Eagle’s Glory

"Well, my cousin, we are a family. Since you hope to have a marriage worthy of our family's status, then I will make it happen for you, even if it costs some money."

Although Aigron was slightly surprised by his cousin's sudden request, after pondering for a while, he still chose to agree to his cousin's request.

This is what he must agree to.

First of all, he owed his cousin a debt, which could not be denied. Without the help of his cousins, it would have been extremely difficult for him to escape Austria alone;

Secondly, although he can only be considered a junior in the family, as a person who sits on the throne in the family, he naturally needs to arrange marriages for family members——

Emperor Napoleon thought so too.

After ascending to the throne, he ignored his brothers' ideas and tried every means to get them to marry German princesses, in an attempt to integrate his Bonaparte family into the European royal family. For this reason, he forced The younger brother Jerome gave up the wife he had married in the United States and instead married the princess of Württemberg.

Later, the reason why he completely fell out with Lucien was because Lucien refused to submit to the marriage arranged by him and would rather stay with the person he loved. In the emperor's view, this was not only ungrateful, but also tantamount to denying his love. The authority of the family patriarch naturally caused him to become furious.

Although the emperor worked hard, in the eyes of the emperor's brothers and sisters, their emperor brother did not have the so-called sacred feeling of the emperor. In their hearts, they thought that although he was the emperor, he was just like themselves. Just mortals who once dug for food in the soil. Although the brothers have always taken advantage of him, there is always a sense of dissatisfaction in their bones, and they often oppose him.

But in Aigron's generation, the situation is completely different.

Aiglon himself was the product of Emperor Napoleon's plan to "integrate into the European royal family". Although the empire was destroyed, as the grandson of the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and the Austrian Empire, Aiglon's "family status" cannot be denied. He was considered a member of the royal family and was arranged to marry a Habsburg princess.

In addition to Aigron, other family members also consider themselves princes and grandsons. They all hope to marry the royal families of various countries in order to consolidate their aristocratic status.

In the original historical line, when Napoleon III first came to power, in order to make his empire appear "justified," he tried every means to propose marriage to various European countries. However, because his status was unstable when he came to power, he was rejected everywhere, so he had to withdraw. The next best thing was to marry the low-status Queen Eugenie; and after he won the Crimean War and seemed to have finally consolidated his dynasty,

He is finally qualified to "integrate" into the royal family again.

At this time, the Savoy royal family of the Kingdom of Sardinia wanted to unify Italy and had a grudge against Austria, so they wanted to please Emperor Napoleon III and get help from France. After the two parties secretly colluded, in 1859, Napoleon III asked his cousin Prince Jérôme to marry Princess Clotilde, the daughter of King Victor Emmanuel II. This marriage also brought the two countries together in disguise. stood together.

In 1859, France and the Kingdom of Sardinia united and launched a war against Austria. The Kingdom of Sardinia also obtained the long-coveted province of Lombardy, laying the foundation for the unification of Italy.

The ancient Savoy royal family has a longer history than the Habsburg family. It has always only married with the most noble royal families in Europe. It is recognized as the "top class" of the nobility. This marriage naturally greatly satisfied Bonaparte. Family vanity. I am afraid this is also a reason why he later insisted on an Italian policy that was obviously detrimental to French interests.

Of course Aigron would not adopt Napoleon III's unwise policies, but since Napoleon III could handle all this for his cousin, he should do better - at least, he could not shirk this family responsibility.

Although he is young now, he is undoubtedly the "patriarch" of the family. He enjoys the authority of the patriarch and can decide the life-long affairs of the family members, but having power means having obligations. Correspondingly, he It is also necessary to properly arrange marriages for family members, because for nobles, marriage is not only a personal matter, but also a family matter. If he fails to do it, it will be derelict in his duty, or at least unreasonable.

Seeing that Aigron agreed happily, Prince Charlie was naturally happy and secretly happy. He knew that he had found the right time and got the promise he wanted from his cousin.

However, just having a promise is not enough, because only God knows when the promise will be realized. After finally getting a clear answer from the mouth of the supreme cousin, it is even more important to implement it as soon as possible.

"Your Majesty, I am extremely grateful for your care for me, and I am convinced that you can achieve it." He bowed deeply to Aiglon to express his respect for Your Majesty, "But, you see, I am old As time goes by, my mother is getting older day by day. I hope that my mother can enjoy the joy of having grandchildren at her knees as soon as possible..."

Humph, historically you didn't get married until you were in your 40s, and I didn't see you complaining about it... Aigron chuckled inwardly.

Of course, he would not say such words, he just turned his head and looked at Queen Hortense next to him.

"I didn't expect that my cousin would have such a sincere filial piety. I was extremely touched, Auntie."

Queen Ortense smiled awkwardly, not knowing how to respond for a moment. She was secretly angry that her son had never discussed it with her but kept using her as a shield.

Of course, she couldn't be angry with her son for what he did. After all, as a mother and son, she had the obligation to protect her son from the wind and rain.

Moreover, deep down in her heart, as she is getting older, isn't she really looking forward to seeing the birth of her grandchildren as soon as possible?

So, after weighing it for a moment, she simply chose to play a little drumbeat for her son.

"Yes, Your Majesty, I also hope that we will be able to flourish in the future and continue the family business that we have finally obtained through hard work. Now that he has grown up, it is really time to consider starting a family."

Facing the tacit offensive between mother and son, Aigron fell into a brief trade-off.

It is not difficult to realize his cousin's wish. The key is, how many resources does he need to use for this?

He is not willing to use France's "national interests" in exchange like Na San did. He does not want to lose a small amount and tie himself up by marriage.

In this case, we can only consider the princely family with relatively small family power.

From this perspective, he can go to the German princes of Baden, Württemberg, Hesse Darmstadt, Oldenburg, Nassau, Mecklenburg... etc., anyway, the princes of Germany There are so many that I can’t even count them on a few hands.

Of course, religion is also an issue. In theory, members of the Bonaparte family are devout Catholics and cannot marry heretics with Protestants. The Protestants also view Catholics in the same way.

However, most of the German princes had small territories and poor families. Naturally, they were not so "adherent to principles." As long as they could get money or other benefits from the marriage, they did not mind having their daughters convert to their religion and get married.

For example, this is how the tsars and princes of all dynasties selected suitable partners from the princesses of small German states. They paid large sums of money as "betrothal gifts" to convert the princess to Orthodox Christianity and then marry her to Petersburg as a matter of course. The famous Catherine the Great was the most successful among these princesses whose territory was only at the "prefecture level" or "township level".

Following his example, after Aigron secured the throne, he could naturally do this for his cousin.

Spending a certain amount of money to find such a marriage for your cousin can be regarded as "repaying a favor" and settling your debt to him; on the other hand, the royal family of a small country is not qualified to influence foreign policy, and he cannot This will cause constraints and affect the country's interests.

Anyway, this cousin just said that he was looking for a princess as a marriage partner, and did not make too high demands. As long as he found a famous family with a "long history", he would be worthy of him.

The more Aigron thought about it, the more reasonable it became, and he quickly made a decision.

"I understand your feelings. Indeed, as my cousin, I have already married a wife and had children. There is no reason for my cousin to be alone all the time! For reasons and reasons, I should arrange a marriage for you as soon as possible. Let's wait. After the situation stabilizes a little and the European countries believe that our family will occupy the throne for a long time, I will find a suitable partner for you. I think this time will only be two or three years at most, so you two absolutely don't have to be impatient."

"Within three years?" Prince Charlie suddenly became energetic.

Although this time limit was not the most ideal result in his mind, it was enough for him to accept. At least, he got a clear promise from his powerful cousin that he could be satisfied.

Maybe he is indifferent, maybe he is selfish, but his cousin will not break his promise, and besides, his mother is here as a witness.

So, he was full of joy and sincerely saluted and thanked his cousin again.

"Your Majesty, I am extremely grateful to have received such favor from you. My descendants and I will always be the most loyal vassals of the empire!"

Aigron did not respond to his cousin, but just looked at each other and smiled at Queen Hortense, as if asking, 'Are you satisfied with this? ’

Her Majesty the Queen also bowed slightly to Aiglon to express her gratitude. "Aiglon, if I have a grandson, please be his godfather!"

"No problem." Aigron agreed briefly.

Then, this small interlude quietly ended, and the music sounded again in time. Teresa, who had already entered the state, once again devoted herself to giving her highest level of performance to her people.

Under her influence, the audience's enthusiasm was constantly aroused, and they cheered and applauded Her Majesty the Queen loudly. The whole concert climaxed one after another, and the effect was so good that it even exceeded the expectations of the Agrons before they came.

When the concert ended, people were still reluctant to leave and refused to leave for a long time. Obviously, this passionate performance will become an unforgettable memory for everyone.

And after the night is over, various newspapers in Paris will definitely rush to report on it, letting the news spread to every corner of the streets and alleys - the Habsburg Empress from Austria has finally stepped into the world she has integrated into. The first step for the country.

At this time, Teresa was too lazy to think about it anymore. After a night of playing, she was almost exhausted and could only cling to Agron's body and they got on the carriage back to the palace together.

In the carriage where the two of them were alone, Aigron briefly explained to her the conversation he had just had with the mother and son.

As soon as she heard the whole story, Teresa finally understood that Prince Charlie's efforts to encourage her to perform music on stage actually had ulterior motives, and she immediately became angry.

"Okay, I thought he really wanted to please me, but it turned out he had a hidden secret! This person is really cunning and untrustworthy."

Teresa didn't like Aigron's ambitious, sullen and cunning cousins ​​very much. This time, she was naturally even more unhappy when she saw that the other party was so wary of her.

"But judging from the results, you are indeed very happy, aren't you? That's enough, Theresa." Agron kissed his wife's cheek to comfort Theresa, "And, in a reasonable way, he His request is not too much, so it doesn’t matter if I agree to it.”

Teresa had no objection to Agron's generous offer - or in other words, she would not question Agron's decision in the first place. She was angry about another thing.

"It's understandable that he wants to marry a royal family, but what does it mean to deliberately push me away? Do I think I'm so unhuman in his eyes?" Teresa muttered aggrievedly.

"He's just afraid of you. After all, you two have had several conflicts." Aigron defended his cousin.

"I never targeted him, I just criticized him out of principle after he did something wrong. Instead of being afraid of me, he should reflect on why he always violates his principles." Sure enough, upon hearing this, Trey Sha became even more angry.

However, now that she was exhausted, she didn't want to spoil her mood for this prince, so she quickly calmed down. "Oh, forget it, there is no need to mention the past. Considering the interests of our family, we should indeed find suitable marriage partners for each branch of the family, so that our status can be stabilized..."

"So, do you have any good ideas about this?" Aigron asked smoothly.

Eggron's specific thoughts were not explained to Theresa, but the two people had the same ideas on this issue.

"Find him a princely family that is not very powerful. This will save you a lot of trouble... If possible, I think we can ask the royal family of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to recommend one to us. Haven't we already arranged a family for him?" Did you give them the crown? Then they also do us a favor. Is this reasonable? Although they are Protestants and their connections are also Protestants, it doesn’t matter. There will always be a way..."