I Am Louis XIV

There is another reason why the Marquis does not speak out, not to mention that there are too few men who can understand him, even women.

Among the ladies of the court, there are many people who admire and yearn for Mrs. Lafayette, and there are also those who hate her, but most of them find it incomprehensible, or understand but disagree, or even agree but cannot muster up the courage Women who take a step forward - they use various reasons to convince themselves, as men say, "women are more irrational than men", "men have advantages in physical strength and social status" , "The world is not friendly to women, women should be more cautious", "Men are stronger and should take on more responsibilities", "Working for husbands, children and families is also an important job"... In short, etc., they found all kinds of reasons for themselves, indulged in the honey of the past and couldn't extricate themselves.

Yes, because there is Mrs. Lafayette, the mother, and all the friends of the mother, before the Marquis entered the army, he saw and felt how hard they worked. They not only have to prove that they can at least keep pace with men of the same class, but also set an example for women and lead by example. If they are married and have children, they still have to bear the responsibility of being wives and mothers—unless they can be cruel enough to ignore their husbands and children, but this will be blamed. Although if this is something done by a man, people will only praise him for selfishness.

In fact, there are almost no wives who ignore their care for their husbands and the education of their children. It is ironic that these wives are regarded as qualified people, but they are more willing to spend time in dancing, gambling, and cheating than those However, they love their families more, and with those eyes surrounding them, it is absolutely impossible to criticize them on their personal virtues.

The Marquis grew up under the tutelage of Madame Lafayette, the daughter of Madame Sevigny—in the eyes of outsiders, she is a good girl who is well-educated, intelligent and pleasant. At first the Marquis didn't understand why Madame Sevigny, a woman who was so bold as to open a publishing house and a newspaper with the support of the king, had such a well-behaved daughter, but he soon thought of it—Mrs. Sevigny loved herself too much I have lost my daughter, and I can't bear to let her suffer from myself.

As a lady, as long as she can read, write letters, be good at dancing and singing, know how to appreciate music and poetry, and have a unique and admirable talent in aesthetics, then why bother to walk the road full of thorns? Marry a well-matched husband, have children, don’t have to think about livelihood, don’t have to pursue the meaning of your own existence, and spend your life peacefully and leisurely. This is the path that most women will choose.

Just like those students in women's colleges, many of them got married while they were still studying. This study is just to add chips to their marriage balance.

The Marquis was even resentful because of this, when his mother felt sad for one of her students, a girl who had an outstanding talent in poetry but gave up her studies and talents because of early marriage, and died of dystocia within three years. But Mrs. Lafayette said that even the king cannot bear the fate of everyone on his shoulders. When a person makes his own choice, it means that she will bear the fate brought about by this choice.

If this choice was wrong, the Marquis remembered asking himself, should we indulge her too?

How do you know this choice is wrong for her? Mrs. Lafayette said, don't blame people who are on a different path from you, and don't think that the path you choose is noble and bright. You should look at the thorns as you look at the roses, because to some people the thorns Also like roses, roses are like thorns to others - so, what you defend is true equality and freedom.

"Selfish freedom is not freedom, and unfair equality is not equality." The Marquis murmured, so he didn't try to correct the housekeeper's philosophy. It was her philosophy, not his. If he roughly interfered with her cognition And thought, tantamount to insulting both of them.

"Do you want to eat pork leg stewed with onions?" The housekeeper couldn't hear what the Marquis said, but she ordered the fresh dishes that were delivered today and asked loudly.

"Eat!" The Marquis happily replied that this dish is a country dish from Provence. After Madame Sevigny's daughter went to Provence with her husband, she described this seemingly unrefined dish to her mother in a letter. Tang but extremely delicious dishes, copied this recipe - for her, such a life is also a happy life.

With such a mood, he ate a large pot happily.

—————

It's a pity that the good mood of the Marquis was broken as soon as he returned to the Palace of Versailles.

The number of rooms in the Palace of Versailles is astonishing, but the number of people who came to pay homage to the king and the king's love is even greater. Because Mrs. Lafayette was a victim of someone with the Duke of Orleans, the king specially allowed her to have one The room, but later Mrs. Lafayette saw that the rooms in the palace were getting more and more insufficient, and she was tired of flirting with some people, so she declined the king's favor and moved out.

Anyway, countless mansions like other palaces have been built around the Palace of Versailles. They also have convenient water and water facilities, gardens and stables, and the roads extend in all directions. There is no inconvenience, and it is more suitable for Mrs. Lafayette at any time. Leaving to visit friends in Paris - some friends were able to spend the night in Versailles.

But because of the job she received recently, the Duchess of Montpensier generously gave her a room in the suite to borrow. It was too tiring for Mrs. Te to come from outside in a carriage.

The Marquis sent his mother back to the suite, and the Duchess of Montpensier kindly gave the room farthest away from her to Madame Lafayette. The Duchess's apartment was always full of people who wanted to see her, and even if they didn't dare to make a noise, it was annoying to deal with them one by one.

As soon as she came back, the maid of the duchess rushed over and politely asked Mrs. Lafayette if she would like to accompany the duchess for a while. Mrs. Fayette's first book was written for the duchess) and the hired person, she looked at the look of the maid and guessed that the duchess must have encountered something embarrassing, so that she needed her so urgently help.

She told her son a few words and left. The Marquis originally wanted to leave immediately. Unlike those who didn't want to leave after entering Versailles, he would rather change his clothes and hang out with strangers who didn't know each other in small taverns on the streets. Drink hard, and don't want to flatter and be flattered endlessly.

As a result, he was caught by the crown prince at once.

Little Louis's face was extremely serious, which surprised the Marquis. Even the merchants in Istanbul knew that the French Crown Prince was different from his father. Almost the first time I saw it.

"I had a fight with my grandmother," said little Louis, then paused and corrected: "I had a fight with everyone except my father."

Mainly because no one dared to disturb the increasingly majestic Louis XIV.

"What are you arguing about?" the Marquis asked curiously. If the Dauphin had a dispute with a minister or general, no, this possibility is very small. After all, Louis XIV is still on the throne, and no one would To get too close to the crown prince—not to mention those important things that need to be disputed—they will definitely cater to the crown prince without limit, unless Louis XIV holds objections.

Little Louis sighed: "I want to cancel...the dressing ceremony."

Dressing ceremony, in fact, this is just a term created for convenience, because this ceremony will neither be clearly written in the marriage contract, nor will it be made public (for most people), and people in the court will not Never mention it—this kind of behavior can almost be regarded as shaming and humiliating.

Today's queen mother and queen have experienced it, even Louis XIV's daughter Elizabeth was not spared (although the ceremony here is almost a symbolic process) - the great princess who went to Prussia to get married also because of Prussia and France do not have a closely connected national border, and the ceremony can be completed only by being surrounded by maids in one's own room and changing into Prussian clothes-but this ceremony does exist.

In the flow chart for welcoming the bride presented to Crown Prince Louis Jr., there is such an item-according to the tradition and the agreed treaty, after the Portuguese princess Isabella arrived in Nantes across the Atlantic by boat, the port of the French would be closed. There will be a ship belonging to neither the Portuguese nor the French, and on this ship Princess Isabella will, under the watchful eyes of both witnesses, the Portuguese and the French, take off all the Not even a single fiber of the clothes and accessories can be left behind, and then you can change into French clothes and shoes, and you can be regarded as a real French crown princess.

In this regard, although the Marquis is a man, because his mother, Mrs. Lafayette, is a noble lady of the court and has always been with the Queen and the Duchess, she still knows the content of the ceremony very well, and it also avoids the prince. Describe the embarrassment of this problem-then he heard the crown prince say that he intends to cancel this link in the process.

The Marquis suddenly found himself in trouble.

People in this era are astonishingly meticulous and caring about such details. At the beginning, Louis XIV suppressed all the Swedes who came to welcome his bride as the Sun King in order to save Princess Elizabeth from suffering. The main reason is that the king of Prussia needs to show enough sincerity to the king of France to get the right to swing left and right. It stands to reason that the princess of Portugal who has to face this difficult matter, no one would care—but the crown prince proposed to ban This embarrassing ritual.

There are many opponents, not entirely out of selfishness. In any case, because Princess Elizabeth did not fully complete the ceremony at the time, some people still questioned whether she had enough belonging to Sweden. This was not over until the Queen of Sweden gave birth to the heir of Karl XI.

The identity of the Portuguese princess is a bit difficult. If Princess Isabella fails to fulfill this obligation, will someone use this as a reason to attack her.

"She has me." Little Louis said simply.

Little Louis has a role model, that is his father Louis XIV. At the beginning, because Queen Teresa's dowry had not arrived in France for a long time, there were many vicious rumors both inside and outside the court. Even the Queen Mother, who was the princess of Habsburg in Spain, treated the queen coldly for a long time. But Louis XIV never wavered. He treated his wife with gentleness and courtesy, respected her, and shared power with her. His attitude allowed Queen Teresa to gain a foothold in the Louvre and Versailles—compared to Louis Thirteen's wife, the Queen Mother, was so happy—the latter's husband had not slept with her for twenty years, and people kept criticizing this woman for not being able to give birth to the king. son……

Louis XIV also taught his son that he could not protect his wife, but instead followed others who accused and hurt her. Not to mention the moral level, at least in the sense of responsibility, it was lacking - this is different from others The statement is completely different, and Louis XIV also explained it-because the king has too much power and there are too few people who can be trusted by him, so once he can gain the king's trust, the benefits are simply incalculable. Wife, the queen is a natural ally of the king. If she can win the king's love, it is tantamount to taking away the best and biggest fruit among them, and it is easy.

Therefore, generally speaking, the ministers and nobles of the country will try their best to destroy the relationship between the king and the queen. They would rather flatter a "royal wife" who violates morality than bow down to the queen, although their reasons are always high-sounding —Of course, they would tell the Dauphin that they were afraid that a foreign woman would have too much influence on him to shake the foundations of France.

"But," Louis XIV said to little Louis with a smile, "I respect your mother, and I have loved ones, but when have they changed my decision, unless I wanted to do so in the first place. In the future, you will also So, if you make a poor plan, or act stupidly, don't blame anyone, because if you are influenced, you are willing to be influenced by him or her, and it is still your fault."

Little Louis kept these words deeply in his heart. This was what his father, a great king, said. Isn't it more credible than the whispers of those scholars and politicians? When he was reading the process, he kept thinking about whether, as the future king of France, he would use this... boring method to humiliate his future wife. Could humiliating a person make her respect and love herself? ? Even a beggar, or a vicious thug would not think so.

He has read every letter Isabella wrote to himself, and he also keeps the manuscript of every letter he wrote to Isabella. He once comforted this lady who had been tortured by guilt for many years (she and her Her father was different from her mother, but still had a pure heart), he promised that if she came to France, she would be free, love and dignified.

And then, before her feet touch the soil of France, first in front of a crowd of strangers...until she's naked?

This is the first gift he gave her?

The crown prince was unwilling, but this behavior undoubtedly caused an uproar.