Chapter 180: Naming the Eldest Child

King Luis I and his wife stayed in Spain for a total of more than a week, during which the relationship between the two royal families was harmonious.

After reaching a consensus on cooperative colonization with Luis I, most of the remaining time was relatively relaxed banquets and outings.

Gao Da and Luis I spent most of their time discussing political affairs, while Wang Hou Empress Sisi and Wang Hou Maria were talking about having children.

Although the private doctors of the Spanish royal family are all famous medical masters in all of Spain or even all of Europe, after all, the medical technology of this era is not that developed, and having children is still very dangerous.

Coupled with Wang Hou Empress Sisi's first pregnancy, she was somewhat panicked about the dangers she might face in having children. The Spanish royal family did not have experienced elders to teach and help, and Wang Hou Maria, who had some experience, could indeed appropriately enlighten Wang Hou Empress Sisi and help Wang Hou Empress Sisi better adapt to life after pregnancy.

According to the time, Wang Hou Empress Sisi's production should be in the middle of this year, around May or June.

And now it is the end of March, which also means that Gao Da is about to welcome his first child in the next few months.

For Gao Da, the naming of his first child also needs to be carefully chosen and thought about.

Of course, there is actually nothing to consider. As the King of Spain, the name of Gao Da's first child must be biased toward the Spanish style.

This is also to express the closeness of the royal family to the Spaniards. After all, if the members of the royal family all have Italian-style names, it will make the Spaniards more dissatisfied with the foreign royal family.

For the name of his first child, Gao Da has already thought about it. Of course, Gao Da does not have the habit of European nobles letting several generations have the same name.

If his son is also called Gao Da, it will always feel strange to call him in daily life.

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

If it is a princess, the name will be Sofia, symbolizing intelligence and wisdom.

It is not just Gao Da who is very concerned about his first child. Even Victor Emmanuel II, far away in Italy, and Franz Joseph I, in Vienna, often sent telegrams to inquire, and high-level officials of royal families and governments of various countries also had symbolic concern.

Since Prime Minister Ma Deli's reform has had results, in the eyes of European countries, Spain has returned to the ranks of European great powers.

Although there is still a big gap compared with the five countries of Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Austria, it is almost the same as a great power like Italy, and even slightly surpassed it in some aspects.

Especially after Spain resumed building ironclad warships, there is a trend of widening the gap with Italy. If Italy is a great power at this time, then what about Spain, which is about to widen the gap? Isn't this another great power?

Whether it is a great power or not is no longer important. With Spain's current strength, it is not strange to get symbolic concern from high-level government officials of other countries.

What's more, the identity of this first prince or princess of the Spanish royal family who is about to be born is so noble.

In addition to being Gao Da's eldest son or eldest daughter, he is also the grandson or granddaughter of King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, and the first granddaughter of Emperor Franz Joseph I of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Before the other children of Franz Joseph I grew up, this little guy who was about to be born was indeed the only grandchild of Franz Joseph I.

Spain, Italy, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, any one of these three countries is a European great power at the level of a great power. The Austro-Hungarian Empire is a true great power ranked among the five traditional great powers of Europe, and it is impossible for other countries not to attach importance to it.

Coupled with the fact that European royal families are originally in a state of "breaking bones and connecting tendons." Although the explicit kinship only involves the three families of Spain, Italy, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, if you count the kinship like Gao Da's brother-in-law, King Luis I of Portugal, there are a lot of European countries that have blood relationships with the little guy.

Not to mention anything else, just the love of Victor Emmanuel II and Franz Joseph I for him is enough to ensure that this little guy can eat well in any country.

Speaking of Gao Da's father, Victor Emmanuel II, there is a bad news that must be mentioned, and that is that his health is not as good as before.

Gao Da has been in this world for seven years, and the passage of these seven years has changed too much.

Victor Emmanuel II, born in 1820, is already 55 years old, and he is definitely an old man in Europe today.

If calculated according to the current average life expectancy in Europe, 55 years old is already quite long-lived. It's just that the living standards of European royal families are much higher than those of ordinary people, so the average life expectancy of European royal family members is also much higher.

But no matter what, 55 years old has passed the peak of life, and Victor Emmanuel II's health has gradually deteriorated, and it has even reached the point of affecting the handling of government affairs.

Italy is indeed a constitutional monarchy, but as the king who unified the whole of Italy, Victor Emmanuel II has high prestige among the Italian people and has extremely high right to speak in the government.

A considerable part of government affairs needs to be handled by Victor Emmanuel II himself before a final decision can be made, which may also be one of the reasons why Emmanuel II's health has been deteriorating.

Don't look at the fact that Italy's territory is not large compared to other great powers, but Italy has a population of as high as 28.66 million, which is more than 10 million more than Spain's population.

Such a huge population also represents a lot of government affairs that need to be handled, and a considerable part of the burden of these government affairs is pressed on Victor Emmanuel II.

For this king who has experienced the pain of losing his son many times, his health has indeed become worse and worse in the long-term busyness, but he has to face more and more government affairs, falling into a persistent vicious circle.

Although since this year, Victor Emmanuel II has handed over part of the government affairs to his eldest son, the Italian Crown Wang Chu Umberto, to handle, this can only reduce his fatigue to a certain extent and cannot effectively improve his health condition.

Victor Emmanuel II is very clear about what he will face in the future.

But precisely because of this, he is very concerned about the future development of his several sons. The eldest son, Crown Wang Chu Umberto, will inherit the Kingdom of Italy in the future, and Victor Emmanuel II is also quite at ease with the Crown Wang Chu's ability.

As a prince who has received elite traditional aristocratic education, Crown Wang Chu Umberto has performed well in military affairs. He graduated from Gao Da's alma mater, the Turin Royal Military Academy, and performed quite well in the Austro-Prussian War.

The role of Italy in the Austro-Prussian War was slightly awkward, because 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 that Italy's recovery of Venice and the capture of South Tyrol would not have been so easy.

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

Even if the army experienced failure, the Crown Wang Chu's overall performance was relatively calm, and he could even put forward some coping decisions.

Although his overall ability is not that excellent, if the goal is only to succeed to the throne and pass on the throne, Crown Wang Chu Umberto is absolutely qualified.

The second son, Amedeo, has no interest in political affairs, but is more willing to hold song and dance parties and invite local noble ladies to attend.

Victor Emmanuel II does not care much about these romantic affairs of his son. The Italian throne is inherited by Crown Wang Chu Umberto, and Gao Da is also doing well in Spain. These two are enough to ensure that their brother Amedeo enjoys his leisurely aristocratic life.

Gao Da is also quite concerned about the health of his father, Victor Emmanuel II.

Although he has only been in this world for a few years, Gao Da has indeed felt fatherly love from his father, which is rare in the royal family.

Although there will be certain differences between Eastern and Western royal families, the king is after all the ruler of a country, not to mention Victor Emmanuel II, a king with real power.

It can be seen from the fact that he agreed to the interest-free loan to Gao Da without hesitation that his feelings for Gao Da are indeed sincere.

In the telegram exchange between the two sides, Gao Da informed about the approximate time of Wang Hou Empress Sisi's production and promised to return to Italy with his family within a year to visit his father.

After finishing some messy things, Gao Da finally ushered in a long period of leisure.

After all, Gao Da does not have that much power in his hands at this time, and most of the government affairs of the Spanish government are still handled by Prime Minister Ma Deli.

For Gao Da, this may not be a bad thing. At least Gao Da has a certain amount of power in his hands, which can ensure that his power will not be completely hollowed out.

On this basis, he can also gain a long period of leisure time to enjoy his life in this world.

After all, the king is also a human being, and also needs rest and entertainment time. If you put most of your time into the handling of government affairs, such a king's life is a kind of torture.

Not everyone can endure the busy life of getting up early to handle government affairs, handling government affairs after eating, and meeting government officials and foreign guests during afternoon tea.

The greater the power, the greater the responsibility. This sentence is not just talk. Since Ma Deli became the Prime Minister of Spain, his aging degree has been several times faster than before.

The main reason is that the heavy burden of Spain's reform is all pressed on Prime Minister Ma Deli alone. Reform is related to the fate of Prime Minister Ma Deli and Gao Da, and also related to the future development of Spain, so it must not be sloppy.

This also led to the fact that in the most extreme times, Prime Minister Ma Deli's sleep time did not exceed five hours, and he had to constantly travel between various parts of Spain to inspect the execution of the reform policies issued by the government.

It was only after the issuance of the official performance appraisal system that the burden on Prime Minister Ma Deli was slightly relaxed.

As time came to mid-April 1875, Gao Da was almost by Wang Hou Empress Sisi's side every day, accompanied by a large number of servants and doctors.

Wang Hou Empress Sisi found out she was pregnant at the end of October, but she had already been pregnant for several months at that time. After all, the technology is not developed now, and it is impossible to measure whether she is pregnant in a short time.

Calculated according to the time of ten months of pregnancy, Wang Hou Empress Sisi's delivery time should be between April and June. Although there is no trend of production yet, Gao Da is somewhat expectant and nervous because he is a father for the first time.

Gao Da is naturally excited that he is about to welcome his first child. But the danger of the production surgery in this era is too great, and Gao Da is not willing to see his wife Wang Hou Empress Sisi or his children face danger.

This is also something that cannot be helped. Before the medical technology is updated and iterated, having children is indeed a very dangerous thing.

The production in this era is only the way of natural birth. It can be cesarean section, but the healing of the wound is a big trouble, and if you are not careful, you will be infected.

As long as you face the situation of infection, no matter what your identity is, there is basically only one result of death.

The birth of various antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs needs to wait until decades later. Even if Gao Da has vigorously developed Spain's biology and medicine, it cannot be improved in a short time.

Perhaps only when Gao Da's next generation, that is, the future princes and princesses, give birth to offspring, can they usher in a more advanced and safe medical environment.

The royal family is about to welcome the first prince or princess, which is a big news in Spain today.

Prime Minister Ma Deli's reform is quite successful, and the best proof is the continuous growth of Spain's per capita income. People can eat enough, live a good life, and naturally will be grateful to the king and government officials on their heads.

As the king who pushed for reform, Gao Da naturally received a warm welcome and adoration from the Spanish people. If there were still some who felt a slight rejection toward this foreign king due to Gao Da's Italian identity when he first arrived in Spain, such rejection had completely vanished ever since the completion of the first five-year development plan.

People not only have no repulsion to Gao Da's Italian identity, but also think that this is the savior sent by God to Spain, who came to save the Spaniards who could not eat enough at that time.

Although part of this comes from the propaganda of Gao Da's public opinion empire, it is undeniable that the public's support and love for Gao Da have increased infinitely.

Compared with Amadeo I in history, Gao Da has laid a relatively stable foundation for his descendants. As long as the later monarchs do not "make death" (do something stupid), basically the Spanish throne can be passed down in the Savoy family for a long time.

(End of chapter)