I Am Louis XIV

   Chapter 439 The War of Spanish Succession! (3)

   Queen Teresa received a letter from her sister in Germain-en-Laye.

The mighty parade came to Germany-en-Laye, and it basically came to an end. Although Louis XIV encountered some obstacles and threats during his itinerary, at least he still completed his initial plan—that is, through the parade, a to see if his country is developing as he expected. It must be said here that this is very necessary. In addition to areas such as Brittany, which are inherently rebellious and have great independence, other places are also due to local lords, officials who are short-sighted, or greedy. sex, so that the laws of the king are 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 (except for commerce and finance). The workers may be ignorant, but when it comes to money, they can also be very shrewd - so all kinds of scams, or intimidation, although these people can no longer blame the king, but It also caused some difficulties for Louis XIV's policy.

  Louis XIV gave up his power, especially in the long Hundred Years War, the French kings seized the right to raise taxes from the parliament, just 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, will people work, study and have children with peace of mind, instead of worrying all day long. Anxiety is full of anxiety and anxiety, like a powder keg soaked in grease, which will explode when touched.

  France before Louis XIV and Spain after Carlos II ascended the throne were frequent riots, mostly for this reason.

When the future is bleak, as long as there is a little provocation, the people will fall into a frantic battle without any scruples - anyway, they have nothing in their hands, and even if they fail, they have nothing to lose, but if there are people who are willing to fulfill their promises, they will To be able to jump out of the present life immediately, to be freed from the unseen suffering.

Conversely, if the people always have coins jingling in their pockets, and there is bread, butter, and jam on the table, and a goose or a chicken in a pot, someone knocks on the door and says, "Come out. , man, let's raise a fork or a flail against the king and hang his officials." Guess how they'll respond?

  So, Louis XIV may not be a merciful person, but he will not allow someone to do harm in private, so that his people continue to be in poverty and despair.

   Also, the people's trust and love for the king can also make him get quite rich rewards.

The second purpose of the parade is to fight for future wars—even if the only male heir is now the second son of Louis XIV, only war can silence all opposition. Louis XIV knows this all too well, but In order to receive this crown, it is quite worthwhile for France to eliminate the attrition (war and negotiation) of the next few hundred years.

The issuance of war bonds followed the king's footsteps and spread to the whole of France. Everywhere the king went, the nobles would surely subscribe actively. The merchants even had to bribe the people around the king to join them, but Colbert was also surprised. The thing is, more than half of them came from the subscription of ordinary people.

Louis XIV has not collected additional taxes for 20 years since he came to power, and at the same time closely monitors nobles and officials, even in war - and those commoners are like a powerful leader in later generations. The praises are like the grass and trees in the wilderness, as long as they are given a little time to regenerate and rest, they will suddenly burst into a terrifying vitality.

The population growth has already allowed the king to equalize the total tax revenue in the past with the poll tax alone. When the war bonds are issued, the money accumulated by the people in the past two decades will be like a trickle converged into a big river. In that way, it flowed turbulently into the king's inner treasury.

Of course, there are also reasons why the king issued bonds during the Franco-Dutch War, allowing nobles and officials, as well as businessmen to make a lot of money - at that time, it was prudent and not completely open to the public, but now there is such an opportunity , and it is 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 did win, cashing the bonds wouldn't be a problem, it would save a lot of money on the military alone, not to mention what Spain had, those vast and prosperous colonies - the governors of Spain were not good at governing, they Knowing only rough and simple looting and slaughter, Louis XIV felt that if his officials were 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 a lot of capable government workers. These officials are the king's minions and ears, as well as his arms and feet. They manage the country for him and will be dispatched in the future. To Holland, Spain and America, and perhaps farther, more places.

   But first, they have to sharpen their fangs in France.

   Those lords and princes who dared to disobey or ignore the king's policies were the prey that these magistrates were most willing to offer to the king—the third purpose of the parade—the cause of all unrest in France.

In this regard, the king's officials are joined by the king's clergy, and we all know that the king of France has taken the appointment and removal of the priesthood into his own hands from earlier times, perhaps only for money at first—but Later, the kings discovered that if the priests and bishops were their own, it would only be more convenient for them to do things without worrying about the constraints of the church, which is why the Roman church has always been troubled.

But now, for example, Louis XIV doesn't have to pay too much attention to the Huguenots, the Jews, and even a small number of people who share the same beliefs as the Ottoman Turks - he has two religious princes, one It is the cardinal La Rivière we are familiar with, and one 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 keen, they cooperated seamlessly, and they worked well for Louis XIV, the Sun King, to stabilize France's various problems at the religious interface.

Almost all the priests in France have become the king's spies. With them, there is no place that the king's tentacles can't touch. Under their leadership, the villains who have lost their power and glory because of the king's new policy are fundamentally Without any possibility of resistance, one by one, they were either thrown into prison or hung on the gallows.

   Even Queen Teresa, who has never really expressed any opinion on politics, would say that even the air seems to be much cleaner in France after the parade.

   She even had the mood to recall her sister's appearance and voice. When they were both princesses of Spain, as the daughter of Philip IV and Princess Bourbon, she was undoubtedly more popular than Margaret, daughter of Philip IV and Princess of Habsburg of Austria , her father also prefers her sister rather 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.

  The marriage contract with Louis XIV may have been achieved by her past misfortunes.

Even so, Philip IV still ruthlessly asked her to swear before her marriage to renounce her right to the Spanish throne, completely ignoring her embarrassment after marrying into the French royal family and refusing to pay the dowry of half a million livres promised in the negotiation - he probably Unexpectedly, Queen Teresa is not the kind of obedient, naive and stupid Austrian princess. Once she finds that her parents' family is unreliable, she will turn to her husband's family without any hesitation.

   More correctly, to her husband and master Louis XIV.

   Even now, they have two sons and a daughter, who have been together for twenty years. After reading the letter from her sister, Queen Teresa immediately gave it to the king.

It must be said that there is something to be surprised about, and it may only be the last bit of warmth that the Austrian queen held for her eldest daughter. She entrusted her eldest daughter to her sister, and made it clear that she did not want her to return to Austria, of course, for the sake of it. For the future of Princess Antonia. Not to mention whether the girl in her belly is a boy, even if it is, Leopold I's happiness is temporary. To put it mildly, this happiness may not necessarily benefit Austria and Leopold I. on Princess Antonia.

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

  Louis folded the letter slowly. People rarely use parchment for writing letters. The letter rustled in his hand, "Maybe."

   "Do we need to do something?" whispered Queen Teresa.

"No," said Louis, "no, don't do anything superfluous." He knew that the queen was asking whether it was necessary to spread the idea of ​​the Spaniards' intentional confusion between illegitimate and legitimate children—even though the Spaniards "approved" that the child was the queen But even if you think about it with your toes, you know that an eight-year-old child can't be born, so their messengers have been negotiating with the church, which can be said to be a deal.

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

"You can't do that," Louie said. "It's a double-edged sword, and if it does work, then the next royal heirs will be called into question, your children, my children, our children's children. "

   "You are a merciful man," 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 shelter her, and then I will let Elarius take care of her safety." Louis said after deliberation, and then he Seeing his wife seemed to relax a little: "what's the matter with you, what are you thinking?"

   "Someone said that you might have brokered the engagement of Charles and Antonia." Queen Teresa said less reassuringly.

Louis was obviously stunned: "How is it possible? Their bloodlines are too close." He shook the Queen's hand comfortingly: "We can't choose our marriage, but you can see that for the children, I will try my best to To choose a more distant spouse for them, doctors have told us that close relatives are prone to miscarriages and deformities. We are lucky, Theresa, but there is no guarantee that the same will be true for our children."

Teresa doesn't mind inbreeding 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 was relieved - Antonia the Great Charles More, especially since she had a marriage before, and the fact that she became Queen of Spain twice in a row reminded her of Henry VIII's first queen.

   And I heard that she was still ill and injured, and it is difficult to say whether her weak body can fulfill her duties as a wife and queen.

   "Rather than worry about Shire, who is still in his infancy." Louis said: "Let's worry about the Grand Princess."

"The grand princess... oh, yes," Queen Teresa sighed: "She still has a marriage contract with the Prince of Prussia, although I shouldn't have asked, but it has become like this, and I don't know if there will be any in Prussia. What a change."

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

  ———

   was indeed several months left for King William I of Prussia.

It is not easy to start a war against France, especially for the current Leopold I, when he can't determine whether the child in the queen's womb is a boy or a girl, he can only do his best to delay Time—here falls upon the masters of the Roman church.

Although King Innocent XI once formed an alliance with Louis XIV, the country has always only looked at interests, and although Louis XIV was generous, he never made concessions in the appointment and removal of the priesthood, and he also let the red-clothed in 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...

   That was horrible.

Likewise, Louis XIV was waiting for the poisonous wine he brewed in Spain to ferment, and he needed time, so with the acquiescence of all concerned, Princess Antonia's appeal 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 this child was premature, thin and frail, it was still eagerly named by Leopold I - Philip.

   (end of this chapter)