I Am Louis XIV

   Chapter 189 Saint Denis (8)

They ran through the square courtyard and rushed into the corridor, making the maid scream and then giggle, and the queen mother's female officer led a group of people, "Oh, it seems that we can't go to the meeting. The market is over." The king said that they had agreed to go to the market after a simple lunch. "My mother must have something to do with me." Generally speaking, the queen mother rarely goes back to disturb the king's games and entertainment, but if Yes, then it must be for a very important thing - in the early days of the regency, the king also needed to sit on a chair as a display and symbol, and now officials can even directly report to the queen mother on government affairs and wait for the decision of the queen mother and the regent, the king. Do whatever you like.

   Before leaving, the king caught a glimpse of one of his little friends showing an unpleasant look, he walked over, reached out and patted his shoulder: "I promise you the chessboard will be given to you, don't worry, wait for me to come back."

The young man opened his mouth and wanted to say something, because he didn't want any chessboard at all, and the king did not have such an agreement with him. He was annoyed that the queen mother and the regents always separated the king from political affairs, intentionally or unintentionally. Besides, the king is only present when a foreign minister or messenger arrives, and even then the king is not "advised" to say anything more - neither can he, because the king listens to other nations except German I don't know or say it.

But the king stopped him with gentle eyes. The king is already twelve years old this year. In the palace, children always grow up very fast. He knows that among his little friends, there may only be two or three loyal enough to him. The others are either grass on the wall or the eyes and ears monitoring him - of course, there is a better saying in the Queen Mother and the Regent Minister.

  The king turned and left, and the young man threw away the invitations of others in disgust, and left the Three Crowns Palace alone.

  ———

When the king entered the queen dowager's drawing room, he was not surprised to find that a group of envoys were waiting for his arrival. It was adorned with gems dotted with stars, the pin of the cloak was a delicate golden lily, and the huge hat was in his hand, and when he saw him, he waved it and made a complicated and elegant bow. The man behind him. The same is true, compared to the more Spanish style of dress in the Swedish court - black and brown - they were like a flock of tropical birds (which the king saw in the picture book) falling to a flock of crows Here, the brilliance is hard to see.

Prince Conti smiled and raised his body after getting permission. When he saw Charles XI, his first reaction was to make a comparison with their king, Louis XIV's boyhood. They were... equally vigorous. , with clear eyes, if anything, the king of France at that time was more like a wise scholar, and the king of Sweden was like a young warrior, too, at the age of twelve, their king had read After every book in the study, even those written in Latin, the king was said to be not good at reading and writing.

Charles XI lightly swept over the group of Frenchmen, went up to kiss the hand of the Queen Mother, and saluted the regents: "Oh, my child," said the Queen Mother, "please also pay tribute to these esteemed Salute gentlemen, for they have brought us great news on behalf of God and the King of France."

  Karl XI had some vague guesses, but he couldn't be sure until the attendant moved a huge picture frame covered with an indescribable blue velvet like the deep sea or the night sky.

The royal blue velvet quilt slowly opened, just like the former Duke of Orleans, which was also the work of Charles LeBlanc, Louis's royal painter. LeBlanc's paintings have always been criticized by later generations for being too mediocre, but it made Louis seem , he just doesn't want to be too outrageous-beyond the aesthetics of mortals, at most, it will attract the anger and blame of the employer like Rembrandt, and if it exceeds the aesthetics of a king, then he is likely to completely lose his honor, credit, and plummet-especially Now, the prestige of the king is like sunshine, radiating from Paris to every corner of France, and is regarded by the king as a deviant person, and it is difficult to gain the appreciation of other nobles.

Knowing that the painter had such concerns, Louis naturally tried to comfort him, and he never thought that keeping secrets and being moody would be the demeanor of a king—he frankly disclosed his preferences and preferences to the public. Will attract a whole bunch of flattering villains, but there are some people, some opponents, who have to let themselves be exposed unless they are willing to rebel against their own beliefs and souls - if so, they can't claim to be an upright people, because they have been the first to lie.

With the king's clear instructions, LeBron's talents can be fully displayed. He is not the kind of person who likes to use KitKat to get attention from others, which is exactly in the king's mind. It can be said to be stereotyped) slowly transformed into gentleness and lightness. In his paintings, the colors used are softer, and the gestures and expressions of the characters are no longer so rigid.

It stands to reason that in a portrait like this, the protagonist will always only take a slightly sideways body, but facing the audience, the princess may be allowed to lead a toy bed-sometimes put dolls in it, meaning She is expected to be a good mother in the future, but people's attention will inevitably fall on her skirt rather than her face and arms, because this seems to be the subject of the princess, who occupy almost one-third of the picture. One is silk, ribbons and gems... the others are less of a concern.

But Louis-Louis, although he succumbed to his ambitions, also wanted the happiness of his own daughter, not as a queen, but as a loved one, he said, and from the very beginning he rejected it in his letter LeBlanc's sketch, so what Carl XI and the Queen Mother see is a happy and innocent little girl bathed in the sun - the background is not a room, not a colonnade, but a fragrant rose. Flower bushes, large pink and white roses hidden in the dark green foliage, the luxurious and solemn royal blue drapery pours down from the rose bushes, down to the little girl - she is wearing an ivory white silk satin skirt , kneeling on the golden lily symbolizing the French royal family and the king's sun coat of arms, as if being held by these two powerful beings at the same time, she tilted her head slightly, holding a rose wreath in both hands, testing Wearing it on your head is like crowning yourself.

The sunlight cast mottled shadows on her ears through the lace hanging on the snow-white forearm, making her round and lovely face as clean and smooth as cream, like the pink plucked from roses from her The corners of his eyes have been smudged all the way to his cheeks, and his eyes are slightly drooping. The blue eyes inherited from his father therefore look like lake water under the shadow of a tree, and the waves are bright and deep.

After a while, with the Queen Mother's admiration, people moved like a group of puppets that were suddenly removed and fitted with silk threads. "How is it? My child," the Queen Mother asked with a smile. Said: "This is your future wife, the eldest daughter of the King of France, Princess Elizabeth."

Karl XI of course knew that his future wife must be a princess, or, like his mother and grandmother, a powerful duke or the daughter of an elector, but as a normal teenager, he also worried that his mother would choose one for him. Habsburg's daughter, or someone close to him - he didn't mean to oppose or fight, but he also heard that Habsburg's daughters are ugly, especially the huge chin, It is said that they have to rest their chins on the table to carry the weight when they dine - an understatement, of course, but who wants to face such a face every day and every night?

Princess Elizabeth's mother was actually a Habsburg princess, but her daughter, fortunately, did not inherit any shortcomings from the maternal line. Her chin was the first place Karl XI paid attention to. It was very small, even with a chin. With the baby fat, you can also see that its shape is like a delicate wine glass. "Our princess is more like her father." Prince Conti said, while re-covering the frame with his own hands, the portrait was quickly taken away. Moving to the king's room of Sweden also indicated the establishment of the marriage contract, but his words soon made some people smile, because the beauty of the French King Louis is also known to everyone, as opposed to the French queen's. Being mediocre, being able to resemble her father, is also a good thing for a girl.

After this process, Carl XI resigned with interest, and everyone respectfully sent off, followed by more tedious and important negotiations-to get married officially, for Carl XI, it would take until he officially ascended the throne as an adult. As for Princess Elizabeth, she has to wait until she is an adult, that is to say, at least a few years later, and King Louis of France is willing to send an envoy at this time to destroy the anti-French Church of Rome and the Holy Roman Empire being formed. alliance.

Even the Queen Mother of Sweden has to say that the French king's handwriting is really generous, especially when he promised that he would divide a territory from the Flanders region as a dowry for the princess - just look at the map. , Sweden seems to be vast and has many ports, but these ports are all within the Baltic Sea. Sweden is wrapped by Norway on the top and choked by Denmark on the bottom. The only outlet to the sea is only in the Skagerrak, and this strait is also Being controlled by Norway and Denmark at the same time, Sweden became independent from Denmark more than 100 years ago, but Norway still belongs to Denmark, so it is equivalent to being firmly imprisoned by Denmark.

But the Flanders region is under the Netherlands. It can be said that even if the marriage contract is reached, Princess Elizabeth brings this territory into Sweden, which is also an enclave, but for Sweden, they have another one that is not held hostage by Denmark 's outlet.

This also shook the Queen Mother of Sweden, and was used by her to persuade other regent ministers - among these five regent ministers, the only person who is loyal and talented enough may only be Grand Marshal Karl Gustav Wrangel. The problem is , The commander-in-chief of the Swedish army is loyal to the queen mother rather than the king. The other ministers are not only good at fighting for power and profit, or exploiting the people, and they are almost all pro-British.

  The current relationship between Britain and France is really mysterious. Their governments are hostile to each other, and their kings have a very deep friendship, but the Regent of Sweden, of course, prefers the British government.

So from the very beginning, Sweden was willing to join the anti-French alliance. It was just the sincerity, or bait, of the French King Louis XIV. It was too tempting. Even if someone opposed it, it would be difficult to get a corresponding bargaining chip , so they can only say that the French king may not be able to conquer Flanders, but this sentence was spoken, and the Queen Mother of Sweden laughed, and so did some other people. Everyone could see that the Spaniards can only hide in Brussels and Mons, with 8,000 against 50,000 people, even if there is a strong castle, so what? The power of French artillery has been shown to every spy in Lille, Sweden is no exception, and although the emissaries of the Holy Roman Empire are very tongue-in-cheek, they can't explain why Leopold I I don't want to send troops to help my relatives...

Of course they wouldn't know that Leopold I was paying the price for his greed, but this is almost arguably the deadliest place - about a week after the Assumption of the Virgin (August 15), the onetime Queen of Sweden, Christie Ms. Na agreed to become a nun in a convent in Florence, and everything in the world has nothing to do with it. At the same time, the portrait of the Swedish king Carl XI was also sent to Paris. From this year on, the Swedish king and the French Princess Elizabeth had to paint a personal portrait and send it to the other's country, a practice that was considered a mandatory procedure at the time, similar to mutual notification of each other's situation.

The portrait of Karl XI was placed in front of the Queen Mother and the Queen of France, and the eldest princess Elizabeth was beside them. Although she knew it was inevitable, Queen Teresa could not help clenching her hands. Healthy - after being a decent boy, she was slightly relieved, no matter what, it was better than Carlos II of Spain - although the portraits will be beautified, but the painters of the time will not degenerate to be as direct as those of later generations Changed a face, let alone some Habsburg members would take this deformity as a symbol of noble blood, proud of it, let alone cover it, they would rather show it thoroughly .

   "But," Queen Teresa looked at the letter from the king to herself and the Queen Mother with some confusion: "What does this mean?"

Queen Anne gave the Queen a meaningful look. She was so lucky. She married and had such a good husband. Many times, Louis was accommodating her, not the other way around, so she didn't know that she was eating less How much suffering, an outsider, a foreign queen, came to a strange place, it was like facing a war single-handedly, but if you can win the trust of your husband, that is, the king, you will get twice the result with half the effort.

The information they got was that in counting, writing and reading, in foreign languages, King Carl XI of Sweden was almost blank, and that he was now relying on his companions, who would become his ministers in the future, but if his Can the queen do the same? Even better, better and more trustworthy than those people, when the king will tell the queen in everything and ask her for help, will it be difficult for the queen to gain a foothold in the court or even the court?

   "The education of the princess is about to be arranged." Queen Anne said.

   (end of this chapter)