Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

"His Majesty Frederick VII, it is said that Denmark is very good now. It is located at a checkpoint in the bottleneck of the Baltic Sea. The ship passing duties collected from it every year are enough for Denmark to get a considerable amount of finance. This is It’s a treatment you don’t get in the Netherlands.”

Old man, if you don’t tell me, I will uncover this scar.

Frederick VII's expression changed, and then he said with a bitter smile: "It's okay if I don't mention it, but I feel uncomfortable when I mention it."

"What's wrong? It's hard to accept money, but do you want people to live?" William IV asked pretending to be dissatisfied.

Frederick VII didn't care whether William IV meant it or not, but he seemed to have found a chat box to express these "discomforts".

It turns out that Denmark's location is the most special in Europe, because they guard the Oresund Strait. All countries along the Baltic Sea want to sail ships to the Atlantic Ocean, or other countries want to enter the Baltic Sea, they need to pass through the Oresund Strait, which is ruled by Denmark. , Tariffs, which began in the 17th century, have become a common practice in various countries over the past 200 years.

However, among the Baltic countries, some countries are dissatisfied with Denmark's tax collection behavior, namely Denmark's original northern ally Sweden and the newly rising power Prussia in the east.

Sweden was on the north shore of the Oresund Strait and was dissatisfied that Denmark still collected taxes from them, thinking it was unfair. Finally, at the beginning of this century, when Sweden occupied Norway from Denmark, it also forced Denmark to give up its control. Tax on Swedish ships.

Prussia is not included in this list. All of Prussia's sea areas are in the Baltic Sea, so its navy is even within the scope of Denmark's tax collection. This has caused dissatisfaction across Prussia and even more hostility towards Denmark.

Especially after the current Prussian Prime Minister Bismarck came to power at the end of 1861, he launched various attacks on Denmark.

In addition to wooing the Tsarist Empire to jointly express dissatisfaction with customs duties, it also launched an all-round attack strategy on the issue of the ownership of Schleswig and Holstein.

As a result, Frederick VII faced huge anxiety and also created invisible pressure.

Bismarck, the newly elected Prime Minister of Prussia, is currently taking very powerful actions against Denmark. If one of them is not handled well, the two principalities in the south may really be in Prussia. Under the instigation of the German Confederation, the Principality of Holstein might even become a bridgehead to attack Denmark.

But if you beat him to death, you can only guess that everything currently happening in these two principalities, and even Prussia's request for Denmark to change the crown prince to a member of another family, is actually an excuse for Bismarck. Conducted for Denmark.

William IV naturally knew this. In his previous life, he had read about the first battle in 1862, when the German Empire decided the outcome in three battles in ten years and defeated Denmark, Austria, and France one by one.

Unlike Christian IX who was later called cowardly, had poor political awareness, but knew how to protect himself, Frederick VII had a very big picture view. Even during his tenure, he once had a falling out over Norway. Danish-Swedish relations, which had already been thawed during his reign, respectively, during the childhood years of Swedish childhood Oscar I and Karl XV established a sincere friendship.

Originally, they wanted to form an alliance recently, but due to repeated threats from Prussia, Sweden had doubts about the opinions of the largest export customer of steel and coke and other steel-making materials, and the largest provider of food sources.

It was precisely because of this that Frederick VII panicked.

Therefore, the British once again urged Denmark to allow Britain to establish a military port in Denmark in exchange for Denmark being protected by Britain.

However, this aroused the dissatisfaction of the behemoth Tsarist Empire, because this was a threat to Tsarist Russia, and it also encouraged the Tsarist Russian Empire and Prussia to stand together.

At this time, the alliance between the Netherlands and Sweden made him feel a flash of inspiration.

So, there was this trip south to visit the Netherlands.

"This tax is becoming more and more difficult to chew," Frederick VII added: "As the guardian of the safe passage of the Atlantic and Baltic Seas, we in Denmark are under increasing pressure from various countries. This position is too critical, making The threats of co-optation exerted by the major powers on Denmark are even more extreme."

Frederick VII's confession at this time actually won the favor of William IV. He was a smart old man.

But from the banquet just now, when Frederick VII kept asking William IV about his marriage, he vaguely seemed to understand that Alexandra in Copenhagen had begun to exert her strength. .

Because he had already understood from Alexandra’s letters that in order to intervene in this important maritime checkpoint in Northern Europe, the United Kingdom chose to make Denmark its own. The United Kingdom even did not hesitate to give up the position of the Crown Princess. , giving it to a little princess born to the Danish Crown Prince of the Kingdom, this is an obvious win over.

Being able to climb to the UK, I think Frederick VII is not stupid and will not refuse easily, but he may not be as excited as Crown Prince Christian. The latter will not worry about Prussia's challenge with the support of Britain. He had the right to inherit the throne, but Frederick VII did not think so. His position was that of the King of Denmark, and he also thought about the autonomy of the Kingdom of Denmark, not the throne of Crown Prince Christian.

This is where the two structures have different views.

Therefore, when Alexandra handed William IV's letter to Frederick VII, he was stunned. The invitation letter from the new king of the Netherlands was actually in the form of such a personal letter. passed to him. The meaning is different.

When he even took the letter from Alexandra, he didn't even need to find a word about Alexandra in the letter, but thousands of words had already been said.

Has anyone seen a king of a country send a letter to the head of another country first to his personal hands and then to him? This relationship has self-evidently established the relationship between the two people. At the same time, It also showed that the princess actually had a close correspondence relationship with William IV, which surprised him.

And the content of the letter did not disappoint him.

William IV actually proposed to invite Denmark to join the Netherlands-Swedish Customs Union and become the first new member to form a large economy in the Nordic Customs Union to compete with the two customs unions within the German Confederation. At the same time, the Netherlands is also preparing to follow Sweden's cooperation in its African colonies also expressed the hope that Denmark would apply to join, etc.

However, the detailed aspects of all this require a trip to the Netherlands of Frederick VII to settle down.

But he didn't know that everything he did during this period fell into the eyes of the other party, and he had already become an important weight in the heart of Frederick VII, one used to help Denmark maintain neutrality. Position to resist the weapons of all major powers.

Since Frederick VII has gone south, he will naturally not easily let go of the man in front of him who has his plans for Princess Alexandra.

However, he no longer worries so much,

From asking whether the Dutch development in Central Africa is going well, to hearing that the Netherlands will send more troops and immigrants to South Africa, and is preparing to hold a three-nation alliance meeting with Prussia and France, everything is understood clearly, far from what it was before. Which one at the banquet was in a sickly state.

This made William IV know that the old man in front of him was really good at pretending. However, since he was pretending, why did he really die in history at the beginning of next year?

William IV was very puzzled.

After going around in a circle, Frederick asked seemingly unconcerned: "I heard that the Netherlands, France, Prussia and the United Kingdom were in trouble again in South Africa after the collision in Belgium. Where are you three countries supporting those three countries?" Being a small country has caused the UK a lot of troubles in South Africa. To be honest, I think the UK’s national power has faded very quickly recently, both in terms of prestige and strength. However, this has also brought a crisis to the Netherlands, you know. , France is unreliable, Prussia is quite ambitious.”

"From the Dutch perspective, I have no choice but to do this. Of course I also understand the resentment of the British, and I also understand that there are only interests between allies in this world, especially when two countries bordering each other have mutual interests. Be wary of each other, fearing that the other party will stab you in the back, but at present, our three countries have not reached the point of damage, so His Majesty Frederick VII can rest assured."

"Don't worry?" Why did Frederick VII listen, as if he was being regarded as careless?

He took a careful look at William IV's expression, and felt that the other party seemed to have something to say, so he slowly said: "It seems that His Majesty William IV is more confident in himself, but Queen Victoria and Palmer Viscount Ston and others are powerful figures who have been in Europe for decades. Facing these people, no one can take them lightly. It seems to be beneficial to you at the moment, but maybe they have already deployed some things behind your back that you can't see. to something.

Be careful when sailing a thousand-year-old ship! "

"Yes." William IV confirmed the other party's good intentions, but did not refute him.

"Actually, His Majesty Frederick VII, I shouldn't have told you originally, but in order to show the close relationship between us, it doesn't hurt that I tell you. In fact, just in the past few days, I have ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands to carry out I have finished my work with the UK, and now I am just waiting for news from there."

Seeing that Frederick VII didn't speak, he obviously didn't want to listen to the general words of retreat, but wanted to believe, so he said again: "

In order to ease relations with Britain, and to win the Far East and Australia, I even revealed to London the location of a major gold mining area in South Africa.

And the location is still in the Transvaal Republic.”

ah!

Frederick VII was shocked when he heard that there was a large gold mining area in South Africa. If this news breaks out, then this will definitely be a territory that all countries want to compete for, since the Netherlands said so.

Wait, did William IV just say that he wanted to exchange for Australia? Could it be