Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2409 Variables

On September 1700, 9, in the Palace of Versailles in the suburbs of Paris, the old "National Teacher" of the Kingdom of France was talking with a middle-aged man.

The old man sitting by the window is Bossuet.He was born in a wealthy family in Dijon in 1627. His father was a member of the Dijon Parliament and had a pious faith. He hoped that he would become a missionary since he was a child.So Bossuet was baptized at the age of eight, went to Metz Cathedral to become a monk at the age of 13, entered the University of Navarre in Paris at the age of 15, and began to deliver sermons in salons held by noble women at the age of 16.

After graduating with honors from Paris, he returned to the cathedral of Metz to be ordained.At this time, he was horrified to find that nearly 3 of the more than 1 people in Metz were Huguenots cursed by God.Bossuet believed that these people were evil and the chief culprits of splitting the church, so he began to attack and attack the Huguenots for half a century.

Considering that the overall social atmosphere at that time was a reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants-although there were occasional reversals, it was generally peaceful-Bossuet decided to take the upper-level route, by promoting the "harm" of Protestants to the royal family and nobles. , so as to achieve the purpose of "purifying" the entire country. In 1660, he preached to the crowd in the church of Minim, where the upper classes were haunted, and gained such a reputation that even Louis XIV heard of him, so in 1662 he got the opportunity to preach at the Louvre.

Through contact, Louis XIV discovered that he was resolute, knowledgeable, personable, and at the same time extremely steadfast in his beliefs, so he naturally became the king's close minister.And Bossuet is also very skillful. He treats people like a spring breeze. At the same time, he is good at dancing and has met many great people.Moreover, this person's eloquence is extremely good, he won many national religious debates, and then became the religious instructor of many noble children, even Louis XIV later taught the crown prince to him—Bossuet Not only is he a doctor of theology, but he also knows other aspects of knowledge, and his attainments are very profound, so he is qualified to teach the children of the royal family.

Bossuet, who gained the trust of Louis XIV, began to indoctrinate the king with the "harmful" theory of Protestants. Later, he had a large part of the credit for the abolition of the "Edict of Nantes", which was the object of the Protestants' gnashing teeth.It's a pity that Bossuet has a noble status. In Chinese tradition, he is the "prince and grand master". As an advisor to Louis XIV, he often participates in decision-making, surrounded by a cloud of guards. Even if the Huguenots wanted to assassinate him, they couldn't do it. , can only be called helpless.

However, many people have also seen that Bossuet is 73 years old this year, very old, and time can easily kill him.After his death, the country's policy may not change, because Louis XIV also felt the backlash from the Protestants, which caused serious damage to his career.If someone can speak up at this time, the Protestants may not be pardoned—many of the more than one million Huguenots and their descendants who fled to England, the United Provinces, and the Southern Netherlands still hope to return to the United States. hometown.

But such a character as Bossuet naturally thought of this.In order not to destroy his career, he quickly selected a successor, that is, Fenelon, the middle-aged man in front of him, a priest from an aristocratic family, who is currently the son of Louis XIV. Tutor to grandson Duke of Burgundy.

Fenelon was beautiful in stature and extraordinary in appearance, but at the same time was full of enthusiasm and wisdom. At the age of 24 he was ordained as overseer of a Catholic monastery.His job at the time was to convert young women who had just been separated from Protestant families to the Catholic faith.He did a good job because almost everyone converted, but he also screwed up because he got a lot of gossip and a lot of girls in the convent fell in love with him because he was the only one they had access to Men——Actually, being handsome is the most important reason...

But these scandals are not his real troubles.In fact, he has been on the rise since then, promoted repeatedly in the church and court, and won the trust of Louis XIV.What really hit his official career seriously was a book he published last year. In this book, he euphemistically alluded to a militaristic monarch, and pointed out the great destructiveness of war through the tone of the protagonist in the book.

Such political views may be recognized by Louis XIV more than ten years later, because at that time he repented and realized that too many wars had ruined his country.However, before the outbreak of the brutal War of Spanish Succession, Louis XIV did not have such an idea. Fenelon's move did not have any persuasive effect, but instead made him lose the favor of Louis XIV.

Bossuet couldn't bear to see the candidate he was looking for cut off his official career.So after some of his activities, Fenelon also sincerely apologized to Louis XIV. In the end, he was not expelled from the court, but got a job as an envoy sent abroad, so he should avoid the limelight first.

Fenelon's upcoming post will be the ambassador to Morocco.The reason why I went there was because it was close to France, and if something happened, I could recall it at any time.The second is because the Moroccans have just requested cooperation with France to make the country rich and powerful. Louis XIV is very interested in extending his influence to North Africa, so this position is easy to achieve results and reach the heavens.

The third, and very important point, is that Fenelon is very knowledgeable, not only knows more about Europe than languages, but also has a very solid foundation in Chinese on the East Coast.It is said that he hired a master of Confucianism from the North American Free State with a lot of money 20 years ago to study Chinese knowledge. Now the article has been written very well, although it always has a strange flavor of French prose when reading it.

There was nothing Fenelon could do about being ambassador.In fact, instead of going to Morocco as an ambassador, he would rather go to the East Coast.He had great admiration for the political system of the people on the east coast, and he also disliked this absolute monarchy system because of Louis XIV's militarism.He believed that the monarchy was granted by God, but it should be regarded as God only gave them the right to seek happiness for the people, so the monarchy must be limited.

The no-monarch system of the people on the east coast has major flaws, because the country has no spiritual support, but it does not have the various drawbacks of the absolute monarchy system, and it is very advanced in general.Moreover, their government officials—even those from high-ranking families—must first prove themselves by making achievements at the grassroots level before they can stand out from the fierce competition and step up to the pinnacle of power step by step.Conversely, in France, apart from officials of the ecclesiastical system who experienced a similar pattern, it was possible for aristocratic officials to be awarded important positions as adults, even if they had no experience in it.In the United Provinces, the bombastic MPs are more attractive, and they only need to beat others in theological and business debates to hold important positions, even if he has not yet proved himself in actual work.

Fenelon himself benefits from the current system, but he also opposes it.It's a pity that his thoughts are too radical, and in the eyes of many people, they are too shocking, so he can only bury these things deep in his heart, and continue to serve the existing system in a docile manner on the surface.

"Thousands of Huguenots stranded in the Southern Netherlands have already gone to Ceuta." Fenelon looked at the old Bishop Bossuet and said cautiously: "They seem to smell the smell of war, so Eager to leave the Southern Netherlands."

"These people are always so clever." Bossuet also sighed.Even he had to admit that the heretics possessed unrivaled abilities, despite the constant crackdown on the Huguenots.After the abolition of the "Edict of Nantes", Caen lost all its textile machines, Lyon and Tours lost three-quarters of their textile machines, 60 paper mills in Angomwa closed down to only 16, and the commercial city of May 109 of the 101 shops in Zieres closed down, and only 400 of the 54 tanneries in Tours remained. Commercial ports such as Marseille and Bordeaux were also hit hard, and the French economy fell into a severe recession.

And these Huguenots who fled France went to the Southern Netherlands, the United Provinces, Germany, and England to re-establish factories and produce a large number of local commodities originally imported from France.The economic system established by Colbert began to collapse, the French government's industrial income dropped sharply, and it had to fall into the trap of usury merchants financially, which was extremely difficult.

Sometimes Bossuet wondered why Catholics could not have such outstanding economic talents?Could it be that without the Protestants, France can only rely on those Jewish businessmen who suck blood for a living?Why are Italians, fellow Catholics, so economically successful?Their merchants were shrewd, their craftsmen were ingenious, their scholars were versatile, and they were famous all over Europe even before they came into contact with the East Coasters. Why were they so successful?

Louis XIV also asked this question. Bossuet had no conclusion and could only explain it as the great help of the people on the east coast to Italy.But people from the East Coast cannot and cannot learn the French style, so they have to give up.

"Francis, you have gone to Meknes. You have to collect information on the army on the east bank. Your Majesty and Marshal Vauban are very interested in this. In addition, you also need to find out what the purpose of the people on the east bank to start the war in Morocco is. What, does it have territorial ambitions for the Mediterranean? This is also very important, and it is related to France's next series of decisions." Bossuet said seriously.

Fenelon nodded, he understood the importance of this.It is really intriguing that the people from the east bank launched this game in Morocco, especially the Italians and Portuguese also sent troops to participate in succession, which made Paris very vigilant.Louis XIV really wanted to know whether the people on the east coast had the ambition to unite with the Italians and the Portuguese to dominate the Mediterranean.If so, then France must adjust its policy, because France is also a Mediterranean country and has huge interests in the Mediterranean, and it is impossible to sit back and watch the people on the east coast attack the city and remain indifferent.If not, then they can boldly annex the seventeen lowland provinces and expand aggressively in the Rhine River Basin, which has been their consistent national policy for decades.As for the annexation of Spain, it was actually incidental. Strictly speaking, the importance was far less than that of the Netherlands.

"King Carlos of Madrid has recently suffered another serious illness, and his physical condition is not objective. I learned through the church that he may only live for a few months. You know what it means. Yes, the war is on the verge of breaking out At this critical juncture, we must find out what the people on the east coast think. Their existence is a huge variable, and we cannot tolerate the existence of such variables," Bossuet said again.

The physical condition of Carlos II was no secret in the church. After all, the people who healed the king were often the doctors of the church.France and Spain are both Catholic countries, and it is not uncommon to get some confidential information.What's more, now that France is so powerful—at least on the surface—it seems to have the style of carrying the banner of the Catholic world. It is not surprising that the Spanish Catholic Church is inclined to them.

"But we are not ready for war. The debts owed by the last war have not been fully paid off, and the local economic order is also being restored. Do we really have the strength to go to war?" Fenelon was a little worried.

"There is no time, Francis. We are not ready, the enemy is not ready, all are fair." Bossuet emphasized: "Go, go to Morocco as soon as possible. They have a lot of loans from the Italians, to We have purchased a large number of weapons, which is enough for us to warm up the military factory in advance. Remember, the people on the east coast are the biggest variable. They are too dazzling in Morocco this time, so we must figure out their purpose. do you understand?"

(End of this chapter)