The Rise of the European Emperor

Seeing Old Mason stand up, many of the princes present looked contemptuous. These monarchs are the most anti-bones of those smoky monarchs. They naturally resented someone like Old Mason who took advantage of the monarch's disease, monopolized power and made decisions without authorization.

So Henry, Duke of Lüneburg was dissatisfied:

"Who are you?" In fact, most of the people present knew old Mason, but Duke Henry was actually expressing his dissatisfaction by saying this.

Old Mason was not angry, but said with a smile on his face:

"Lord Henry, I'm Mason, Prime Minister of the Duchy of Clifford and the Country of Mark!"

"Do you still know that you are only a prime minister? How can you make a decision while Duke John is seriously ill? Are you qualified to make decisions on behalf of the Principality of Clifford and the Earl of Mark?"

Old Mason did not speak, but took out a document from his pocket and said:

"This is the power of attorney from our Lord. Before he became seriously ill, he specifically entrusted me in writing to take full charge of the military and political affairs of the Principality of Clifford and the Earl of Mark, including diplomacy! You all know that, we Prince John is only 15 years old and has not yet reached the age to be able to handle official duties. Therefore, during this time, all the affairs of the Duchy of Clifford and the Earl of Mark are taken care of by the subordinates..."

This power of attorney is naturally true, after all, it was signed by John II himself. Therefore, everyone circulated it for a while, but no one saw any problems.

At this time, the princes remembered - was the behavior of old Mason ordered by John II himself? As for John II's serious illness, he was probably afraid of taking responsibility, so he chose to let old Mason take the blame, right?

Although the feudal lords here lack great talent and vision, they still have rich experience in political struggle. Many people have thought of this, and their faces start not to flash.

When Frederick III, Elector of Saxony saw this, he cleared his throat and asked:

"Prime Minister Mason, you said that you have evidence in your hands to prove that the Duchy of Geddes colluded with the Kingdom of France. Why don't you take a look at it?"

"Yes, Lord Elector. Please see, this is a letter between the Duchy of Geddes and the Kingdom of France..." After speaking, he sent several letters from Schwartz to him on the rostrum and asked him to sit down. Emperor Maximilian I on the rostrum read it with 7 other electors.

At this time, Vladislas II of Bohemia, one of the seven great emperors, suddenly said:

"Prime Minister Mason,

Can I ask, how did you get these letters? After seeing these letters, Vladislas II was a little puzzled. Because the recipients of these letters were all King Louis XII of France. It stands to reason that these letters should be kept in the French royal palace. .

After pretending to hesitate for a moment, old Mason glanced at Emperor Maximilian I again, and then said:

"These letters are from a Spanish robber named Pedro. October 13 last year was the birthday of Princess Claude, the only daughter of King Louis XII of France. On that day, Mr. Pedro, the Spanish robber, Taking advantage of the negligent guarding of the front yard of the French Royal Palace, he infiltrated the room of the French Foreign Minister, picked the lock, and stole several letters. Among them, several letters happened to be written by Charles II, Duke of Geddes, to King Louis XII of France… …”

Saying that, Old Mason pointed to one of the channels:

"Lord, please see, in this letter, Charles II, Duke of Geddes, slandered His Majesty the Emperor as a 'greedy tyrant', but complimented King Louis XII of France as the most wise and promising prince in Europe..."

"And this letter, Charles II thanked Louis XII for the thousands of Swiss mercenaries and a lot of money for the support... Obviously, the Principality of Gede has long been linked with the French. And France, also gave Gede The company has provided a lot of financial and human support..."

...

After reading these letters, Archbishop Jacob of Mainz nodded and said:

"If these letters are true, then it can indeed be concluded that Charles II, Duke of Geddes, colluded with foreign countries and slandered His Majesty. But the question is - Prime Minister Mason, how can you prove that these letters are true? ?"

The other princes reacted and echoed:

"Yes, yes, how do you prove that these letters are true?" Obviously, the princes planned to insist that these letters were fake.

Old Mason was not in a hurry. He took out a few letters from the package he brought and said:

"My lords, what you say is unsubstantiated, this is naturally known to the lowly. Therefore, the lowly brought a few letters exchanged between the Duchy of Clifford and the Duchy of Geddes. These letters are from Charles, Duke of Geddes. It was written by the Second World in his own hand and has his signature. As long as you check the notes, signatures, ink and paper, you will know the authenticity..."

In this era, the formulation of ink is not uniform. Different countries and different merchants provide different paper and ink.

However, it is certain that the type of ink used by the monarch of a vassal state must be specially supplied by a large merchant, and the same is true of paper. Therefore, at the same time period (there may be changes in different time periods), the paper and ink used by a vassal state monarch are basically the same. And the letters that Old Mason chose to bring were also of the same period as the letter written by Charles II, Duke of Guedes, to Louis XII of France, and the paper and ink used were naturally similar...

Several electors and Maximilian I got together and compared the two types of letters, and found that the ink and paper used by the two were similar. And the same goes for handwriting and signatures.

Maximilian I nodded and said:

"There really is no difference!"

But Archbishop Jacob of Mainz shook his head and said:

"No, this cannot be used as evidence. The two batches of letters were brought by Prime Minister Mason alone. What if the two batches of letters were forged by Prime Minister Mason? Therefore, the words of one family are not sufficient evidence!"

Maximilian I said very relaxedly:

"That's easy. I just happened to bring a few letters from Charles II to me during this period. You can compare them!" After that, Maximilian I also took out a few letters for everyone to identify. The results of the identification are naturally similar.

However, the Archbishop of Mainz did not agree. why? Because he thought that old Mason had come to Worms and had been to the house of Maximilian I. So, it's hard to say...

However, at this time, the Prime Minister of Beihai, Geoffrey, who attended the meeting on behalf of the Grand Duchy of Beihai, also stood up and said:

"It's a coincidence that the North Sea Kingdom also kept several letters from Charles II, Duke of Geddes!" After speaking, he took out a pile of letters and picked out the ones written by Charles II...

Not only that, Jeffrey also said:

"My lords, you can send someone back to deliver all the letters exchanged with Duke Geddes! Here, Geoffrey, I can swear in the name of God and the Bible that these letters are true. Otherwise, I will Willing to die!"

It's all said and done, it's no use trying to cheat. Moreover, everyone compares the letters exchanged between themselves and Charles II, Duke of Geddes, and the truth is revealed. In desperation, everyone had to admit the charge of Charles II, Duke of Guedes, for "being foreign" and "slandering the monarch".

In the end, the Reichstag had to rule that Charles II treasonous...