The money was in place, and Marin also sent an envoy to Bonn (the seat of the Archbishopric of Cologne) to bribe the Archbishop of Cologne and several bishops with real power. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

However, what I didn't expect was that Marin's subordinates said that they wanted the Bishopric of Münster, but they amused the Archbishop of Cologne and several powerful bishops, thinking that Marin was joking. One of the bishops simply beat Marin's men out as madmen......

Marin was suddenly depressed, and in particular, I was kind enough to give you money, but you were sick with my snake spirit......

It seems that it will take a few letters of introduction from Rome to believe these guys......

So, Marin first set the goal on the Roman side, and let the Roman side unify their opinions first. According to the old man, it is better to let those Roman cardinals willingly support you in such a major matter of territorial sovereignty, and no one will regret it afterwards. Otherwise, if someone repents and points out that it was Julius II who forced them to accept this plan, there may be another wave of turmoil when Julius II's next pope succeeds to the throne. Even, it will cause war.

So, the best option would be for Marin to bribe all the cardinals so that the entire College of Cardinals would willingly support Marin in obtaining the Bishopric of Münster. In this way, even if Julius II changed the pope after his death, nothing would happen. After all, those cardinals, although greedy, are still very trustworthy. If you take people's money, you will naturally eliminate disasters for others......

This is also a very common thing, if a person takes other people's money, but does not do things for others, his reputation will definitely be bad in the future. That way, no one will send you money.

Therefore, those greedy cardinals are basically very "ethical". Even the greedy and vicious Alexander VI father and son, who received money from others, would definitely seek a bishopric for someone. Only the most stupid and short-sighted corrupt officials will hack people's money, but they will not do anything. As long as there is one time, no one will dare to send him money next time......

Marin felt that what the old man said was quite reasonable, so he sent Kohler to go out in person, carrying 500,000 gold coins and 800,000 gold coins worth goods to Rome by boat. The 500,000 gold coins were used as bribes, and the goods, worth 800,000 ducats, were intended to be sold in Italy. After all, Italy is very business-oriented......

Among the 800,000 ducats worth of gold coins were merino wool, a specialty of Spain, which was a higher level than English wool. This kind of wool has always been a very popular commodity in Florence, where the wool industry is very developed, and it is not easy to sell at all.

The wool industry in Europe is divided into north and south. The centre of the northern woollen industry, originally in Ghent, Flanders, relied mainly on British wool to weave medium-to-high-end woollen fabrics and clothing. But as Britain became more restrictive on wool exports, Flanders had begun to decline. In order to increase taxes, the handsome prince Philip of Burgundy had begun to form caravans, intending to steal business with the Hanseatic League. Of course, now Philip does not dare to openly compete with the Hanseatic League for business. Moreover, the Dutch merchants under his rule were only in their infancy, and had not yet reached the point of attracting the attention of the Hanseatic League. It was only a few decades later that the Dutch merchants really rose to become the hegemon of the North and Baltic Seas, overpowering the Hanseatic League.

Southern Europe, on the other hand, is the center of the woolen industry with Florence. The woollen industry here is polarised, ranging from low-end wool to high-end wool, which uses the highest grade of Spanish merino wool. Although polarized, the wool industry in Florence is still very prosperous. Not only the wool industry, but also other handicraft industries, as well as the coinage industry, are also developed. Before the Venetian Ducats became popular in Europe, the most popular currency in Europe was actually the Florentine gold florin. In fact, the Ducat's gold coin is also a copy of the gold florin coin. The German Gulden gold coin is actually an imitation of the florin gold coin. Thus, the ducat, the florin (a gold coin, and a silver coin also called a florin's) and Gulden are basically of equal value.

It was precisely because Florence was so economically developed that the Papal States coveted this wealthy neighbor. You know, if the Papal States weren't for the tithes of all over Europe, the economy would not have been as good as that of the Florentine Republic. The cloth of the Holy See's robes and robes is also from the city of Florence......

The high-grade wool of Merino sheep obtained from selling grain in Spain to offset the price of grain was naturally the most suitable to be sold in Florence.

In addition, to Marin's laughter, some Spanish merchants, when buying rye, simply used spices obtained from the Spanish kings to pay for it......

However, under Marin's leadership, the whole country of East Friesian Lamber is not very cold to spices. The aristocracy of the Count of East Friesian did not use a lot of spices when entertaining guests, and the way to eat barbecued meat dipped in pepper and other spices was not popular in East Friesland. At most, when making braised pork, some cinnamon or something will be used to enhance the flavor.

This is mainly due to the fact that most of the nobles of the East Friesian Lamb Kingdom are newly promoted nobles of war and do not have the bad habit of eating spices like the old nobles. Moreover, the Chinese food promoted by Marin tastes much better than the old-fashioned way of eating, and does not use many spices.

Of course, there are still a small number of old-school aristocrats in East Friesland, and they also have a certain demand for spices. In addition, the newly occupied Earl of Oldenburg and the Duchy of Schleswig in Marin had more old-school aristocrats. So, Marin divided a part of the spices worth 400,000 gold coins and sold them to those old-fashioned nobles. The rest went to the city of Rome.

After all, last time Marin learned that the city of Rome consumes a lot of spices, and it is better to sell spices when they are sent to Rome. Even if it is given as a gift, the cardinals are willing to accept it. As for the goods worth 800,000 gold coins, such as lead and tin ingots, which Marin needed very much, they were left in East Frysland. This time Kohler brought Italian goods, mainly merino wool and spices. Marin doesn't need these things, but Italy needs them very much.

After arriving in Rome, under the leadership of Julius II, Kohler took gold coins and visited many cardinals. For the sake of Julius II and the gold coins, the cardinals gladly accepted Kohler's bribe.

After bribing Archbishop Piccolomini (that is, Pius III, who was originally a pope for only one month in history, it is strange to say that this thing did not become pope, but lived longer. There is speculation in history whether he was poisoned by Julius II...... Archbishop Piccolomini probably guessed something and chose to make overtures to Marin. Archbishop Piccolomini told Kohler: "Why not be bold and take down the Episcopal State of Osnabrück as well?" ”。 Moreover, Archbishop Piccolomini said that he was willing to help and persuade the cardinals, who were friendly with him, to support Marin in taking the Bishopric of Münster and the Bishopric of Osnabrück.

Kohler fed this information back to Julius II, who thought for a long time that this was indeed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Moreover, the bishopric of Osnabrück is located in a strange place. It is almost surrounded by the Bishopric of Münster. The Bishopric of Osnabrück, together with the states of Lingenberg and Ravensberg, which were also surrounded by the Bishopric of Münster, divided the Bishopric of Münster into two parts: north and south.

(Urgent change: I ran into an error when I checked Wiki English.) This mistake, of course, was made along with the Dutch version of the introduction of the Bishopric of Münster. According to the Dutch Nederlands version, the total area of the Bishopric of Münster is considered to be 5,900 square kilometers. But when I compared the maps, I always felt that something was wrong. Today, after carefully comparing the German version of the introduction of the Bishopric of Münster, I found that this oolong is derived from the German version. ）

(The German version says this - Oberstift: 5.900 km2, Niederstift: 4.300 km2.) The Dutch editors took the data "Oberstift: 5.900 km2" and put the area of the Bishopric of Münster at 5,900 km². But in reality, "Oberstift" simply means the area of the southern half of the Munster Episcopal State cut off by the Osnabrück Episcopal State; "Niederstift: 4.300 km2" indicates the area of the northern half of the area truncated by the Diocese of Osnabrück, that is, the area bordering the Lamb of East Friesia. ）

(So, the total area of the Bishopric of Münster, in fact, is 5900 + 4300 = 10200 square kilometers, and not the figure of more than 6,000 such miscalculations that I wrote earlier.) Here, I would like to say that the previous data is wrong, and the total area of the Episcopal State of Münster, which is as high as 10,200 square kilometers, please pay attention. ）

……

If the more than 2,000 square kilometres (2,297 square kilometres) of the Episcopal State of Osnabrück are included, then the northern and southern parts of the Bishopric of Münster will be much smoother and easier to manage.

After that, Kohler increased his efforts to give gifts, and changed the original gift of 5,000 gold coins per person to 5,000 gold coins + spices worth 5,000 gold coins with the support of Julius II. In this way, the value of the gift is equivalent to doubling.

With the covert support of Julius II and the persuasion of the respected Archbishop Picolomini, the cardinals of the Roman College of Cardinals gradually accepted it.

Anyway, the Bishopric of Münster is the land of Germany, and it is not under their jurisdiction, so who is it not given to whom? Even if it is given to Marin, the tithes will still be collected......

Moreover, the Episcopal State of Münster, with an area of 10,200 square kilometers, has been sent out, and it still cares about the Episcopal State of Osnabrück, which is only more than 2,000 square kilometers?

In this way, the Roman College of Cardinals passed a resolution to award Marin with the Bishopric of Münster, together with the Bishopric of Osnabrück, as a reward for Marin's army for helping to defeat the Florentine Republic, and it was unanimously adopted......

Julius II solemnly declared that the Holy See would not treat anyone who helped him badly. If someone can help conquer the holy city of Jerusalem and control it for a long time, the Holy See is willing to add a crown to canonize him as the king of the holy city, and confer the title of "patron saint of the Catholic Church", which will legally govern the region of Western Asia...... At the same time, the king will be enshrined in the headquarters of the Holy See, and will be revered as a "saint" like the patron saint of England, St. George......

This promise, in fact, was written as a blank check, and it was completely a cover for rewarding Marin. If Marin were rewarded alone, he would probably be jealous of all of Europe. However, the Holy See's throwing out a crown and the honorific title of "Guardian of the Catholic Church" completely distracted everyone's attention. After all, a crown is much more attractive than a fiefdom......

Moreover, being canonized as a "saint" is too tempting for those pious nobles. If nothing else, the pious old lady of Isabella I of the Kingdom of Castile in Spain will definitely be fooled......

A crown, the title of a saint, can definitely make most of the nobles of Europe crazy. When the time comes, who cares that Marin has received secular governance in the Episcopal States of Münster and Osnabrück?

However, it is so difficult to occupy Jerusalem for a long time. Not to mention anything else, the Mamluk dynasty of Egypt, which currently controls Jerusalem, can mobilize tens of thousands of Mamluk cavalry at will, how many nobles in Europe can beat them? Even the French, attacking Italy could only produce 40,000 troops, and most of them were infantry. If you want to control Jerusalem for a long time, the difficulty level is definitely six stars...... All in all, it's almost the equivalent of a blank check...... With a blank check, he helped Marin distract himself, and Julius II was really scheming......

Moreover, even if someone did this, they really took Jerusalem. It is not bad news for the Holy See, on the contrary, it is great positive news for all Catholics. In short, the Holy See is sure to make a profit, and it is just a big deal to pay for a throne and an honorific title, which are all imaginary things......