I Am Louis XIV

At this time, Paris was in chaos, but as far as Louis knew, there were roughly the following people-the top of course belonged to the king, the king's brother and the queen mother, and then there were nobles such as the Prince of Condé and the Duke of Orleans. Lieutenants and princes, next to them are the cardinals, and worthy of opposing the cardinals are the venerable marshals and generals, and after that are the roots of the rebellion, those members of the high court, financiers and grand masters. Moneylenders, and the custodians hated by the former, and then lawyers, ordinary priests and doctors, and then stockbrokers, merchants, and painters, architects, sculptors, novelists, etc. creators, and below them are artisans, servants, and the poor in the cities and the peasants outside the cities.

In addition, there are probably some people who serve the royal family and nobles for a living. They are like a school of fish following a whale in the sea, feeding on the leftovers left out by those they serve. Specifically, there are private priests. , clerks, butlers and stewards, policemen, agents, squires and cooks, butlers and coachmen, and so on.

In the previous Fronde movement, in addition to the private armies and guards of the princes and judges, most of them were Parisians, who should have been loyal to Louis, but it was not without reason that they would be easily incited. For those who are favored or reused by the king and can accumulate wealth without limit and spend it wantonly (such as Richelieu), the common people in Paris have always been in an extremely difficult living environment. They not only have to bear heavy taxes, but also pay rent. Money, water money and bread money, and some unexplainable expenses. The windows where they live have no glass, the door is broken, and some people cook directly on the floor of the room. They often get sick and have no money when they are sick. Healing, some people can't even afford a wife, and sometimes they have to wait for the landlord to collect the rent before they find out that their tenant is dead, and in this painful life that can hardly see the end, there are still people who continue to treat them put pressure on.

Although Louis is still unable to interfere in government affairs, he still has heard of some things. For example, the bread in Paris is now almost twenty sous a pound.

Here we want to briefly mention the French currency system in the mid-seventeenth century. The rivrere and the sou are both familiar terms, but they are not included in the common currency. They are just monetary measurement units. One livre is about half Pound to a pound of silver, and equal to twenty sous. Therefore, most of the seventeen French people use the Louis d'Or, the Grande Ecu, the Petit Ecu, Denier and Liard. A gold louis, as the name suggests, is a gold coin. A gold louis is equal to twelve to twenty livres (one livre is equal to twenty sous), and one (silver coin) large ecu is equal to six livres and twelve sous. , the small (silver) crown equals three livres and six sous, one sou equals twenty copper deniers, and one denier equals three riads.

In other words, converted into the currency we are familiar with, a pound of bread costs about 300 to 500 yuan.

Such a price is enough to collapse the entire region and even the country. After Queen Mother Anne returned to Paris, a mass would cost a hundred gold louis candles and spices. No matter what else, sometimes Louis really wanted to stop her from praying. , it is better to exchange these one hundred gold louis for one hundred pounds of bread, at least one hundred families will be grateful to the royal family instead of full of resentment.

It's a pity that he couldn't convince Queen Mother Anne that people at this time don't have the concept of charity. A person is starving to death because he is not diligent enough, and he is sick because he has done evil things. God's punishment or It's retribution, even Cardinal Mazarin disagrees with Louis' method, those bright white crowns and golden "Louis" can be used to buy exquisite clothes, delicious food or horses, shotguns, and even throw It doesn't matter at the gambling table, but to feed the poor... so strange, so strange, no one has ever done anything like this.

Bishop Mazaran resolutely refused, and the people around Louis almost had the same idea. They believed that giving bread to the poor in this way would only increase lazy people and scoundrels, and if such behavior could not continue, the person in charge must Will be hated--this is true, Louis changed his story, and asked Bishop Mazarin to thoroughly investigate the wheat merchants in Paris to see if anyone was hoarding. Bishop Mazarin did not answer him, but asked the king. As the bishop mentioned, he wants to ask about the Inquisition. The bishop already has a candidate. When is the king planning to summon him?

Bishop Mazaran said so, and Louis knew that this matter could not be pursued—he knew that Bishop Mazarin must have accepted bribes from businessmen. This kind of thing is almost common in the court, and it can be traced back to Philip IV. During the period, the ministers crowded around the king, vying for his favor, and then relying on this favor to amass a fortune. Richelieu was like this, and so was Mazarin. He was even willing to make concessions on some things so that the young king would not pursue it. .

The thing Louis mentioned before is the one-win relationship between the royal family, the church and the Inquisition, and the external world and the inner world, and the priest he had seen came, and the priest was very happy, because he was just a The abbot of the monastery is neither a black-clothed judge of the Inquisition, nor an ascetic monk like an executive officer.

Speaking of which, he recently made a joke, because he thought he had made great contributions in the previous werewolf riots, and he even intended to have a relationship with the deputy archbishop of Paris, Reis, and Prince Conti (Prince Condé's younger brother) Fighting for the hat from Rome (referring to the cardinal), of course, he failed comically, but was still ridiculed by all Parisians.

He was not discouraged, really, this Mr. Larivière may not have any other strengths, but he has an extraordinary desire for power and money, so from him, the king can know more things than others , so Bishop Mazaran sent him here in order to prevent the king from continuing to care about the relationship between wheat and bread.

It was the first time for Dean Lariviere to enter Richelieu's house. Of course, the mansion that can be used as a palace by the king would not be shabby and small. This is an H-shaped building complex, each building has three floors. A promenade supported by countless Doric columns is added on the lower floor. The promenade is decorated with various sculptures and is named after it. It is named after the many sculptures related to sailing ships.

Passing through the prow gallery, you will face a rectangular garden distributed on the axis. This garden is about 600 feet long and 200 feet wide. In the center is a fountain that is as round as a full moon and surrounded by neatly trimmed trees. Although it was the severe winter, the flowers did not reveal their fragrance, but there was a clean smell in the air... yes, Dean Larivière didn't know how to describe it, but it was... that... clean smell that made me feel... People are comfortable.

Alas, he is also exceptionally clean today. After all, he has inquired about the king's preferences in many ways, and almost everyone is impressed by the king's requirements for cleanliness. Firstly, the cost of bathing is quite high, secondly, the church does not encourage people to take frequent baths, and thirdly, the fear of the Black Death that has just passed away... But they don’t really let themselves live in such a dirty way, they still use Clean linen, warm water to wipe the body, especially the face and hands, women also need to add breasts, nobles will change their clothes frequently, almost every few hours, so although the streets of Paris are smelly It smells bad, but except for some poor people who can't even find a spare piece of cloth, people with a little wealth don't smell so terrible.

But their king can be said to be harsh in this regard, and his preferences—although he has not yet been in power, still affect all the people around him. It took a lot of thought. In addition to washing himself clean, he also sprayed perfume imported from Cologne, Germany. This is an expensive and wonderful liquid, more expensive than gold, but it is worth it Yes, for the young King smiled when he looked up and saw him.