I Am Louis XIV

In the Jupiter Hall, the Treaty of Versailles in 1672, signed by France, Spain, the United Kingdom, the Holy Roman Empire and other countries, the Netherlands and its colonies made the most thorough cut. Every envoy is eyeing, fearing that the interests of himself and the country will be harmed, while the Netherlands, the original owner of this land, is blocked in the Palace of Versailles and cannot enter - but things have always been like this, and the Netherlands is not the first to disappear in time The country in the long river is not the last one.

Negotiations did not end until the third day after the 15th celebration, slightly different from what Louis XIV had envisaged, but still maintained an army of 120,000 in France, and, if not against the Dutch or the Flemish The Germans, Louis XIV, who had never defeated the coalition forces of Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, Brandenburg, and Spain, kept the envoys in awe and caution to the greatest extent-it turns out that they have already Unable to use strong military means to interfere with France's occupation of the lowlands, they can only plan one or two in terms of tongue and conspiracy. The problem is that in many cases, power trumps all sophistry. During negotiations, the Sun King rarely speaks. The speakers were either the Viscount Turenne or the Prince of Condé. As the two most powerful generals in France, they could not speak eloquently, but the golden sun medals and epaulettes that were constantly shining on their chests and shoulders would make everyone present People are unconsciously short of breath.

Of course, those present had heard of the military rank system of Louis XIV. Military ranks had appeared as early as the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Louis XIV was not the only king who wanted to implement the military rank system, but some kings even had their own troops None (Charles II: can I not be mentioned?), there are some kings and emperors, not because of blood, but was elected to the throne (Leopold I of the Holy Roman Empire, Michal of Poland and Hungary :...), or the power of the king is restricted by the ministers or regents (Queen Dowager) (Carlos II of Spain, Karl XI of Sweden: this cannot be blamed on us)-in short, so far , and only Louis XIV did it. He monopolized power and owned only his own guards, musketeers, dragoons, and new troops from Versailles. The number of these soldiers far exceeded the support of the princes for him. Only in this way can the king implement the military rank system in the army, and use the general rank as a reward-the military rank is directly linked to the treatment and status of soldiers and officers, and it cannot be done if it does not belong directly to the king-after all, according to the original Theory, "The vassal of the vassal is not my vassal", the soldiers belong to the general or the lord, not the king, how can they believe the king's promise and die for him?

There are also some people with ulterior motives who expect Prince Condé or Viscount Turenne, who have great prestige in the army, to obstruct or reject the king's New Deal. Unfortunately, neither of these two is as good as them. To do so as imagined, they can be said to have readily accepted the king's arrangement and became the most credible spear shield of the king-they were granted the title of generalissimo the day before. The former "Golden Lily", "Human Face Sun" and "Sword" medals were all dismantled from the coat of arms of Bourbon and Louis XIV, representing honor, king's trust and victory respectively, "Sword" "The medals of the Viscount Turenne and the Prince of Condé lined up in a row on the chests, as did the sword-wielding nobles behind them-in the eyes of the envoys, this was a threat, because many of these victories came from their frustration.

But among the people present, who is the most painful and embarrassing is none other than William III. Even the Spaniard, the de facto owner of the Flanders region, would not be as embarrassed as him. It is ridiculous to carve up the territory of the Orange family in front of us. The fate of William III is because the Dutch Parliament has been on guard against the descendants of Orange to regain the Netherlands and become king. But now, the Netherlands not only does not belong to Orange, but also It doesn't belong to any Dutchman anymore - I don't know how Prime Minister John de Witt will feel when he sees this scene. William III was present at every meeting, and although he was not listened to, the Duke of Orléans told Louis that the descendant of Orange was still trying to win the help of another country or some important person, and he was still going on. Write a letter, hoping to be able to contact a supportive person.

He is bound to be disappointed. Perhaps the one who feels the same as him is Prime Minister Werther. Prime Minister Werther was delayed by the mob a little bit, and William III, although all the people who participated in the meeting were high-ranking and well-dressed, but they There is no difference from those craftsmen and merchants. They happily smashed and divided "his" lifelong hopes in front of William III, arguing about who should get that share.

Later, even Edward Hyde couldn't help persuading William III that he didn't have to participate in every meeting, as long as he appeared when the meeting related to Utrecht was held. After all, he was elected by Charles II It's a puppet, but William III seemed to be possessed by a demon, as if he was going to torture or sacrifice himself, and he persisted until the end.

Regarding the division of the mainland of the Netherlands, according to the Dover secret agreement between Louis XIV and Charles II, three of the seven provinces belonged to Charles II, but because Charles II wanted William III, his nephew Inheriting Utrecht, of course, if possible, he hopes that Utrecht will not be included in his three provinces. Of course, Louis XIV will not agree. There is no doubt in it, and Charles II imitated Louis XIV's army is still in preparation, London is full of blood and rain, the Duke of York hates his elder brother, his son is still a baby, and there is not much possibility in Britain now France goes to war.

Charles II wants Utrecht, Friesland and Groningen, but these two areas, Denmark to the top, and the Holy Roman Empire to the right, although they belong to the archbishops of Münster and Cologne, they are still Louis's for the time being Allies, but if they can be bought by Louis, they can be bought by Charles II-after the Netherlands, France will become the enemy of England, and Louis does not want to test how deep his relationship with Charles II is at all-so he These two areas will never be handed over to Charles II.

In addition, the Danish King Frederick IV has always been worried about Sweden taking the Scandinavian region, so in this battle, he not only stood on the opposite side of France, but also the enemy of Karl XI. , It’s just that Denmark wants to defeat Sweden, and Sweden is not the same-the King of Denmark is also the master of Norway, and as long as you look at the map, you will know that Norway is like a belt embedded in Sweden.

In view of the fact that the alliance between Karl XI and Louis XIV may last for more than ten years - if Princess Elizabeth successfully marries into the Swedish royal family and gives birth to an heir for Karl XI, then once Louis XIV occupies the North and South Holland, Groningen and Friesland can form a two-sided attack with Sweden; in addition, if Zeeland and Utrecht are handed over to Charles II and William III, then Louis XIV can use the Flanders region and Groningen, Friesland formed a siege to the British Netherlands - of course the British firmly disagreed with this result, let alone the original three provinces were reduced to one at once (they insisted that Utrecht belonged to William III ), so after repeated negotiations and bargaining, Edward Hyde proposed that they could give up their ownership of New York in America in exchange for Friesland and Groningen. Obviously, what Louis could think of, the British should be able to think of .

So after repaying the king, the French who returned to the negotiating table offered a condition that Charles II could not refuse-Louis XIV accepted Britain's renunciation of New York, but he was still unwilling to give up the original plan. He can take a step back and give up South Holland.

This was beyond the imagination of everyone present, because the richest place in the Netherlands is South Holland rather than North Holland. Rotterdam and The Hague alone are two of the three major ports in the Netherlands. Enough to make the cash-strapped Charles II hesitate.

Thus, England has South Holland, Utrecht and Zeeland, just occupying the lower half of Holland, France occupies North Holland, Groningen and Friesland, and as for Upper IJssel, it is occupied by Cologne and Münster. The archbishops received them separately, and Gelderland was the only one left. After a delicate struggle-the envoys of Leopold I were of course unwilling to return without success, and they were able to insert words in the French Netherlands (Gelderland was between Groningen and Flanders), even if France occupies the two and a half provinces of the Netherlands, it still has to guard against the knives behind it at all times, and as described before, Charles II is also happy to see Louis X Four lost control of the Netherlands, and the British envoys contributed to it. In the end, Gelderland can also be said to be forced to cede to Habsburg-but not Leopold I of Austria, but Carlos II of Spain World, of course, on the grounds that Spain exchanged the province for Flanders.

In this way, the face of Carlos II can be regarded as saved...

Then, as compensation, Louis XIV did not hesitate to take away the other areas of the Netherlands in America-the Hudson River Valley, although at the beginning Louis was ready to regurgitate Flanders and the Netherlands, although the New World and the colonies looked It looks very attractive, but he also knows that disorderly expansion will only become the second Rome-the ancient Roman Empire was because of continuous expansion, but failed to consolidate its foundation, which led to , the whole empire was in a state of loose alliance, the governor of each district was like a king, oh no, they did become kings afterwards.

But now that France has acquired America, the other colonies of the Netherlands have become the prey of the wolves - Britain has acquired Batavia, Sumatra, Malacca and Ceylon (Melaka can almost be said to be the largest British caravan. Shadow - when the Dutch took Malacca, every British caravan had to pay a heavy tax); Spain got the Spice Islands (Portuguese envoys protested but was useless), but they took the opportunity to retake the Cape of Good Hope; Austria tried to keep The Lower Antilles Islands, but in the end the Antilles Islands were still obtained by Sweden-the Antilles Islands are the islands connecting the lower and lower parts of America. Since France has decided to accept New York, then Karl XI The world chose the Antilles Islands without hesitation, and here we should be glad that Karl XI rushed to Versailles to meet his future bride. With the king of France, there was little power to fight back.

But the Austrian envoys did not return empty-handed, they got Indonesia and the Malay Archipelago.

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Leaving aside how William III returned to the room full of hatred - he was already the Prince of Orange at this time, although there was only one Utrecht left for him, and he once thought of assassinating the culprit, that is, the French King Louis XIV, but every time he has an audience with the king, there are priests and guards around him, and he has no value to make Louis XIV treat him differently—the envoys of other countries can be said to have returned to their rooms exhausted , or eat and drink, or fall asleep, and some continue to think.

For example, the Spanish envoy Juan Patinho, he is the illegitimate son of Philip IV and the confidant of Don Juan Jose, the regent king of Spain, but his heart is loyal to Habsburg, that is, Said that his master should be Carlos II, but after seeing Louis XIV, although he knew it shouldn't be, he couldn't help but feel a sense of disappointment in his heart. He didn't expect Carlos II to become the first There are two Sun Kings, but the Duke of Colonna next to the Sun King doesn't know that he is many times better than Carlos II.

You can't say that a loyal subject shouldn't have no expectations for his king - but Carlos II is also eleven years old this year, and he is still a dull and ignorant person...Because of epilepsy, he often does not distinguish between places and places Falling to the ground and convulsing, the Spaniard has always had the most pious beliefs, so he can't help but make people think that he is possessed by the devil. People are already whispering and giving Carlos II the nickname of "The Demon Possessed".

This is why Don Juan Jose is only an illegitimate child, but there are still many people in Spain who support him—as long as he does not have delusions about sitting on the throne of the king.

Don Juan is doomed not to be king, once he dies, or loses power, all he has now is a mirror image, and he is not happy to get Gelderland Patinho, because he doesn't know that Duke Don Juan will What decision to make—"If I were the King of France," he said softly, "I would try to get Gelderland."

Will Duke Don Juan be willing to keep this enclave as a springboard and base for Spain in the future? Perhaps, he is a soldier and a man with great ambitions, but his talents are inversely proportional to his ambitions. He has lost to the Portuguese and also to the French—now Spain is not a "double king" The most powerful Spain in the era, what choice will he make?

The only thing that is certain is that Don Juan will never fall to Habsburg. After all, the Spanish Queen Mother of Habsburg was exiled by him. Even if he supports Leopold I, Leopold I will not Abandon his own sister.