Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

While several major German giants were discussing the development of relations between the Netherlands and Greece to the level of military allies, and were panicking about the Netherlands's shocking plans for Britain and other countries, Queen Victoria and her two children were also worried about this.

Princess Alice, whom Prince Edward has the best relationship with, is now married to the Duchess of Argyle in the UK (historically this is Princess Louise).

Crown Prince Edward said unhappily: "For a small kingdom like Greece, if it hadn't been for the purpose of balancing the Ottoman Empire, we would never have supported its existence. But now it's backfired on us and is working side by side with the Netherlands. It's really shocking to see." I’m unhappy. If I had known earlier, William III should not have been allowed to become the king of the Kingdom of Greece in the past. As a result, we have become passive now.”

Princess Alice glanced at Queen Victoria, and then said angrily: "Edward, by saying this, you are actually saying something wrong with your mother."

When Edward heard this, he immediately shrugged and glanced at Queen Victoria slyly, "I didn't mean that."

Queen Victoria smiled and said: "It would be better if we didn't. The Netherlands set up a series of tricks this time to make us the target of their calculations. We lost in the end, but we don't blame others. Viscount Palmerston also lost to William IV that year." Under the calculation of the world, not only did people from other European countries not expect that the Netherlands would develop so rapidly and become a giant on par with us in just ten years, this is something I did not expect either. .

So it’s not wrong to say that raising tigers is a disaster.”

Prince Edward curled his lips and said, "Thank you, mother, for being able to laugh."

Princess Alice looked thoughtful.

Queen Victoria sighed and said: "The world is like a big chessboard. People who play chess always need to be calm, but those who watch chess are the most anxious. You are growing up well now, but you are still far away from becoming a real person." There is still a distance between chess players.

Look at William IV. He always hides behind the Dutch government, holding chess pieces in his hands, but is unwilling to show his face easily. Therefore, we cannot find his chess moves, nor do we know his heart, let alone whether he is We secretly explored the chessboard behind our backs, prefabricated the chess moves and copied them to the world management. We were in the light while others were in the dark, so we suffered a lot.

Edward, if you want to become a powerful chess player, you should not care about the loss of one piece, but should play chess with an overall view of the entire chessboard, and no longer worry about losses one by one. "

After hearing this, Edward suddenly woke up, raised his head and said in surprise: "Does mother have a way to deal with the tricks from the Netherlands?"

Queen Victoria, her mother, is a real strong woman in Europe. She has been the King of the United Kingdom for 44 years since she inherited the throne in 1837. It has been almost half a century since the United Kingdom became the world's most powerful country. If not for the emergence of the Netherlands, Britain's status would have been It would be more prudent. Thinking of this, he felt even less favorable towards the Netherlands.

Kingdom of the Netherlands, Melbourne.

William IV was discussing political affairs with Queen Alexandra and his eldest son, Crown Prince Albert, and their family of three.

Prince Albert looked worried and said: "If immigrants from all over the world no longer rush to the Netherlands, but Dutch people immigrate overseas one after another, and this continues for a period of time, the Netherlands may really not be far from recession."

Prince Albert's words made William IV and Queen Alexandra a little funny, but at the same time they felt a flash of inspiration.

Queen Alexandra glared at her eldest son angrily.

William IV was not surprised by this and said: "What must be explained here is that I do not think that the Netherlands will decline because of this. As many British ultra-conservative thinkers believe, the Netherlands' national destiny can be long-term. Green, sustainable development. Because this obviously does not conform to the sound = birth, old age, illness, and death in the life cycle; it does not conform to the natural law of formation, development, maturity, and decline in the life cycle. Just like from Spain to France, After going through a process of formation, development, maturity and decline, can the Netherlands escape this natural law? The remarks of these extreme experts in the UK, although they do not shout long live but reveal the eternal nature, may be absurd.

In fact, so far, this decline has been unreliable and has been repeatedly confirmed by history. For example, the Russian Empire began to fall into domestic political struggles after 1853, but Alexander II bravely came through. Even the Tsarist Empire has begun to recover from the Crimean War in recent years. While it has not changed its stubbornness towards the Balkans, it has also shown its ambition towards the Far East."

William IV said: "At present, the Netherlands has begun to appear first in the Netherlands. The pretext is that Britain has declined, but in fact? Under the leadership of Queen Victoria, Britain not only defeated the enemy across the English Channel that had troubled Britain for many years. The French Empire plunged France into fragmentation. It also caused the Austrian Empire, which Britain had been worried about in the past, to become a rival on a different level from Britain in Germany. Moreover, Britain also plunged the Tsarist Russian Empire into chaos and activated the domestic pro-Russian Empire. The British opposed the turmoil of Alexander II. The latter lost a leg, and the United States used the German Empire to disrupt our influence. The German Empire hated the Netherlands because of this, which made the German Empire work closely with us. The relationship has turned into strangers, and even estrangement has occurred on many issues.

Albert, look at things, don’t just listen to what sounds good, sometimes we also have to think about the coin’s side, which actually also plays a huge role.”

As William IV spoke out one by one, Prince Albert was really surprised to find that step by step, many things in Britain were developing in favor of Britain without him taking action.

And it was so low-key that it made people feel it, which made him break out in cold sweat even though he was not yet 16 years old.

This was the sigh that came from William IV again. In the meantime, William IV said: "In this era, there are only two and a half people that really scare me."

Queen Alexandra came over after hearing this, obviously curious about who he was talking about.

Prince Albert couldn't help but ask: "What is father afraid of?"

William IV: "The first one is naturally the Queen Victoria mentioned just now. This most powerful woman in Europe is famous for her tolerance. She became the Queen of England from a descendant of the British royal family. This seems simple. In fact, who knows how many intrigues and intrigues are going on inside, we know less, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any.”

Queen Alexandra nodded beside her and said: "Beginning in 1840, after the Queen secured her throne, she expanded globally. And all achieved satisfactory results. Britain began to rely on its huge resources to accelerate the industrial revolution. This I have to say that it is not an exaggeration to say that this woman is one.”

Prince Albert asked: "Then there are one and a half people left that my father is afraid of. Who else is there?"