I Am Louis XIV

Chapter 164 Hofburg (2)

Not to mention how Prince Conti slandered the hygienic conditions of the Austrian hotel. After he arrived in Vienna, the hospitality he received was within his expectations. To put it simply, the Austrians were unwilling to treat a French hotel sincerely. People, and there is no such condition to make the prince feel at home. Their court still maintains the habit of dumping dried flowers and plants on the ground to hide the traces of excrement and urine. Although the curtains are embroidered with gold and silver thread. There is a black double-headed eagle, but if you look closely, you can find that the tassels are covered with dust. There is no bathroom in the palace room, only a crude "prayer room". Upon seeing this, Prince Conti immediately felt a burst of hair on his buttocks. cold.

According to convention and tradition, French envoys always have to be delayed for a few days before meeting the Archduke of Austria and the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, but this time Prince Conti has a special mission, which Leopold I knew well , he was not willing to grant Louis XIV's "request" in this way, because it would also mean that he was acquiescing to France to carve up Spain's territory, but he also knew very well that the Pope's theologians had already determined that there was a relationship between Trey and Spain. In Princess Sha's marriage contract, King Philip IV of Spain did fail to fulfill the agreement, and the queen's dowry worth half a million livres was never delivered to Louis.

But it would be nonsense to say that Leopold I had no plan to annex Spain. After all, he was the one who insisted that his wife Marguerite never renounce her inheritance before fulfilling the marriage contract. Now he and King Louis of France own Spain separately. The daughter of King Philip IV, who is now the two sisters of Carlos II, one has never given up the right of inheritance, and the other is because the contract was first broken by Philip IV, and he confidently asked for a return. He and Louis They can be called two wolves, it's just to see who is more ferocious and cunning.

In addition, Leopold I and Louis are of the same generation, and they are only two years apart. Speaking of which, there is still a family relationship. It is impossible for young people not to compare each other, so although Leopold I allowed Conte The Prince lived in Hofburg not because he valued the envoy so much, but because he intended to show his strength to the French prince and envoy, just like an eagle proudly spreading its wings in front of the enemy, not only that However, when Prince Conti came to meet Leopold I at the appointed time, he was told that the king suddenly became interested in hunting and went hunting with a group of ministers.

If it was Prince Condé standing here, he would turn around and leave, but Prince Conti just smiled and said that he would like to wait for the king here, so the king's chief attendant arranged two servants to serve him, and he was It is allowed to walk in the square in front of the audience hall, which is proudly called the Kaiser's Square by the Viennese - the Hofburg, just like the Louvre, has undergone many reconstructions and expansions, surrounded by arc-shaped buildings. In front of the surrounded square is a vast garden of crosses, and behind it is a continuous dense forest. If Prince Conti hadn’t seen Versailles under construction before coming here, he might also think that the palace complex is indeed magnificent, but it’s a pity that he has seen Versailles. , Hofburg will inevitably be overshadowed.

However, it is said that Leopold I also planned to build a new palace on the left side of the old palace, and then connect the two into one, and divide them into inner and outer palaces. The inner palace is used for accommodation and living, and the outer palace is used to receive envoys and meet with the governor. Deal with state affairs and so on.

But just looking at the location of the new palace, Prince Conti laughed from the heart. Even if the new palace is completed, it will not be as magnificent and spacious as Versailles.

Now Prince Conti understands His Majesty's intentions. Rebuilding and expanding the old palace can indeed save a lot of cost and trouble, but the old atmosphere of the old palace will inevitably spread to the new palace. It's really not as good as a complete palace. Well, the new and bright new palace is comfortable and joyful—and rather than expanding the new palace, Prince Conti would like to suggest that Leopold I renovate the original rooms of the Hofburg. The room he was assigned was entirely a trick of the Austrians on the French. Who knew that when he walked through the corridor, he found that the other rooms were not much better. The stairs and corridors had no alcoves, no domes, and no Statues in place, dim sconces, cramped room, the color of the rug in the corners was completely wrong from the center point - bright in the corners, dull in the center, obviously not changed for a long time.

Except for the cross garden in front of the square (that is, a cross-shaped road is reserved among the vegetation), the dense forest behind the palace has not been carefully cared for. The flowers are messy, the branches are twisted, and the vines are everywhere. To the astonishing thorns—poor Prince Conti is completely unaware that he is just being spoiled by his over-the-top, obsessive-compulsive king, and the fact that in this day and age, people's concept of pleasure is not So clear or important, or in other words, they don't have this awareness in many places, and of course they won't do it.

Not to mention Austria, even people in France did not popularize knives and forks until after the daughter of the Medici family married into the French royal family.

And for the sake of the empty treasury, Louis consciously spread the idea of ​​instant gratification from Paris to everywhere, and the fuel everywhere promoted the progress of Paris again. All the changes came quickly and violently, even the Austrians Willing to accept fashion from France, they are not likely to have everything that Parisians have so quickly.

The demandingness of Prince Conti will not be conveyed to the eyes and ears of those Austrians. To be honest, they prefer to think that the ignorance of the French envoys from time to time is just because they are deterred by the height and magnificence of the Hofburg. They raised their voices unconsciously, and a proud smile hung on their lips. At this moment, they heard the trombone blowing outside the door, and another piccolo, "Ah, His Majesty is back." They said, so Prince Conti went to the door with them to greet them. It was Leopold I and his ministers who came. They were all dressed in Spanish costumes, mainly black-black coats, long Trousers and leather boots, white tights, with lace only on the edge of the jacket and the neckline. The wide-brimmed hat he was wearing was also gray and black, with an eagle's feather on one corner.

Leopold was dressed like a triumphant general, with golden shoulder straps (the only place with color) on his body, daggers and short-handled muskets hanging from his belt. A young man, known to be a servant of the king, rode a horse and led a horse, both of which were loaded with game, from colorful pheasants to well-furred hares, and a fat stag, Seeing Prince Conti, Leopold I jumped off his horse with only one jump and landed firmly, "Welcome!" He had seen Prince Conti. After the second Fronde riot, Condé and Conte Conte was working in the Spanish army, and Conte came to see him specially, but the Conte at that time and the Conte now are basically two people.

Let’s talk about the Leopold I that Conte saw at that time—he was just the crown prince and a child at that time, even weaker and more humble than today’s Leopold I. Today’s Leopold I looked extraordinarily excited, strong, and even a little arrogant. He raised his hand to Prince Conti, pretending to be intimate and said: "Oh, please stand here, my dear friend," he said, and took Conti to the Go inside: "I may hate all the French, but you may be an exception, and your brother, because you once stood by my cousin and fought with the French with him."

This sentence really made Prince Conti dumbfounded, and he couldn't help but feel vigilant. It seems that His Majesty is not an easy person to get along with. He took the opportunity of bowing his heart to distance himself from Leopold I. From the corner of his eyes, he looked at this majesty calmly. If you say that this majesty is two years younger than his good king, but judging from his face, Leopold I has completely faded away from the appearance of a young man. Youthful, he is a complete adult - in comparison, Louis sometimes shows some childishness - his face (especially the chin) and somewhat stooped body also reveal some Habsburg The clues of genetic disease.

After Colbert established the French Academy, in order to be able to talk to the king, Prince Conti also participated in several salons of the bachelor's world, but he could understand very little, and only one thing he remembered Very firmly, that is the harm of consanguineous marriages to offspring. After all, the examples of stillbirths, deformities and genetic diseases are really shocking.

As a king, there is no need to say how important heirs are. Now his king and Leopold I are so anxious that they don't even bother to put on a mask on their faces. Isn't it because the envoys are all at the coronation ceremony I saw the new king of Spain, Carlos II, who was almost the same age as Louis XIV when he came to the throne, but looked no different from a baby cursed by the devil, unable to walk, sit still, or talk The words don't convey the meaning - for such a frail cub, surrounded by an ill-informed mother and an ambitious illegitimate brother, the end of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty is imminent.

Oh, by the way, Prince Conti said in his heart, the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire has no heirs yet.

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Prince Conti never imagined that when Leopold I heard his intentions and read their king's letter, he agreed with joy. Louis XIV's proposal was to carve up Spain with Austria, but if possible, Prince Conti can guarantee that his good king will intend to swallow the whole of Spain and its territories. Doesn't Leopold I think so? But obviously, his judgment of Leopold I was correct, but not enough. In a meeting with only a few people, Leopold I rejected his brother-in-law's proposal without any hesitation, and he was quite Severely reprimanded the King of France, because according to his words, according to the will of God, they should have protected Carlos II, a weak relative, instead of robbing him. The issue of the King of France obviously surpassed that of a king The due moral boundary and the moral code that a knight should have. ,

Prince Conti had to leave angrily, and his request for an audience was repeatedly rejected. After a week, he wondered whether he or his king had made any huge mistakes. For example, Leopold I was indeed a living saint. What……

Of course, His Royal Highness, who was never good at observing words and expressions, even once realized that Leopold I was not as upright as he said, but he was a Frenchman, and Austrians generally hated Frenchmen. Therefore, there are almost no eyeliners and spies that he can use here. He is not sure whether Leopold I already has an alliance with Spain, or is he intending to join forces with other countries? Or have you stood with the Church of Rome again? He didn't know these things, and naturally he didn't dare to act rashly, so as not to push the matter to an irreversible direction.

And at this moment, his servant said that a lady wanted to see him.

"The lady?" asked Prince Conti.

"Madame," replied his servant, an answer that could have easily caused the master to whip him a few times, but the servant's intentionally emphasized pronunciation made Prince Conti immediately think of a person, yes, madam, in French In Chinese it is pronounced Milady.

"Welcome!" Prince Conti led her into a secret room, and then put her hand to his lips: "What wind brought you here?" I heard that she has a humble status and has been in prison, so she can't be recognized by people and become an officially recognized "royal wife", but she is indeed a lady who is very favored by the king. This is almost the same as Mrs. Lavallière and her younger brother Philip, but Prince Conti also heard that this lady was originally the spy of Bishop Mazarin. After the death of Bishop Mazarin, she and the entire spy network together Charade was inherited by the king.

Milady just smiled and let His Royal Highness kiss her hand. Her today is something that the little girl in the past could never have imagined—she also knows who gave her all this. She may be Mr. Bishop I noticed it, but no one can compare to the power given to her by the respected majesty——"His Majesty the King knows that you have encountered some small problems," she turned to hold Prince Conti's hand and said with a smile: "So Just let me come."

Instead of feeling happy, Prince Conti felt a gloomy chill. A week may seem long, but in the case of a long distance and the hostility between the two countries, such a quick response can only mean that the king may have been watching him.