Chapter 85
Naturally, the Queen of England rejected the marriage proposal from France.
She did have a strong affinity for France, but not so strong that she wanted to marry Charles IX in order to reintegrate into France.
Ignoring the French ambassador's unpleasant expression, the Queen of England saw him off and immediately began to ponder how to govern the newly acquired Netherlands.
...
One of the great advantages of conquering the Netherlands is that we no longer have to worry about the national treasury's debts.
The Netherlands, which could afford to supply 40% of Spain's revenue, could naturally also afford to pay the interest on Britain's national debt. In addition, many Antwerp merchants voluntarily reduced their debts in order to curry favor with the Queen of England.
Mary accepted the merchants' kind offer with a smile.
The debt of three million was not expected to be paid off all at once. A perfect treasury is not one without debt, but one whose income and expenditure always remain within the normal range of spending. After carefully formulating a repayment plan with the Treasurer Gresham, Mary was very confident that the treasury could be restored to normal within fifteen years.
In addition, after the war with Spain, Britain enjoyed a rare period of peace for the next five or six years, thanks to the momentum of victory. Mary took this opportunity to begin managing the various problems in the country.
First, there was the underdevelopment of handicrafts.
A large part of the reason why Henry VIII accumulated huge military debts in his later years was that all the military supplies for the army came from abroad.
For example, the canvas for the sailboats came from Brittany in France; gunpowder, swords, and armor had to be imported from Italy and the Netherlands; brass came from Central Europe and even Romania... Of course, Britain also produced these goods, but the quantity and quality were far from sufficient.
This is a problem of "unbalanced development" in wool production, which of course needs to be corrected as soon as possible.
To this end, workshops were set up in England to produce precious goods such as blue pigment, condensed milk, and beeswax lip balm. These goods were sold as luxury items to various European countries at high prices. In addition, Mary commissioned pirates and other land merchants, as well as merchants from the Netherlands, to do their best to recruit highly skilled craftsmen to settle in England.
A generous reward will surely attract brave men.
At the Queen's behest, several pirates, some with audacity, stormed the Ottoman Empire, bought dozens of highly skilled craftsmen, and then sailed them back to London.
With such efforts, over the years, British handicrafts have gradually caught up with other European countries. They are not outstanding, but they are not lagging behind either.
Secondly, there is the problem of vagrants in Britain.
Mary had no intention of forcing the nobles to reclaim the land that had already been taken over. The large-scale, unified cultivation of contiguous land under the manor system did indeed produce higher grain yields than the fragmented cultivation of small individual farmers. And now was not the time to turn against the nobles and gentlemen of England.
As long as literacy rates don't improve, the local gentry will inevitably be the sheriffs who rule the countryside. If she were to force a "land reform" campaign, it would only lead to chaos and make the peasants even worse off than before.
The revitalization of handicrafts absorbed some of these farmers as workers, while the rest remained homeless as before. Mary encouraged them to settle in Ireland and enacted the Poor Law, establishing workshops and workhouses in various places, which finally ensured a minimum standard of living for most people.
In addition, the widespread potato cultivation in Britain in recent years has greatly improved the lives of the poor. Although potatoes are not nutritious, they can at least have enough to eat for half the year.
The university education reforms that were initially implemented in Scotland are now gradually being implemented in the UK. In order to increase literacy rates and facilitate the formation of a more comprehensive local government and central civil service, Mary also established many inexpensive primary schools and set up the Queen's Scholarship for the Poor.
Back then, Scotland was small and weak, so she had the courage to confront the nobility head-on and forcibly seize the administrative power to mobilize officials. Now in England, Mary could not do that, and could only use this method to slowly fight against the nobility over time.
On religious matters, Queen Mary remained a Catholic, but she never abolished the various privileges of the king imposed by Henry VIII in the Act of Supremacy, nor did she return those rights to Rome.
On the issue of Protestantism, Mary always maintained great tolerance towards Protestants. As long as they did not openly preach or preach, or privately hold Mass according to their own rituals, the Queen of England would not interfere.
When asked about this in Rome, Mary always deflected the question, saying that she was using a gentler approach to "reform" those stubborn Protestants.
This perfunctory attitude undoubtedly drew verbal attacks from some devout Catholics and Romans, who said that England was now merely a Catholic facade with a Protestant core. However, with Pope Pius V remaining silent and repeatedly praising the Queen of England's pure faith in public, they could only bury their grievances deep inside.
Whenever Mary thinks of this, she can't help but sigh that Pius V was truly an excellent partner.
Did Pius V not see that her faith was not pure?
He could certainly see it. Even if he had been briefly misled during the Rome meeting a few years ago, over the years, through his governing style, the Pope could discern the Queen of England's intentions.
But the old man wisely revealed nothing, and with the help of the increasingly powerful ally, the Queen of England, he constantly pressured the German Protestants, ordering them to repent from their misguided ways from time to time.
Last year, in 1571, when war broke out in the Mediterranean, Pius V wrote to Mary and, with the help of some English pirates and other European allied forces, severely damaged the Ottoman navy, thus restoring the reputation and prestige of Catholicism.
In order to control public opinion, prevent the public from being misled by eloquent schemers, and avoid being bothered by various rumors, Mary had a newspaper established. In addition to various popular jokes, popular science tidbits and short stories, it was also responsible for publishing some official governance measures, which were well received in London.
Mary is now trying to promote this newspaper, now known as The Times, to other cities in Britain.
Finally, there is the issue of governing the Netherlands and Ireland, which had submitted to the Netherlands.
One place was too rich and the other too poor. Mary used every trick in the book, alternating between ideological and public opinion campaigns, threats of force, and appeasement, to finally win over both sides and make them feel somewhat at home with Britain.
In short, everything is developing well.
If there is any discord in Britain today, it is the escalating conflict with France.
France is unwilling to let Britain swallow up such a lucrative piece of land as the Netherlands, and has been making frequent moves against Antwerp in the past two years. There are also pro-French factions rising in Amsterdam.
To deter them, Marie Antoinette has been sending troops to the Netherlands for a long-term presence since the beginning of this year, where they are facing off against French troops across the border.
...
When people get busy, they feel that time flies by, a fact that the Queen of England is well aware of.
As Mary got up to do her hair that morning, she looked in the mercury mirror and saw that her skin was still fair, but no longer as radiant and moisturized as it had been in her youth. She suddenly sighed.
“Seton, time flies. It feels like just yesterday I was sailing back to Scotland, and now I’m thirty,” Mary said.
The most youthful years of her life have passed by unnoticed, like a flower in full bloom, only decay awaiting her next turn.
Upon hearing the Queen mention this, Seton puffed out his cheeks in dissatisfaction.
Age is a topic a woman should never discuss. She is the same age as the Queen, so she is thirty years old this year, which, by the standards of this era, makes her a middle-aged woman.
"...So what, Your Majesty? Time brings more than just aging; the power and wealth you possess are far beyond what you could have had at eighteen," Seton retorted defiantly.
“I was just wondering, are you really not planning to get married? Even the Duke of Somerset has arranged a marriage for this year, and I don’t want you to regret it when you’re old,” Mary said.
The Duke of Somerset, Albert, has had a tumultuous marriage in recent years.
He first became close to Miss Catherine Howard of the Duke of Norfolk, but just when everyone in the court thought they were going to get married, Miss Catherine Howard suddenly married an earl from Wales.
Then, Albert briefly discussed marriage with the youngest daughter of the Earl of Northumberland. However, no one expected that the youngest daughter would inherit her father's devout Catholic faith and choose to become a nun in a convent for life.
The Earl of Northumberland was very apologetic about this, so he introduced a noblewoman from Ireland to the Duke of Somerset. This lady was related to the Foreign Minister Maitland and was an heiress who had inherited a considerable amount of land and property. Unexpectedly, the lady soon passed away due to illness...
Later, the question of when the Duke of Somerset would marry which noblewoman, and whether there would be any more mishaps during the wedding, became a hot topic in the court, with some bored nobles even making bets about it.
This year, at the Christmas ball, the widowed Miss Catherine Howard left Wales and returned to London, England, where she became engaged to the Duke of Somerset once again, finally putting an end to this hot topic.
“No, I want to stay with you for the rest of my life,” Seton said lightly.
“Seton, don’t make such a hasty decision. Think it over carefully before telling me your answer,” Mary said helplessly.
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