I Am Louis XIV

   Chapter 119 Firstborn and Queen

Mary Teresa was the eldest daughter of King Philip IV of Spain, but her mother Elisabeth, the daughter of King Henry IV of France, died when she was only six years old, and her brother Balthazar. Carlos also went to heaven to reunite with his mother two years later. Because the Spanish royal family does not recognize the "Salic Succession Law", the eldest princess originally had the first right of inheritance. Unfortunately, just last year, her half-brother was born. , she lost the throne that seemed to be at her fingertips again, no, not only did she lose the throne, but she had to dedicate her marriage to this throne.

Even as the eldest princess, Teresa still has no right to say anything about her marriage. She has heard of her two husband candidates, but she says from the bottom of her heart that she prefers to be the wife of King Louis XIV of France - she The same age as Louis XIV of France, Leopold I was two years younger, women always look more mature than men, especially at this age, the main thing is, I heard that Leopold was young but violent, Louis XIV was gentle, even a little cowardly, and the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire needed to be elected by the electors, and in France, as long as she could give birth to a boy for the king, he was destined to be king.

   In the Spanish court, Teresa may not be the last to know who her husband is, but she is definitely not the first, not even in the top ten, but her husband is Louis XIV, which is enough for her to be grateful.

It was a sunny morning. Since Philip II moved the capital from Toledo to Madrid, this palace has experienced nearly two hundred years of ups and downs. With the gradual growth of the royal population, although this palace There are 170 rooms in the palace but they are still insufficient. As the presumed heir, Teresa's original room is second only to His Majesty the King, but since her half-brother landed, after a hunting trip, her stepmother The princess of the Holy Roman Empire, Maria Anna of Austria, naturally assigned her room to her son, while Teresa was forced to relocate to the west wing of the palace. This suite is gorgeous, but "exquisite", she The two closest maids had to live in the same room, which Teresa could only endure silently. Fortunately, as the marriage contract settled, perhaps it was to give this daughter who was about to leave and could not return to Spain. With a little warmth, the king ordered a few noble ladies to move out of the palace and make room for Teresa's maids, but her maids were still indignant. They were brought by Teresa's mother, Elizabeth of Bourbon, and of course they would. hostile to the Austrians.

   "Okay, stop talking." Teresa said, "We won't be here any time soon."

"It's just that I can't see these savages," said Teresa's maid, who was older than Teresa, but obviously more lively than Her Royal Highness, her soft white hands in Teresa's chestnut-colored curly hair Up and down: "It is said that shawls are no longer to be seen in the court of France," she said: "It is said that it was the king's idea that he had a barber curl the ladies' hair, and then comb or comb or It's braided and put on a crown of gems or diamonds, sometimes fresh flowers, let's do the same, I'll curl your hair, and put on a diamond pin and silver lace, it must be It will be beautiful."

   "Don't be ridiculous." Teresa said: "Today we just want to meet the messenger who greeted the king's portrait, not the majesty."

"But the messenger will definitely go back and describe what he saw to the king." Teresa's maid said anxiously. She was the maid chosen by Queen Elizabeth for the princess. Because she was born in Anjou, she was destined to not be accepted by Spain. People accept it, and she disdains it, but a woman who is older than the princess and married to a Spanish noble, of course knows how important a woman's appearance is to a man.

The maid's anxiety is not without reason. King Louis of France is twenty years old this year. A young man in his twenties is understandable to have a few lovers, not to mention that the French court originally had a "royal lady" system. A lover will make people question his important ability as a man, but the majesty is not a person who is keen on women's lust, I heard that so far, there are only two or three people who can be verified as close people - Princess Henrietta of England, but This may be the result of negotiating the marriage contract and failing to succeed. Of course, this His Royal Highness will not become the king's lover.

Next is Marie Mancini, who can be described as Marie Teresa's archenemy. First of all, she came from a mediocre background, but only because she had an uncle who was a cardinal and a prime minister could she enter the court and get along with the dynasties of the country, but their relationship The relationship has been calculated since childhood, and it is said that the person also made a lot of nonsense, thinking that he could become the king's wife, such an idea can't help but make people feel contemptuous and disgusting, but the relationship of more than ten years is not the same. Something that was easily erased, and the maid had seen her portrait, on the premise that the painter did not deliberately beautify and uglify, Marie Mancini was indeed a beauty.

Then there is Mrs. Milady, whom the king met when he was in Dunkirk. Her origin is unclear, at least the maid has not been able to find her origin, but her charm is beyond the reach of Marie Mancini. When he saw her, he was fascinated. Even when he was seriously ill, he let her guard him. For this reason, Mancini went to Dunkirk alone in anger. There was a big fight at the head of the king's bed, and the king was angry, so when they got back to Paris, none of them showed up.

The maid of course hoped that the king would leave these two beauties behind, not to mention the nonsense that the marriage between the royal family was only for political needs, yes to Philip IV, yes to Louis XIV, only to Mary Not Teresa, the maid knows how sad it is for a wife who is not respected and loved by her husband.

The problem is that although Mary Teresa does not have the unfortunate big chin that inherits the Habsburg family tradition, it has nothing to do with beauty. She seems bland and boring. She is not a smart person. She has no talent or perseverance in learning. Although her mother is French, her French learning is still stumbling and stumbling. She doesn't like dancing, listening to music, no What laudable virtues, aside from...gourmet food? But the perk doesn't do any good other than increase her waistline.

  The maid was worried by Teresa's eyes, but she was helpless, what could she do? She is not a boy. After her brother passed away, although she was regarded as the first heir, her father was only eager to make a second son with her stepmother, instead of teaching and nurturing her own daughter. She even envied Sweden's Christie Na, even though she and her cousin were enemies of Spain - she was seen as transparent after the birth of her half-brother - or, in terms of inheritance, she was forced to hide herself.

She also heard that the French ambassador had been haggling with Spanish diplomats before—because she had the Spanish inheritance, of course the French hoped that the inheritance could be retained and brought to France, but the Spanish king and nobles would never allow this. The incident happened, their tug-of-war negotiation made Teresa worried for a long time - after all, the marriage has come to this point, if it breaks down because of the issue of inheritance, then it is difficult to say whether she will be able to find another such good marriage - Leopold I said he was busy fighting the rebellion, but he probably just didn't want to marry a Bourbon wife.

  Fortunately, in the end, King Louis of France made some concessions. He could allow his wife to renounce the Spanish throne, but in contrast, she must have a considerable dowry, for example, 500,000 Roman Egyptians. A Roman ecu is a large gold coin, each worth eighty to one hundred livres.

Fifty years ago, it would have been easy for the Spanish royal family to pay the dowry, but in 1588, the Spanish armada was ruthlessly broken by the British navy, and in 1623, Spain lost its monopoly of the Americas. The situation, in 1640, the Catalan rebellion caused the king to be stuck in his throat. In December of the same year, Portugal also successfully became independent from the Kingdom of Spain. In 1642, they were defeated by the Dutch again. In 48 years, more The independence of the Netherlands was recognized as a last resort, thus losing its dominant position on land.

During the French Civil War, the Spaniards took fire and looted and recovered Naples and Catalonia (French-controlled areas), but they were defeated by the Viscount Turenne in the recent Battle of the Dunes (Dunkirk) and could not The last thing Mazarin did with all his might before his death was to force the Spaniards to cede Roussillon, Foix, Artois, and Lorraine (these were all is an important city between Spain and France) to France - although the peace treaty has not yet been signed, Spain may not have the courage to go back or deny it.

   Not to mention the fact that the Spanish government has repeatedly expanded its military for the Thirty Years' War, which has already failed once.

Therefore, the current Spanish royal house is empty, but the demands made by the French king are not excessive, and in this era when he is still showing his strength by boasting, Philip IV is required to admit that he even took half a million Roman Ecuuses. It is even more impossible not to come out. He agreed to this condition with difficulty, but asked for an extension or installment payment, which the French agreed.

Soon Teresa will renounce her right to the Spanish throne under the supervision of the Witnesses - compared to the maid, she really doesn't think there is anything to be happy about in the messenger or the portrait, but the company of nearly ten years makes her willing to pamper herself her friend, she was well dressed, and later in the audience room, Philip IV was present with the French envoy - also a familiar and embarrassing figure to the Spaniards, yes, it was Prince Condé, who was once an enemy and an ally, was surrounded by the handsome Count D'Artagnan. Prince Condé looked solemn, but D'Artagnan smiled slightly, but both had a good appearance.

Between the two was a huge portrait covered with a velvet drapery. The height of the portrait exceeded the head of Prince Condé. With the permission of Philip IV, the Count of D'Artagnan raised the curtain gracefully and let the The portrait was presented in front of everyone. Before Teresa could take a closer look, she heard a slight gasp from the maid behind her.

She leaned slightly to let the dazzling sunlight pass, and walked to the side to take a closer look. This portrait was specially commissioned by Louis for this "meeting". Curly blond hair neatly parted to both shoulders, his eyes turned to the left, holding a scepter in one hand and pointing to the ground in the other, wearing a white sable lining, a purple-blue underside embroidered with silver lilies, the king's cloak inside. It was dark leggings and a creamy white shirt. His feet were one after the other on the blue velvet pads. Like the seat cushions, there were also lilies on the pads, and they were placed on the table in the direction of the king's fingers. Yes, a small and gorgeous crown, the meaning of which is self-evident.

Looking at the Spaniards - especially the ladies with their fans, the Count of d'Artagnan and the honor, he could swear to God that no king or duke he saw could compare to him The king's appearance is even better. The king not only has the wisdom and kindness bestowed by God, but also has the face kissed by an angel. There is no doubt about this - even Philip IV, who should not care so much about appearance, can't help coughing gently. Twice to hide his hesitation, the only thing that comforted him was that Princess Teresa quickly turned her eyes away and bowed her knees to her father and the king.

"Okay," said Philip IV. "Send this portrait to the princess' suite, so that you can get to know your future husband better." He said gently to Teresa, who was silent. Accepted without a word.

In fact, it's not Her Royal Highness who can't miss this portrait, but those naughty little maids, who pushed me to squeeze, noisily guessing how much the portrait was beautified, after all, the portrait at this time , especially portraits for this purpose, can sometimes feel like they were sent to the wrong place or to the wrong person—sometimes the artist's marvelous handwriting is on par with the evil spells of centuries later.

   "Do you think he will be that tall?" a maid asked eagerly.

   "There should be," said the other maid, "Look at his legs!"

   "Young but strong," said one of the maids, causing an ambiguous laugh.

   "I heard that His Majesty likes hunting."

   "It doesn't look very savage from the portrait."

   "As long as he looks half as good as the portrait."

Teresa listened to the squeaking and groaning outside, and with a small ivory-handled paper knife, she lightly opened the beeswax on a letter. On the beeswax, there were crowns, shields and lilies - this was a letter from the king of France. Letters of Louis XIV.

   I'm a little late, sorry.

   (end of this chapter)