"The eternal and most honorable Augustus, crowned by God, the peaceful and great Roman Emperor, William, the ruler of the Roman Empire!"

William closed his eyelids as if he were in Rome, and was crowned Emperor of the Roman Empire by Pope Nicholas II himself to the cheers of the crowd.

How fascinating is an empire, an empire inherited from the Roman Empire, the sole imperial system!

William looked at the boundless soldiers gathered in the audience, and couldn't help but think about it.

At this moment, William's ambition for the title of Roman emperor made him extremely anticipating this war into Rome.

Since ancient times, Rome has always been the geopolitical center of Europe, and even with the pressure from the East and the Pope of Rome, the political center of Rome has not changed.

Almost all the kings of feudal kingdoms, as long as they were ambitious monarchs, such as Louis IX of France, Richard the Lionheart of England, Frederick I the Redbeard of the Holy Roman Empire, etc., gained high international and domestic status from the two political activities of the march to Jerusalem or the march to Rome.

Thus, even though the Apennine Peninsula was not united, Rome remained the political center of the Western world.

There are many reasons why Italy cannot be unified, there are geopolitical factors, but the more important reason is the Papal States, which in the Italians opened, the Papal States are the root cause of Italy's division, weakness, and delay in unification.

In order to maintain its transcendent status, the Papal States maintained their power by sowing discord, so that Italy remained ununified until the 19th century, so that it missed the magnificent Age of Discovery.

The later war for the unification of Italy in Sardinia was launched under slogans against the Papal States and gained the support of almost all Italians, eventually forcing the Papal States to retreat to a corner of the Vatican.

This time, William marched into Rome, and he also planned to take this opportunity to completely unify the Kingdom of Italy, eliminate those republics led by Venice, port free trade cities led by Genoa, Italian princes led by the Duchy of Lombardy, city-states led by the Republic of Ancona, and then his daughter-in-law's Grand Duchy of Tuscany under his rule, and completely unify northern Italy.

As for the Kingdom of Sicily in southern Italy, a monarchy established by the Normans, William was not in a hurry, on the one hand, he was concerned about his friendship with Caesar, on the other hand, the military strength of the Kingdom of Sicily was not weak, William was not willing to lose a large number of troops in this fratricidal battle, he had a better choice, and brought Sicily under his rule by peaceful means.

On the one hand, it was one thing to march into Rome and expand the territory, but more importantly, to gain legitimacy and authority over the supervision of the Church and to obtain the supremacy and sanctity of the monarch personally by being crowned Roman Emperor in Rome.

In terms of status, once William was crowned emperor, he had de jure authority over the pope, and he could depose the pope and appoint the pope like a priest.

However, in the past hundreds of years, the Pope of Rome has elevated the status of the Pope to the same level as the Emperor, or even higher than the status of the Emperor, by preaching the story of Pepin's sacrifice and the Pope's coronation of Charlemagne, but in fact, in ancient Roman times, the appointment of the Pope was always in the hands of the Roman Emperor Augustus.

William's march into Rome this time was to put things in order, so that "God's shall be God's, and Caesar's shall be Caesar's", and the Roman Church should do its duty, instead of interfering in the political affairs of secular monarchs across the boundary.

William, of course, was not one of them, and he had political and religious power, because he aimed at both Augustus and Caesar, who were both the title of Emperor of the Roman Empire, and Caesar the title of Vice-Emperor of the Roman Empire, for example, the title of Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was the title of Vice-Emperor Caesar.

What William wanted was to obtain the same title as Charlemagne, both the Righteous Emperor Augustus, and the Latin Imperator Emperor, which is Caesar in German.

Augustus was born from the title of the Senate, Caesar was born from blood, and by seizing the titles of emperor of these two Roman Empires, William intended to inherit the entire legal system of the Roman Empire and become the true successor of the Roman Empire.

Unlike the Holy Roman Empire, William had different plans for his invasion of Rome.

In addition to crowning the Roman emperors Augustus and Caesar and completely eliminating the ambitious Cluny Seminary, he also planned to move Pope Nicholas II and the Holy See to Paris and bring all the territories owned by the Papal States, including the city of Rome, under his direct jurisdiction.

As long as this goal is achieved, the Pope will be transferred to the Abbey of Saint-Denis in Paris, France, and the French Church, which will be controlled by William, will surpass the Roman Church and become the leader and guide of the entire Catholic Church.

This was only the first step of William's plan, the second part was to abolish the pope, abolish Pope Nicholas II, who was supported by the Clunians, and instead install Hamelin, the archbishop of Normandy, as the new pope, so that the power to appoint the pope was completely in the hands of William as emperor.

After suppressing the Roman Church, moving the Holy See to Paris, and deposing the Pope, William was able to achieve his goal of completely placing the Church under imperial power and making it a obedient Church dependent on the Emperor.

After taking control of the Pope, William was equivalent to "coercing the Son of Heaven to order the princes", and he had claims to the territory of other countries, which could justifiably launch wars of conquest against the territories of other countries, or co-opt other countries to become his allies and vassals through the church. That is to say, if the Pope is in hand, William will have more room to maneuver.

"Your Majesty, the soldiers have been humbled." Faller came to William's side and bowed.

"Hmm." William nodded slightly, his eyes fixed on the tens of thousands of troops gathered in front of him, he drew the long sword at his waist, and said loudly:

"Normans! My subjects!

The time has come for our decisive battle, for your king, William the Conqueror!

March to Rome! ”

"Long live Your Majesty! Long live His Majesty the King! ”

At the end of William's short but sonorous speech, all the soldiers in the audience, whether nobles or ordinary soldiers, erupted into a deafening shout.

In addition to the Guards, the 1st and 2nd Guards, the 4th and 5th Legions, some brigades of the 9th and 10th Legions, and other units of the Nordic Guards and elite mercenaries, these troops combined were 100,000 men, and they were also the source of William's confidence in this victory.