Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

Greece, inside the Greek Palace in Athens.

William IV finally came to the main table where William III, Queen Sophie, Queen Victoria and Crown Prince Edward of the United Kingdom were seated.

At this table, in addition to these four people, there are six people including Crown Prince Frederic and Princess Louise who are getting married tomorrow.

Queen Victoria looked at William IV coming from far and near. She smiled and said to William III: "Look, under the leadership of His Majesty William IV, the Netherlands is becoming more and more powerful in Europe. Alas, it's incredible. Not to mention, the current status of the Netherlands in Europe and even the world can be said to have surged in influence. In my opinion, even the Ottoman Empire has far less regional influence."

Crown Prince Edward curled his lips when he heard this, but in the end he looked at Queen Victoria, whose smile never faded, and saw her sharp eyes, and he chose to express his dissatisfaction in his heart.

Next to him, Princess Louise's eyelids twitched, she raised her head and elegantly caught the eyes of several people, not wanting to participate.

However, Crown Prince Frederik was even more dissatisfied, and his face showed displeasure. Although it passed away for a moment, it was caught in the eyes of William III and Queen Sophie, and he sighed silently in his heart.

But what they didn't realize was that Queen Victoria and the others across the street also noticed this.

Crown Prince Frederick seemed to say casually: "The connections of the Nassau-Orange family have now become my brother's biggest reliance, but there is nothing we can do. After all, Greece is not what our Nassau-Orange family originally owned. "

William III glared at him and opened his mouth to criticize him, but the people sitting opposite him were the second son's mother-in-law, brother-in-law, and wife. If that were the case, it would be difficult for him to step down, let alone his wife. Queen Sophie had already shaken her head at him, and besides, she only had her second son by her side, so it was not easy to scold him and embarrass him.

So he had to change the subject and said: "The Franco-Prussian War is currently raging. I wonder if the British Empire thinks the two principalities will reach that level before it stops."

Speaking of this, he couldn't help but think of his eldest son, William IV, who swore to him that the Netherlands was fully prepared, especially when he mentioned the means of guarding against the British. That submarine could really defeat the man in front of him who had dominated Europe for 30 years. Queen Victoria chose to turn a blind eye to the Netherlands?

To this day, he is still uneasy about this. He has to say that what the second son just said is absolutely correct, that is, for the Nassau-Orange family, the Netherlands is the foundation of their family, and the rest is just expansion. Just territory.

I have to say that his question also attracted several people at the same table.

Crown Prince Edward followed up: "Currently Prussia has the upper hand. The provinces of Namur and Lorraine are occupied by Prussia. The east is already in danger. It is said that Napoleon III can no longer stay in Reims and is preparing to turn back to Paris to hold on. To think that so much of the mighty French Empire was occupied by Prussia so quickly is truly shocking to everyone."

Crown Prince Frederic smiled flatteringly at Crown Prince Edward. Seeing the latter's kind response, he agreed: "Yes, but if my brother hadn't inexplicably lent the Duchy of Luxembourg to Prussia, Prussia wouldn't have done it at this time. It was so easy to capture so much territory in France.”

He turned to William III and said: "Father, I feel that in this matter, although my brother is the King of the Netherlands, the Principality of Luxembourg belongs to our Nassau-Orange family and should not be sacrificed by my brother. , after all, the anger of France is unbearable for the Nassau-Orange family."

"Not bad." Crown Prince Edward felt more and more that Prince Frederick, who would be his brother-in-law from tomorrow onwards, liked him very much. He was secretly glad that Louise married him and not that guy William IV.

So he couldn't hide his inner joy, and said with a smile but adding insult to injury: ""At this point, I also think that His Majesty William IV can actually choose to be more neutral instead of intervening in the Franco-Prussian War. Those two are big powers. , the size of the Netherlands is incomparable to them. If we wait for the Franco-Prussian truce, France’s revenge may be difficult to bear.”

Seemingly being encouraged, and ignoring William III who was smiling but slightly stiff, and ignoring his mother's frequent reminders to him, Crown Prince Frederik complained: "If my father and I hadn't come to Greece, If the Principality of Luxembourg was still in our hands, there would never have been such a turmoil. The only fault is that my brother Hendrick was too self-righteous and eager to choose sides after he became the King of the Netherlands. He did not even know that he was on the wrong side. "

When he finally said this sentence that he had been holding back for a long time, and when he raised his head and looked at everyone to see their expressions, he found that all of them were looking at him with strange expressions. Is there anything wrong with this?

Suddenly, he found that the eyes of his wife, Princess Louise, who was getting married tomorrow, and Crown Prince Edward across from him did not seem to be on him, because their eyes were not looking at him, but looking up. Then, he saw William III and his mother, Queen Sophie, standing next to him, staring at his back at a 45-degree angle.

Is there anyone behind?

This was his first thought. He was not a fool. On the contrary, he was very smart. Because of his smartness, he chose to be very low-key when he was in the Netherlands, and also when he was in the Principality of Luxembourg, until his father William III became the King of Greece and he became After becoming the crown prince, he believed that the overall situation had been decided, so he vented and sexually slandered his brother Hendrick (William IV), whom he had always been jealous of before. With his marriage to Queen Victoria of the superpower British royal family, the situation became even more intense. Compared with William IV, who was only married to the royal family of the small country of Denmark, he felt a sense of superiority.

Greece's geographical location is no worse than that of the Netherlands, or even better. Even the big powers only have the Ottoman Empire, which was suppressed by the British, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was defeated by Prussia.

After becoming the king of the Kingdom of Greece in the future, he will definitely be able to govern Greece better than the Netherlands ruled by Hendrick.

Just as he finished thinking, he was about to turn back to see who it was.

"Although the idea is good, your overall view is still not good enough. You need more strength. Father, I think it is better for him to start visiting various regions in Greece next year. Of course, it is best to visit more countries and understand the conditions of each country. Political order, lest you open your mouth and make people laugh."

"You are." Upon hearing this, Crown Prince Frederick quickly turned around and wanted to refute this person, but when that face appeared in front of him, he, who had been afraid of William IV since he was a child, felt a little weak.

William IV stared at him majesticly and asked: "What? What I said is wrong."