And the messengers that Charles II wanted to see were not one, but two.

It is well known that the Netherlands was not independent for a long time, and it belonged to the Spanish crown of Habsburg, like all the Netherlands, but because the Spanish king and queen did not have much pity for this region, they only continued to suck blood on them, so that in 1568 the Dutch people set out the largest rebellion, and thus broke away from Spanish rule.

Now, it may be surprising that their leader is none other than Prince William Orange, and who is this prince, who is the heir of the Count of Nassau, who is located in the Rhineland Palatinate, and the Count of Nassau naturally belonged to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the time, and he grew up in the palace of the Emperor and his sister, Maria, the Governor of the Netherlands, in Brussels, and later his cousin René Sharon died in battle, and he inherited the title and domain of the Prince of Orange (Orange is located in the south of France), and he married the daughter of a Dutch lordThe combination of the two made him the largest lord of the Netherlands, and when his wife died, he married the daughter of the Elector of Saxony at the age of twenty-eight.

Such a person should have been the most trusted person of the Habsburgs, but who knows, after seven years of being in power in the three provinces of the Netherlands, Zeeland and Utrecht, in the face of the "Iconoclasm Movement" When the rebel army became more and more in full swing, the Habsburg apostle not only sided with the Habsburgs, but on the side of the people, even though at the beginning, the rebels were far inferior to the Spaniards, and William Orange had to flee to the Holy Roman Empire, but even so, he still took all his possessions, recruited a mercenary army, and dragged the Spaniards into the abyss of endless war, along with the people of the Netherlands and the enemies of the Habs.

Eighteen years into the war, William Orange went from being a rich country to a family of humble names, but it was not without reward, the people of the Netherlands had always believed that William Orange was worthy of becoming king of the Netherlands, and William gladly accepted the popular support, and then, two days before his coronation, he was assassinated by a fanatical Catholic.

Here is the reason for the Dutch rebellion, in addition to the heavy taxes mentioned earlier, there is also that most of the people of the Netherlands are Protestants, and the Spanish Inquisition not only has the right to judge these infidels, but also has the right to confiscate all their property, after suffering continuous exploitation, even the last bit of property, and the safety of their own and their loved ones' lives cannot be guaranteed, and it is no wonder that these Dutch people decided to rebel against the tyranny of the then Spanish king Philip II - William Orange was also originally a Catholic, but after deciding to turn to the Netherlands, he converted to Protestantism and became a Protestant.

It may be a bit chilling to say that William Orange is arguably the most important reason for the independence of the Netherlands, and it can be said that without him, there would be no current Netherlands, but after his death, the Dutch people seem to have forgotten his favor at once— The Netherlands was divided into two factions, one was the republicans, the main members of the current Dutch Parliament, who believed that any kind of autocratic government, any dictatorial king, was a desecration of liberty and justice, and they were inadmissible, and they firmly did not agree that the Netherlands should be ruled by a king again, and on the other hand, there were those who were more inclined to the monarchy, and they supported William Orange's successor, Wilhelm II, as the ruler of the Netherlands.

This Wilhelm II was naturally quite dissatisfied with the republicans, for him his father was the founder of the Netherlands, and he and his descendants were also the irrefutable rulers of the Netherlands, for which he had also contacted Louis XIII, intending to use the power of the French to conquer those regions that did not obey him, so as to possess the whole of the Netherlands, but before the Covenant was concluded, he suddenly died of smallpox, and he was only twenty-four years old when he died, and his widow came to this world eight days later- It's hard to say if there is a dark wizard like Bosch.

Now the one who can speak as a Dutch ruler is the heir of Wilhelm II, Wilhelm III, who is nineteen years old, and his mother is the daughter of Charles I, that is, he is the nephew of Charles II, but unfortunately this does not affect the relationship between England and the Netherlands - Because the young prince was not yet able to grasp the authority that originally belonged to the House of Orange, his father died suddenly when he was born, and in order to fight for the custody of William III, the so-called regency, his grandmother and his mother broke out into an unprecedented war, and his grandmother wanted to educate William III in the model of the heir of the Orange family, that is, the king of the Netherlands, while his mother preferred to surround himself with enough Englishmen...... This was disgruntled by many, and the Elector of Brandenburg and his wife (Wilhelm Orange's sister) stepped in at the behest of the Parliament and became the real masters, and Wilhelm III's education was transferred to the Dutch Parliament.

The Dutch parliament, which advocated republican autonomy, was not polite to the descendants of his benefactors, and it could be said that the Netherlands was not so much the guardian of Wilhelm III as the caretaker of Wilhelm III, and every person he came into contact with when he was growing up, every book he read, every word he said, was subject to strict scrutiny.

Not only did the Dutch Parliament gleefully convene the Council of State in the year after the death of Wilhelm II, declaring that the Dutch Republic would no longer have a unified army (i.e., an army loyal to the king), that the defense of the provinces would be the responsibility of the provinces, that they would remove the office of consul, and that they would exclude all those who supported the House of Orange, and that they would issue decrees relating thereto, depriving the House of Orange of its political rights and stipulating that the descendants of the House of Orange would never be allowed to hold public office.

Things changed, after Charles II ascended the throne, as Charles II's sister, the Prince of Orange Lady personally went to London to congratulate her brother, who knows, on the way home, this noble lady was ill, so she had to entrust her son to her brother Charles II, although Charles II was very cowardly in the face of the British Parliament, but in the face of the Dutch Parliament, he did not disgrace his identity, although in the second Anglo-Dutch War, Britain was still the loser, but the Netherlands did feel the thorniness of this enemy, and at this time, Charles II took the opportunity to pull William the Younger out of the control of the Dutch parliament, and his guardian thus became his grandmother.

Under the teaching of his grandmother, William III became a strong-willed and ruthless person, he never forgot the glory of his ancestors and the ingratitude of the Dutch, and in the process of long-term governance, the originally close provincial alliance gradually showed signs of division, coupled with the moderates of the Netherlands, it can also be said that the royalists contributed to the trouble, even if the republicans in the Netherlands were strictly guarded, William III eventually became a member of the **** society, and he was also the supreme commander of the army.

The enemy of William III was none other than the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Johann de Witt, and his brother, who was an extremely stubborn man and a representative of the merchants, so he ignored William III's concerns about France again and again, constantly weakened the army under the command of the Prince of Orange, vetoed a series of proposals put forward by Orange and his subordinates, built fortresses, walls, fortifications, and exerted influence on any decision made by William III to lead to undue defeat, etc. They were not stupid, but they thought they should be more prepared for the rise of the House of Orange than the French army.

The Prime Minister's emissary and William III's emissary arrived in London in a row, and their missions overlapped to some extent, that is, to try to conclude an alliance with England against the French invasion.

It's just that compared to William III's envoy, the Dutch Prime Minister's envoy is much more slack and perfunctory, obviously, they are also very clear that Charles II, who has been fighting for power with the British Parliament, does not have much value worth fighting for, which Charles II also sees, after more than ten years of torture, this "happy king" can also quietly send the prime minister's envoy away, but he can't help but feel angry in his heart - As soon as the messenger had departed, a sorcerer came to tell the king that the messenger had gone to John, Mr. Locke, who said he was a philosopher, but in fact was the brainchild of the Earl of Shellesbury, who had been a royalist, but who had been a mad rebel from the time of Charles I, and who was not only always on guard against the king, both Charles I and Charles II, but also extremely hostile to France, and that the envoy of the Prime Minister of the Netherlands had gone to him no doubt to fulfill his true duty to make an alliance with the English parliament and not with the king。

Charles II laughed angrily, and was even more humiliated by the fact that the messenger had done the right thing, that he now had no real name and no standing army of his own—and that the messenger of William III had dealt him a great blow, not so much because he had gone to Monsieur Locke or any of the rebels, but because Charles II had found himself unable to help his nephew.

He had no money, no armaments, no soldiers, and his ideas could not shake the minds of the members of the council, and his suggestions would only lead them to make decisions that would go against the grain.

He could not have been an enemy of France, not to mention the protection and assistance that Louis XIV had given, but just because Louis XIV valued and supported the power of the monarch, Charles II, who was also the king, had to shout loudly in his heart, if Louis XIV was defeated in the war with the Netherlands, would it do him any good?

When William III's messenger left, the sight that he thought was hidden - a mixture of pity and disappointment, like a file broke Charles II's heart, and he almost canceled the secret meeting with Princess Henrietta, but fortunately he resisted his impulse, and while the candles were lit, the wizard brought Princess Henrietta, who was the sister of Charles II, and whose mother had the same name, and who had taken refuge with her mother under the Queen Mother of France before Charles II ascended the throne and was in exile.

Princess Henrietta, also the Duchess of Orleans of France, as soon as she met Charles II, the first thing was to look at each other's faces, both of them had the same thoughts, so they immediately laughed together, Charles II looked at Henrietta, his little sister had a ruddy face, round limbs, wearing expensive pearl and diamond jewelry, and there was no sadness on her face, it can be seen that although she is an Englishman, and for the time being only has a daughter with the Duke of Orleans, but in the French court, she has not been subjected to much scrutiny, and when he is relieved, Henrietta is also looking at his brother, compared with HenriettaCharles II turned out to be much worse than she thought - Charles II was born in 30 years, eight years older than Louis XIV, but now he looked like he was eighteen years or more older than Louis XIV, his curly hair was covered with a layer of hoarfrost, his cloudy eyes drooped with a pair of huge bags under his eyes, the corners of his mouth and eyes were covered with mean wrinkles, and although he was richly dressed, his arched belly and thick neck indicated that his health was worrisome.

"Oh, my brother," cried out Henrietta, who rushed forward and threw herself into her brother's arms, weeping bitterly: "God bears witness," she said with grief and exasperation, "they have tormented you like this!"

Even Charles II couldn't help but be moved, he didn't have much affection for this sister - The main thing is that they almost never met, and not long after he ascended the throne in London and brought Henrietta and his mother back to England, Henrietta married to England again, but Henrietta's feelings did not have too much hypocrisy, although she did not have any deep memories of this brother, but she had been in the Louvre for a long time, because of Louis, her feelings for her relatives and the authority of a king could not be clearer, and when she saw her brother decadent like this, she couldn't help but reveal a little truth.

Charles II touched his sister's back, "Come, sit down, my dear sister," he took Henrietta's hand and asked her to sit beside him, "It's the only good thing to see you like this in all this time, you look good," Charles II observed again, "better than when you were in London." ”

"This is because there is no one in Paris who dares to dictate to the king. Henrietta said.

Charles II's face immediately sank.