, but the most common civilians, but when they met Charles II, not only did they not shout, but they did their best to protect their king - they first put the king The long hair is cut off at the neck, and then a flat thick bang is cut on the forehead, so that it can cover the prominent eyebrows of the king. This hairstyle is similar to a priest and a pot lid. It is very common among the common people and extremely Ugly, they changed him into rough linen clothes again, and the second of the five brothers took the king to Bosquebel, where the five brothers' eldest brother William waited and met, unfortunately, in that short period of time. In the short distance they still caught the attention of a new model army, so William took the king and sent him to a tall oak tree, making a noise of his own to lead the patrol in other directions.

Later, when the king and the lord were on the run, they were hunted by cavalry, and they fled to a church where there was a catholic priest. He housed the king and lord, healed their wounds, and hid them in the back room of the church for persecuted Catholics.

As for where this secret room is, it is on the stairs connecting the first and second floors. Some people may ask, how can people hide in the stairs. In fact, it is completely possible. Philip used paper to fold a conceptual diagram of a staircase. These steps can be turned up completely. After turning up, there is a downward passage. The space inside is very small, so small that the king and the lord can only stand close to each other, but it is enough to allow them to escape the search of the cavalry. .

   Having said this, the lady and the queen dowager have been amazed again and again, and even have to hold the smelling salt bottle to continue listening, so as not to faint because of being too nervous.

   "But these are nothing compared to Jane Lane." Philip said.

Jane Lane was born into a small noble family. Her elder brother was an officer of the royal army. Although she was mediocre, she was sharp and brave. It was because of her that the king and lord could finish the last leg of the journey from Sesholm to France by boat. .

As we said before, Cromwell's generals were very strict with the Catholics in their territories because of the protector's request, so although they could help shelter the king, they couldn't send them out - if they To leave their home—more than ten miles requires a permit from the county magistrate, without which they cannot move an inch—and disguise themselves as Protestants, which Lord Wilmert firmly refuses at this time. Charles II can be said to be very moved... but definitely cursed in secret.

Fortunately, at that time, Jane Lane was leaving the place because she wanted to visit a distant relative, so she had a permit, and the permit allowed her to bring a servant - so Charles II was able to get rid of it calmly. The last shadow that Cromwell cast...

Having said that... But here, for the dignity of the king, whether it is the lord, Jane Lane, or Charles II himself, they have cleverly avoided a problem, and because not many people know it, there are only a few Only one knows—yes, as a Catholic, a devout lady, there would be no… male servants who could ride together…

   Hearing this, the Queen Mother could not help but widen her eyes: "God!" She shouted: "Is that His Majesty disguised as a maid?"

   "Exactly." Philip said solemnly: "That majesty is disguised as a maid."

   Beginning with the Queen Mother, the ladies burst into a loud laugh after a slight start.

Maybe people wouldn't have laughed so hard if brother Philip had said about the King of England disguised as a maid from the start, the problem is that he had previously detailed how the King of England was disguised as a vile by the Pendra brothers The farmer's, nearly seven feet tall, with rough, dark skin and a pot-like head, how ridiculous it was to wear a woman's clothes, and it's no wonder that anyone who heard about it couldn't help but lean back.

But for the British, the king's reputation has not been damaged. Whether it is in the rumors or in the portrait, the king is dressed in men's clothes and rides a horse with Miss Lane, Queen Mother Anne commented. , This Miss Lane is only afraid of her appearance, but this sentence is very correct.

"There is no need for that Miss Lane to have an outstanding appearance, even if it is only two or three points of elegance," the Queen Mother commented a bit meanly: "Then she must be able to form a good relationship with Charles II." After all Riding was originally a very ambiguous thing. Generally speaking, His Majesty the King will definitely push the boat after he is lucky enough to survive, but since Charles II did not do this, it can only be said that this lady has nothing in appearance. Merit.

Charles II treated the woman the same as the five brothers of the Pendra family, and they received a reward of a thousand pounds, exactly the same as Cromwell's reward, and then the descendants of the five brothers received each year With a salary of one hundred pounds, the venerable priest became a confessor at the court of Charles II, and Ryan, in addition to a bounty of one thousand pounds, had a thousand pounds worth of jewels as a dowry.

It's just that the Queen Mother's thoughts have flown to Louis' "Lady of the Royal Family". To be honest, she is not satisfied with the former Marie, the Queen, and the current Madame Lavalier. , although people say that she is heroic, but to say that she is heroic, there are many strong young men around the king, women should be soft, petite, and lovable-in addition to being quite troubled by the aesthetics of the eldest son Louis, the queen dowager She is also worried about the rumors in the market. She has never forgotten that during her and Louis XIII's sterile period of more than 20 years, people have been saying that Louis XIII was a man who preferred men more than women. His hunting lodge in Versailles - a long period of refusing women to enter, added to this absurdity, which was further fueled by the Duke of Gaston, who, even after she gave birth to Louis, still insisted that Louis was born Father is someone else.

This kind of nonsense didn't slowly subside until Philip was born, but the Queen Mother knew that the king's enemies would never be less, and the behavior of attacking the king with words and pamphlets would never disappear. Thinking of this, she felt Turning to the maid beside him: "Call Madame Lavalier to come to me."

  Everyone in the court needs to take responsibility.

   (end of this chapter)