monarch

The coup d'état in Spain, the death of King Philip II and the murder of the Duke of Alva set off a series of chain reactions throughout Europe.

On July 3th, Prince Don Carlos announced in Madrid that he became King Don Carlos I of Spain and Portugal. However, what he gained was not the support of the entire country, but the hostility of all walks of life in the country.In Barcelona, ​​riots broke out in both the Basque Country and Galicia, involving local garrisons.The whole country was shocked by the atrocities of the new king. The Duke of Alva has always been loved by the whole country. Although the defeat of the Armada caused his prestige to decline, this tragic death turned him into a martyr. saint.In such an atmosphere, with most of the kingdom refusing to recognize King Don Carlos' rule, a bloody civil war seemed destined to erupt.

The news of the Duke of Alva's death caused further unrest in the Netherlands, and the Legion of Flanders reacted violently to the unjust death of their beloved commander.On July [-], the Legion of Flanders announced the severance of relations with Spain, and at the same time announced that the Southern Netherlands would establish an independent Kingdom of Belgium, and the eldest son of the Duke of Alva was elected as the new king of the Kingdom of Belgium.

The newly established Kingdom of Belgium is surrounded by powerful enemies. France and the Netherlands are eyeing this new country from the north and the south. In order to survive, they can only extend an olive branch to the Kingdom of Britain.

On July 25, the Belgian envoy arrived in London. He fully recognized the agreement previously signed between Britain and the League of Dutch Nobles, and made many new concessions.Belgium agrees to cede the port of Antwerp to the Kingdom of Britain, and at the same time open all of its inland waterways to Britain. British goods will be tax-free for ten years. At the same time, the customs, government and army of the Kingdom of Belgium will hire British consultants to carry out reforms.In return, the Kingdom of Britain will publicly guarantee the independence of the Kingdom of Belgium.

Although King Edward VI and the British cabinet have been reluctant to get too involved in the affairs of the European continent, the conditions proposed by the Kingdom of Belgium were too generous, so they nodded without thinking too long.On July 29, representatives of both parties signed the "London Treaty" in the Alexander Hall of Hampton Palace, and the Kingdom of Belgium became a de facto protectorate of the Kingdom of Britain.

When the news reached Amsterdam, the nobles of the Netherlands were naturally distraught. Compared with the seven provinces of the North Netherlands, the ten provinces of the South Netherlands were originally richer. One of the most valuable lands in Europe, not to mention that these aristocrats all have a lot of money in the southern Netherlands. They had expected to take back these properties after the war, but now these plans are all in vain.

With the support of the nobles, the Prince of Orange has always maintained contact with France. Now Britain can’t count on it. The Dutch are determined to cooperate with France. They made a proposal to King Henry II of France and are willing to carve up Belgium with France. Derain got Flanders in the north, and the French got Wallonia in the south, which is equivalent to giving half of Belgium to France.

Faced with such a suggestion, King Henry II was naturally moved, but he was unwilling to confront the now prosperous British Kingdom head-on, so he decided to adopt a more roundabout method, trying to take advantage of the chaos.

On August [-], he met with the ambassadors of Britain and the Netherlands in the Louvre, and proposed to hold a three-nation peace conference at the Palace of Fontainebleau outside Paris to discuss the Belgian question.

As for the new Belgian government, they can send representatives to attend the meeting, but they do not have the right to speak at the meeting. advantage of one vote.

The Netherlands immediately announced its approval of the French king's proposal and thanked King Henry II for his peace efforts.Such a statement pushed the British Kingdom into a somewhat embarrassing situation. If it refused to participate in the peace conference, then Britain would be seen as a destroyer of peace.

Countless eyes were fixed on Hampton Court Palace, but King Edward remained silent until the morning of August [-], when the King and Robert Dudley received Sir Walsingham, Director of Intelligence and Home Secretary , the three of them stayed in the room until the sun was setting in the west, and Sir Walsingham did not leave the palace.

The next day, King Edward VI summoned the French ambassador and announced that the new prime minister, His Excellency Cecil, would go to Fontainebleau to attend the peace conference as a representative of the Kingdom of Britain.

All parties expressed their willingness to attend the meeting, and King Henry II was in a very happy mood. After all, such an important meeting marks that the Kingdom of France is still at the center of the European political stage.After experiencing previous setbacks, other major powers are still willing to sell France a face.He set the date for the peace conference on August 25 and asked the management of the Palace of Fontainebleau to prepare for the guests.

On August [-], the Netherlands delegation set off from Amsterdam for Paris. The chief representative of this delegation was naturally the ruling Prince of Orange himself.With the victory of the War of Independence against Spain, the Prince of Orange has become a national hero of the Netherlands, and his prestige has risen. Such prestige was enough to turn the United Provinces of the Netherlands into a kingdom and let the crown of the country rest on his head.

The delegation from the Netherlands arrived in Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern France by boat. In this small city that was already famous in Europe, they saw the wreckage of the invincible Spanish Armada.The charred skeletons of ships sunk deep in the sand like beached whales, and nearby residents stripped salvageable timber from their bodies.

Seeing this situation, the members of the Netherlands delegation were quite excited. They still couldn't forget the scene of the Spaniards bossing around in the Netherlands. Now the Armada has become garbage on the beach, and the Flanders Legion Severing relations with Spain, and even a civil war broke out among the Spanish themselves. This ending really made them feel bad.

Among the joyful Dutch nobles, the only one with a cold expression was their leader, the Prince of Orange, and the reason for his worry was simple: if such a powerful Spanish Armada was destroyed in an instant, then whoever destroyed this fleet would be What a terrifying force it is!

He looked at the cloudy strait, which is only a few dozen miles away from the coast of the British Isle. That island used to be the most powerful ally of the Dutch, but now the situation has changed drastically. The enemy, the Spanish Empire, has collapsed. This friendship, which was originally gathered because of profit, will naturally be disbanded now.

The Netherlands is a maritime nation, which means she will be a rival to the Kingdom of Britain whether she wants to or not.Britannia holds a trident and has just put the crown of the sea god on her head. As long as she looks around, she will find that the only potential challenge to her sea power in the whole of Europe is the newly independent Kingdom of the Netherlands. Then Wouldn't she have strangled this future challenger in the cradle without hesitation?They have established the Kingdom of Belgium in the South Netherlands, the seventeen provinces have been stripped in half, and the strangulation of the Britons has begun.

Now that Britain has turned its friends into enemies, the only thing the Netherlands can rely on is France in the south.Prince Orange is determined to stand with the French in the upcoming peace conference, but this is only a stopgap measure.He firmly believed that although he was only a prince, he could deal with those kings and emperors; although the Netherlands was a small country, it could handle well among big countries as long as it advanced and retreated properly.When he formed an alliance with the Britons, he had already chosen France as his back route; now he is standing with King Henry II, but the prince already has the answer in his heart about the candidate for his next friend.

After a short rest in Boulogne-sur-Mer, the Dutch delegation continued to Paris. On August 23, they arrived at the Palace of Fontainebleau. At this time, the King of France was still in the Louvre, and the British delegation wanted the first It took two days to arrive in Paris, so this night, the Netherlands delegation became the only resident of this palace.

During the reign of the late King François I, the Palace of Fontainebleau was expanded from a detached palace to a luxurious palace in the Renaissance style.However, since the first king passed away, the successor King Henry II did not often lead the court to stay here, so the palace gradually fell into decline. It has not been as lively as this day for a long time.

The Prince of Orange lived in a luxurious suite on the second floor. When Emperor Charles V visited France, he stayed in this house for a few nights. The man has passed away, but this room still retains the original The layout, even the patterns of the curtains and the material of the tablecloths are the same as they were back then.King Henry II's doing this can be understood as a kind of concern for the Prince of Orange, the darling of Emperor Charles V, and it can also be understood as a satire of the prince's ungratefulness. Only he himself knows.

It was gradually getting dark, and the servants lit the lamps in the room. The Prince of Orange did not go downstairs to have dinner with his colleagues, but asked the servants to put the dinner in his room.He asked for dinner for two, and the reason he gave was that he was really hungry after a long journey.

Sitting alone at the dining table, the prince looked at the portrait of Emperor Charles V hanging on the opposite wall. The portrait was probably created when the emperor was about 30 years old. He looked young and vigorous, with bright eyes and seemed to have boundless energy With insatiable ambition, the prince had difficulty connecting the figure in the portrait with the weary old man he remembered.

He remembered the afternoon when he got the news of the Emperor's death, he locked himself in his study, and the whole city of Amsterdam became a sea of ​​joy. When he was in the city, they also welcomed him with such cheers.The masses are just a bunch of ridiculous puppets, if you hold on to the strings that manipulate them, whatever you want them to do, they will do it with enthusiasm.

For the emperor, he felt a little guilty. It was he who threw the first hammer to the crumbling Spanish Empire, and the Netherlands was the first domino to fall.But he didn't regret it, because he wanted a crown, and all crowns are made of blood and crime, and then forged by the flames of betrayal and conspiracy.He had indeed betrayed the Emperor, but had the Emperor been placed in his place, Charles von Habsburg would have made the same choice.

It was futile for Henry II to arrange the room in this way, even if the emperor himself stood in front of him, he could feel at ease, let alone these items, which were just fragments of memory.The emperor is dead, Spain has collapsed, and the era of him and the Netherlands has just begun.

There were a few light knocks on the door, interrupting the Prince's thoughts. He looked at the door, where there was the sound of the lock buckle vibrating.

A figure in a black cloak entered the room, holding a candlestick in her hand with a pale flame dancing at the top of a candle.Judging from the person's figure, it was a woman with a black veil on her face, only showing a pair of blue eyes.

"His Royal Highness." She greeted Prince Orange, but did not salute.

Prince Orange stood up and bowed to the visitor, "His Royal Highness."

The woman put the candlestick on the table, took off her veil, and smiled at the Prince of Orange.

The Prince of Orange looked at the woman in front of him. It is said throughout Europe that Mary Stuart, the princess of France and self-proclaimed Queen of Scots, was as gorgeous as a rose, but the woman standing in front of him was indeed beautiful. The facial features are beautiful, but they are not so exquisite, let alone alluring.

The two sat down at the dining table without calling the servants in. The Prince of Orange picked up the pot-bellied glass bottle on the table and poured a glass of wine into the glasses in front of the two of them.

"I'm very glad that you are moved by my conditions." Prince Orange picked up the glass and let the liquid inside touch his lips lightly.

The woman also raised the glass and took a sip. Under the flickering candlelight on the table, her face flickered.

"I never said I would stand with you." She smiled with half of her face exposed in the shadows, "Aren't we just having dinner tonight?"

"If you are not moved, then why did you come?" The prince stared at the opposite woman with clear eyes, "and you can't wait...you could have come tomorrow with other people."

"I'm just a little curious about you." The woman took another sip of wine, "Your name is known to all of Europe now, and now you have extended a hand of friendship to me. Of course I want to see what you look like with my own eyes."

"Would you like to take over my hand of friendship?"

"It's up to you to convince me." The woman took another sip of wine, "I lost everything since I was a child, and came to this strange country to live a life of being dependent on others. I made many friends here, From them, I understand a truth that friendship is based on interests."

"I know you want to be the king of the Netherlands. There is nothing wrong with it. You saved that country, so naturally you are entitled to ride on their heads. I have no problem with that. And my father-in-law wants To expand the territory, so you bought him with half of the southern Netherlands, and let him stand with you on the front line against the Britons."

"I hate the Britons, so I'm glad you're their enemy now. But what I don't understand is, why would you seek my friendship when you already have my father-in-law as your friend?" she shared. She spread her hands, "As you can see, I am just a little woman. I have no army or fleet. What value am I to you?"

"Madam, there is an iron law of friendship: today's friend is tomorrow's enemy."

"It's like you and the Britons?" The woman laughed sarcastically, "You just hooked up with my father-in-law, and you're already thinking about breaking up with him?"

"I don't think we will tear each other apart." Prince Orange shook his head lightly, "But one must always think about the future, after all, he is not young anymore."

"And my husband will inherit France, and you want to continue this friendship with us." The woman raised her eyebrows, "Then I'll just go straight, what good will it do us? You plan to give my father-in-law half of Belgium. It is the price of your friendship; then how do you plan to price our friendship?"

"You speak plainly," said the Prince of Orange. "Then I will say frankly that there is now a great powder keg buried under the throne of France, and this powder keg is called the conflict of religions. Your husband To sit on the throne of France, he always depends on one party, either his mother, or the Protestant League, or you and your uncle, the Duke of Guise, and the Catholic power behind you. Of course, you are May he depend on you, so that he becomes a puppet in your hands, from the son of Caterina de' Medici to the son of Mary Stuart."

"It's not a secret." The woman was still smiling.

"Then you and your uncle, can you be his support? Can you support the throne so that it will not collapse in the torrent of the times?"

"I heard from you that we can't do it."

"Indeed." Prince of Orange shrugged his shoulders, "you, your mother, your uncle, the three of them together cannot compare to Caterina de' Medici's resourcefulness, and in your hands The power you hold is not enough for you to overwhelm all enemies with your strength."

"So you're going to help us?"

"The premise is that you also support me." Prince Orange raised his glass and drank the wine in it. "You support the independence and freedom of the Netherlands, and support me to sit on the throne of the Netherlands. Then I also support your rule in France, we trade fairly."

The woman thought for a moment, then raised her glass and drank the red wine inside.

"Do I understand that we have reached an agreement?" asked the woman standing up from the pro-Dynasty of Orange.

"You can understand that our friendship has had a good start." The mysterious visitor put on his veil again, "Then we will see you at the welcoming ceremony tomorrow."

"To be precise, we will meet for the first time at the welcome ceremony tomorrow." Prince Orange felt a little dizzy in his head, presumably because of some exhaustion, "Excuse me, I won't see you off."

The woman nodded and slipped away from the room like a breeze.

By the little gate through which the servants came and went she came into the garden, where a carriage was waiting for her.

She got into the car, took out a small golden bottle from her arms, and drank the liquid inside.

In the upstairs room, the Prince of Orange, with no appetite, rang the bell to call for a servant to come and dress him.

The servants sent the Prince of Orange into the bedroom and waited for him to go to bed. According to the usual rules, they left a candle on the mantelpiece of the room, and this candle was placed on the dining table by the woman just now. the one on it.

The entire palace fell into silence, only the sound of gurgling water from the fountain echoed in the Renaissance-style corridors, like the whisper of the goddess of fate.