Mary Su Stuart

Ambitious Mary, while envious of the high-profile version of Scotland in the south, unceremoniously sends "warmth" to her opponent Elizabeth.

In the summer of 1561, through unremitting efforts, she finally "sent John Knox, the great god, to England".

In order to maintain her image of a magnanimous monarch, and for the inertia of her policy of "supremacy of monarchy and religious reconciliation", Mary certainly would not easily use violence to expel her.However, since the winter of 1560, she has promulgated a series of targeted decrees, chasing and intercepting, restricting movement, and intending to cut off Knox's way of public meetings and preaching.

Yes, the noble and tolerant Queen of Scots didn't even outright declare Knox's "Presbyterian" "illegitimate".She just asked the soldiers to protect the Catholic Church, to treat the mob harshly, and to separate the ordinary people from the fanatics little by little.

Knox, who had been poured cold water by Mary, was very angry.But now he has insufficient number of believers and does not have enough support from the local lords, so it is difficult for him to lead a vigorous "uprising".However, his self-esteem did not allow him to engage in conspiracy and assassination.As a result, the Protestant teacher had an increasingly miserable life.

At this time, his "sponsor friend", "Toke" received a letter from England.The queen there, he said, was a true Protestant, a believer in the teachings of Geneva, disapproving of Catholic red tape, and Calvin's disciples were likely to win Elizabeth's favor.So, he encouraged Knox to start a new business there.

The second letter, at Mary's behest, was more explicit. According to the analysis of "Toke" and Knox, the neighboring country has a large area and a large population, so it is easy for him to develop loyal followers there.At that time, he can use England as a base, cross the border, and liberate Scotland.Moreover, the Protestant queen should have a natural hatred of Catholicism and would certainly encourage his actions.

The third letter cites the experience of his mentor Calvin as an example-the Frenchman, after being persecuted by the monarch, came to Geneva, Switzerland, and established a large Protestant parish; Leading, remotely guiding the local Huguenot believers in France to continue to grow and develop.

In fact, Mary thinks that these reasons are not very tenable.However, whether he is logical or not, he has to coax Knox to say it.

In the end, he was really fooled.

When the Queen of Scots learned that the culprit had voluntarily left the country for England, she made many crosses on her chest sincerely.

—Go, go, leave Scotland, take away your religious fanaticism, and give me a stable and quiet kingdom.

——Go, go, go to England, go to "persecute" the Catholics there, let them understand the "goodness" of Scotland, let them yearn for a monarch who "holds the old religion".

Mary even gave several dances to celebrate the departure of the die-hard Calvinist.In the past six months, she has been more depressed than before——that old-fashioned and narrow-minded John Knox hates all the joys in daily life; he thinks that music, dance, poetry, these beautiful existences are the temptation of the devil; Keep an eye on the court in Edinburgh, and from time to time attack the queen for indulging in pleasure.

Because of the harsh words and sharp criticisms of the Protestants, people who are not as determined as the queen breed fear; and their withdrawal also partially affects Mary's interest.

Now that the nuisance is gone, Mary and her playmates can enjoy their entertainment with greater peace of mind.

The court servant and French poet Chateau Riard imitated his predecessor Ronsard and wrote many tender and affectionate odes to the Queen with great interest.How common is the love of a knight for his mistress!The four Marys were all impressed by his heightened romance, and together with the Queen, they acquiesced in his slightly abrupt courtesies, and had recently accepted his suggestion to imitate France and staged a "mask" comedy at court.

At this time, the mission of the Duke of Savoy came to visit, and it happened to send an Italian with a good voice, David Lee Jo.Everyone found that this young man from the Piedmont region has a very good bass and can write lyrics and compose music, which is really likable.The queen begged the envoy to cut off his love and keep him by her side.

The small gatherings in the Edinburgh Palace have continued since then.Theatrical performances once again occupied Mary's night time.Under the call of the Queen to "combine work and rest", the most diligent and respectful Maitland also readily participated.After a ball, he finally got the queen's consent to marry her maid, Miss Fleming.

Montgomery, who holds the post of ambassador, also serves entertainment purposes, and has accompanied the Queen on many hunting trips.He led a team of brightly dressed riders to shoulder the important task of protecting the queen.Seeing the clear sky, the slight nostalgia in his chest seemed to be being blown away by the Scottish sea breeze; and the appearance of Mary with a falcon, kindly answering greetings to the greetings he met on the way made him even more happy.

It would be better if...she didn't insist on riding in trousers.thought Montgomery.Alas, it's a bit wild here after all; even the dauphine, who was carefully raised by the French court, has become rough and unrestrained recently.

Scots don't pay that much attention to little things.However, in just a few years, the kingdom swept away its previous decline.The society is stable, the politics is clear, the economy is improving, and the people are more and more in awe of the authority of the monarch. How can they pay attention to these details.The queen, who lived in Edinburgh for a long time, inspired the pride of the local people with her cheerful and bright style.In the worship of the monarchy by the subjects, they gradually added a lot of personal love for Mary.They even composed spontaneous chants of praise--the flattering phrases that would drive Mary off her feet.

Scotland has enjoyed a bit of peace and prosperity, but their in-laws, France, have not had a good time recently.

When Scotland temporarily stifled Knox's preaching crisis, France fell into a fierce confrontation between Protestantism and Protestantism.

Because the eldest son was assassinated, Henry II oppressed the Protestant forces even more fiercely, wishing to lock them up or burn or hang them all.But the Protestants refused to be caught without a fight. In addition to fleeing and resisting, they continued to "holy assassination" from time to time.However, the weakness of the army caused Henry II to often extinguish one place, and then found that another place started to smoke.

Although there has not yet been a large-scale chaos, it is enough for the French king to keep busy.

In fact, the number of Protestants in this period is probably less than one-tenth of the population of France.The reason why he resisted so stubbornly and did not choose to flee was probably because there were other forces behind him to support him.

Mary gradually saw the reality—the religious wars in France would last for many years in history. In addition to economic reasons, feudal aristocratic separatism, local self-government forces and conflicts with the central government also played a major role.

Henry II, such a powerful monarch, is still unable to control the overall situation; if his young son is replaced, it will be even more difficult to eliminate the feudal remnants and achieve centralized rule.

Faith is an excellent excuse for division.

Therefore, in real history, it was the "Nantes Pardon" that granted equal rights to the Huguenots at the end of the war. Henri de Bourbon, a member of the royal family after the severance and an ex-Protestant who converted to Catholicism.

For this reason, Mary often wrote to Francois to put forward her own views.

As soon as the French crown prince recovered from his injuries, he followed his father to put out fires.He believes that religious compromise is the historical trend.With a heart of forgiveness, he followed Henry II closely, but hope, acting as a buffer between the king and the Protestants.

This task is quite difficult, but it is a rare common will of him and his wife.Therefore, he worked tirelessly, insisted on his own opinion, and traveled all over France.

In his reply, the Scottish king expressed his deep regret for not being able to reunite with his wife for a short period of time.He persuaded his wife not to rush back to France in turmoil, but he had to stick to the country where he grew up.

Moreover, he is proud of his efforts-because the Dauphin and Justice Lobitard, together with the important ministers, tried their best to persuade France to pass the Inquisition after all.

"I have seen with my own eyes that the deeper the suppression, the more intense the resistance will be; especially when the other party has become the group with the most fanatical beliefs." Francois said in the letter. "As you said, 'nonsense is like a pack of explosives(;), only when detonated in a small, airtight container can it cause a catastrophe' [Note [-]]."

Mary knew that, according to Henry II's thinking, the religious wars in France could only end with the restoration of Catholic absolute rule—even though he also liked secular countries; his character and cognition also determined that he would not tolerate Protestants They have repeatedly disobeyed him.This kind of black and white, non-reconciliation, and forced exclusion, if it is like the neighbor Spain, will eventually lead to the decline of national strength.

France is barely considered half of her motherland. If possible, Mary still hopes that the result will not be so tragic.

But the young Francois obviously couldn't control the situation.At the end of February 1562, an appalling tragedy occurred in the French town of Vasy.

The protagonist of the tragedy is the Duke of Guise, a loyal believer in the old religion.

When Henry II suppressed Protestants across the country, in addition to rushing to work, he cooperated with his younger brother, the Cardinal of Lorraine, to engage in diplomacy with the German princes: I hope they will remain neutral and not help the French Huguenots.They had just won the assurance of the Duke of Württemberg, one of the Lutherans, and they were preparing to return to Paris, full of joy, when they passed Vassily, and a great event happened accidentally.

The Duke of Guise and his followers originally only planned to stop here for a while.Although Vasi is the hereditary territory of the Guise family, it has been used as the dowry of Crown Princess Mary in name.The uncles who are helping to take care of it are busy with the country's military and administration all day long, so it is inevitable that they will ignore this place.It wasn't until they got "down to earth" that they realized that a nest of Protestants had been built here.

The Protestants gathered in a barn outside the city—it had been built to look like a Protestant church.The attendants sent by the Duke of Guise to investigate found a Huguenot priest who was leading the believers singing Protestant "hymns" in unison.

"What? Those guys should have been vassalized by the lord!" Cardinal Lorraine was extremely angry.

"It is abominable that they dare to disobey the law that strictly prohibits Protestant preaching in my presence!" roared the Duke of Guise.

Under the master's instruction, the Duke's subordinates rushed into the barn, intending to teach the unruly subjects a lesson so that they could return to the right path.The Protestants whose ceremony was interrupted naturally rebelled angrily.But they were unarmed. They could only pick up a few stones and throw them at the attackers.

As soon as the Duke of Guise approached the scene, he was hit in the face by a stone, and blood flowed immediately.The attendant, who was dedicated to protecting the Lord, became more and more angry, and began to slash and kill with his sword.Although the Duke of Guise had no intention of doing so at first, he never stopped his subordinates from committing violence...

The massacre in the barn finally took the lives of more than [-] people—men and women, old and young. According to the current law, they were not guilty of death.

The ultra-Catholics who got the news cheered and rejoiced.Protestants all over France were sad and angry.

"They scolded him King Herod [Note [-]] and asked His Majesty to judge the murderer." Francois' letter was full of worry. "But His Majesty refused without hesitation, and claimed that the troublemakers should be warned. I don't think this is appropriate. The dead are gone, and we should try to appease the living... The division in the court is intensifying, Montmorant Xi and the Duke of Vendome jointly accused their colleagues, but they couldn't come up with any good solution..."

The Duke of Guise himself is quite entangled in this matter.When the niece reads his letters, she can also detect the ambivalence of the uncle. "Vassi's incident caused heavy casualties, which was not my intention. But if I encounter such a situation again, I'm afraid I will still allow my subordinates to stop those heretics..."

On the other side of the sea, the chaos in France seems to have no end in sight.

Mary felt helpless.Economic issues, local forces and the central government, and religious conflicts are entangled together, but the monarch has not backed down.If things go on like this, "peace" cannot be restored even if it is temporarily controlled by strong means, or even a St. Bartholomew massacre [Note [-]].

Moreover, such continuous turmoil will cause great damage to social production.So far, France's population is clearly the largest in Western Europe, and its industrial and agricultural foundation is also the best. However, it is seen that it will fall behind Britain and the Netherlands in the Age of Discovery.

The mercury mirror formula sent by Mary has indeed been mass-produced in France, and the income is quite considerable.In addition to paying the "patent fee" owed to her, most of the rest was used as Henry II's military expenses-used to suppress the people.Mary simply sighed: Louis XIV, the sun king in history, also used this to support the army, but at least he was engaged in external expansion, not civil war!

The only fortunate thing is that under the operation of the Cardinal of Lorraine, the remaining "patent money", 50 livres in cash, was finally safely transported to Scotland.

Mary, the creditor who has been in arrears for a long time, almost wants to burst into tears-it is recorded in history that the French royal family has always had a bad credit, and defaulting on debts is common;

According to Uncle Guise, he wanted to give her a few more years of dividends; unfortunately, the royal family's finances continued to be tight, so the matter had to be postponed.

Forget it, Mary can't care about it for the time being.Taking the sales data from France, she calculated the feasibility of Scotland's follow-up production.

No, it's still too much inconvenience.

France has a fashionable and luxurious palace as a cultural benchmark, and the number of nobles is huge, their families are rich, they are closely related to each other, and there are ready-made sales.Therefore, it is easy for them to seize the Venetian market.Scotland does not have such good conditions. Sea transportation is also underdeveloped, and there is no mercury mirror advertised by a powerful royal family. It may be difficult to win the favor of the European continent.As for England next door, the market is not big, and there is no chance of winning with products from Venice and France competing at the same time.

Besides, the foundation of Scotland's native glass industry is still quite weak.There are many problems with product quality and even confidentiality work.

After careful research for a long time, she found that the French model cannot be replicated... Mary almost lost confidence in the local luxury goods industry.

Oh, if only she were Elizabeth.Look at England, relying on Newcastle's coal industry for support, the heating, glass, soap, sugar, and salt industries are all developing rapidly... This is the integrity of the industrial system, and this is the hope of progress.

Mary wanted England more.

She had no patience for Elizabeth to abdicate automatically.If there were no special circumstances, the virgin queen would have a long life; besides, who knows when this cousin, who is nearly thirty years old, plans to get married and have children?

All kinds of dark thoughts, like saplings, grew in clusters in Mary's heart.

On an impulse, she included a "fashionable gift" in her diplomatic letter to England.

Including she just received a few exquisite mercury mirrors (containing mercury), Italian leather gloves from her mother-in-law (formaldehyde toluene seriously exceeds the standard) and a batch of heavy metal whitening cosmetics (not to mention).

Although it was meant to suit one's own preferences, it probably had no obvious effect...but...it feels so despicable.

Mary spurned herself even more when she received Elizabeth's enthusiastic reply.

But this is a power struggle.

Other dark operations must continue.

By the end of 1562, she finally seized the opportunity of "right and above board".

The author has something to say: For the content of the Vassi tragedy, please refer to "Elaborating on Catherine de Medici and the French War of Religion"

[Note [-]] Fang Long: I am right. (laugh)

【Note [-]】In the Bible, John the Baptist, the guide of Jesus, was killed by King Herod.In this tale of martyr and tyrant, there is also Salome, who is "coveted" by the king's stepfather and (possibly) in love with John.Historically, this has been a good subject to write about.

【Note 1572】The massacre of St. Bartholomew was a horrific atrocity committed by French Catholic mobs against domestic Protestants (Huguenots), which began on August 8, 24.Beginning with the assassination of Protestant leaders by the French court, the people also "spontaneously" slaughtered Protestants.The atrocities spread from Paris to the whole of France and lasted for several months.