Bare jade feet lightly on the soft sand, the princess of France played for the first time on the beautiful coastal sand, and the combined fleet of Rome Aquitaine, which arrived a day earlier than the scheduled date, docked in Thessaloniki.

"Shall we continue to wait here?"

The majestic prince of England could not wait to meet with the supreme powers of the empire to plan for the future, and the emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire who wanted to open up the situation in the Holy Land was his best foreign aid.

"Your Highness, don't be impatient, we have time to wait slowly, maybe the one who is in a hurry is not necessarily us?"

William Marshall, the future marshal of the Anjou family, had long since clarified the internal and external reasons for his visit to the Kingdom of Jerusalem with his foresight.

Yes, perhaps the emperors of the Roman Empire, who seemed to be on high above, were more anxious than they were, and the English on the sea route were just as able to obtain first-hand information.

The latest news came that Saladin, the lord of Egypt, who had just acquired Aleppo, had concluded a formal alliance with the Seljuk Sultan Arslan.

The two pagan kingdoms of the East stood in solidarity with each other, and Saladin, the powerful man of the Middle East, was even more powerful, facing the aggressive momentum of the divine enemy, and the strange situation in Jerusalem was chilling.

King Baldwin, the protector of the Holy Sepulchre, who had triumphantly defeated Saladin and chased him like a lost dog, broke the news of his worsening illness this year.

The regent of the kingdom intensified the struggle for power when the king was seriously ill, and if the leper died now, the regent of the Count of Tripoli might soon be in a war with Prince Guy.

"It's just stupid!"

Prince Richard's first reaction when he heard the news was to spurn the short-sightedness and ignorance of the nobles of the Holy Land, who turned a blind eye to the hidden dangers that were close at hand, and instead contributed a lot to the internal strife in the kingdom.

"A bunch of stupid people."

"So we can take advantage of it."

Marshall smiled, as an Englishman, he knew a lot about the nobility of the Kingdom of West Francia (Kingdom of France).

What these incompetent people love most is to drag their feet, even if their country is in danger.

"That gives us a chance, doesn't we?"

Now it's a buyer's market!

Prince Richard was waiting for the price to sell, he was seeing how much the emperor would do to support his actions, giving up his principality and coming from the west, in fact, the prince had no other way, but he tried to pretend to be light-hearted, so that the imperial envoy Licinius could not understand his intentions.

The prince needed Emperor Alexios to welcome him into the great pearl of the Orient with supreme etiquette, and he needed to announce the beginning of his career in the Orient in the most magnificent way, all of which needed a good beginning.

"Your Highness, what about Princess Alice?"

William Marshall hesitated and decided to ask, the matter of the sovereign could not allow the intervention of his subordinates, but the smooth progress of this trip must involve the two princesses who were traveling with him, and in Marshall's opinion, Agnes, who was about to become the empress of the Roman Empire, was their first friend.

Princes and princesses, both of whom belonged to the Kingdom of France (Richard, Duke of Aquitaine, under the title of King Louis), could form a political alliance in the Eastern Empire, and in the Eastern Empire they could achieve something beyond each other's strength, which was a mutually beneficial move, as it should be.

But William Marshall had never seen the prince so restrained, and in the face of his fiancée, Richard stood aside and never said a word, bringing the issue into the cold in the embarrassing atmosphere of everyone.

The obscurity of the royal family was not a big deal in the eyes of the knights, and although the secular church had a lot of disagreement about it, the marriage of the two Christian royal families was definitely one of the most influential events in Europe.

Pope Alexander would never have acted unwise in the face of the German Emperor's seventh invasion.

You must know that when Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine and King Louis of France had a discord, it was the Pontiffy who personally matched them to renew the relationship, and reluctantly continued that precarious marriage for a while.

The pope's involvement in secular affairs was in fact the importance attached to the Kingdom of France, and it was King Philip who could serve the Germans in the periphery of the Holy Roman Empire.

And then all that remains is the restraint of the mind of the prince of England himself?

William Marshall was not afraid to speculate on the monarch's thoughts, but after getting in touch with the rebellious Richard, the knight found that the prince's personal will was quite firm and had the courage to make decisions, but to put it mildly, he was very assertive and could not listen to opinions.

So William Marshall has been a sideshower, sailing at sea for months, day and night, and the prince has no further action except to protect Princess Alice from possible harm, so anxious that the future marshal of the kingdom almost caught fire.

If she can't get Princess Alice anymore, as soon as the Eastern Empire's welcoming envoy team arrives, Princess Agnes will definitely bring her sisters to the Roman palace, and it is impossible to let Princess Alice live with Prince Richard for a long time while she is unmarried, which will definitely have a great impact on the princess's reputation.

"Your Highness, please, let's act!"

The leper king in Jerusalem probably never expected that the prince of England, who was coveting his throne, would be embarrassed by one of his own marital shackles, and the Lionheart, who had not yet shown his prowess, was also in an embarrassment at the instigation of his subordinates.

First of all, William Marshall was right in suggesting that the Anjou lineage alone was not enough to gain a foothold in Jerusalem, as evidenced by the fact that the leper king preferred to appoint his young nephew as his heir rather than choose a prince of the right age from a family far away in the West.

Whether it is to let little Baldwin bear the blow of the hostile faction in the kingdom as the heir on the surface, or to send another heir, Princess Isabella, to Constantinople as a hostage, whether it is King Baldwin's indulgence or helplessness, if he wants to get into the current chaotic political situation in Jerusalem and swallow the biggest piece of the cake, Richard must take out all his resources and gamble.

The founders of the Kingdom of the Holy Land and the attached Duchy were actually from the great noble families of the Kingdom of France, and Guy of Lusignan could gain a foothold in the Heavenly Kingdom, and there was no reason why the Prince of England, who had more resources, could not succeed.

"I see!" Nodding his head with difficulty, the Prince of England vaguely signaled that he would make a move tonight, and only God knew if he could succeed.

"For our cause, Your Highness!" Marshall encouraged the young prince.

"For the sake of our cause......"