"I have given the country to you."

In the Silver Hall of the Duchy of Normans, the Norman Duke sat on the high duke's throne, his eyes fixed on his ministers and nobles, and suddenly he said such a sentence.

The Norman Duke's words stunned everyone present, including not only the nobles of the Duchy, but also the archbishop of the Norman diocese, the Duke's younger brother Robert, only William who knew the future would know what decision the Norman Duke made at this time.

"I decided to lead my army to the Emperor of Rome for this great crusade and to make a pilgrimage to this holy place in Jerusalem."

The Norman Duke said his thoughts, all the nobles were already in shock at this time, although at this time the Crusades were in full swing, in order to recapture the Holy Land of Jerusalem, countless poor knights and vagabonds under the call of the Pope, the great nobles of Europe were united, let their second son go to the Crusades to establish meritorious deeds, establish a country, everyone believed that their faith and happiness could be realized on the way to the Crusades, but for the monarchs of Europe, The Crusades had little charm other than their religious appeal.

The predecessor of the Norman Duchy was actually the Vikings, although they submitted to the French king, and on the condition of converting to God, everyone up and down became a Christian by faith, but this was only superficial, and faith and piety were somewhat lacking for the Norman duke.

"Your Highness, think twice!"

The nobles all admonished in unison, but the Norman duke, who was sitting on the throne, had a calm face, and only said in a low voice and an unquestionable tone, "This is not a discussion, but a decision, and whether you agree or not will not affect my decision." ”

"Your Highness, my esteemed brother, do you want to learn from Alexander?"

Bishop Robert said in a deep voice, with a questioning tone, although the Norman Duke said that his words were decisions and could not be refuted by everyone, but as the Duke's younger brother and archbishop, the weight of his words was always different.

"Maybe I'm Philip, after all, my son is Alexander." The Norman Duke smiled lightly, unconcerned about his brother's concerns.

"Your son, the only heir to the family, is only seven years old." The archbishop then added, and everyone looked at each other before reacting.

Alexander the Great, the historical king of Macedonia, is known as the Great because of his great exploits in history.

For example, William the Conqueror's greatest achievement in history was the Norman conquest and conquest of England, then Alexander the Great's greatest achievement was the establishment of the Macedonian Empire across Asia, Europe and Africa through his Eastern Crusade.

However, the mighty Macedonian Empire was short-lived, and Alexander's father, the former King Philip, died young, but left his son with a well-organized power, an invincible army, and capable ministers loyal to the king, allowing Alexander to successfully reach adulthood and control the king.

When Alexander the Great died at the age of thirty-three, his only child was still in his wife's womb, so that when the legitimate heir did not appear, his generals fought, and the Macedonian Empire had civil strife, and the twenty-year war killed Alexander's mother, brother, wife and widow one after another, and it can be said that the Macedonian kingdom, which had been inherited for hundreds of years, was destroyed.

Most of the nobles of the Norman Duchy were knights, they were all illiterate and coarse, and when Bishop Robert said the names of Alexander and Philip, the two foreigners, everyone could only look at each other, not understanding what they were talking about, but when Bishop Robert said that the little prince was only seven years old, everyone present understood.

It is not wise for the monarch of a country to leave behind his minor son and lead a large army to participate in an uncertain crusade, especially since the Far East and the Norman dukes are so far away that even if they are defeated, they may not be able to establish an effective rule.

"My dear brother, you are a servant of God, and I am a warrior of God, I believe that God will bless me and my country and family, and I am fighting for the glory of God, and God will not let terrible things befall my family, even if one day, my family will be able to wear the crown of dukes because of God's favor, but if it is lost, then it is also God's intention, God gives, God takes it back, and what I do is only to increase God's glory."

The Norman Duke said that when he raised the banner of God and faith, as the archbishop, he could no longer say anything against it, and the righteousness was political correctness that no king, clergyman, or nobleman could resist, even if the Normans were not religious in their belief in God, but it did not prevent them from always behaving in a religious manner.

"Alexander, your father, my Norman Duke Philip, is about to go to the Crusades, and I will take a kingdom for you from the Greek emperor, maybe a princess in purple."

The Norman Duke looked at his young son standing quietly and did not say anything, perhaps in the eyes of the young boy he did not understand what the dispute between the adults meant, so he looked at him with even more pity, and touched his head with rare tenderness.

Princesses and princes in the fairy tale world are everywhere, just like the princes and princesses of the Spring and Autumn Period in China, but if you want to talk about which princess's identity is the most precious, then there is no doubt that it is the princess of the Zhou royal family.

When marrying daughters between royal families, the surname Ji is the most expensive, so the surname Ji was later extended to the meaning of princess.

The woman with the most noble status and the most noble blood in the West is the daughter of the Roman emperor, who in the Byzantine Empire was born in the purple palace of the purple princess.

"Big brother, you can't brag like this without drafting, right!"

Bishop Robert said with a wry smile, and the nobles present still couldn't understand what the two were saying, but understood that it seemed that the duke's expedition was for the kingdom and the princess of Byzantium.

It was so difficult for Charlemagne, the former Frankish Emperor or Otto the Great of the Holy Roman Empire, to marry a princess of a Roman emperor, let alone the Normans, who were regarded as barbarians.

In the eyes of the proud Byzantines, Charlemagne's Western European countries were barbarians, and their Normans were even more barbarians in France and Italy, and the barbarians in the eyes of barbarians wanted to marry the purple-clothed princess of Byzantium.

Since Octavian established the head of state system and became Augustus, the supreme and holy emperor, the original republic has become an empire, and as an empire, the succession to the throne must be considered first, initially as a patrilineal family inheritance, and then to the Roman Empire, with Christianity as the state religion, monogamy was established.

Under the monogamous marriage system, no matter how many lovers the king has and how many illegitimate children he has, in the official political spectrum, illegitimate children do not exist, and only the children born to the wife queen or queen are the legitimate heirs of each other, which leads to the fact that if the queen, queen, and emperor and king are particularly gifted and capable of giving birth, then it is reasonable that the royal family, especially the male royal family, is scarce.

Therefore, when the emperor does not have a son, he will adopt the method of adoption in the same family, and if there is no in the same family, the adoption of the matrilineal family will be replaced, for example, Julius Caesar adopted his nephew Octavian, and in the middle and late Roman Empire, the number of cases of adoption decreased, and the daughter had the right to inherit according to Roman law, so the inheritance by marriage by choosing a male is also a way of succession to the throne.

The royal family members born in the purple dormitory are ranked high in succession, if it is a purple princess, there is no example of foreign marriage, they are also the legitimate heirs to the throne, and in history, Otto the Great did not marry the purple princess, but the niece of the Roman emperor at that time.

"Father, I'm going to Byzantium with you." William said suddenly.

If he remembers correctly, in the original history, the fiancée of Duke William was none other than Snow White, the daughter of the Duke of Hanover, one of the seven electors of the Holy Roman Empire.

The Duke of Hanover was the Elector of the Holy Roman Empire, and it was customary for future Holy Roman Emperors to be born from among the Electors, excluding the three Electors of the Clergy, and the remaining four were contenders for the throne.

Therefore, if Duke William really married Snow White, then it was inevitable that he would become the Holy Roman Emperor, so in order to compete with him, William had to marry a princess as well, and if he could really marry a purple princess, then he could also become a Roman Emperor.