I Am Louis XIV

  Chapter 569 Leopold I bids us farewell (Part 1)

After some deliberation, the Sun King Louis XIV rejected the proposal of some people in England (this is the most important!) that the son of the Duke of Orleans should go to London as the son of Princess Henrietta to inherit the throne of England. ask. This, of course, aroused a lot of discussion, especially among the unknowable people, who discussed it enthusiastically, and imagined how those Englishmen would bow down before their king and swept away the despondency of the Hundred Years' War - although Louis XIV The British have been completely driven out of Europa, but it is an indisputable fact that the French have been beaten by the British to the city of Orleans. If they say that the French army does not come to London once, they will not be relieved.

   "That's the downside of peace." While reading the newspaper, the Duke of Orleans said with a smile, "Anyone still throwing money bags at Versailles?"

  Louis shook his head helplessly: "I already told the guards to catch them and return the money bag."

The people who respect and love the king, and who have built up a simple nationalism and nationalism in the long-term education and propaganda, are very concerned about this matter, and when they know that the king has rejected the British demands, they do not want to accuse Louis XIV. Or the ministers around him, they just thought that it might be because the king was unwilling to collect the war tax, the poll tax had not increased or changed for many years, and the war with the Holy Roman Empire had been going on, so they could not help but be stretched in military spending, so, In their straightforward little minds, there was a simple idea.

  The king has no money. They have it. They just need to give the king some. Anyway, their current life is no longer any better than it was in the previous fifty years.

   And some less transparent officials and nobles ran to ask when the bank would issue war bonds again.

   "Do you think it is possible? Your Majesty?" asked the Duke.

   "Personally, I don't want to see little Philip get involved in that mess," Louis said. May I? Yes, he could send little Philip to London, but as he said before, how can weak outsiders compete with those entrenched local forces? Not to mention fighting for power and profit, it is not bad to be able to save his own life, and even if he has a child with Princess Anne, it will be Stuart's child, the British will not allow the French to participate in the education of the future king, then, in the end, What can France get?

On the other hand, the British got quite a lot. They got a healthy king, a chess piece to check France, and a possibility - don't forget, the Duke of Orleans is still one of the heirs to the French throne, and so is his son, Don't get it to the end, it wasn't France that got England, it was England that got France.

   But soon, both inside and outside the Palace of Versailles, those distracting discussions gradually disappeared - because the civil strife in England began again.

The only direct descendant of the Stuart dynasty was Princess Anne, and her cousin, Philip, the son of the Duke of Orleans, clearly refused. The British found that they could only accept a solitary queen. It stands to reason that all kinds of entanglements should be This is the end, in view of the current state of England, they should be enthroned as the queen as soon as possible, quell the riots, and stabilize the hearts of the people, but the problem is-now there are two hostess in Hampton Court Palace.

On the issue of Charles II and James II, Queen Catalina and Mary, Duchess of York were once allies. They covered up each other's conspiracy to kill each other's husband, but in the face of power, this kind of covenant was too light. Like the morning fog - Katarina would have been the undisputed queen mother, and if her son were alive, her niece is now, but that doesn't stop her from taking for granted that she should be the little girl Regent, the Duchess of York is not to be outdone, she is Princess Anne's stepmother - and the British have a dilemma, they have to admit the legitimacy of James II, who did indeed die after Charles II , the king and the crown prince are both dead, and the younger brother is naturally the first heir; secondly, if James II can still only be identified as the Duke of York, then his attack on Buckingham Palace where the king is located is an undoubted treason - do they want to let A traitor's daughter ascends to the throne?

   But once James II's legitimacy is recognized, then the Duchess of York should be James II's queen…

The most embarrassing thing is that Queen Catalina, as a Portuguese princess, is still a Catholic, and has not even been officially crowned because of this, which makes people who are willing to support her want to use this to accuse the Duchess of York for not being able to do it... At this time, we must sigh the decisiveness of Mary, Duchess of York, Queen of James II, who resolutely converted to the Church of England.

Queen Anne breathed a sigh of relief, and the forces on Queen Catalina's side were suddenly defeated. Catalina was forced to retreat to Kensington first, and then to Rochester, which was some distance from London. Said it was a wise decision, far better than anywhere else, because as soon as she heard that Baron Marlborough, John Churchill, who climbed the Duke of York by his sister's crony, was leading his army to Rochester, she immediately Boarded the boat, passed the Thames, and went straight to Calais, France.

Her decision is extremely correct, because this Mr. Churchill was ordered by Queen Anne to arrest Queen Catalina. Once arrested, she will be escorted back to London and thrown into the Tower of London, where the Archbishop of Canterbury And Congress had prepared her guilt - plotting her husband's death on the advice of the Pope and other Catholic powers.

Presumably the British people won't care whether she, a foreign queen, is innocent of Catholic prostitutes. They only want to see the head of a noble woman fall to the ground, in order to satisfy that dark and unspeakable desire to vent since Charles II came to power The accumulation of depression and irritability.

Katarina ran fast and Mr Churchill returned without success. Fortunately, the turmoil in England could finally come to an end anyway. Queen Anne held a grand coronation ceremony, and her stepmother stood proudly as the Queen Regent. On the side, it is said that it almost blocked the way of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Queen Catalina naturally came to seek the protection of the Sun King Louis XIV. She is the aunt of Isabella, the French crown princess, although she did not have much affection for this disreputable illegitimate daughter before, only in the After she became the crown princess, she sent messengers to send gifts and blessings according to the etiquette, but now that France and Portugal are allies, of course Louis XIV would not fall for such a trivial matter, and asked Isabella to receive him on his behalf. As for shelter, there is as much as you want.

Not to mention how Isabella entertained this stranger-like relative, Louis XIV welcomed an important messenger, who came from the Hofburg Palace and was the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. The special envoy, he looked sad and dressed in black. When he saw him, Louis was a little surprised, thinking that he was here to report the funeral.

"No, the emperor is seriously ill, but there are still several months before God's call." The messenger was unexpectedly straightforward and straightforward, but there was really nothing to hide. The crown is a symbol of power. It is also the representative of duty. An emperor, or a king, or even a lord, stays in his palace for a long time, and it is impossible to see ministers, generals, and the people, and Leopold I was sick enough to even go to Mass. It can't be done, there's no way to cover up this kind of thing.

   And before he died, several things had to be arranged, the first being this war that bored everyone.

  ———

Leopold I, Charles II and Louis XIV can all be said to be people of the same era. Charles II is the oldest and Leopold I is the last, but he is only two years younger than Louis XIV. He and Louis XIV have many similarities, and they are often compared. It can be said that at the beginning, Leopold I did not put Louis XIV in his eyes.

   At that time, France was a rotten, old, and devastated old ship. Although its body was huge, it was about to fall apart and be submerged by the waves of history. What about Leopold I? He is the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Although this emperor was elected, the Habsburgs have been firmly entrenched in this position for a hundred years. Even him, there are always seven emperors, regardless of Which emperor, stupid or wise, cruel or kind, is committed to one thing - to make the emperor live up to his name.

Leopold I also saw the various efforts made by successive French kings to centralize the monarchy. He felt that he would not be inferior to Louis XIV in this regard, even if the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire had the constraints of the princes, but that The king was still under the control of the Queen Regent and the Bishop of Mazarin, and as his spies reported, the young king, though very clever, was too weak, and this shortcoming easily made him subject to the control of others—he He was always surrounded by various careerists, such as the Duke of Gaston, such as the Prince of Condé... At that time, Leopold I thought that if he had a sister, he would marry her to Louis. Fourteen, perhaps France can be included in the Habsburg pockets.

  When did the great change come?

  Leopold I can't remember anymore, it seems that in the blink of an eye, a docile lamb has become a cunning fox, a fierce lion.

Before the War of the Spanish Succession, the Holy Roman Empire and France had never formally fought, but elsewhere they fought more than once, and Leopold I never won, and if that's all, it's what frustrates him the most Yes, he also had to pay for his failures with money, dignity and power - he means, wrongly selling Flanders for half a million livres and giving Louis XIV a handle, In the ensuing Great War, he humiliated the church to call on the aid of other Catholic countries, lest Vienna be wiped out - and even the most stubborn and despicable people could not deny that in the Catholic coalition, the strongest and the most powerful. It was Louis XIV who was the deterrent, and in the end, it was true that the pagans were mortally wounded.

And he, even reluctantly, after suffering these humiliations, must copy to Vienna and even the whole of Austria the good policies advocated and implemented by Louis XIV-because these policies really make France strong and stable Fortunately, this kind of behavior, as long as there is still a sense of responsibility, almost all kings do it, and Leopold I often used this to comfort himself.

   Only his closest attendants knew that the emperor never opened the curtains of the bedroom at night, why? Just because his secret lover, the Countess of Soissons, sister of Marie, Mancini, the first royal lady of Louis XIV, occasionally overlooked the king's bedroom in the Hofburg. Look out the window and blurt out—

   "It's really like Paris!"

This sentence pierced Leopold I's heart like a thorn, but tonight, Leopold I, who had been lying in bed for three months, suddenly ordered his attendants to cover up the tight The curtains were drawn and they were asked to bring him to the window.

  The emperor stared out the window, looking at the bright window glass, the neat streets, the golden gas lamps, the tall and verdant street trees—suddenly, a miserable smile appeared: "This is really like Paris."

   He watched for a while, then murmured, "Maybe I shouldn't treat her like that."

The attendants knew who the emperor was talking about, but none of them dared to answer. The lady suddenly had an accident when she returned to France. Thinking of the king's respect and love for the Count of Soissons, how many people did this accident happen? The composition of it is also unknown. Originally, Leopold I could have intervened, and he could even prevent the lady from leaving - but he did not.

   Was Leopold I ever in love with the Countess of Soissons, or did he have only some affection? He couldn't confirm it himself, the only certainty was that at that time he just wanted to embarrass Louis XIV, who had cheated him about Flanders, for which he never even admitted to Olympia. Mancini, that is to say, she is informal, despised, and there is no difference between those "names".

He also remembered his and her son, who was kept by Louis XIV. Of course, Leopold I knew, but he knew that illegitimate children could never become the official heir. The son who came out, he now also has Philip, but for some reason, he suddenly misses the son he has never met. People say he is a strong young man, a general with great talent for war. Served for Louis XIV and won numerous exploits in the war against his biological father.

   "Unfortunately the name is too ugly." He whispered.

   (end of this chapter)