Harry Potter Morning Light

Chapter 2427 royal circus (ten)

Looking south from the village of Metz, you can see the former location of Laeken Palace.The wife of the Duke of Teschen, Viceroy of the Austrian Netherlands, was the sister of Emperor Joseph II, and she was supposed to succeed the Governor General after the death of the Viceroy Alexander from Lorraine.However, in view of the turmoil caused by Queen Maria Theresa's succession to the throne, in the end the Austrian crown was also inherited by Maria Theresa's husband Franz I, so the governor of the Austrian Netherlands was inherited by the Duke of Teschen.

Joseph II did not allow her sister Maria Christina the power to levy taxes, which she complained to her brother Leopold, but she and Duke Teschen managed to build a palace for summer fun.

Empress Maria Theresa once carried out financial reforms on the Holy Roman Empire. At that time, the empire experienced wars one after another, and its finances were tight. However, there were structures such as fiefdoms and customs duties that seriously affected the taxation of the empire.

The taxation of feudal fiefdoms belongs to the nobles, and the nobles have to bear feudal obligations, such as providing troops during wars, giving gifts on occasions such as marriage, and childbirth. The actual situation is that the emperor can only ask for a little money from a few vassals , and the feudal monarch shall not interfere with the nobles' exploitation of the serfs in the fief.Maria Theresa's reform abolished the privileges of the nobility, and they also had to pay taxes. This reform liberated the serfs, and the tenant farmers and yeoman farmers paid agricultural taxes directly to the Habsburg family. The tenant farmers only leased their tenants to the nobility. Machine production raised taxes in a short time.However, the area of ​​this reform is limited to the areas highly ruled by the Habsburgs, such as Austria and Bohemia, other duchies and even the Austrian Netherlands are not included.

There are also nobles in the Netherlands. Some of them are vassals like the Duke of Arenberg, and some of them buy it with their own money. In addition, there are guilds, and most of the property is owned by these two classes.

Maria Theresa's second reform was the Customs Union, all reforms focused on guilds due to the nobility's concessions on the serf issue, she formed the Austrian-Bohemia and Hungarian-Transylvanian Customs The alliance cleared checkpoints, unified currency, promoted commodity circulation, and introduced machine production.

However, at that time, Maria Theresa's agent in Brussels, Prince Stallenberg, and the Privy Councilor were quite cautious in promoting reforms. They set up mints in Brussels and Antwerp, so they made some concessions in reforms.

Joseph II believed that Maria Theresa's reforms were not thorough, so he wanted to carry out in-depth reforms in person. Maria Krestina and her husband, the governor couple, were only symbolic leaders. They only received Foreign guests.Their former governor was mainly responsible for fighting. Alexander of Lorraine once fought against Frederick II. Then a Belgian who graduated from the School of Surgery of the University of Lyon was captured as an Austrian and rescued a Prussian soldier. It's over.

Maria Christina and her husband not only built the summer palace, but also liked to collect art like many nobles at the time, coupled with luxurious banquets and returning to Vienna from time to time, the couple was very pleasing and happily married.Maria was pregnant once, gave birth to a daughter, but didn't survive a day, and then she got puerperal fever, and Prince Teschen also contracted smallpox at this time, and the two supported each other to survive. In Pressburg.

In 1780, Governor Alexander died and was succeeded by Duke Teschen. They did not live in the old Teveren Castle.

Silesia was originally the dowry of Maria Christina. After it was ceded to Prussia, it could not spend 130 million Rhein guilders for renovation like the renovation of Pressburg in the past.Teveren Castle is a standard medieval castle with moats, drawbridges, and towers, similar to Boucher Castle near the village of Metz. It used to belong to the Boucher Knights of the Principality of Brabantine in the Middle Ages.

The Duchess likes neoclassicism. After seeing the beautiful scenery of Laeken, she asked a French designer to design Laeken Castle for her.

The Duchess had no children, she adopted the Grand Duke Karl, so everything she owned was inherited by the Grand Duke Karl. In 1793, because Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI were sent to the guillotine, Austria went to war with France, and then the Laken Palace was abandoned .Used as a military command post and prison during the French occupation, it was sold after the Lunéville Agreement to speculators who wanted to dismantle it and then sell the materials.Since the castle of Lechen was sold to Napoleon when the contract was signed, the inside is basically intact and can be lived in.

On the contrary, the Boucher Castle at the foot of the mountain has been refurbished and no longer looks like a haunted castle. The road in front of the drawbridge has also been filled and an English-style garden was built during the period when French exiles were stationed.A track was built from the platform to Boucher Castle. Although the road from Mechelen to Brussels was not repaired, they still experienced it in advance.The most important feature of this kind of road is that it is stable and not as bumpy as a gravel road.Their "little train" stopped at the entrance of the garden, and the real ceremony began.

It is late autumn, but the garden is full of flowers, they form a beautiful pattern, which looks like a carpet.

The guard of honor soldiers in the Austrian military uniform were a bit eye-catching, and the smile on Georgiana's face almost froze.

After passing the guard of honor, celebrities and nobles from Brussels came to the castle surrounded by them, where a grand banquet was held.

Usually the protagonist of the banquet is wine, but today it is replaced by beer. During the banquet, there are juggling performances and magic tricks.

When dinner was over, the ladies chatted around Georgiana, the gentlemen went next door with Sharptal and Edgeworth, and the children ran about in the garden as if they had endless energy.

There was a very small boy, probably less than three years old, who was held in his mother's arms and kept staring at Georgiana's face.

At first she was a little complacent, thinking that he was looking at her because she was beautiful, but after asking, he actually told her that he was observing whether the Englishman had upper lips.

The joke never gets old, and Georgiana laughed, and everyone laughed.

After the departure of the Austrians and their vassals, positions became vacant and were quickly filled by the new bourgeoisie.

For example, Lu Pei, who was originally the son of the chief doctor of the Dutch Navy Department, later became a priest, is now the mayor of Brussels.

In 1787, in order to resist the reforms of Joseph II, Brabantine launched an uprising. In 1798, in order to resist the French conscription law, he also launched an uprising. This time it was called the "Peasant War".

The situation at that time was very bad. The French regime carried out suppression, and most of the "flames" had been extinguished, except for a person named "Cousin Charles" who was not captured.

This was obviously not his real name, and as a partisan he had no way of getting supplies, the only way was to rob the French. After the "cousin" sent a large amount of wine to the garrison, he led the guerrillas to attack at night while the French were drunk. Although they won an easy victory, most of the French ran away.

One of the partisans was captured and revealed the true identity of his "cousin," Charles-Francisco Jacquesmann, the son of a gin distiller in Brussels, whose family spoke French, which he had learned to speak through playmates. Dutch.He tried to become a surgeon, didn't finish his studies, then married a rich widow much older than himself, and after her death he married a 19-year-old bride with whom he had a son and a daughter, but soon went bankrupt, He later became the Brussels wine excise tax collector.

After the Brabantine Revolution broke out, the Austrians lost their rule and Charles lost his job. During this time he joined the Austrian army. However, the army he served was defeated when crossing the Rhine. Charles was captured and later released. , and then began to engage in activities against the French as partisans.

After his identity was revealed, Charles hid for a period of time. At that time, the court had announced his death sentence in his absence, which meant that he did not even need to be "arrested and hanged", but could be shot in the street. During the Peasant War in 1798 He annexed two larger bandits to form the "Belgian Legion".

Two robbers escaped from their "cousin", met the passing French column, and told Charles the exact location. Then the French commissioner Mallarmé carried out a siege, and later died in battle, and was replaced by Lupe, who unfortunately fell on the battlefield. Horse, it took a long time to slow down.

Those feudal princes who surrendered to France moved out the method they used to deal with the Habsburg family, that is to say, if Bonaparte needed an army, they would show him the account books. Naparte decided on his own needs, and the princes would provide as many people as Bonaparte wanted, but the French could not interfere in their internal affairs, and these petty tyrants could still do whatever they wanted in their own territory.

The vampire lady Elizabeth Bartoli did exactly that. She used the blood of girls to keep her youthful and beautiful. Her castle often recruited maids. Many of these maids were peasant girls, and Mrs. Bartoli was rich and educated. , is a good lord who is well-known for being considerate of the people, and she can learn etiquette from her, until more and more girls are missing, and people can't believe that she did it.

For so much bloodshed, Madame Bartoli was not burned, but imprisoned in a tower.

Mrs. Bolsky's obvious change is really eye-catching. She is already beautiful, plus she knows how to dress up. People who say that she is less than forty will believe her. She doesn't have the wrinkled appearance a few days ago.

Amid the laughter, Georgiana regretted giving her the potion.

Otherwise, she should be mixed with water. This effect is so good that Georgiana is afraid. I knew that I should give a few more instructions, and there must be a gradual process. I don’t know if there is still room for redemption?

(End of this chapter)