Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

Chapter 483: Chapter 396: The Busy Marquess of Wellesley

Louis IX of Hesse-Darmstadt was politically inclined toward Prussia, yet his “initiative” stated that if the Southern Netherlands insisted on breaking away from Austrian rule, they must elect a King to govern the Southern Netherlands. Otherwise, the States-General of the Netherlands should not be recognized by any monarch.

The initiative had already received responses from ten countries including Spain, France, Bavaria, and Mainz.

What surprised the Marquess of Wellesley most was that Austria was also among the signatories of the initiative.

However, he quickly understood the implications: the Austrians signed “the States-General of the Netherlands should not be recognized by any monarch,” convinced that the Southern Netherlands would not accept electing a king—after all, the States-General was now controlled by Vandernoot and the party of Liberals, and asking them to elect their own king would be harder than getting them to mount the scaffold.

In fact, Austria was the biggest driving force behind this “Southern Netherlands Initiative.” Naturally, the rights to the initiative were held by Joseph II’s beloved nephew.

Wellesley, angered, jabbed his walking stick into the ground, cursing Louis IX of Hesse-Darmstadt in his heart.

If England now also demanded the Southern Netherlanders elect a king, it would be tantamount to pushing the States-General to their opposite side. But to reject the “initiative” would be to cut themselves off from the entire European Continent.

He immediately ordered his men to set off and rushed to Potsdam overnight.

A few days later, after he promised William II to provide assistance of 500,000 British Pounds, and handed over all matters concerning the Southern Netherlands to Prussian discretion, promising that England would no longer interfere, he finally dispelled the latter’s suspicions.

Subsequently, the Marquess of Wellesley rushed non-stop to Saxony…

Meanwhile, London was packed with diplomats from various countries. @@novelbin@@

William Pitt Junior, Prime Minister of England, had to meet with seven or eight rounds of diplomatic envoys daily to explain that England had no intention of exporting revolution, and he also had to be called in from time to time by George III to enquire about the situation, exhausted from overwork.

Over at the British Parliament, the Whig Party did not miss this opportunity to press him, and the interrogations never stopped. Even Fox was preparing to initiate a vote of no confidence against him, but luckily, it was forcefully suppressed by the King at the last moment, saving his political career.

After a month of turmoil, following thorough discussions with George III, William Pitt Junior officially released an external announcement.

In the announcement, England first declared that the recent unrest in France had nothing to do with England. It then stated that it did not agree with the current political situation in the Southern Netherlands, but did not relax its stance on the election of a king. Finally, it promised that England would “suggest” the Hanoverian Army to gradually withdraw from the Southern Netherlands and did not oppose Austria’s restoration of governance over the Southern Netherlands.

After making these significant concessions and having Wellesley soothe each country by making various trade-offs, the denunciations from the nations against England gradually subsided.

The British Parliament, which had resumed normal operations, began to deal with the affairs that had accumulated over time, including a suggestion submitted by Lord Talmothes, the special envoy to the Maghreb, about making tariff concessions to Morocco and establishing it as a textile transit hub in North Africa.

As Wellesley was still in Italy putting out fires over the “export of revolution” and could not attend the parliamentary interrogations, this matter was temporarily shelved.

Meanwhile, Wellesley, overwhelmed with his diplomatic tasks, finally completed them and immediately went to Brussels to understand the status of his previous deployments.

According to his plan, Vandernoot was to send people to the Walloon Region to stir up trouble, preferably spreading the chaos to Luxembourg.

He knew that France had made extensive investments in Luxembourg, so its stability would become an important bargaining chip in his negotiations with the French people on the issue of India.

However, as soon as he arrived at the Southern Netherlands border, he received orders from Prime Minister William Pitt Junior to cease all contact with the States-General of the Netherlands and return to London as soon as possible.

George III was on the verge of a recurrence of his mental illness, aggravated by the curses of the “exportation of revolution”—he had Porphyria,1 and it had been less than half a year since his last episode.

The entire British Royal Family was tense with anxiety, fearing that he might be once again driven to madness, so they repeatedly urged William Pitt Junior not to get involved with the affairs of the Liberals of the Southern Netherlands.

It wasn’t until Wellesley returned to London that he realized the benefits he had promised to Morocco were still stuck in Parliament.

He had been running around, subjected to cold shoulders, and had almost forgotten about the matter, which prompted him to rush to Parliament to explain the details of the exchange of interests, urging Congress to vote and pass it.

By the time Morocco truly received the benefits from the British, nearly three months had passed since Wellesley’s last visit to North Africa.

The news that the Marquess of Cornwallis had suffered a setback in his attack on Mysore, requesting more troops, as well as the complete occupation of Travancore and the threat to Carnatic, reached England.

All of London exploded into an uproar…

Paris.

The Palace of Versailles, Mars Hall.

“Your Majesty, you have already won nine games in a row, you’re at the peak of your luck”, a Russian little girl of about seven or eight years old sat obediently beside Queen Mary, blinking her deep blue eyes at the latter, “I think you should continue to trust your intuition.”

“Alright, sweetheart, I’ll listen to you”, Queen Mary chuckled, grabbing a handful of gold écus and placing them in front of the “banker” square, “I think the banker will win this round too!”

The little girl then pinched a piece of cake and put it in her mouth, muttering in a very soft voice:

“If you keep winning like this, uncle wouldn’t nag at me about France’s financial problems all the time… Oh, this is too sweet; does the chef have a channel for tax-free sugar?”

If it wasn’t for the Queen of France’s enthusiastic invitation and constant prompting from her uncle, she really wouldn’t want to come to such a boring place.

The croupier at the front announced calmly: “The banker wins.”

“Wow, ten victories in a row!” Queen Mary exclaimed excitedly as she bounced up from her chair, then turned around to hug Alexandra tightly and gave her a big kiss, “You really are my angel, dear, ten in a row, do you know? It’s been so long since I’ve won this much!”

Ever since she learned of her son’s interest in this little girl, she had occasionally invited her to the Palace of Versailles to participate in various balls, concerts, and gambling games, creating opportunities for her son.

Unfortunately, Joseph was always very busy, hardly ever participating in these social events, but she and the little girl grew more and more familiar with each other.

Queen Mary hugged Alexandra, but couldn’t help thinking of her own niece, and she sighed softly—if only Joseph liked Clementine, it would be her standing by her side now…

She suddenly paused, an unexpected memory of Clementine accompanying her to gamble last year flashed through her mind, and it seemed that she had hardly won at that time, with the worst being a streak of 17 losses, leaving her so miserable that she couldn’t sleep for half the night.

Looking again at Alexandra, the tinge of regret in her heart suddenly felt much thinner.

1: Porphyria, also known as purple urine bag syndrome, is a group of disorders characterized by an abnormal accumulation of porphyrins or porphyrin precursors due to disruption in the heme biosynthesis pathway. It can result from a lack of certain enzymes or reduced enzyme activity. The main clinical symptoms include photosensitivity, gastrointestinal symptoms, and neurological or psychological symptoms.