monarch

Joao III's charred body was sealed in a lead coffin that night and buried in the chapel of the Sintra Palace.Although the coffin was tightly sealed, those in charge of the burial still claim that they can smell the looming stench that is now lingering in the corridors of the palace, especially the suite where the king lived during his lifetime.That bedroom has now been completely sealed off, and the masons have sealed the door with a wall, as if the bedroom had never been there.

In the early morning of the next day, before the sun rose, the entire court, or the rest of the court, left the Sintra Palace and embarked on a journey back to the capital.When they passed through the dense woods around the palace, there were bursts of long whimpers from the black trees, like those dead souls accusing and cursing the murderer.These bloody hands of the putschists are now in a state of high nervousness, and hearing such voices makes them shudder.

October 10th was a beautiful autumn day, the air was as clear as a spring, and there was no cloud in the sky, like a piece of blue silk that had been unfolded.The strong wind that once raged in the city of Lisbon at night has now completely calmed down, and nature has held its breath together with the citizens in the city, witnessing the scene of the winner of the succession battle entering the capital.

In the center of the procession, in the carriage drawn by six horses, the Duchess Elisabeth - now called Queen Elizabeth - sat with the Duke of Braganza, the curtains of the windows drawn, They smiled and waved to the people on both sides of the road.However, the shadow of the new king cannot be found in the team at all. Obviously, King Joao Manuel is not something to be proudly displayed to the queen and ministers who are in power today. On the contrary, he is A disgrace, an indelible stain on the crown.It only takes one more person to see that their king is such a freak, and there is a crack in the foundations of the monarchy.Who would serve such a man?Who will admit that this is the "God-blessed King of Portugal and the Algarve"?All this is not so much a blessing from God, but more like a sin from Satan.

The citizens of Lisbon treated the two smiling rulers with indifferent indifference, as if they were witnessing not a celebration but a funeral, and the hearse of the Kingdom of Portugal passed before them.The serious social and economic crisis of the past 20 years has brought the reputation of the Portuguese royal family to its lowest point, and the attacks on the morality and chastity of the new queen have discredited the entire court.Those lords who concocted these arrows of pen and ink watched with satisfaction these vicious rumors shot into the heart of the dynasty. Now, unlike the barbarous Middle Ages, quills are more deadly than daggers and swords.In the civilized sixteenth century, the destruction of political enemies was no longer a barbaric means of physical destruction, but of moral destruction.But these instigators seem to have forgotten that attacking Queen Elizabeth is attacking the entire dynasty, and when the dynasty collapses, only a few people will be able to take advantage of the fire, while more people will face the embarrassing situation of losing their interests or even losing their heads.Now the evil results have begun to appear, and the storm is gathering in the clear sky of the capital.

At noon that day, in the hall of the Royal Palace of Lisbon, a ceremony of homage to King João Manuel I was held.According to the usual practice, ministers and nobles need to be summoned by the king one by one, but in view of the fact that the new king cannot keep quiet in front of the public for more than 5 minutes, the ceremony was modified so that all participants declared their allegiance to the king together.Such an amendment was so wise that when the ceremony was just over, the king began to yell, "I want grouse pie!" The cry echoed in the arcades until His Majesty was carried out of the room by his attendants.Obviously, hiding him and pretending he doesn't exist is the best solution for everyone.And looking at Queen Elizabeth's expression, it seems that she can't wait to put him in a lead coffin and bury him under three feet to be with his father.

Immediately after the ceremony of homage was concluded, the decree appointing a regent was issued.Since the health of the new king does not allow him to perform his duties, Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Braganza will act as co-regents.According to the agreement reached by the two, the former king's younger brother, Cardinal Henry, would become the third co-regent. However, news of the suspicious cause of the late king's death has spread like wildfire. After all, it is still lingering in the palace of Sintra. The stench inside is really hard to ignore.Under such circumstances, bringing Cardinal Henry into the center of power is likely to shoot himself in the foot, so the three-person regency has become a two-person regency in line with the times.

At three o'clock in the afternoon that day, a cabinet meeting chaired by the two regents was held in the palace. To the astonishment of the cabinet ministers attending the meeting, the figure of the British special envoy Robert Dudley was seen on the meeting table.

"What's going on?" the Chancellor of the Exchequer complained dissatisfiedly, "Why is this lord here? Could it be that we have now become a vassal state of Britain, and even the sycophants around the King of Britain can dictate in cabinet meetings?" The Chancellor of the Exchequer was one of the representatives of the pro-Spanish forces at court, married a Spanish wife, and had much of the cost of maintaining his own lavish life at the Spanish embassy.

Robert didn't speak, but looked at the Duke of Braganza with a half-smile.

"Your Excellency Special Envoy is not here to speak, he is just here to observe." The Duke of Braganza explained, "The first topic of our meeting today is related to the Kingdom of Britain. In order to make things simpler, we ask the Special Envoy Come to listen to the first topic, and when the discussion of the first topic is over, he will leave immediately."

"I promise, I will never cause inconvenience to you adults." Robert looked at the chancellor of the exchequer, smiled and nodded, but the other party just snorted blankly.

"Now that the misunderstanding has been resolved, let's start the formal topic." The Duke of Braganza opened the folder in front of him, "The first topic is about a deal between us and the Kingdom of Britain. We are in desperate need of financial and military assistance at this time of our country's fragile transition of power. Her Majesty the Queen and I have reached an agreement with Mr. Envoy to sell the Brazilian colony to Britain in exchange for the money we desperately need and weapons."

"This is an act of treason!" The Chancellor of the Exchequer patted the table in dissatisfaction, and the documents placed on it jumped up, "In addition, when did the Kingdom of Spain become our enemy? They have been in the past few decades. Our good friend, the sister and daughter of the former king became the queen of Spain, King Philip II was half Portuguese, and his son, Prince Don Carlos, was three quarters Portuguese! Who Say we're going to war with Spain?"

"I think, after what happened last night," interposed Queen Elizabeth, "that no one who still calls himself a Portuguese will show any kindness to Spain. Their ambassador murdered His Majesty with their own hands, and their Their ambitions are obvious, and we regard them as friends, but they have declared with practical actions that they would rather be our enemies."

"Since we are talking about His Majesty's death." The Chancellor changed the subject, "I have indeed heard some rumors about the cause of His Majesty's death. Since Her Majesty the Queen was present, then perhaps you can explain to us why the Spanish ambassador murdered His Majesty?"

The Chancellor of the Exchequer spread his hands, "There is no reason for this matter, it is completely illogical, it is more like someone is deliberately framing the blame!" He turned his eyes to Queen Elizabeth, "You are so eager to convict Spain, it seems a little bit Can't wait."

"Such meaningless rumors are nothing but smoke in the wind, and taking them seriously will only damage my dignity." Queen Elizabeth replied contemptuously, "I have a few drops of dirty water on my clothes, I will not To be saddened by this is just to clean it off my sleeve."

"As you like," said the Chancellor, "but I, being a good Portuguese, would never turn against Spain. I do not agree to start a war with Spain, we should not fight them, and we have no hope of winning. He stretched out his finger to Robert across the table, "The only one who can benefit from it is the treacherous Albion (an ancient name for Britain)!"

"I want to assure you that we do not expect war at all," replied the Duke of Bragança, "in fact, I am ready to send a special envoy to Madrid to negotiate with King Philip to resolve this series of troubles between our two countries. The method we have made so far is nothing more than a rainy day.”

"I very much doubt that if Her Majesty the Queen intervenes, there will be any substantive results in this negotiation." The chancellor sneered, "She and the British king behind her all wish that we would immediately go to war with Spain and delay King Philip's invasion of their few days. an island time."

"You are wrong, my lord." Queen Elizabeth said solemnly, "I am the queen of Portugal, and my son will become the king of Portugal in the future. I will always put Portugal's interests first. I don't want war, I never I didn't even think about war. It was the Spaniards who wanted to impose war on me. They murdered the former king and discredited me and the name of the child in my womb. The purpose is to hold the Portuguese crown in their hands like a robber! Only a naive fool would think that furling the sails when the storm comes will calm the storm. On the contrary, the storm will only become more and more violent, using the weakness of the helmsman to continuously accumulate his own strength, and finally the ship It will be smashed into pieces by the huge waves, and everyone on board will die without a place to die! The only way out is to fight the storm! In order to increase our chances of winning, we must plan ahead!"

"I'm not opposed to planning for a rainy day, but isn't the price too high?" The Minister of Exchequer still didn't mean to give in, "The huge Brazilian colony is rich in products and everything you need, and now you want to exchange it for the scheming British king. A few illusory promises? What kind of credit can that fallen person who doesn’t believe in God have? You still have his... I don’t know how to say it..."

He turned his head to look at Robert again, "bringing this man into the cabinet meeting room and treating him as a distinguished guest... What a moral failure! No, I will never approve of such a dirty deal of."

Queen Elizabeth also seemed a little irritated, "You seem to have misunderstood something, I don't need your approval. Brazil is a crown colony, in other words, she is the private property of the royal family, how to deal with my family's private property, completely It's my own business, I'm just letting you know today, whether you think it's a pure deal or a dirty one, I've made a decision!"

She pulled out a document from the folder on the desk in front of her, picked up the quill and wrote her name, so hard that the tip of the pen almost scratched the paper.

The queen pushed the document in front of the Duke of Braganza, who hesitated for a moment before signing the document.

"Take it, my lord." She handed the document to an attendant to pass it to Robert. "Brazil is now British."

Robert took the document from the attendant, read it from beginning to end, nodded with satisfaction, folded it and put it in his arms, "It is very pleasant to do business with you, I believe the friendship between our two countries will last forever .”

Queen Elizabeth nodded coldly.

"Now we have fulfilled our due obligations, and I also look forward to Britain's fulfillment of your country's obligations in this transaction as soon as possible." She stretched out her hand towards Robert, "Now we have to discuss other issues, you should leave Otherwise, the Chancellor of the Exchequer may have a heart attack."

She glanced mockingly at the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whose face had already turned a liver color, as if an invisible hand was pinching his neck.

Robert stood up obediently, went to Queen Elizabeth, and took her hand.He felt that the other party stuffed a small note into his hand.

He put the queen's hand to his lips, kissed it lightly, and walked out of the room.

When he was sure that there was no one in the corridor outside, he took out the note from his palm and unfolded it. On it was Queen Elizabeth's beautiful handwriting: "Please wait in the palace, I have something to think about." interview with you."

Robert gently tore the note into tiny pieces and stuffed it into his pocket.