In the early autumn of 1496, a young girl left her hometown where she had lived for 17 years with trepidation and longing for romance, although she was still an ignorant little girl, but her noble birth in the Castilian royal family, and the blood of her parents made her one of the small groups of people with high status in Europe at that time.

17 years old is the age of naivety and dreams, if there is another shadow that she has buried in her heart, and has been longing for and longing for her, then it will be easy to fall into the beautiful dream she has woven and cannot extricate herself.

The girl's name was Juana, a very beautiful name, just like her person.

Fair skin, long golden-red hair, beautiful blue eyes, and a young and graceful figure that was still a little immature but had already begun to show her youth, this was what this girl was proud of herself, and what she had to do at that time was to show such a beautiful self in front of a strange young man who was 2 years older than her after a long journey.

But though they were strangers, they were very close, for according to the procedure of a surrogate wedding in their hometown, which was held in strict accordance with the canons, the young man named Philip was already her husband, and she was going to see him.

Many people told the girl that her husband was young and handsome, a truly rare and beautiful man, and that his status was extremely noble, as the eldest son of the Holy Emperor Archduke Maximian of Austria, Philip not only inherited the title of Duke of Vienna, who was regarded as the heir of the Grand Duke, but was also appointed governor of the Low Countries by his father.

Juana was so curious about such a husband that sometimes made people laugh, and in her still naïve mind, Philip was imagined as a brave knight who protected the princess from fighting dragons, a monarch as majestic but romantic as her father, a man who held her place for the rest of her life.

It's just that these are just imaginations after all, so the young Princess Castile is both excited and uneasy along the way,

Juana would never have imagined that when she first saw her husband, whom everyone praised, she would fall into a web of love from which she could not extricate herself.

Duke of Vienna, Governor of the Low Countries, Philip, with the nickname of Philip, this young man shines as brightly as the sun that shines everywhere, his intelligence, wit, and courage to face challenges have convinced many of his followers that he is a true monarch, and his handsome appearance has fascinated countless women with this noble duke.

When she saw Philip for the first time, Juana knew that she was in love, not because this person was her husband, but because she herself was deeply in love with the man she was obsessed with.

At night, Juana reverently knelt in front of the cross in the bedroom that the emperor had ordered for her, thanking God for giving her such a wonderful husband, and even more so for fate for arranging for her to meet her beloved at this most beautiful age.

In October 1496, an official wedding took place in the Low Countries, Princess Juana, the second daughter of the two kings of Castile and Aragon, and Philip, Duke of Vienna, son of Archduke Maximian I of Austria, Holy Roman Emperor.

It was a typical political marriage, a testament to the alliance of two powerful states, which was a crucial part of Maximian I's successive strategies to use the bonds of marriage to build a powerful Habsburg dynasty, because his daughter had just recently married the eldest son of the two-king couple, the eldest son of the two kings, who was in the hope of Maximian I, whether his son-in-law would inherit the crown of the two kingdoms in the future, or the couple would give the country to their children in half. In the order of succession, your own family will not suffer.

It's just that to the surprise of many people, it was love at first sight for Juana.

Therefore, everyone knows that this is a marriage that does not involve personal affairs, that is to say, like other aristocratic marriages in this era, no one expects the couple to love each other, or even expect them to live in harmony, as long as they can maintain a minimum marriage contract, they can be regarded as fulfilling everyone's expectations of them.

But Juana fell in love with Philip, and she was so completely enchanted by him that she would not even be able to see him for a minute and feel uneasy, and if any woman approached Philip, regardless of her status or age, she would immediately be jealous and unable to control herself.

The storm of love brought Juana an almost stubborn possessiveness towards Philip, and she insisted on being with her husband, except for some occasions that were really not suitable for her to attend, Juana stayed by her husband's side almost every inch, as if she was afraid that if she was not careful, she would be snatched away by some woman.

As a result of this love, 2 years later, she gave birth to her first child, a girl whom Maximian I named Leondor.

The birth of her daughter did not affect Juana's love for her husband, she was still so passionate and fiery, and she was still so obsessed with Philip that was almost forgetting to die.

It's just that this overly persistent love somehow makes the people around her feel a little uneasy, especially the waitresses around her, who can't stand Juana's somewhat neurotic paranoia, because she suspects that all the women she sees around Philip are coveting her husband, which makes her try to expel all the waitresses, but this idea is finally stopped by Maximian.

During this time, Juana and Philip sat in Flanders, and it was her happiest day, although it seemed that because of Philip's growing responsibilities in the Low Countries, and because he was also in trouble trying to reform the noble councils of the Low Countries, it was also the most uninhibited time for the young couple.

But the bad news from Castile suddenly disrupted Juana's life, her brother *** Ann suddenly fell ill, and then the treatment failed, and in the anxiety of the whole country, the crown prince was finally called.

Juana's fortunes changed dramatically.

The crown prince had no children during his lifetime, and as the eldest daughter of the two kings, Juana's sister Isabella of Aragon was married to the king of Portugal, although this was a decision made by the two kings to win over Portugal, but the couple monarchs did not want to see their country annexed by the Portuguese in the future.

So when the eldest daughter was undoubtedly excluded from the consideration of the heir, Juana, as the second daughter, became the first choice for the heir.

This was of course a good thing for Maximian I, who had decided to marry the couple with the idea that he would always be able to take advantage of whatever the outcome, and now the result was even better than he had imagined.

In Iberia, as the time of Ann's death became longer and longer, the call for the king to choose a new heir as soon as possible became louder and louder, and finally because there was no son, and her sister was not considered, Juana became the crown prince of Castile as the first in line to the throne.

According to the decision at the time, Juana was supposed to return to Castile in 1498 with her husband, Philip, Prince of Flanders, but in the winter of that year, an unexpected accident occurred.

The Port of Amsterdam, the largest port in the Low Countries, suffered an unexpected port congestion that winter, because the port traffic was paralyzed by countless ships blocking the port terminal, which directly caused the cargo from the North Sea to the Atlantic coast to be unblocked through the Port of Amsterdam, and this blockage even continued until the port was closed in winter, which made the whole Amsterdam fall into the following March after the spring was able to break through and resume the port opening.

It was in this year that a port called Rotterdam appeared in the inland wetland area not far from Amsterdam, replacing Amsterdam, which had fallen into a winter closure at that time, and for a time the entire trade between the lowlands and the interior was completely controlled by Rotterdam.

At that time, Philip was reforming the Low Countries, and the blockade of the port and the appearance of the new port disrupted his plans for a while, and the young duke was keenly aware that there seemed to be some unknown conspiracy in it, but when he finally found the clues and was ready to take action against the Hanseatic merchant from the north, called Grogenin, he found that the man had not only gotten the news early. And he soon sensed that it seemed that the entire Lowlands were being secretly manipulated by some invisible, immense force.

First, the local chamber of commerce was openly and covertly opposed to his orders, and then the parliamentary reform, which had already begun to bear fruit, seemed to have encountered great potential, and it had been decided not to propose all kinds of autonomy clauses for the time being, and the parliament in exchange for tax relief unexpectedly put forward the slogan "gold cannot be exchanged for freedom", which made Philip's hope to exchange benefits for peace suddenly failed.

This forced Philip to repeatedly postpone his return to Castile with Juana, who was stubbornly unwilling to return to Castile alone, despite being urged by his parents to send people more than once.

The Swabian War in June 1499 caused Philip, who was already a little anxious, to postpone his trip again in order to help his father raise supplies and military expenses.

Castile spent 2 full years without a crown prince until the end of 1499, when news was received from the Low Countries that Juana would return to her homeland with her husband and daughter to become crown prince of the Kingdom of Castile.

While reporting to the two kings, the messenger told them that they were going to be grandfathers and grandmothers again, because "Her Highness the Princess is pregnant again."

When they heard the news, the two kings merely expressed their due joy as if they were doing so, and then they began to consider what new relationship Castilla and Aragon should form with their shrewd relatives with Juana as crown prince.

Neither the grandparents nor the young couple who were future parents knew that this unborn child would unite Castile and Aragon in the future and establish the Kingdom of Spain.

In mid-December 1499, the French army occupying Genoa took the initiative to attack the Austrian army again after a short break.

The reason why Louis XII broke the usual initiative in such a season was because something happened that even he did not expect.

In addition to the end of the century, the most special thing in 1499 is that compared with the past, this year's winter not only came extraordinarily early, the weather was surprisingly cold, in fact, as early as a few years ago, this winter was particularly cold climate has slowly appeared, but this year is not only colder, but also colder, many places not only rare heavy snowfall, and even some places have snow disasters.

For France, it was a year of more trouble.

At the beginning of the year, a great earthquake caused a lot of damage in the Loire Valley, not only affecting many places, but also destroying the Château de Blois, where the king was crowned, and then Louis XII's announcement of the military order against Italy was not pleasant news for the French, and the consequence of the French war machine turning was that the life of the people was getting worse and worse.

In winter, it is amazing to the French that it snows in many parts of the north even in October, and in late November, even Paris becomes a snow-white city.

The heavy snow brought more and more bad news to the "Île de Paris", where a large number of sheep had frozen to death because of the heavy snow, where there was a famine because the food could not be delivered because of the freezing of the river, and the severance of contact due to the lack of information and transportation farther away from Paris, which made the attitude of some aristocratic territories that were already quite dissenting to the royal family become obscure.

Due to the lack of transportation, they sent significantly fewer envoys to Paris, and some of them even temporarily cut off the monthly and quarterly taxes that were supposed to arrive.

However, Louis XII still ordered the conscription of the nobility of the country, and prepared to organize an army of about 20,000 men to support Italy, so that the French army could reach an unprecedented strength of 60,000 men, which Louis XII believed would not only allow him to defeat Maximian I in one fell swoop, but also send another army to Naples and, if necessary, even to Ferdinand, who might compete with him for Naples.

This time, however, the French were indifferent to the king's orders, and when he saw that the army from home was less than a quarter of what he had requested, and that the food supplies he had offered were far from what he had requested, Louis XII realized the seriousness of the situation.

The purpose of occupying Genoa was to use the port to get support, but now he could get so little help, and although the Austrians who had joined together only took the opportunity to occupy Alexandria, which had been abandoned by the French army, the Austrian army undoubtedly took the initiative.

Because they controlled most of the granaries and fields of Lombardy, the French army was surrounded in the city along with the Genoese.

The daily attrition of nearly 4,000 French troops and the entire population of the city was daunting, and long-term homesickness tormented the Austrians as well as spread among the French army.

Waiting was a drain on lives, and this year's unexpectedly cold shattered Louis XII's dream of bringing the war into a winter truce with the Austrians and forcing the Austrians to withdraw from Italy.

In this unfavorable situation, Louis XII finally gave the order, and he broke with the centuries-old practice of winter truce and launched the first battle of the winter offensive of 1499 against the Austrian army.

While the French were launching a winter offensive against the Austrians, in Naples, Alexander was explaining to the bewildered Josa.

"It's been too cold this year, so it's impossible for the French to get the supplies they need, and there's no way out for them at this time except to take the initiative to attack......"

"As for the future, I believe that there will be more and more such weather, and then they can only break those old traditions in order to be able to fight quickly, they will fight in winter, even when the snow is falling, they have no choice, because this long winter will become very long," Alexander said looking outside, and then whispered to himself in a voice that only he could hear, "because this is the Xiaoice period." ”

As he spoke, Alexander's gaze glanced at a letter on the table that had already arrived.

The letter was sent from Castile with information about Juana's imminent return to Castile.

At the end of the letter, Juana's re-pregnancy is mentioned.

"Charles V of Spain?"

Alexander thought to himself, and then smiled lightly.