I Am Louis XIV

Queen Teresa received a letter from her sister in Enlai, Germany.

The mighty Grand Parade arrived in Germany-en-Laye, and basically came to an end. Although Louis XIV inevitably encountered some obstacles and threats during the trip, at least he completed his initial vision—that is, through the Grand Parade, One to see if his country is developing as he expected. It must be said here that this is very necessary. Except for areas such as Brittany, which are naturally rebellious and have a lot of independence, in other places, local lords, officials are short-sighted, or greedy. Sex, so that the king's law is useless.

The most straightforward example is that Louis XIV stipulated that all French people do not need to pay any extra taxes except the poll tax (commercial and financial exceptions). The workers may be ignorant, but when it comes to money, they will also become extraordinarily shrewd-so there are all kinds of deceptions or threats, although these people can no longer blame the king. But it also created some difficulties for Louis XIV's policy.

Louis XIV gave up his power, especially the tax increase power that the French kings seized from the parliament during the long Hundred Years' War, in order to let France's finances enter a virtuous circle. To put it simply, it is to make the people rich first—only when they see hope and believe in this hope, people will work, study and have children with peace of mind, instead of worrying all day long. Full of worry and anxiety in the restlessness, like a gunpowder keg soaked in grease, it will explode at the first touch.

Frequent riots occurred in France before Louis XIV and Spain after Carlos II ascended the throne, mostly because of this reason.

When the future is bleak, as long as there is a little provocation, the people will fall into crazy battles without any scruples—anyway, they have nothing in their hands, and they will not lose anything even if they fail, but if someone is willing to fulfill their promise, they You can immediately jump out of the present life and be freed from the endless suffering.

On the other hand, if the people have coins jingling in their pockets, bread and butter and jam on the table, and a goose or a chicken in a pot, and someone knocks at the door and says, "Come out , man, let's raise a pitchfork or a flail against the King and hang his officials." What do you think they'll do in response?

Therefore, Louis XIV may not be a merciful person, but he will not allow someone to cause trouble in private, leaving his people in poverty and despair.

Furthermore, the people's trust and love for the king will also allow him to get quite generous rewards.

The second purpose of the grand parade is to prepare for future wars—even if the only male heir is the second son of Louis XIV, only war can eliminate all opposition voices. Louis XIV knows this very well. But in order to welcome this crown and eliminate the consumption (war and negotiation) of the next few hundred years for France, it is still quite worthwhile.

The issuance of war bonds followed the king's footsteps and spread to the whole of France. Everywhere the king went, the nobles inevitably subscribed enthusiastically. Merchants even had to bribe people around the king to join them, but Colbert was also surprised. Surprisingly, more than half of the subscriptions came from ordinary people.

Louis XIV has not collected additional taxes for 20 years since he came to power, and at the same time almost strictly supervised the nobles and officials, even in wars-and those civilians, just like a powerful later generation What the leader praises is like the grass and trees in the wilderness. As long as they are given a little time to rest and rest, they will suddenly burst into frightening vitality.

Population growth has allowed the king to equalize the previous total tax revenue with the poll tax alone. When the war bonds are issued, the money accumulated by the people in the past twenty years is like a trickle of trickles converging into a big river. In that way, it flows violently into the king's inner treasury.

Of course, there is also the reason why the king issued bonds during the Franco-Dutch War, allowing nobles, officials, and businessmen to make a lot of money-at that time, it was not fully open to the public for the sake of caution. Opportunity, it's no wonder that these people will desperately exchange real money for beautiful securities documents-they firmly believe that the king will definitely win!

If Louis XIV can indeed win a big victory, cashing in the bonds is not a problem, and a large amount of expenditure can be saved in military expenses alone, not to mention the rich and vast colonies owned by Spain-the Spanish governor is not good at ruling, They only understand rough and simple plunder and massacre. Louis XIV felt that if his officials were allowed to govern those places, the current colonial income could be at least doubled.

Louis XIV's education system has now been able to provide him with many capable government officials. These officials are the king's minions and eyes, as well as his arms and feet. They manage the country for him and will be sent in the future To Holland, Spain, and America, and perhaps farther and farther.

But the premise is that they first sharpen their fangs in France.

Those lords and princes who dare to violate or ignore the king's policies are the prey that these governors are most willing to offer to the king-the third purpose of the grand parade-to quell all unrest in France.

In this regard, the king's officials are also cooperating with the king's priests. We all know that the French king has held the right to appoint and dismiss the priesthood in his own hands since earlier, perhaps just for money at first—— But later, the kings discovered that if the priests and bishops were their own people, it would be more convenient for them to act without worrying about the constraints of the church. This is why the Roman church has always been worried.

But now, for example, Louis XIV does not need to pay too much attention to the Huguenots, the Jews, and even a small number of people who have the same beliefs as the Ottoman Turks-he has two religious princes, One is the Cardinal La Riviere we are familiar with, and the other is Eralio, who has become an archbishop in Rome and is more likely to be promoted to a cardinal soon.

One of them is in France and the other is in Rome. Although one is mediocre and the other is sharp, they work together seamlessly, and they have stabilized the various problems of France in the religious field for the Sun King Louis XIV.

Almost all the priests in France have become the king's spies. With them, there is no place that cannot be touched by the king's tentacles. There was no possibility of resistance, and one by one they were either thrown into prison or hanged on the gallows.

Even Queen Teresa, who has never expressed any opinions on politics, said that after the parade, even the air in France seemed to be much cleaner.

She was even in the mood to recall her sister's appearance and voice. As the daughter of Philip IV and Princess Bourbon when they were both Princesses of Spain, she was undoubtedly less popular than Margaret, the daughter of Philip IV and Princess Habsburg of Austria , her father is also more inclined to favor her sister than her, and the people in the court take the will of the king and queen as their own will, making her life more difficult.

Being able to reach the marriage contract with Louis XIV at the beginning may be the luck that can only be realized through the accumulation of her past misfortunes.

Even so, Philip IV still ruthlessly asked her to swear to renounce her right to inherit the Spanish throne before marriage, completely ignoring her embarrassment after marrying into the French royal family and refusing to pay the dowry of 500,000 livres promised in the negotiation—he She probably didn't expect that Queen Teresa was not the kind of submissive, naive and somewhat stupid Austrian princess. Once she found out that her natal family was unreliable, she threw herself into her in-law's family without any hesitation.

More precisely, to her husband and master, Louis XIV.

Even now, they have two sons and a daughter who have lived together for twenty years. After Queen Teresa read her sister's letter, she immediately gave it to the king.

It must be said that there is something surprising, perhaps only the last bit of tenderness that the Austrian queen had for her eldest daughter. She entrusted her eldest daughter to her elder sister and made it clear that she did not want her to return to Austria, of course for the sake of For the future of Princess Antonia. Not to mention whether the baby in her belly is a boy, even if it is, the happiness of Leopold I is temporary. To be harsh, this happiness may not benefit to the extent that it can be said that he betrayed Austria and Leopold I. Princess Antonia.

"Do you think that will be a little prince?" asked Queen Teresa.

Louis slowly folded the letter paper. People seldom use parchment to write letters nowadays. The letter paper made a small rustling sound in his hand, "Maybe."

"Is there something we need to do?" Queen Teresa whispered.

"No," Louis said, "no, don't do anything superfluous." He knew that the queen asked whether it was necessary to spread the fact that the Spaniards deliberately confused the illegitimate child with the legitimate child-although the Spaniard "approved" that the child was The queen was born, but even if you think about it with your toes, you know that an eight-year-old child cannot be born, so their envoys have been negotiating with the church, which can also be said to be trading.

So not many people know about this matter, or in other words, there is no real evidence, but if they manage to make Princess Antonia a voice, it can make people question the legitimacy of Leopold I, an over-timely baby.

"It can't be done," Louis said. "It's a double-edged sword, and if it does work, it will put all future royal heirs into question, yours and my children and our children's children. "

"You are a kind person." Queen Teresa said, "Then...do we need to bring Antonia to France?"

"She is the princess of Austria and the queen of Spain. It would be more appropriate to stay in Rome. I will let Innocent XI protect her, and then I will let Eralio be responsible for her safety." Louis said after deliberation, and then he Seeing his wife seemed to relax a bit: "What's wrong with you, what are you thinking?"

"It is said that you may have facilitated the marriage contract between Charles and Antonia." Queen Theresa said not so at ease.

Louis was obviously stunned for a while: "How is it possible? Their blood is too close," he shook the queen's hand comfortingly: "We can't choose our marriage, but you have seen the children's, I try my best Choose distant spouses for them. Doctors have told us that close relatives are prone to miscarriages and deformities. We are lucky, Teresa, but we cannot guarantee the same for our children."

Teresa doesn't mind consanguineous marriages as much as Louis, but she is also used to not arguing with Louis. Anyway, Louis also said that he would not let Charles and Antonia marry, so she can rest assured——Antonia Big Charles There were too many, especially since she had a previous marriage. The fact that she became the queen of Spain twice in a row reminded her of Henry VIII's first queen.

Moreover, I heard that she was sick and injured, and it was hard to say whether her weak body could fulfill the duties of a wife and queen.

"Instead of worrying about Shire, who is still in his infancy." Louis said, "We might as well worry about the princess."

"Princess...oh, yes," Queen Teresa sighed, "She still has a marriage contract with the Crown Prince of Prussia, although I shouldn't ask, but I don't know if things will turn out like this in Prussia." What's changed."

"It depends on whether His Majesty the King can convince his allies and ministers." Louis said softly: "But he still has at least several months."

—————

There were indeed many months left for King William I of Prussia.

It is not an easy task to set off a war against France, especially for the current Leopold I, when he cannot determine whether the child in the queen's womb is a boy or a girl, he can only try his best to delay The time—here rests upon the master of the Roman Church.

Although Innocent XI had formed an alliance with Louis XIV, he always only looked at interests between countries, and although Louis XIV was generous, he never compromised on the right to appoint and remove priests, and made the red-clothed members of the church The princes complained again and again. In addition, even if Innocent XI was a moderate, he did not want to see Spain and France united as one...

That's horrible.

Similarly, Louis XIV was waiting for the fermentation of the poisoned wine he had brewed in Spain, and he too needed time, so with the acquiescence of all concerned, the appeal of Princess Antonia was successfully delayed for several months until When the queen of Austria was seven months pregnant, she finally gave birth to a little prince.

Although the child was premature, small and weak, Leopold I eagerly named him Philip.