Chapter 650: Victorian Curse
Chapter 636: The Victorian Curse
After Frederick’s engagement, Franz finalized the marriage of his other three sons as fast as possible. Because the children are still young, this betrothal is only verbal, the ceremony will be made up in the future.
These days, the royal marriage is patriarchal, is concerned about the right family, as long as the parents of both sides agree, basically determined, rarely ask the views of the parties.
Ask is also asked in vain, the largest of the parties are in their teens, the youngest is less than ten years old. It is too bullying to ask them to consider their lifelong affairs.
Seeing Franz’s lack of interest, Empress Helen asked suspiciously, “What’s wrong, something on your mind?”
“Hmm! I’m wondering if it’s right or wrong to betroth a few of the little ones now, and if they choose the wrong person, will they complain about us.” Franz replied
Only to hear Empress Helen snort, “Franz, you’re thinking too much! Isn’t that how royalty has come to be, how much worse can it get?
Why are you blaming us? You know, I have personally asked them for their opinions, it was their own agreement, and they still want to go back on it!”
Looking at the domineering Empress, Franz suspected that his eyes were out of order, in the past he did not find Helen’s domineering side.
As for the “sons’ opinion”, it was directly ignored by Franz. Is it still difficult to convince the teenage kids?
Franz unscrupulously shrugged it off and said, “Well, they chose their own wives, so they have to be responsible for their own choices.”
Yes, it was indeed their own choice of wives. During this period, none of the three royal families of England, Belgium, and Black had more than one princess, and the marriage was a relationship between two families, and did not necessarily have to be a particular princess.
There were four princesses in the British royal family, and in addition to Edward’s three daughters, Prince Alfred had another daughter who appeared to be unweaned.
The Montenegrin royal family, not to mention Nicholas I, who was a European father-in-law, had my six daughters, one died halfway through, and I still have five daughters. The oldest is 13 years old, and the youngest has just been weaned.
Belgian royal princess less, Leopold II only one daughter, but his brother, cousins and two daughters.
This range of options seems quite large when considering the circumstances faced. In actuality, the opposite was true; Franz’s youngest son was a teenager, so how could he possibly choose the youngest child who was breastfed?
As soon as the age-inappropriate ones were ruled out, there was instantly no choice. In order not to be laughed at, the three little ones decisively accepted Queen Helen’s suggestion.
It was all a minor issue, and in itself, royalty had no choice in marriage. Symbolically asking for opinions is already very respectful of individual wishes.
Sons of life affairs finalized, Franz is ready to reveal to the world the truth of the “royal family disease”.
Just after the marriage, Franz also felt very difficult, but for the European royal family not to be scourged by hemophilia, he resolutely chose to sacrifice his personal integrity.
……
Paris, after the transformation of Napoleon III, the city became more prosperous.
After Napoleon IV succeeded to the throne, the French government was busy competing for power and profit, and everyone did not have the energy did not standardize, and continued to continue the economic policies of the era of Napoleon III.
Although the French economy was tilting towards the financial sector, overall, it was still in a healthy state. Even after an economic crisis, Paris was still prosperous.
Newspapers had become a part of people’s lives in this cosmopolitan city of active minds. Parisians of modest means have developed the habit of subscribing to newspapers.
Mark Payne is one of them, early in the morning after a simple breakfast, he habitually came to the door of the newsstand, pick up his subscription to the newspaper.
Just got the newspaper, see the above headline, Mark Payne face changed greatly.
The headline was clearly “The Culprit of the Royal Disease – The Victoria Curse”. The headline was amazing, and the content inside was even more amazing.
Without bringing any point of view, the article just summarized all the royal disease cases, found a pattern from them, and finally came to the conclusion that all the patients were descendants of Queen Victoria.
Below is also attached a detailed kinship table, with facts to prove that the “royal disease” patients, and Queen Victoria’s relationship.
In front of the facts, Mark Payne naturally believed. And then gloated, no doubt this news passed out, the British royal family will be in big trouble.
Even will chain reaction to the political, suffered from the “royal family disease” of the European royal family, is expected to completely hate the British.
Without the Franco-Prussian War, the first enemy of the French was still the British. As for Austria, it will always be an unmentionable defeat in the French press.
The splendor left over from the Napoleonic era made the pride of the French explode directly. Newspapers, for the sake of sales, naturally could not go against their readers.
It was naturally a joyous thing to see the enemy fall on his face. On his way to work, Mark Payne had already decided to share the good news with his colleagues around him.
It wasn’t just Mark Payne who made the same decision, countless Parisians, made the same choice.
The Curse of Victoria, the culprit of the Royal Disease, spread throughout Paris in the shortest possible time, and began to spread to the rest of the world.
After reaching an agreement with the French government to cut off the Franco-Egyptian trade line, British Minister to France Thatcher walked out of the French Foreign Ministry in high spirits.
He heard people talking about the “royal disease” and “Victoria’s curse”, which instantly doused all his good mood.
British Minister Thatcher asked his entourage, “What’s going on William, what are the French up to again?”
“Your Excellency, there is a big problem. The French Thames Times has published an article linking royal illness to Her Majesty the Great Queen.”
After saying that, William handed Minister Thatcher the newspaper that published ‘The Culprit of the Royal Disease – Victoria’s Curse’.
After initially scanning through the content, Minister Thatcher directly crumpled the newspaper into a ball and angrily cursed, “Bastard, these damn Frenchmen, they really have the audacity to make up any content!”
Surrounded by several murderous gazes thrown, seems to be perceived the place is not right, Minister Thatcher decisively chose the good man to refuse the loss.
Swallowed back the rest of the words and commanded, “Go back to the embassy!”
Deep down, Minister Thatcher had already believed that what was in the newspaper was true. That table of blood relations was just too convincing.
Thatcher, who was familiar with international relations, could be sure that the relationships of the characters on it were accurate with his own expertise.
This means that the source of the “royal disease” is really in Queen Victoria. For the British, this is undoubtedly a big blow.
In a region like Europe, where there is a strong religious atmosphere, it would be a “curse” not to be able to explain the origin of the virus.
The latter is a big problem, by the “curse” of the royal family, the prestige will inevitably be affected, may be the London government will also break out a round of power struggle.
In addition to internal conflicts, the more troublesome is the external pressure. If the person who has the intention to lead the problem to the conspiracy theory, they have to pull a large wave of hatred.
Of course, these are the problems that the London government should be guilty of. If Thatcher was not the minister to France, he could have been a snacker and not had to think too much.
Unfortunately, as the Minister to France and with public opinion being triggered from France, he can hardly be blamed, no matter if there are a thousand reasons or excuses.
If he cannot solve this problem properly, his political life will be lost.
Back in the embassy, Minister Thatcher first reported to the domestic situation, of course, did not forget to send a telegram to the Queen first.
Involved in the royal family, this bit of political savvy Thatcher still have.
Queen Victoria for a long time no matter what, the government and the Queen’s contradiction is very small, prestige and high enough, even if there is a storm, most likely also be able to get through.
To put it bluntly, the “royal family disease” scourge of only the European royal family, and did not affect the lives of ordinary people, which can not shake the foundation of Queen Victoria’s rule.
Pulled the banner of “curse”, at most, let the Queen face ugly. The British people are unlikely to listen to a few words of the French and go to overthrow the Queen.
……
Not to mention the shadow area of Queen Victoria’s heart, the London government has been blinded, Prime Minister Benjamin angry directly overturned the desk.
Foreign Secretary Edward righteously said: “This is all an enemy conspiracy, we can not disorganize ourselves. The royal illness is just a coincidence, we absolutely cannot accept this slander!”
Deadly denial!
This was the only way Edward came up with. Otherwise the London government would be in big trouble, a new round of political turmoil would break out, and maybe they would have to step down early.
Now that the king’s power had not yet declined, it was common in Europe for the cabinet to take the blame for the monarch.
After reacting, Prime Minister Benjamin categorically said, “That’s right, this is all slander from the enemy. We must fight back, and the government immediately organized medical experts to explain to the public.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has lodged a serious protest with the French government, asking them to ban such irresponsible remarks, lest it affect the relationship between the two countries.”
It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not, right now the London government needs this to be false. It doesn’t need everyone to believe it, just the majority of the population in the country.
Other issues, Prime Minister Benjamin couldn’t care less for now.
(End of chapter)