I Am Louis XIV

   Chapter 255 Carve up the Netherlands

   In the Jupiter Room, signed by France, Spain, Britain, the Holy Roman Empire and other countries, in the Treaty of Versailles in 1672, the Netherlands and its colonies made the most thorough cuts. Every envoy is staring at him, for fear that his own interests and the interests of the country will be damaged, while the Netherlands, the original owner of this land, is blocked from entering the Palace of Versailles - but this is always the case in the world, and the Netherlands is not the first to disappear in the long river of time. The country in , and not the last.

Negotiations did not end until the third day after the celebration of the 15th, slightly different from what Louis XIV had envisaged, but still maintaining an army of 120,000 men in France, and, if not for the Dutch or Flemish The Germans, Louis XIV, who had never been defeated by the coalition forces of Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, Brandenburg, Spain and other countries, kept the envoys to the greatest degree of reverence and caution—it turned out that they could no longer They intervened in the French occupation of the lowlands with strong military means. They could only plan for one or two in terms of words and intrigue. The problem is that many times, power trumps all sophistry. During negotiations, the Sun King rarely speaks and speaks. The people are either the Viscount Turenne or the Prince of Condé. As the two most powerful generals in France, they are not eloquent, but the golden sun medals and epaulettes that are constantly flashing on their chests and shoulders will make everyone present. Unconsciously short of breath.

Of course, those present had heard of Louis XIV's military rank system. Military ranks appeared as early as the 15th and 16th centuries. Not only Louis XIV was the only king who wanted to implement the military rank system, but some kings even had their own armies. None of them (Charles II: Can you not mention me?), and some kings and emperors, not because of blood, but were elected to the top (Leopold I of the Holy Roman Empire, Michal of Poland and Hungary :…), or the king’s power is constrained by his ministers or regents (the Queen Mother) (Carlos II of Spain, Karl XI of Sweden: we can’t blame us)—in short, so far, also Only Louis XIV did it. He was in power, with his own guards, musketeers, dragoons, and a new army from Versailles. The number of these soldiers far exceeded the support of the princes, and only this , the king can implement the military rank system in the army, and use the rank as a reward - the military rank is directly linked to the treatment and status of the soldiers and officers. The vassals are not my vassals", the soldiers belonged to the generals or lords, not the king, how could they believe the king's promise and die for him?

There are also some ill-conceived people who hope that the Prince of Condé, who has great prestige in the army, or the Viscount Turenne, will hinder or reject the King's New Deal, but it is a pity that neither of these two is as good as them. Doing what they imagined, they can say that they happily accepted the king's arrangement and became the king's most credible spear and strong shield - they were awarded the Grand Marshal the day before, and in addition to the usual scepter that people can see, they have The "Golden Lily", "Faced Sun" and "Sword" medals were all dismantled from the coat of arms of Bourbon and Louis XIV, representing honor, the king's trust and victory, respectively, and the "Sword" The medals of the Viscount Turenne and Prince Condé lined the chests, as did the sword-wielding nobles behind them—in the eyes of the envoys, this was a threat, because many of these victories came from their defeat.

But to say who was the most distressed and embarrassed among the people present was William III, and even the Spanish, the de facto owner of the Flanders region, was not as embarrassed as him. It is ridiculous to divide the territory of the Orange family in front of him. William III was ill-fated because the Dutch parliament had been on guard against the descendants of Orange to regain the Netherlands and become kings, but now, the Netherlands not only does not belong to Orange, but also Don't belong to any Dutchman - I don't know how Prime Minister John de Witte will feel when he sees this. William III attended every meeting, and although no one listened to him, the Duke of Orleans told Louis that the descendant of Orange was still trying to get the help of another country or an important person, and he was still He wrote in the hope that he would be able to reach someone who would support him.

He will definitely be disappointed. Maybe the one who feels the same way as him is Prime Minister Witte. Prime Minister Witte was delayed by the mob, and William III, although all the people who participated in the meeting were high-ranking, well-dressed, but they It was no different from those craftsmen and merchants, who happily shattered and divided "his" life's hopes in front of William III, arguing over who should get what.

Later, even Edward Hyde couldn't help persuading William III that he didn't have to participate in every meeting, as long as he appeared at the meeting related to Utrecht, after all, he was elected by Charles II. A puppet, but William III seemed to have fallen into a demon, as if he was going to torture or sacrifice himself, and persisted until the end.

Regarding the cutting of the mainland of the Netherlands, according to the Dover secret agreement between Louis XIV and Charles II, three of the seven provinces belonged to Charles II, but because Charles II wanted William III, his nephew Inherited Utrecht, of course, if possible, he hoped that Utrecht was not included in his three provinces, of course Louis XIV would not agree, the British navy was already in the third Anglo-Dutch war Undoubtedly, the army created by Charles II imitating Louis XIV is still under preparation, London is full of blood and rain, the Duke of York hates his brother, his son is still a baby, and there is not much possibility for the current England to compete with him. France goes to war.

Charles II wanted Utrecht, Friesland and Groningen, but these two regions, Denmark on the top and the Holy Roman Empire on the right, although they belonged to the Archbishops of Münster and Cologne, they are still Louis's for the time being Allies, but can be bought by Louis, can be bought by Charles II - after Holland, the enemy of England is France, and Louis does not want to test how deep the relationship between him and Charles II is - so he is absolutely These two territories would not be handed over to Charles II.

In addition, King Frederick IV of Denmark has always been haunted by Sweden's loss of the Scandivina region, so in this battle, he not only stood on the opposite side of France, but also was the enemy of Karl XI. , it's just that Denmark wants to defeat Sweden, and Sweden is not the same - the king of Denmark is also the master of Norway, and as long as you look at the map, you know that Norway is like a belt inlaid on the Swedish territory.

In view of the fact that the alliance between Karl XI and Louis XIV may last for more than ten years - if Princess Elizabeth successfully marries into the Swedish royal family and gives birth to an heir for Karl XI, then once Louis XIV occupies the North and South Holland, the grid Rhoningen and Friesland can form a two-sided attack with Sweden; in addition, if Zeeland and Utrecht are handed over to Charles II and William III, then Louis XIV can use the Flanders region and grid. Roningen, Friesland surrounded the British Netherlands - of course the British firmly disagreed with this result, not to mention that the original three provinces were suddenly reduced to one (they insisted that Utrecht belonged to William III), So after repeated negotiations and bargaining, Edward Hyde proposed that they could give up the ownership of New York in Ameriga in exchange for Friesland and Groningen. Obviously, what Louis could think of, the British should be able to think of.

So after repaying the king, the French who returned to the negotiating table gave a condition that Charles II could not refuse—Louis XIV accepted the British abandonment of New York, but he was still unwilling to give up the original plan, but he You can take a step back and get out of South Holland.

This is something that no one present could have thought of, because to say that the richest place in the Netherlands is South Holland rather than North Holland, Rotterdam and The Hague alone, two of the three major Dutch ports are in South Holland - this is enough Let the cash-strapped Charles II hesitate.

Thus, England owns South Holland, Utrecht and Zeeland, occupying exactly the lower half of Holland, France owns North Holland, Groningen and Friesland, and as for Upper IJsel, it is occupied by Cologne and Münster. The archbishops received them separately, and only Gelderland was left, after a delicate struggle - Leopold I's envoys were of course unwilling to return without success, and if they were able to insert into the French Netherlands (Gelderland is in the Between Groningen and Flanders), France, even though occupying two and a half Dutch provinces, still had to be on the lookout for a knife behind him, and as described earlier, Charles II was happy to see Louis XIV Losing control of the Netherlands, with the help of British envoys, Gelderland could also be said to be forced to cede to the Habsburgs - but not Leopold I of Austria, but Carlos II of Spain, The rationale, of course, is that Spain traded the province of Flanders for the region.

  In this way, the face of Carlos II can be considered to be preserved...

Then, in recompense, Louis XIV took the rest of the Netherlands in America, the Hudson Valley, without hesitation, although at first Louis was ready to regurgitate Flanders and Holland, although the New World and the colonies seemed All are very attractive, but he also knows that disorderly expansion will only degenerate into a second Rome. The ancient Roman Empire continued to expand without consolidating its foundation. The empires are all in a kind of loose alliance, the governor of each district is like a king, oh no, they do become kings later.

But now that France has America, the rest of the Dutch colonies have become prey to the wolves—Britain has Batavia, Sumatra, Malacca, and Ceylon (Melaka is almost the biggest shadow of the British caravan) - When the Dutch took control of Malacca, every British caravan had to pay heavy taxes); Spain got the Spice Islands (the Portuguese envoy protested but to no avail), but they took the opportunity to retake the Cape of Good Hope; Austria tried to leave the Security The Andres Islands, but in the end the Andres Islands were acquired by Sweden - the Andres Islands are the islands that connect Ameri and the lower two parts. Since France has decided to accept New York, then Karl XI will have nothing to do with it. I chose the Andres Islands without hesitation. It is fortunate that Karl XI came to Versailles to meet his future bride. The envoy of Austria was just an earl, facing the king of Sweden and the king of France at the same time. At the time, there was almost no fighting back.

   But the Austrian envoys did not return empty-handed, they got Indonesia and the Malay Archipelago.

  ———

Leaving aside how Wilhelm III came back to the room full of hatred - by this time he was already the Prince of Orange, although he was left with only one Utrecht, who had thought of assassinating the culprit, the King of France Louis XIV, but he was surrounded by priests and bodyguards every time he visited the king, and he had no value to make Louis XIV special - the envoys of other countries returned to their rooms exhausted, so to speak, or Eat and drink, or fall asleep, and some continue to think.

For example, Spanish envoy Juan Patinho, the illegitimate son of Philip IV, is now the confidant of Don Juan Jose, the regent of Spain, but his original heart is loyal to the Habsburgs, that is, Said that his master should be Carlos II, but after seeing Louis XIV, although he knew he should not, he couldn't help but feel a sense of disappointment in his heart, he did not expect Carlos II to become the second emperor. Two sun kings, but the Duke of Colonna around the sun king does not know that he is many times better than Carlos II.

You can't say that a loyal minister shouldn't have no expectations for his king - but Carlos II is eleven years old this year, and he is still a dull and ignorant person... Because of epilepsy, he often falls on the ground regardless of the occasion. The ground twitched. The Spaniards have always had the most devout beliefs. He could not help but make people think that he was possessed by the devil. People were already whispering and gave Carlos II the nickname of "The Devil".

   This is why Don Juan Jose is just an illegitimate son, but there are still many people in Spain who support him - as long as he doesn't want to sit on the throne of the king.

Don Juan is destined to not be king. Once he dies or loses power, everything he has now is a shadow in the mirror. He is not happy with Gelderland Patinho, because he does not know that the Duke of Don Juan will. What decision was made—"If I were the king of France," he whispered, "I would definitely try to get Gelderland."

  Will Duke Don Juan be willing to keep this enclave as a springboard and station for Spain in the future? Perhaps, he is a soldier and an ambitious person, but his talent is inversely proportional to his ambition, he has lost to the Portuguese and to the French - now Spain is not a "double king" period The most powerful Spain, what choice will he make?

The only certainty is that Don Juan will never fall to the Habsburgs. After all, the Queen Mother of Spain of the Habsburgs was exiled by him. Even if he supported Leopold I, Leopold I would not. abandon your sister.

   (end of this chapter)