June 1675, Cologne.
This wealthy city in the Rhineland has now become the center of Christian Europe. Leaders from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Rakshasa, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Switzerland and other areas that have not yet fallen under the iron heel of the Ottoman Empire, or rushed to Cologne in person , or sent a very important representative to Cologne.
These people came together to witness and personally participate in the revival of the Roman Empire!
What is to be revived now is not the German Rome, nor the Holy Rome, but the Roman Empire under the light of the Sun King, a diversified governance style with Ming as its teacher, including centralization, feudalism, and monarchy. , there was also a republic; there was a hodgepodge of Catholic and Protestant Rome.
As for how big this Rome is, what territories it includes, how much centralization and feudal elements there are; how many monarch elements there are, how much aristocratic elements there are; and how much Catholic and Protestant elements each occupy. We discussed everything carefully in Cologne.
And until all parties have discussed a plan that satisfies the Sun King, Louis XIV will not put on a purple robe, put on a laurel leaf crown, and become emperor for the people of Europe.
Now it is not Louis XIV himself who wants to be emperor, but the European nobles and people who believe in Christianity begging Louis to be their emperor... The job of the emperor is so hard and dangerous, and generally it is not easy to If you are allowed to retire, you will have to work yourself to death, and there are no satisfactory conditions. How can Louis be willing to accept it?
And... no one wants to do this job!
If someone is willing to stand up and shoulder the heavy burden, Louis XIV will also be happy to see it happen.
No, when Maria Anna, Queen Mother of Spain and sister of the late Saint Leopold, arrived in Cologne, Louis XIV even tried to persuade her to come in!
"Maria Anna, how about you become the Queen of the Holy Roman Empire! This merger of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire is also possible. I fully support it!"
After saying this, Louis XIV glanced at the hall where he and Maria Anna met.
The Elector of Brandenburg, Friedrich Wilhelm, was the first to speak: "Your Majesty the Queen Mother, I also support you as the Queen. As long as you agree, Brandenburg's vote belongs to you!"
The Grand Duke of Saxony, John George II, and the Elector of the Palatinate, Karl I Ludwig, also agreed.
"Your Majesty the Queen Mother, Saxony also supports you!"
"The Palatinate also supports Her Majesty the Queen Mother! Please lead us to repel the brutal Ottoman Empire and regain the lost territory!"
Maria Anna glared at the Elector of the Palatinate - when her brother Leopold I was fighting a bloody battle with the Tianfang Cultists in front of the Fortress of Gerburg, where were you, the Elector of Brandenburg and the Grand Duke of Saxony? You three treacherous Protestants have clearly betrayed God and sold the country to Louis XIV, and now you come to ridicule me, the miserable Queen Mother of Spain... You are going to hell like this!
No matter what Maria Anna thinks in her heart, she can't say anything nonsense, because she is a very weak regent and queen mother, with little money and not many soldiers. The worst thing is that her son is still a fool and cannot leave any descendants.
Therefore, the crown of Spain will inevitably fall on Louis XIV and his descendants... As for the crown of the Holy Roman Empire, it was originally elected. Now the throne of Bohemia is vacant, and the remaining six electors unanimously support it. Louis, so the obstacles to his ascension to the throne no longer existed.
Most of the Habsburg dynasty's territories in the Holy Roman Empire were occupied by the Ottomans. Even if Carlos nominally inherited those lands, there was no way to regain them...
Since there is no way to recover, there is no point.
For Maria Anna, the purpose of coming to Cologne was not to gain, but to avoid losing...at least not to lose Spain.
"The emperor of the Holy Roman Empire cannot be a woman," Maria Anna said, "and my son Carlos obviously does not have the ability to lead the empire. Moreover, Carlos and I just want to govern the existing territory. If we are not willing, we can't There is no ability to serve the people of Austria, the Czech Republic, Crown Hungary, etc.”
Louis XIV nodded and said: "Then Austria, the Czech Republic and Hungary will be the three provinces of the future Roman Empire!"
After these days of bargaining, the basic governance model of the Roman Empire has been finalized, which is the provinces directly under the emperor plus the vassal states of the princes.
Among them, the emperor has absolute monarchy power in the provinces directly under him, and the provincial representatives in the provincial councils and senate only have the power to propose, not to decide!
In various forms of vassal states, the monarch and the vassal state parliament share the power of governance, and the rights and obligations of the vassal state are determined based on the agreement signed by the vassal state and the emperor.
Moreover, a vassal state can be converted into a province, or become independent from the empire!
The condition for turning a vassal state into a province is to become the direct territory of the emperor. For example, after the death of Carlos II, the territories of the King of Spain will all be converted into provinces after they are inherited by the emperor.
The conditions for a vassal state to become independent from the empire will be determined when the vassal state joins the empire... The situation of each vassal state is different, and the conditions for separation will of course be different.
In addition to vassal states, there were also "Roman allies" that existed between independent states and vassal states - nominal vassal states, and sometimes de facto alliances. And nominal alliances are sometimes de facto sects...
"The Kingdom of Spain and the Kingdom of New Spain can exist as allies of Rome." Pope Clement X said with a sad face, "But His Majesty Carlos's territory in Italy must be a vassal of Rome! This You have no objection to that, right?"
"No objection!" Maria Anna said coldly.
The Roman Empire!
There is no Germany, no holiness, not even "West", just the bare Roman Empire! How could there be no Italy?
The Pope sighed, his expression a little painful. The thing that pained him was of course not that Carlos II's territory in Italy became Louis' vassal, but that his Roman Papal State also ceased to exist!
How could the Roman Empire be without Rome?
This doesn’t make sense!
And Louis XIV had already given in gracefully... If Clement X was as brave as St. Leopold, Louis XIV would also be very willing to continue to be a cheerleader in Cologne.
Now you are a pope who has no talent and dare not become an emperor to fight against Tianfang believers. If you still want to hold Rome and refuse to hand it over to Louis, who has talent, can this be justified?
Jesus wouldn’t even agree!
Moreover, Louis XIV inherited the legal system of the Roman Empire, not the legal system of the Holy Roman Empire!
Therefore, he did not recognize Pepin's donation of soil. As for Constantine's donation of soil, it was obviously a forgery... The Pope himself also admitted that it was a forgery! Otherwise he would have been obliged to surround the Austrian people from the ravages of the enemies of the Tianfang Cult.
...
Vienna, Hofburg Palace.
The great conqueror Mohammed IV was walking in the palace that originally belonged to the Habsburg family. His chubby, round face did not have the joy of a winner at all.
Because he knew that the victory in Djerburg was a pure fluke... and that the Ottoman Empire's losses were also huge! Of course, it's not that the loss of personnel is huge, but the loss of rifled guns is not small!
A rifled gun is inherently less durable than a smoothbore gun because its rifling can be easily ground down, turning it into a smoothbore gun.
And the Ottoman Empire itself did not have a particularly developed military industry, so it was simply unable to mass-produce rifled guns... As for the Christians, they have now picked up cork rifled bullets, and will soon imitate them and equip them in large quantities. Rifled gun!
By then, the end of the Ottoman Empire will come!
Thinking of this, Sultan suddenly stopped and turned to look at Henry Chu who was following him, "Henry, what should I do? Can you teach me?"
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