Versailles is worse than being queen

◎Regard Your Highness Antania! ◎

Time passed like running water, and three years passed in a flash.

Prussia has become more and more aggressive, and the past three years have been very difficult for Habsburg.

The French king dawdled until Antania was 14 years old, and finally sent a letter of marriage between the two royal families.

"Ah, my sweet little cake! You're going to be queen at last!"

The queen hugged Antania and turned around twice, then laughed and ran to pull Prince Kaunitz's beard, making the prime minister dumbfounded and asked someone to call the emperor to come and rescue her.

The hatred of Prussia for occupying Austrian land has not yet been resolved, and Russia in the north has also become stronger step by step. Austria needs France.

After the long-awaited letter was delivered, the agenda for marriage proposal with France was immediately pushed forward under the personal supervision of the queen.

However, when the Queen began personally supervising her daughter's learning of French royal etiquette, it was unprecedented to realize what a... strange place the French royal family is.

"There are female officials, dressing maids, first personal maids, dressing maids, and a costume keeper?" She looked at the etiquette booklet and couldn't believe it. "Such a bunch of people are just here to help you change clothes?"

"And you need two people to bathe in clothes? Absurd! You have been bathing by yourself since you were six years old." She said contemptuously, "It seems that those French women don't have long hands."

Antanya shrugged, taking special care not to let the queen see this action.

Actually, it was eight people who bathed in costumes, plus her Mrs. Ceremonies.

When changing clothes, there are far more than the maids and maids around, and there are a bunch of court ladies onlookers-this is called Versailles etiquette.

So she was always very uncomfortable when she first went to the Palace of Versailles in her previous life. She felt like an object being watched and manipulated all the time, with no privacy at all.

At that time, she was already thin and lost a lot of weight—mainly because of being surrounded by people eating, which was really unappetizing.

"Uh, this is actually an official position?!" The queen's beautifully contoured eyes wrinkled in disgust, and her lips were tight and she stopped talking.

"What?" Antanya leaned over to look.

"Don't look!" The queen pushed her aside and turned a page unnaturally, "When you get there, you have to show the French our pious beliefs and noble character, Antalia."

oh.Antanya probably knew which position she was talking about.

"Chief Royal Mistress" Well, nothing out of the ordinary.

—but of course my mother hated it.

Antanya couldn't help but smile slightly.

I don't know how many people are waiting in the Palace of Versailles this time, trying to use the mistress who was born in a brothel to provoke conflicts between her and the French king?

Since the summer of this year, all the diplomats and protocol officers who shuttled back and forth between Vienna and Paris have devoted themselves to the negotiation of the etiquette rules of this prosperous wedding with extraordinary enthusiasm, without giving up an inch. It almost feels like they are fighting over territorial territory.

Instead of whose name goes first on the marriage contract: the groom's grandfather, King Louis of France, or the bride's father, Holy Roman Emperor Franz?

How many knights, officers, doctors, maids, maids, and washerwomen should each be in the bridal entourage?

What medals should the nobles accompanying the bride be awarded by Austria and France?

……

And so on.

Originally, Antania had no interest in getting involved in the work of these officials who were suffering and enjoying it, but she still couldn't bear to see Earl Mercy, who was so anxious and haggard.

"Well, Lord Mercy," she whispered casually to the soon-to-be ambassador after a queen's council meeting, "maybe, I mean maybe, there is a way for two The country is satisfied, and it can save the adults a little trouble."

When she finished speaking, Mercy couldn't help opening her eyes wide in surprise.

"Ah, Your Highness!" He immediately lowered his voice again, "This... this is truly unprecedented!"

"However, it does seem to be able to meet the requirements of both parties... I have to report to Her Majesty the Queen!"

In the week that followed, the diplomats were surprisingly much more efficient.

Both sides made reasonable concessions and finally reached an agreement—according to Earl Melsey's description, at that moment all the officials let out a long sigh of relief.

The negotiators who finally got out of the bitter sea picked up the champagne that had been prepared and smiled at each other: "His Royal Highness Antania!"

Finally, for the first time in this unprecedented grand wedding, the preparations were not dragged to the last moment before the timeline, and all the preparations were successfully completed more than a week in advance.

Everything was ready, and the spring of 1770 had arrived.On behalf of the French king, the ambassador Delfoy led a marriage proposal team of more than 1000 people. The Habsburg royal nobles had to stand on the balcony for more than three hours to welcome this huge team into the courtyard of the palace. .

There are 48 large four-wheeled carriages inside, each of which is drawn by six horses, including a huge gold-plated four-wheeled double-seater covered carriage specially customized for Antania by the King of France.

More than 100 horsemen accompanied the group to take care of the horses and carriages.

The day before the wedding of the Grand Duchess of Austria, she signed the Abstention Act in the conference hall of the Hofburg Palace in the presence of the Holy Roman Emperor, his wife, all ministers and senior diplomats.

Before the royal families of European countries marry their princesses, they basically have this process-this legally means that the married princess and her descendants have given up the right to inherit the throne of the original country.

Of course, that's just legal.

If you look at history, you will know that when it comes time to fight for the throne, who cares about that piece of waste paper.

After the proxy wedding held in the Augustinian Cathedral, the bustling procession finally left Vienna as lively as it had come.

This time, they brought the crown princess who already belonged to France.

"Hey, my little sweetheart is married too... I hope the French will love her well."

Franz looked melancholy at the convoy carrying his daughter slowly disappearing into view, and turned to his wife.

"Hey, my dear, what's the matter with you?" He was surprised to find that there were faint traces of tears on the cheeks of his wife, who had never shown any weakness.

"Don't be sad, my Maria!" Franz hurriedly grabbed his wife and embraced her in his arms.

"Frantz," said the Queen in a low voice, "accompany me to the chapel."

The chapel is the place where members of the royal family often come to confess and hold mass. The quiet cross casts hazy light and shadow, which makes people feel very quiet.

"Don't cry, Maria," Franz tried to comfort his wife. "The daughters will marry after all. Antalya is very happy to marry into a powerful and wealthy country like France."

"I hope everything goes well." The queen sighed.

She bowed her head and began to pray silently.

——Last night, she had a nightmare.

She woke up suddenly in the middle of the night, with cold sweat all over her forehead.

Everything in the dream seemed so real, as if it was real history, or... the real future.

Time flies by in the dream, and Theresa seems to be floating in God's perspective, seeing things many years later.

She saw the lonely figure of her youngest daughter in the Palace of Versailles, saw the horrors of starvation in France, and saw the crazy and bloody storm in Paris.

That deadly storm swallowed the blossoming royal court and dragged her daughter into the abyss.

Teresia's heart was pounding, and she suddenly remembered that a few years ago, not long after the royal families of Austria and France started discussing marriage, the envoy she sent to France mentioned in a report to her that the French crown prince could not With limited intellect, rough manners, and dull senses compared with his royal grandfather, I am afraid this marriage will not lead to happiness.

She was quite disdainful of the envoy's short-sightedness.

Why should the princess be happy?It was enough for her to be queen.

The Queen of Austria knelt before the statue with her eyes closed, thinking silently that she was old.

She is no longer the young queen who could personally go to the battlefield to inspect soldiers' artillery equipment during the Prussian invasion more than ten years ago.

At that time, she personally went to the front to inspect the army, and those enthusiastic soldiers even wrote a very encouraging rhetoric for her:

"Get down, Frederick from Prussia,

Let Her Majesty take aim.

Your ass will fly to Russia,

Splash your brains into sunny Spain! "*

Now, her body is aging, and she is increasingly worried about the future of the country she rules, a patchwork of different lands, peoples and cultures.

The brown bears in the north woke up from their slumber, and the hungry wolves in the west stared at them.Austria needs a strong ally in France.

It is impossible for her to give up the marriage.

The Queen pressed her forehead to the icy, reassuring idol.

Antanya is not her.Her father had no sons, and she was the only heir, so she must take up the scepter and rule the country.

And her younger daughter can take an easier path.

In the French court, she only needs to be an elegant queen to enjoy all the good things in the world.

Good God.

Thearesia bowed her head and prayed silently.

May you bless my little daughter and let her have a happy and peaceful life.

……

The youngest child of the Queen of Austria, now the Crown Princess of France, on the eve of her departure, a letter came to Vienna from Paris, where flowers were in full bloom, and was delivered to the Crown Princess who was about to leave here.

The letter was sent by Nicholas from the Academy of Sciences in Paris.

The 17-year-old boy is currently on an exchange in Paris.Being able to get this opportunity is also due to Antania's persuasion of her father.

In terms of strength, the Paris Academy of Sciences is indeed the top research institute in Europe today.The emperor did not embarrass them, and quickly agreed to the application.

Nicholas has been away from Vienna for several months, and he doesn't know how he is doing in Paris now.With a letter of recommendation from Dr. Sweeten, it should be pretty good, right?

Antanya waited until her hairstylist finished prepping the full five-pound cut and all the wait staff had retreated before opening the letter.

It was a blank sheet of paper.

The letter was written in invisible ink.

She brought the letter paper closer to the candle, and the scrawled handwriting gradually appeared on the paper.

The first sentence is: "Your newspaper is very good, everything is normal except that it does not make money. Maybe it is more accurate to lose money-but with subsidies from the French royal family, it can barely survive."

Oh no surprise.

The boss was not around, and she didn't expect Lavoisier, who was sent to the guillotine, or Nicolas, whose mind was full of steam engines, to run the newspaper for her.

Antanya watched until the end, slightly hooked the corners of her lips, picked up the letter and threw it into the fireplace.

Then, she stood up and pulled out a volume of maps of Europe from the bookshelf.

This is the latest map from 1769, but according to Antania's memory, it will be outdated in a short time - but that's okay, she can't take this map to France anyway, and buy a new one there A map will do.

Looking carefully at the place names, Austria is located in central Europe, with Russia in the northeast, Ottoman Turkey in the southeast, Prussia in the northwest, France in the southwest, and Italy in the south.

Her gaze rested leisurely on the island next to the Italian high boot.

It is here.

Antanya's slender fingers touched the small island lightly, across the blue area of ​​the Mediterranean Sea, across the heart of France and Europe.

"By the way, there is news from Paris, I think you might be interested." The boy wrote lazily in the letter.

"The Italians gave up their territory, and the French took it at once—"

"Corsica now belongs to France."

The author says:

On the remote island of Corsica, a baby sneezes and cries.

*Referring to Catherine Laski, Princess of Versailles: The Diary of Marie Antoinette.