Chapter 1557: The Good Archduke of the Austrian People

June 1675, Cologne.

This wealthy city in the Rhineland had now become the center of Christian Europe. Leaders from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, Portugal, Bohemia, Switzerland, and other lands not yet fallen beneath the iron heel of the Ottoman Empire either came to Cologne in person or sent representatives of considerable weight.

These people had gathered together to witness and personally take part in the revival of the Roman Empire!

What was to be revived now was not the Rome of the Germans, nor the Holy Rome, but a Roman Empire shining beneath the radiance of the Sun King — a Rome that took Ming as its model of governance, a great hodgepodge that was diversified, with centralization and feudalism both; monarchy and republic both; Catholicism and Protestantism both.

As for how large this Rome would actually be, what territories it would include, how much of it would be centralized and how much feudal, how much monarchical and how much aristocratic, and what proportions Catholic and Protestant elements would each occupy — all that would have to be properly negotiated by all parties in Cologne.

And before the various parties negotiated a plan that could satisfy the Sun King, Louis XIV would not put on the purple robe, don the laurel crown, and become emperor for the peoples of Europe.

By now it was no longer Louis XIV himself who wanted to be emperor, but the Christian nobles and peoples of Europe who were begging Louis to be their emperor... The job of emperor was so arduous, so dangerous, and ordinarily did not even permit retirement — one had to toil until death. Without satisfactory terms, how could Louis be willing to take it?

And besides... no one was willing to do this job at all!

If someone were willing to step forward and bravely shoulder the burden, Louis XIV would be delighted to see it happen.

And indeed, when Maria Anna, the Queen Mother of Spain and also the sister of the late St. Leopold, arrived in Cologne, Louis XIV even urged the throne upon her!

"Maria Anna, why don't you become Empress of the Holy Roman Empire instead! Spain and the Holy Roman Empire could merge as well — I fully support it!"

Having said this, Louis XIV swept his gaze across the great hall where he and Maria Anna were meeting.

Frederick William, the Great Elector of Brandenburg, was the first to speak: "Your Majesty the Queen Mother, I too support you as Empress. As long as you consent, Brandenburg's vote belongs to you!"

John George II, Grand Duke of Saxony, and Charles I Louis, Elector of the Palatinate, chimed in as well.

"Your Majesty the Queen Mother, Saxony also supports you!"

"The Palatinate also supports Your Majesty the Queen Mother! Please lead us to repel the ferocious Ottoman Empire and recover our lost lands!"

Maria Anna glared at the Elector of the Palatinate — when her brother Leopold I was fighting a bloody battle against the followers of the Arabian faith before the fortress of Győr, where were you and the Great Elector of Brandenburg and the Grand Duke of Saxony? You three treacherous Protestants have already betrayed God and sold your countries to Louis XIV, and now you come to mock me, this wretched Queen Mother of Spain... You will all go to hell for this!

Whatever Maria Anna thought in her heart, she could not speak recklessly, because she was a very weak regent queen mother, with little money and few soldiers, and worst of all, her son was a fool who could not possibly leave descendants.

So the crown of Spain would inevitably fall to Louis XIV and his descendants... As for the crown of the Holy Roman Empire, it had always been elective, and now the Bohemian throne stood vacant, and the remaining six electors unanimously supported Louis, so the obstacles to his accession no longer existed.

And the Habsburg dynasty's territories within the Holy Roman Empire had for the most part been occupied by the Ottomans. Even if Carlos nominally inherited those lands, he had no way to recover them...

Since there was no way to recover them, they were meaningless.

For Maria Anna, her purpose in coming to Cologne was not to gain, but to avoid losing... at the very least, she could not lose Spain.

"The Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire cannot be a woman," Maria Anna said, "and my son Carlos clearly lacks the ability to lead the Empire. Moreover, Carlos and I only wish to govern our existing territories well. We are unwilling, and also unable, to serve the peoples of Austria, Bohemia, Royal Hungary, and elsewhere."

Louis XIV nodded and said: "Then Austria, Bohemia, and Hungary shall be three provinces of the future Roman Empire!"

After these days of bargaining, the basic governance model of the Roman Empire had been settled: the Emperor's directly administered provinces plus the vassal states of the princes.

In the directly administered provinces, the Emperor would hold absolute monarchical power; the provincial assemblies and the provincial representatives in the Senate would have only the right to advise, not the right to decide!

In the various forms of vassal states, the sovereign and the vassal state's assembly would share governing power, and the rights and obligations of the vassal state would be determined according to the agreement signed between the vassal state and the Emperor.

Moreover, a vassal state could be converted into a province, or secede from the Empire and become independent!

The condition for a vassal state to become a province was to become the Emperor's direct domain. For example, after the death of Carlos II, when the Emperor inherited the territories of the King of Spain, they would all be converted into provinces.

And the conditions for a vassal state to secede from the Empire and become independent would be determined when the vassal state joined the Empire... Each vassal state's circumstances differed, so the conditions for secession naturally differed as well.

Besides vassal states, there were also "Roman allies," an existence between independent states and tributary states — nominal suzerainty that was sometimes substantive alliance. And nominal alliance was sometimes substantive suzerainty...

"The Kingdom of Spain and the Kingdom of New Spain may exist as Roman allies." Pope Clement X said with a worried expression, "But His Majesty Carlos's territories in Italy must be vassals of Rome! You have no objection to this, do you?"

"No objection!" Maria Anna said coldly.

A Roman Empire, after all!

No Germany, no Holy, not even a "Western" — just a bare Roman Empire! How could it not have Italy?

The Pope sighed, his expression somewhat pained. What pained him was of course not that Carlos II's territories in Italy had become Louis's vassals, but that his own Papal States were about to cease to exist!

How could a Roman Empire not have Rome?

That simply could not be justified!

And besides, Louis XIV had already courteously declined... If Clement X were as brave as St. Leopold, Louis XIV would also be quite willing to continue being a cheerleader in Cologne.

Now it is you, the Pope himself, who lacks the guts, who dares not become emperor and fight the followers of the Arabian faith. If you still insist on clutching Rome and refusing to hand it over to Louis, who has the guts — can that be justified?

Even Jesus would not agree!

Moreover, what Louis XIV was inheriting was the legitimacy of the Roman Empire, not the legitimacy of the Holy Roman Empire!

Therefore he did not recognize the Donation of Pepin. As for the Donation of Constantine and the like, it was obviously forged... The Pope himself also admitted it was forged! Otherwise he would have the obligation to protect the people of Austria from being trampled by the enemies of the Arabian faith.

Vienna, the Hofburg Palace.

Mehmed IV, the great conqueror, was at this moment strolling through the palace that had originally belonged to the Habsburg family, his plump, round face showing not the slightest joy of a victor.

Because he knew that the victory at Győr had been pure luck... and the Ottoman Empire's losses had also been enormous! Of course, it was not that the loss of personnel was great, but rather that the loss of rifled muskets was not small!

Rifled muskets were inherently less durable than smoothbore muskets, because their rifling was easily worn smooth, turning them into smoothbore muskets.

And the Ottoman Empire itself did not have a particularly developed arms industry and was utterly incapable of mass-producing rifled muskets... while the Christians had now picked up cork-sealed rifled cartridges and would soon copy them, then equip themselves with rifled muskets in large numbers!

When that time came, the end of the Ottoman Empire would be at hand!

At this thought, the Sultan suddenly stopped, turned his head to look at Zhu Henry walking beside him, and said, "Henry, what should I do? Can you teach me?"

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