I Am Louis XIV

Mary Teresa was the eldest daughter of King Philip IV of Spain, but her mother Elizabeth, the daughter of King Henry IV of France, died when she was only six years old, and her elder brother Balthazar Carlos also went to heaven to reunite with his mother two years later. Because the Spanish royal family did not recognize the "Salik Inheritance Law", the eldest princess originally had the first inheritance right. Unfortunately, just last year, her half-brother was born , she lost the throne that seemed to be at her fingertips, no, not only lost the throne, but she had to dedicate her marriage to this throne.

Even though she is the eldest princess, Teresa still has no right to say anything about her marriage. She has also heard of her two husband candidates, but she said from the bottom of her heart that she hopes to become the wife of King Louis XIV of France—— She was the same age as Louis XIV of France, and Leopold I was two years younger. Women always appear to be more mature than men, especially at this age. The main thing is that I heard that Leopold was young but violent However, Louis XIV is very gentle, even a little cowardly, and the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire needs to be elected by the electors, while in France, as long as she can give birth to a boy for the king, he is destined to be the king.

In the Spanish court, Teresa may not be the last to know her husband, but she is definitely not the first, not even in the top ten, but her husband is Louis XIV, which is enough for her to be grateful.

This is a sunny morning. Since Philip II moved the capital from Toledo to Madrid, the palace has experienced nearly two hundred years of ups and downs. With the gradual increase of the royal population, although this There are 170 rooms in the palace, but it is still not enough. As the presumptive heir, Teresa's original room is second only to His Majesty the King, but since her half-brother landed, after a hunting trip, her stepmother The princess of the Holy Roman Empire, Maria Anna of Austria, naturally allocated her room to her son, and Teresa was forced to move to the west wing of the palace. This suite is gorgeous, but "exquisite", she Both of her closest maids had to live in the same room, and Teresa could only endure it silently. Fortunately, with the dust of the marriage contract settled, perhaps it was to give her daughter who was about to leave and could not return to Spain. With a little tenderness, the king ordered several noble ladies to move out of the palace and make room for Teresa's maids, but her maids were still aggrieved. They were brought by Teresa's mother Elizabeth of Bourbon. hostile to the Austrians.

"Okay, stop talking," Teresa said. "We won't be here anytime soon."

"It's just that I can't see these barbarians." Teresa's maid said, she was older than Teresa, but obviously more lively than Her Royal Highness, a pair of soft white hands rested on Teresa's chestnut-colored curly hair It moved up and down: "It is said that shawls are no longer seen in the French court," she said, "It is said that it was the king's idea. He asked a barber to curl the hair of the ladies, and then combed or Is it braided, and crowned with gems or diamonds, and sometimes with fresh flowers, let us do the same, and I'll curl your hair, and put diamond brooches and silver lace on it, that must be It will be beautiful."

"Stop messing around." Teresa said, "Today we just want to meet the envoy who welcomes the portrait of the king, not the majesty."

"But the messenger will go back and describe what he saw to the king." Theresa's maid said anxiously. She was the maid chosen by Queen Elizabeth for the princess. Because she was born in Anjou, she was destined not to be accepted by Spain. She doesn't even bother to be accepted by others, but a woman who is older than the princess and has married a Spanish nobleman certainly knows how important a woman's appearance is to a man.

The maid's anxiety is not without reason. King Louis of France is already twenty years old this year. It is understandable for a twenty-year-old young man to have several lovers, not to mention that the French court originally had a "royal wife" system. A lover will make people question his important ability as a man, but that majesty is not a womanizer. I heard that so far, there are only two or three close people who can be verified-Princess Henrietta of England, But this may be because the marriage contract was discussed but failed. Of course, this Highness will not become the king's lover.

Next is Mary Mancini, who can be called the enemy of Mary Theresa. First of all, she has a mediocre background. She can only enter the court because she has an uncle who is a cardinal and prime minister, and get along with the king day and night. But their Love is counted from childhood, and it is said that the woman is still talking nonsense, thinking that she can become the king's wife. This kind of thinking can't help but make people despise and disgust, but the relationship of more than ten years is not the same. Things that have been easily erased, and the maid has seen her portrait, on the premise that the artist did not intentionally beautify or uglify, Marie Mancini is indeed a beauty.

Then there is Mrs. Milady, whom the king met when he was in Dunkirk. When he saw her, he was fascinated, and even when he was seriously ill, he let her guard him. For this reason, Mancini went to Dunkirk alone in a rage. There was a great quarrel at the king's bedside, and the king was angry, so when they returned to Paris, neither of them appeared.

The maid of course hopes that the king can forget about these two beauties, don't say that the marriage between the royal family is just to meet political needs and other stupid things, yes to Philip IV, yes to Louis XIV, only to Mary Teresa is not, how sad a wife is who is not respected and loved by her husband, the maid knows all too well.

The problem is that although Marie Teresa does not have the big chin that unfortunately inherited the tradition of the Habsburg family, she has nothing to do with beauty. It seems dull and boring, she is not a smart person, she has no talent in learning, and she has no perseverance. Although her mother is French, her French is still stumbling and forgetting. She doesn't like dancing, listening to music, no What commendable advantages, except... food? But the feat didn't do any good other than adding to her waistline.

Teresa saw the maid's worry, but she was helpless, what could she do? She is not a boy. After her brother passed away, although she was regarded as the first heir, her father only eagerly wanted to create a second son with his stepmother instead of teaching and nurturing his own daughter. She even envied Christie of Sweden Na, even though she and her cousin were enemies of Spain—she was seen as transparent after the birth of her half-brother—or she was forced to hide herself in terms of inheritance.

She also heard that the French ambassador had been haggling with the Spanish diplomats before—because she has the inheritance right of Spain, the French certainly hope that this inheritance right can be kept and brought to France, but the king and nobles of Spain will never allow it When such a thing happened, their see-saw negotiation made Teresa worry for a long time—after all, the marriage has reached this stage, if it breaks because of the issue of inheritance, it is hard to say whether she will be able to obtain such a good marriage again Yes—Leopold I said he was busy fighting a rebellion, but he probably just didn't want a wife of Bourbon blood.

Fortunately, in the end, King Louis of France made some concessions. He could allow his wife to give up the right to inherit the Spanish throne, but in contrast, she must have a considerable dowry, for example-500,000 Roman crowns. The Roman crown was a large gold coin, worth eighty to one hundred livres each.

Fifty years ago, it would have been easy for the Spanish royal family to pay this dowry, but in 1588, the Spanish theory of the Armada was ruthlessly broken by the British Navy. In 1623, Spain lost its monopoly on the Americas. The situation, in 1640, the rebellion of the Catalans made the king feel like a stick in his throat. In December of the same year, Portugal also succeeded in becoming independent from the Kingdom of Spain. In 1642, they were defeated by the Dutch. In 48 years, even more It was a last resort to recognize the independence of the Netherlands, thus losing its dominant position on land.

During the French Civil War, the Spaniards regained Naples and Catalonia (French-controlled areas) by fire and looting, but they were defeated by the Viscount Turenne in the recent Battle of the Dunes (Dunkirk). Without withdrawing from the Netherlands, the last thing Bishop Mazarin did before his death was to force the Spaniards to cede Roussillon, Foix, Artois and Lorraine (these are all It is an important city between Spain and France) to France-although the peace treaty has not yet been signed, Spain probably does not have the courage to repent or deny it.

Not to mention that the Spanish government has repeatedly expanded its military for the Thirty Years War, and has already gone bankrupt.

Therefore, the current Spanish royal family is empty, but the request made by the French king is not too much, and in this era of bragging about wealth to show its strength, Philip IV must admit that he did not even take half a million Roman crowns. It was even more impossible not to come out. He agreed to this condition with difficulty, but asked for an extension or installment payment, which the French agreed to.

Teresa will soon give up her right to inherit the Spanish throne under the supervision of the witnesses—compared to the maid, she really doesn’t think there is anything to be happy about the messenger or the portrait, but the company of nearly ten years makes her willing to indulge My friend, she was well dressed, and then came to the audience hall, Philip IV and the French envoy were present-the French envoy was also a familiar and embarrassing figure for the Spaniards, yes, It was Prince Condé who had been an enemy and an ally, and beside him was the handsome Count d'Artagnan. Prince Condé looked solemn, but d'Artagnan smiled slightly, but both of them had a good face .

Between the two is a huge portrait covered with velvet curtains. The height of the portrait exceeds the head of Prince Condé. The portrait was presented in front of everyone, and Teresa heard a slight panting sound from the maid behind her before she had time to look at it carefully.

She turned slightly sideways to avoid the too harsh sunlight, and walked to the side to take a closer look. This portrait was specially drawn by Louis for this "meeting". The person in the portrait has a beautiful face, no beard, long and Curly golden-brown hair is neatly divided to the shoulders on both sides. His eyes are looking to the left. He is holding a scepter in one hand and pointing to the ground with the other. He is wearing a ermine fur lining and a king's cloak embroidered with silver lilies on a purple-blue background. It is dark tights and a milky white shirt. His feet are one after the other on the blue velvet floor mats. Like the seat cushions, there are patterns of lilies on the floor mats. They are placed on the table in the direction of the king's fingers. Yes, a small and gorgeous crown, the meaning of which is self-evident.

The Count d'Artagnan was so honored to look at the Spaniards, and above all the ladies with their fans, that he could swear to God that none of the kings and dukes he had ever seen could compare with His king's appearance is even more outstanding. The king not only has the wisdom and kindness bestowed by God, but also has a face kissed by an angel. There is no doubt about this—even Philip IV, who should not care so much about appearance, can't help but gently sigh He coughed twice to cover up his hesitation. The only thing that comforted him was that Princess Teresa quickly turned her eyes away and bowed her knees to her father and the king.

"Okay." Philip IV said, "send this portrait to the princess' suite so that you can get acquainted with your future husband." He said gently to Teresa, who was silent Accepted without a word.

In fact, it is not Her Royal Highness who is lingering in front of this portrait, but those naughty little maids. , especially portraits for this purpose, can sometimes feel misplaced or mistaken—sometimes the artist's ingenuity is as good as the evil sorcery centuries later.

"Do you think he will be that tall?" a maid asked enthusiastically.

"There should be," said another maid, "look at his legs!"

"Although young, but very strong." A maid said, causing a burst of ambiguous laughter.

"I heard that His Majesty likes hunting very much."

"It doesn't look very savage from the portrait."

"As long as he looks half as good as his portrait."

Listening to the creaking outside, Teresa gently picked up the beeswax on a letter with a small paper knife with an ivory handle. On the beeswax were crowns, shields and lilies—this was a letter from France. Letter from King Louis XIV.

A little late, sorry.