Chapter 1604: Will There Be a Jingnan Campaign?

The majestic Buda Castle stands on Castle Hill in the ancient Hungarian city of Buda, on the west bank of the Danube. Construction of the castle began in 1247, when King Béla IV of Hungary built it to resist the Mongol invasion. Later, King Sigismund of the House of Luxembourg converted the original structure into a Gothic royal palace. From 1541 until October 17, 1700, the castle belonged to the Ottoman Empire and was used as a barracks and a mosque.

And today, this majestic castle belongs to the liberator of Hungary, the defender of Christendom, and a man who will surely be made a saint one day — Archduke Henri de Mancini!

The Austrian army under Archduke Henri had already begun to feel somewhat "battle-mad." After their epic victory in the Lakeside–Danube campaign, they did not halt their advance, but drove forward at full speed, hunting down the remnants of the Ottoman army and thrusting deep into the heart of Hungary!

The Austrian army captured the fortress of Győr on October 14 and the Tatabánya Pass on October 16... By October 17, to the cheers of the inhabitants of Buda and Pest, two Hungarian cities that had been under Ottoman rule for more than a century, they entered Buda and Pest as liberators.

Archduke Henri, however, was not carried away by victory... He had no desire to become a European version of Li Zicheng, so he did not allow his army to garrison inside Buda and Pest. Instead, he ordered the two cities to elect their own representatives and municipal government — which meant that Archduke Henri had already granted Buda and Pest the right of self-government!

But... what gave him the right to do such a thing?

He was not yet, it seemed, the possessor of the Crown of Saint Stephen — His Apostolic Majesty of the Kingdom of Hungary, was he?

Then who, at present, was the possessor of the Crown of Saint Stephen?

While the Austrian army, after many days of continuous campaigning, pitched camp on the flat ground below Buda Castle and Castle Hill for a brief rest, the question of who possessed the Crown of Saint Stephen became the matter of greatest concern to the senior officers of the Austrian army, the upper Hungarian nobles who had hurried over from Bratislava, and the lower Hungarian nobles who had come from the two cities of Buda and Pest... Of course, Archduke Henri himself cared not a whit about the Crown of Saint Stephen; he did not even know where the crown was.

Moreover, marching and fighting day after day had been terribly exhausting, and this banker-archduke, accustomed to a life of ease and comfort, was worn out. He needed a good rest to make up for lost sleep, so he slept all day long, even dozing on his desk in the office inside the castle in broad daylight...

"Prince, Count — what exactly does the Archduke mean? Is he going to be king or not?"

Inside the Church of Our Lady at the foot of Castle Hill, Cardinal Ferdinand Verbest, who had just accompanied Marie Anne from Bratislava, listened as Prince Karl and Count Eugene relayed Archduke Henri's words — words that sounded ambiguous to Western ears — and asked in utter bewilderment.

Even this "old China hand" was confused, so a crowd of Hungarian knights who did not even know who Zhao Kuangyin was were even more baffled, and they all opened their throats and began to clamor.

"Yes, Prince, Count... is the Archduke going to be King of Hungary or not?"

"Yes, why can't he give us a straight answer? If he'll take it, he'll take it; if not, we'll find someone else!"

"Right — being a king is not something you can force on a man... We've only ever heard of forcing people to be slaves; we've never heard of forcing someone to be a king!"

What they said made sense — you cannot force a man to be king! Zhao Guangyi, Zhao Pu, and that lot were truly wicked — how could they force Zhao Kuangyin to become emperor?

So what exactly did this Archduke Henri mean by all his hemming and hawing?

Everyone's gaze turned to the Archduke's wife, Marie Anne.

Marie Anne's brows were tightly knit; she was clearly pondering Archduke Henri's true intentions as well... This Henri was fine in every way, except that he was a bit timid — afraid of wolves ahead and tigers behind!

No, not afraid of wolves and tigers — afraid of the Roman Emperor, Louis I!

But the Hungarian nobles, who had never known the height of heaven or the depth of earth, were not afraid of Louis I... In the eyes of a Westerner like Marie Anne, this nation had a rather inflated opinion of itself.

Of course, the Hungarians' habit of thinking highly of themselves had, to some extent, been cultivated by the Western Europeans. They had originally been a nomadic people from the East. In the tenth century, as they began to feudalize and established a relatively unified state, they became an object of competition between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, and so were flattered to great heights.

At that time, Hungary's ruler, Grand Prince Géza, chose the Roman Catholic Church and had his son Vajk marry the daughter of Duke Henry II of Bavaria. Later, this Vajk took the name Stephen at his baptism — István in Hungarian. Still later, István led all the Hungarians in converting to Roman Catholicism, greatly enhancing the Pope's prestige, and was therefore granted the Crown of Saint Stephen and the title of Apostolic King.

Thanks to all this flattery from the Holy See, the Hungarian nobles had grown somewhat dizzy... Their own great lord was a Holy Apostle, so as the underlings of His Apostolic Majesty, they were naturally quite extraordinary too!

That was why these people had been reluctant to join the Holy Roman Empire in earlier years, and why, even now, they probably had little desire to become a Hungarian province of the Roman Empire.

Therefore, Emperor Louis was unlikely to take Hungary easily... And besides, Hungary had not been liberated by him!

"Henri does not wish to become the Apostolic King," Marie Anne said with a smile, having already understood her husband's mind. "Because his status is somewhat special... His biological father is the Emperor of the Great Ming Empire in the East!

If he were crowned king, it would arouse alarm in Rome. And if a misunderstanding arose with Rome, it would affect our campaign to liberate the entire Balkans and Constantinople!"

"Madam Archduchess, did you say liberate the entire Balkans and Constantinople?" Count Eugene was startled; he had no idea that any such plan existed.

In fact, Archduke Henri, Count Eugene, and John Churchill — none of the three had ever thought of liberating the entire Balkans and Constantinople. If it ever came to that, Henri would no longer be King of Hungary and Archduke of Austria, but Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire!

Then would he not inevitably end up fighting Emperor Louis?

Besides, the territory of the Balkan Peninsula looked as though it had little profit in it! Only the Danube basin was somewhat better — the Danube flows directly to the Black Sea, its navigability is not weak, and the regions along its course are relatively developed economically; it is a golden waterway. If the Danube basin eastward from Lower Austria could be consolidated, it might yield considerable economic value.

But as for the rest of the Balkan Peninsula... only Istanbul, which commands the passage between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, had any real value.

Yet the fruit of Istanbul was too thorny, and Archduke Henri had no desire to touch it at all.

So liberating the entire Balkans and recovering Constantinople was never part of the plans of Henri, Eugene, or Churchill.

Marie Anne, however, had a different idea. She nodded and said: "We should, of course, act together with the Roman Empire, the Russian Empire, and the Kingdom of Poland, with the goal of liberating the entire Balkan Peninsula and recovering Constantinople... This is, of course, Henri's goal as well!

The reason he is unwilling to put on the Crown of Saint Stephen is that he fears becoming King of Hungary would arouse discontent in the West!"

That seemed to make some sense!

Prince Karl frowned and asked, "Mother, are we then to hand the Crown of Saint Stephen to someone else?"

How unwilling he would be to do that!

"No," Marie Anne said firmly, shaking her head, her expression already darkening. She said sternly: "This is a crown given to us by God — who would dare covet it!"

She paused, then continued: "Since it is inconvenient for Henri to wear the Crown of Saint Stephen, then... I, Marie Anne de Bourbon, daughter of Louis I, Emperor of Rome, and wife of Henri I, Archduke of Austria, am willing to take Henri's place and become the Holy Apostolic King of Hungary!"