Xu Guangqi had someone translate a letter from Queen Elizabeth of England, which was written half-literally and half-white. He took great pains to show that although the "Western Yi" had writing, it was rarely profound and elegant, and could not reach the level of elegance. After all, it is even more uncomfortable for the translators of Seikan to write such half-literary and half-white text.
Zhu Yijun read the letter and felt a long-lost excitement about the Queen of England establishing contact with it - after all, the Virgin Queen Elizabeth was the true founder of the Empire on which the sun never set, and the queen who had the greatest influence on the world pattern in Western history.
So the emperor asked the Ministry of Rites the next day where the John Newbery mentioned in Queen Elizabeth's letter was? The Ministry of Rites knew that this question was unavoidable, and they were busy writing it down in the notebook.
It turned out that after Luo Mingjian was allowed to preach in China from Luo Wanhua in the ninth year of Wanli, the news spread to Rome quickly as if it had wings. By the time Fan Li'an returned to Goa from Japan to prepare for the mission, all European countries knew: Seris, the country that European navigators after Marco Polo had been searching for, had finally established contact with the Holy See, and the two sides were about to start an official contacts.
Along with this news, the governor of Myanmar also described the different attitudes of the Ming government towards Spain and Portugal - the Ming Emperor was extremely dissatisfied with the Spanish who occupied the Philippines, but expressed a certain degree of dissatisfaction with the Portuguese authorities who occupied Manchuria. "understanding".
This attitude will certainly attract the attention of European monarchs who are dissatisfied with Spanish rule. The kings take it for granted that although King Seris's dissatisfaction with Spain is of no use in Europe, if they take this opportunity to have a relationship with Emperor Seris, On the one hand, he can earn more gold coins, but on the other hand, if Ming Dynasty causes trouble in the Philippines, it will also hinder Spain, right? ——This is exactly the motivation behind Elizabeth I’s letter. [Note 1]
In consideration of the dangerous sea voyage, three copies of the letter with the Queen's seal were produced. In addition to John Newbery, a maritime merchant trusted by the Queen, the Greenwich Palace also entrusted two other people to sail to the East on different merchant ships.
In Europe in the tenth year of Wanli, Felipe II of the Spanish Habsburg Dynasty had basically dominated the world, and his navy was even more powerful. In order to prevent the letter from falling into the hands of the Spaniards, the British asked the latter two to conceal their identities and take a Portuguese merchant ship to Malacca.
However, things went counterproductive - after the two men left on a Portuguese merchant ship, the Queen of England's spies around Felipe II wrote to inform the Queen that Felipe II had learned that the Queen had sent a special envoy to the East to contact Seris, and Ordered the colonies along the way to be intercepted.
I had no choice but to leave it to fate, and the letter only requested business, and did not write any unnecessary words. Queen Elizabeth could only comfort herself. Of course, if the real envoy John Newbery fell into the hands of the Spanish and confessed his intention to encourage the Ming Dynasty to take over the Philippines, it would be difficult to explain to Felipe II - at this time, Spain had already been annexed After Portugal, the Habsburg dynasty was too powerful.
In Europe at that time, hundreds of years of royal and aristocratic marriages, with special emphasis on status and lineage, led to large-scale inbreeding. Kings are basically related to each other. The mother of Felipe II of Spain is Isabel, the eldest daughter of King Manuel I of Portugal and his second wife Maria - so Felipe II is Manuel His grandson is qualified to take over as King of Portugal.
In the seventh year of Wanli, King Sebastian of Portugal, the "Wuzong", personally led troops to attack Morocco, but was killed and drowned in the Mahazan River - known in history as the Battle of the Mahazan River. After Sebastian's death, only the 64-year-old and childless Cardinal Enrique I remained among the direct descendants of King Manuel of Portugal. The Portuguese nobles put him on the throne.
Felipe II of Spain saw this opportunity and thought it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So in the ninth year of Wanli, he launched an army, expelled Enrique I on the grounds that he had no heirs, occupied Lisbon, and proclaimed himself King Felipe I of Portugal.
This move made the major royal families in Europe feel like they had eaten flies, but none of them dared to express their anger. Portugal was stolen by Felipe, and Portugal and its colonial empire were also ruled by the Spanish Habsburg dynasty, forming the Spanish-Portuguese Confederation. As a result, the Habsburg dynasty became the largest country in the world with the most extensive territory, and its power was unparalleled in the world. Big bosses such as Elizabeth of England, Henry III of France, and the Holy Roman Emperor were very angry, but they had nothing to do.
After Felipe II stole Portugal, he immediately targeted Queen Elizabeth of England. Felipe II's ex-wife was Elizabeth's half-sister Mary I. The couple were Catholic fanatics, and their greatest ideal was to kill all heretics and heretics.
Felipe II wanted to unify Europe with Catholicism. His ex-wife Queen Mary got the nickname "Bloody Mary" because of her indiscriminate killing of heretics. It later became a synonym for witch and gradually evolved into the name of a cocktail.
After the death of Bloody Mary, Felipe II once proposed to Elizabeth, but the queen rejected her. Elizabeth was a Catholic on the surface but a Protestant in fact. The two could not pee in the same pot.
How could Felipe II let Elizabeth go? If he married the Queen of England, his descendants might be able to unify Europe. This temptation would be absolutely irresistible.
Therefore, Felipe II had already spent a lot of money to infiltrate Greenwich Palace like a sieve. When the two backup envoys were sent out, the Queen of England did not carry them on her back, which led to the leakage of the plan to send an envoy to the Ming Dynasty.
Felipe II, who had already captured Portugal, certainly did not want any changes in the Asian colonies, so he immediately sent a clipper to notify all the way from Africa to Malacca, asking the colonies to stop the British envoy. The two unlucky guys were caught by the Spanish colonial authorities before they left Africa. They were either tied to iron balls and thrown into the sea, or they were dug into a hole and buried. Anyway, later generations have not verified it.
Because he owned a boat and had many friends in various places, John Newbery finally reached Malacca safely - but his luck ran out, and before he could contact the Chinese businessmen, he was arrested and sent to Goa.
In the original time and space, John Newbery died in Goa. This letter was never sent, and was eventually sent back to England, which also cut off the Queen's idea of contacting the Ming Dynasty again. When the Chinese Communist Party visited Britain in 1986, Queen Elizabeth II presented this letter to Chairman Mao Zedong—it was four hundred years late.
The ending of John Newbery's failure in this time and space was changed by the butterfly effect. When he was sent to Goa, Fan Li'an and Luo Mingjian had already achieved brilliant results in Ming Dynasty. Not only did they build the first church in the Ming Dynasty, but they were also cooperating with the Ming Dynasty in setting up a mission to the Holy See. The Jesuits in Goa were so shocked that they were speechless when faced with the achievements of the Falian mission.
As mentioned before, the Jesuits were extremely powerful in Goa. Alfonso, the governor of Goa, had to give Archbishop Vincennes face, otherwise he would not be able to gain a foothold in Goa.
At this time, Archbishop Vincennes would never allow the Goa authorities to make the slightest move that might cause misunderstanding in the Ming Dynasty, so John Newbery received his protection. The letters he brought also reached the mission through church channels—and finally reached the hands of Xu Guangqi.
Although John Newbery received the protection of Vincennes, the Governor of Goa could not disobey Lisbon's order and let him go to the Ming Dynasty to complete his mission. Therefore, Mr. Newbery remained in Goa at this time, and all Vincens could do was to save his life and help him send letters at the same time.
This information was explained in the letters sent by the Catholic Church in Goa to the mission in the capital, so that the Ministry of Rites could grasp the specific situation in Europe. The arrival of this information greatly enriched the Ming court's understanding of Europe, and also greatly accelerated the establishment of the mission to the Holy See.
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