I Am Louis XIV

   Chapter 254 The Diplomacy of the Loser

  Versailles was happy to everyone, except the Dutch.

These were once generals, once officials, once the heart and mind of Holland, but in the final analysis, they were still businessmen who thought they could solve their current predicament by the usual means, and while they established a government-in-exile in New Amsterdam— Although it was New York as early as 1967, the Duke of York of England did not return to London until he was given a son and an heir, Charles II, under house arrest in the Tower of London. He temporarily had no time to care about the thousands of miles away Overseas territories; hurried to Paris, then Versailles, expecting a pardon from Louis XIV.

   They even discussed carefully, how much more could they pay for - territory? There is no doubt that the Dutch can cede part of their land to France. Wars and marriages between countries often lead to changes in borders, and France should be no exception, as long as the Majesty is willing to return the North Holland province where Amsterdam is located, the heart of the Netherlands Utrecht, they are willing to give up South Holland or Zeeland or Gelderland... In short, they agree that as long as the ten thousand merchant ships of the Netherlands are still cruising the sea, they can even make it little by little Buy the Netherlands back, or take the opportunity to provoke other countries to wage war against France, and they can be fishermen.

  —Ships, although the Duke of La Rochefoucault took hundreds of ships from the Netherlands, would such an ambitious king feel that there were too many ships? Absolutely not, they can sell the French ships for a very cheap price, and then let them continue the previous war with the British - after the Hundred Years War, this should be rekindled for the enemy, and for the Netherlands , no matter who they lose, or who wins, of course, it's better to lose both, it's a good thing for them.

  —money? Although Amsterdam's assets and parliamentarians were stopped before they left the North Sea, the East-West India Company was still there, their trade routes, their colonies, their slave trade were bringing in the wealth that rolled in every day, and they still The ability to pay Louis XIV more than three to five million livres in compensation, and even to forgive the king's loan interest - don't forget that Louis XIV, in the process of conquest of Flanders and Holland, There was a loan from a Dutch banker, and although the loan has now been repaid, the days when His Majesty the King has borrowed money from them again are numbered.

   — Or should we be stationed in the Netherlands? Taxing Dutch merchants? Or ask the Dutch people to convert to Catholicism? Yes, although it must be very difficult, but the Dutch government-in-exile in New Amsterdam has given these emissaries maximum authority, as long as they can return to the Netherlands...

The Dutch messenger bribed the Swiss messenger with a thousand louis for a single word, because they did not get the right to see Louis XIV at Versailles, no, it should be said anywhere, and they were like It's a swarm of flies locked in a glass box, buzzing and banging around in order to accomplish their mission, but everywhere they go are transparent and solid walls, even the most greedy cardinal pulls. Nor did M. Rivière allow them to enter his hall.

But the result for a thousand louis, ah, they would rather it never happened--they didn't bribe the foolish envoy, and he didn't mention Holland to Louis XIV--in their most embarrassing scenario, The French king might have scolded the Swiss envoy, once again rejecting the Dutchman's request, but Louis XIV's answer was far more than they had imagined.

   Holland is over.

When they heard this sentence, it was even earlier than the Swiss envoy's reply, because although they could not bribe the royal family members, ministers and generals, some shallow servants were still willing to exchange a sentence or two for the jingle. Luigi's—this time, even the most cunning, shrewd, and articulate among them were terrified and unable to make a sound.

   "Is there no hope?" asked one of the messengers.

"Yes," said the other messenger, "and it is at hand, gentlemen, and now at Versailles, the whole of the envoys of Europa are here—whatever they were going to do before, what Louis XIV was going to do, we can try to get them Come to our side, or rather, as long as we stand against France, we can win!"

   "The problem is, we don't have too many chips." The previous messenger considered it and shook his head gently.

"We also have Suriname and the Andres (South America, Riga), but also Batavia, Sumatra, the Spice Islands, Malacca and Ceylon, and we have some strongholds in the Far East, the Cape of Good Hope in Aferriga, the North The Hudson Valley in Riga, America, and New Armster…”

   "That is our last territory," said the third messenger: "Our merchant and **** fleets need them."

"Without Holland, they are trees without roots." The second messenger said: "If we can exchange them for Holland, even if only a part of it, it will be enough. As long as Holland has Holland, we can find new colonies, everyone. , America is big, Aferriga is big too.”

"We will be caught and hanged by the angry people," the envoy at the head disapproved of the young man's radical remarks: "We have all seen the fate of the Werther brothers, the parliament and the government did not give us such power, if we act without authorization , they'll throw them out as scapegoats, even if we get back to Holland."

Everyone else was nodding in agreement, and the young messenger looked around and found not a single supporter. He slumped back into his chair, and now he finally understood what his father said before he left. His father He didn't think they could get anything this time. He said that since Prime Minister Witte died, Holland had lost his head and heart, and then General Leuth had died, and Holland's spine had been broken, and the rest was just waiting. It's just a good piece of meat for a tiger and a wolf to bite.

   At that time the young man neither agreed nor believed, but now, he had to admit that his father had sharper eyes than him.

   "You should rest in the hotel these few days," said the envoy at the head: "Drink some champagne, find a girl, don't worry too much, this is not something we can turn around."

   The young messenger's eyes widened: "You want to imprison me?"

   "Don't say that," said the leading messenger, "I just think we should be more cautious."

  ———

It's just that for these Dutch people, whether they are cautious or radical, they can't have any impact on the current situation. Although it is said to be fifteen days to celebrate, in fact, on the third day, there are envoys who can't hold back. Come to test - to the Duke of Orleans, to the Prince of Condé, to the Duchess of Montpensier, in short, anyone who can hear Louis XIV's intentions and thoughts - they can't wait for this incomparable victory from France A piece of fruit was cut off.

Of course, Louis XIV can be said to be like a gamble, putting the fate of the entire country on the scale, casting the last chip, and seeking only three to five million livres of income, which is not even enough for him. The military expenditures in the past three years were mainly due to his acquisition of Flanders and the Netherlands. In addition to a large fertile territory, there were ports, shipping routes and vast territorial seas brought by the long coastline - although it was not completely unified at this time. The concept of maritime sovereignty, some people say, should be the horizon as far as the eye can see; in 1952, the jurist Rosenius, in the book "Law of the Sea", advocated that the width of all sea areas should be two days' voyage. distance; later, the Dutch jurist Binks Hook proposed that the width of a country’s territorial sea should be based on the longest range of cannons, that is, “where the power of weapons ends, the power on land ends”—these types The statement is not rigorous enough, not to mention that the voyage is used as the standard, and the speed of different ships is different; and it is impossible to use the limit of vision as the standard, because everyone's eyesight is also different. As for the range of cannons as a standard, although it is very It suits some people's minds, but it turns out that it is not feasible.

The Anglo-Dutch War occurred three times in a row, and it had an inseparable relationship with maritime sovereignty—the North Sea and Malacca were almost unsolvable knots in the hearts of the British and the Dutch, which was why Charles II was willing to knot with Louis XIV. Because of the alliance, although it is unlikely to get North Holland and South Holland, Charles II believed that even if he could get Zeeland, he could open up England's predicament in the North Sea, although the victory of Louis XIV also meant that France and the Between England, in addition to the English Channel and the Calais (Dover) Channel, there is another North Sea, but Charles II also has a William III here.

Among the envoys in the hall, there is one person that attracts the most attention. This person is the envoy of England, Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon. He is very loyal to Charles II. Charles II is also the Duke of Cornwall and is in exile. He has been following him since the beginning of the year, and Charles II generously gave the corresponding return after the restoration, not only let his younger brother Duke of York marry Hyde's daughter, but also promoted him as his own navy minister. Second King's questioning and persecution, Hyde was forced to retire from this position, this position was handed over to the Duke of York, but the Duke of York made a lot of mistakes - he first hated Hyde who could not bring him more benefits Daughter, let her die in unhappiness; believed the sweet words of Charles II, married a Catholic daughter, and let the Protestant MPs who supported him begin to waver; when he went to war, Charles II resorted to the means of wizards , allowing the queen to give birth to his own heir, the Duke of York finally lost his last arm, and as soon as he returned to London, he was taken away from the military power in his hand.

Edward Hyde was re-promoted to his original position, which is really ironic. Years ago, he gave this position to his son-in-law with such satisfaction, and the reward for him was that his daughter was in the cold and dissatisfied with her husband. Died, the Duke of York probably didn't expect that his dreams would finally come to fruition. He was not imprisoned in the Tower of London, and he did not die in an accident because Charles II's son was still a baby.

And Edward Hyde, who was regarded as a useless old waste by the Duke of York, not only became the Lord of the Admiralty once again, but was also appointed as an envoy by Charles II. He took on the most important mission in the past 30 years. He went to Paris and The Duke of Versailles-York, though head of the embassy, ​​had no real power.

Hyde was accompanied by a young man who always wore a mask. He was always taciturn and unhappy, but Hyde always respected him very much, and some people went to inquire about his identity, but the entourage around the English envoy was like Edward Hyde is so serious and rigid, they can only guess that this may be an illegitimate child of Charles II-given that Charles II does have many illegitimate children, and he is already forty-two years old, there is a son in his twenties. Not surprising.

  Edward Hyde revealed the mystery today - this person is none other than William III of the Orange family.

William III sometimes wonders how he is still alive, enduring such great humiliation and torture, yes, he still holds a glimmer of hope, in the Tower of London, or on the ship to France, or in the Paris, at Versailles, he waited, waited for his loyal subjects to take him out of the hands of the enemy, and he would take them, to the Cape of Good Hope, to New Amsterdam, to the Spice Islands, to any place where the Dutch could Where he stood, he would lead them to the end, like his father, his grandfather.

   But he couldn't wait, he was like forgotten.

The young future monarch raised his head, and about Holland, to be precise, the meeting that completely dismembered the country was held by the king in the Jupiter Room. Although he always called himself the sun king, but in this gods. It is no doubt most fitting for such a meeting to be held in the hall in the name of the Father, where the greedy gods gather to make final judgments on ignorant mortals.

Although this hall is also mainly made of milky white stone, the paintings on the ceiling and the walls use a lot of lapis lazuli powder - the boundless sky, the robes of the gods, the deep sea - everything is this kind of richness. And elegant colors, LeBron used gold thread to outline the orbits of the stars, cochineal insects to adorn the cheeks and lips of the gods, pearl powder to show their flawless skin, and in the pantheon picture, Jupiter. And Juno is only in the distance, standing among the gods, the sun **** holding a harp, carrying a bow and arrow is the focus of people's attention.

  If people look down, they will find that at the bottom of the picture is the canopy of His Majesty the King. Under the canopy is a royal blue velvet drapery embroidered with golden lilies. In front of the drapery is the throne that belongs only to Louis XIV.

  The king was also in his thirties, but in William III's eyes, he looked even younger than himself in the mirror, or that's the difference between winners and losers.

   (end of this chapter)