Chapter 180: Naming the Eldest Child

King Luis I and his wife stayed in Spain for over a week, during which the two royal families got along quite harmoniously.

After reaching a consensus with King Luis I regarding colonial cooperation, the majority of the remaining time was spent on relatively relaxed banquets and leisure activities.

Carlo and King Luis I spent most of their time discussing state affairs, while Queen Sofía and Queen Maria talked about matters concerning childbirth.

Although the private physicians of the Spanish royal family were famous medical experts throughout Spain and even all of Europe, medical technology in this era was not that advanced, and childbirth remained quite dangerous.

Furthermore, as it was Queen Sofía's first pregnancy, she felt some panic regarding the potential dangers of childbirth. Since the Spanish royal family lacked experienced elders to provide guidance and help, Queen Maria, who had some experience, was indeed able to appropriately counsel Queen Sofía and help her better adapt to life after pregnancy.

According to the timeline, Queen Sofía's delivery should be around the middle of this year, approximately in May or June.

And since it is already the end of March, this means that Carlo will soon welcome his first child within the next few months.

For Carlo, the naming of his first child also required careful selection and consideration.

Of course, there was actually not much to consider. As the King of Spain, the name of Carlo's first child certainly had to lean toward a Spanish style.

This was also a way to express the royal family's closeness to the Spanish people; after all, if members of the royal family all had Italian-style names, it would make the Spanish people more dissatisfied with the foreign royal family.

Carlo had already decided on the name for his first child. Of course, Carlo did not have the penchant of European nobles for having multiple generations share the same name.

If his son were also named Carlo, it would always feel strange when addressing him in daily life.

If the first child were a prince, his name would be Juan Fernando, which is a standard Spanish-style name.

If it were a princess, the name would be Sofía, symbolizing intelligence and wisdom.

It was not just Carlo who was very concerned about his first child; even Vittorio Emanuele II, far away in Italy, and Franz Joseph I in Vienna frequently sent telegrams to inquire, and the royal families and high-level government officials of various countries also showed symbolic concern.

Ever since Prime Minister Primo's reforms yielded results, in the eyes of European countries, Spain had once again returned to the ranks of the European powers.

Although there was still a large gap compared to the five countries of Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Austria, it was already not much different from powers like Italy, and in some aspects, it had even slightly surpassed them.

Especially after Spain began building ironclad warships again, there was a faint trend of pulling away from Italy. If Italy was considered a power at this time, then what about Spain, which was about to widen the gap? Wouldn't that clearly be another power?

Whether or not it was a power no longer mattered; given Spain's current strength, it was not strange to receive symbolic concern from the high-level governments of other countries.

Moreover, this first prince or princess of the Spanish royal family about to be born held such a noble status.

Besides being Carlo's eldest son or daughter, they were also the grandchild of the Italian King Vittorio Emanuele II and the first grandchild of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph I.

Before Franz Joseph I's other children grew up, this little one about to be born was indeed his only grandchild.

Spain, Italy, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire—any one of these three countries was a European power of the first rank. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was a true power ranked among the five traditional European powers; it was impossible for other countries not to value this.

Added to this was the fact that European royal families were already interconnected by blood. Although the obvious relatives were only the three families of Spain, Italy, and Austria-Hungary, if one counted relatives like Carlo's brother-in-law, the Portuguese King Luis I, then there were a great many European countries that had blood ties to the little one.

If nothing else, the doting affection of Vittorio Emanuele II and Franz Joseph I alone was enough to ensure that this little one could get along well in any country they visited.

Speaking of Carlo's father, Vittorio Emanuele II, there was one piece of bad news that had to be mentioned: his health was no longer what it used to be.

Carlo had been in this world for seven years, and the passage of these seven years had changed too much.

Born in 1820, Vittorio Emanuele II was already 55 years old, which was definitely considered an elderly age in Europe today.

If one looked at the average life expectancy in Europe at present, 55 was already quite long-lived. However, the living standards of European royal families were far higher than those of the general public, so the average life expectancy of European royal family members was also much higher.

But regardless, at 55, he had passed the peak of his life, and Vittorio Emanuele II's health was gradually deteriorating, to the point where it was now affecting his handling of state affairs.

Although Italy was a constitutional monarchy, as the king who unified all of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele II held lofty prestige among the Italian people and possessed extremely high influence within the government.

A considerable portion of state affairs required Vittorio Emanuele II's personal handling before a final decision could be made, which might be one of the reasons why his health was constantly worsening.

Don't look at Italy's land area as not being large compared to other powers; Italy possessed a population as high as 28. 6 million, more than 10 million more than Spain's population.

Such a massive population also meant there were numerous state affairs to handle, a significant portion of which weighed on Vittorio Emanuele II.

For this king who had experienced the grief of losing children multiple times, his health was indeed getting worse and worse amidst long periods of busyness, yet he had to face more and more state affairs, falling into a persistent vicious cycle.

Although starting this year, Vittorio Emanuele II had handed over some state affairs to his eldest son, the Italian Crown Prince Umberto, to handle, this could only reduce his fatigue to a certain extent and could not effectively improve his physical condition.

Vittorio Emanuele II was very clear about what he would face in the future.

But precisely because of this, he was still very concerned about the future development of his sons. The eldest son, Crown Prince Umberto, would inherit the Kingdom of Italy in the future, and Vittorio Emanuele II was quite confident in the Crown Prince's abilities.

As a prince who had received an elite traditional aristocratic education, Crown Prince Umberto had a decent performance in military affairs. He graduated from Carlo's alma mater, the Royal Military Academy of Turin, and had a fairly decent performance in the Austro-Prussian War.

Italy's role in the Austro-Prussian War was slightly awkward, as Italy had no effect on the outcome of the war from beginning to end.

If it weren't for the Austrian army retreating in large numbers to guard against the Prussian army, I am afraid it would not have been so easy for Italy to recover Venice and take South Tyrol.

Although the performance of the Italian army was relatively poor, as an ordinary commander, Crown Prince Umberto's performance in the war was considered excellent.

Even though the army experienced defeat, the Crown Prince's overall performance was relatively calm, and he was even able to propose some responsive decisions.

Although his overall ability was not that outstanding, if the goal was only to succeed to the throne and pass it on, Crown Prince Umberto was definitely qualified.

The second son, Amedeo, did not have much interest in state affairs; instead, he was more willing to host dance parties and invite local noble ladies to attend.

Vittorio Emanuele II did not care much about these romantic escapades of his son. With Crown Prince Umberto inheriting the Italian throne and Carlo doing well in Spain, these two were enough to ensure that their brother Amedeo could enjoy his leisurely aristocratic life.

Carlo was also quite concerned about the health of his father, Vittorio Emanuele II.

Although he had only been in this world for a few years, Carlo had indeed felt fatherly love from his father, which was rare in royal families.

Although there were certain differences between Eastern and Western royal families, a king was, after all, the ruler of a country, especially a king with real power like Vittorio Emanuele II.

From the fact that he agreed to the interest-free loan to Carlo without hesitation, it could be seen that his feelings for Carlo were indeed sincere.

In their telegram exchanges, Carlo informed him of the approximate time of Queen Sofía's delivery and promised to return to Italy with his family within a year to visit his father.

After dealing with some messy matters, Carlo finally ushered in a long period of leisure.

After all, the power in Carlo's hands at this time was not that great; most of the Spanish government's state affairs were still handled by Prime Minister Primo.

For Carlo, this might not be a bad thing. At least Carlo also had a certain amount of power in his hands, which could ensure that his authority would not be completely hollowed out.

On this basis, he could instead obtain a long period of leisure to enjoy his life in this world.

After all, a king is also human and needs time for rest and entertainment. If one spent most of one's time handling state affairs, that kind of royal life would be a form of torture.

Not everyone could endure the busy life of waking up early to handle state affairs, handling them at noon after eating, and meeting government officials and foreign guests during afternoon tea.

The greater the power, the greater the responsibility; this saying was not just talk. Since becoming the Prime Minister of Spain, Primo's aging had been several times faster than before.

The main reason was that the burden of Spain's reforms rested entirely on Prime Minister Primo alone. Reform was a matter that concerned the fate of Prime Minister Primo and Carlo, as well as the future development of Spain, and it absolutely could not be handled carelessly.

This led to the most extreme times when Prime Minister Primo's sleep time did not exceed five hours a day, and he had to constantly travel back and forth across Spain to inspect the implementation of the reform policies issued by the government in various places.

It was only after the official performance appraisal system was issued that the burden on Prime Minister Primo eased slightly.

As time reached mid-April 1875, Carlo was almost always by Queen Sofía's side, accompanied by a large number of servants and doctors.

Queen Sofía discovered she was pregnant at the end of October, but she had already been pregnant for several months at that time. After all, current technology was not advanced, and it was impossible to detect pregnancy in a short time.

Calculating by the ten months of pregnancy, Queen Sofía's delivery time should be between April and June. Although there was no sign of labor yet, Carlo was somewhat expectant and nervous because he was a first-time father.

Carlo was certainly excited about welcoming his first child. But the danger of surgical delivery in this era was too great, and Carlo did not want to see his wife, Queen Sofía, or his child face danger.

This was something that couldn't be helped; before medical technology was updated and iterated, childbirth was indeed a very dangerous thing.

In this era, there was only one way to give birth: natural delivery. A cesarean section could be performed, but the healing of the wound was a big trouble, and it would become infected if one was not careful.

Once faced with an infection, regardless of one's status, the only result was basically death.

The birth of various antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs would have to wait for decades. Even though Carlo had vigorously developed Spain's biology and medicine, it could not be improved in a short time.

Perhaps when Carlo's next generation, the future princes and princesses, gave birth to offspring, they would be able to welcome a more advanced and safe medical environment.

The royal family was about to welcome its first prince or princess, which was big news in Spain today.

Prime Minister Primo's reforms were quite successful, and the best proof was the continuous growth of Spain's per capita income. People could eat their fill and live better lives, so they would naturally be grateful to the king above them and the high-ranking officials of the government.

As the king who promoted the reforms, Carlo naturally received the warm welcome and love of the Spanish people. If there were still people who were slightly repelled by this foreign king because of Carlo's Italian identity when he first arrived in Spain, then ever since the first five-year development plan was completed, such repulsion had completely disappeared.

People not only had no repulsion toward Carlo's Italian identity, but instead believed he was a savior sent by God to Spain to rescue the Spaniards who were starving at the time.

Although part of this came from the propaganda of Carlo's media empire, it was undeniable that the public's support and love for Carlo had increased infinitely.

Compared to Amedeo I in history, Carlo had already laid a relatively stable foundation for his descendants. As long as the subsequent monarchs did not court disaster themselves, the Spanish throne could basically be passed down within the House of Savoy for a long time.

(End of chapter)