Chapter 262 The issue of heirs
“Once upon a time, Scotland was called Alba.”
“At that time, after the death of his wife, a king went hunting in the forest and met the beautiful woman Precin. ”
“Two people She immediately fell in love, and when the king proposed, Presin agreed, but only if the king swore never to see her while she was giving birth or bathing her children."
"Later, Presin agreed. Xin gave birth to triplets of daughters.”
"The ecstatic king, regardless of his oath, pushed open the door of the delivery room."
"Guess what he saw?"
In the gorgeously and elegantly decorated bedroom, Yi Sabella was flipping through a storybook and telling some ancient stories to the children on the side.
Including Alice, his four nieces are by his side, the oldest of whom is only eight years old, and the youngest has just turned two.
Sibyla is in poor health and seems to have been infected with some disease. Now she is sent to a clinic for treatment.
Although she has a grandma who can take care of these quirky little guys, Isabella still spends her free time getting along with them, telling stories and playing games.
Since the city of Acre was recaptured, Saladin's forces quickly retreated from the northern part of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and gave up many territories as a new buffer.
The Sword of Damocles that was originally hanging on the kingdom's head was moved away so that everyone in Tire could take a breather.
There is news that Saladin's army has shrunk to the city of Tiberias, and his Turkic regiments have also been assembled in Damascus, and more Mamluks have appeared in the port of Alexandria.
Saladin's army is gathering. They can attack the Crusaders from any of the three directions: north, east, and south.
Saladin could lose once, twice, three times, but what about the kingdom?
If the kingdom goes to war with its own national destiny as a bet, it will lose everything if it loses once.
Of course, Isabella didn’t think she would lose.
Thus, when the heavy work is over, she comes to take a break.
The two oldest little guys bit their fingers, looking thoughtful.
Then, suddenly, one of them raised his hands and looked very excited.
“I know!”
“You know what?”
“You must have seen a monster, right! That Presin must be some kind of monster in disguise ! Actually... there are six hands!"
When the little guy spoke, she was still a little fluent, but the movements she made by swinging her arms were particularly funny, which made Isabella laugh. .
Another child on the side also expressed his guess, which was pretty much the same. He felt that Presin must be something terrible.
Isabella smiled and shook her head and continued reading.
To be honest, even without this storybook, she is actually familiar with this story.
"No, the king saw a fairy."
"Presin, who had just given birth to triplets, revealed his true identity."
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"She has long hair that shines like the silver moon, and her fine hair hangs down to her waist, like a flowing star river."
"Her skin is as white as frost and snow, with a hint of rose. The color, the soft glow under the light, made the two little girls who spoke actively speechless for a moment. They never thought it would be like this. develop.
“Then what?”
“Due to the king’s broken oath, Presin took the three little girls and moved to Avalon.”
"The three sisters grew up in Avalon. Their mother would take them to the top of the mountain every morning to look at the kingdom that was their home."
"On their fifteenth birthday, the eldest sister Melusina asked her mother Why she and her sisters were taken away from Alba"
"After learning the truth, Melusina felt sad. It seemed that their father had abandoned him, so he persuaded his sisters. "They used magic to seal their father and his wealth in the mountains and died of hunger and thirst."
"But when Presin learned everything her daughters knew, the fairy was furious."
"Although the king broke his promise, he remained her husband and the father of the triplets."
"Since everything was irreversible, Presin imprisoned the younger daughter in order to punish the daughters for their patricide. In the same mountain as the king, he sealed his second daughter in the city "
"As for the eldest daughter Melusina, she was kicked out of Avalon as the instigator, and she was cursed to turn into a snake from the waist down every Saturday."
The little guys. I'm speechless, what's the point of this story? How inexplicable.
“Do you know why I want to tell this story?”
The little guys naturally shook their heads.
Isabella clicked her tongue but did not say it directly, because the follow-up of this story is related to these little guys.
Of course, it is indeed related to their father.
According to some rumors, their father Guy de Lusignan once married a beautiful wife when he was in France.
The name of that beautiful wife is Melusina.
I don’t know why this kind of unconventional rumor and story started to arise, and it seems that they are intentionally or unintentionally trying to smear Guy’s image.
But, in fact, that’s all.
Isabella is actually very familiar with this story because she heard another version when she was a child.
In that version, the protagonist is actually the ancestor of the Anjou family.
It’s just that compared to the romantic matter of the King of Scotland marrying a fairy, the ancestors of the Anjou family may have slept with the devil...
From then on, the descendants of the Anjou family were known as the sons of the devil and were considered to have the blood of hell and were the source of trouble.
It turns out that Isabella didn’t really care about such rumors. After all, things like the devil always felt unreal.
But now that [prophet] has appeared, of course the devil is also real.
As for whether her ancestors slept with devils and whether she had inhuman blood in her body...
These questions troubled Isabella, and she even had some doubts. It wasn't for this reason that I couldn't get pregnant for such a long time.
The look in Isabella's eyes was slightly lonely.
In the Middle Ages, an era when the world was not yet clear, there were always many unclear things. Even Isabella could not yet fully understand the "truth" in Garris's words.
On the other side, he is also a descendant of the Anjou family. In terms of seniority and blood relationship, he is the "Lion-Hearted" Richard, Isabella's nephew.
Sitting on the throne of the King of Sicily's palace without any notice.
In front of him, King Tancred of Sicily had his hands tied and was led up by the Norman knights.
But these Norman knights didn't care at all that Tancred was actually a Norman.
"Come on, have a drink, don't be so grim."
Richard waved his hand and motioned to the Norman knights to tie the rope around Tancred's hands behind his back. Untie it and stop embarrassing this king.
After all, the ancestors of this king were also French nobles.
“Let’s talk about it. If this continues, things will not end properly.”
Richard, sitting on the throne, signaled King Tancred of Sicily to express his views to facilitate the subsequent conversation.
There are many reasons why Richard appears in this place and sits on the throne majestically.
One of them is that Tancred bullied Joan and took away the dowry and inheritance division that Joan deserved.
The second one is that the citizens of Messina, perhaps under the instruction of the King of Sicily, launched a protest march against his army.
Three of them...
Apart from the previous reasons, another reason was that Richard found that he had no money.
Although this Crusade was put together by his father and Philip.
But before leaving, based on the attitude of the two men towards him, he knew that they would not prepare too much military expenditure for him.
In fact, the military expenditure was almost spent when they first arrived in Sicily.
Thousands of people need money to eat, drink, and have sex. If they can't get the money, although these Crusaders will follow him to the Holy Land, but he expects them to work hard in the war, so forget it.
It just so happened that the King of Sicily, Tancred, presented him with an excuse when Richard the Lion-Hearted landed.
The origin of this excuse seems complicated, but in fact it is not simple at all. It takes a lot of effort to explain it clearly.
If we look back, we have to go back to the first King of Sicily, Roger II.
The heir to the throne of Roger II is his son William I. In addition, he also has a daughter named Constance.
William I, known as "William the Bad", spent every year during his reign when he was not fighting in Sicily, but he still died.
The heir of William I was his son William II, known as "William the Good". During his reign, he rarely fought in Sicily, and he also married Joan as his queen.
Then the problem came. Joan had never been able to successfully have children.
As for the legal descendants of Roger II, only Constance was dead at this time, and all the others were extinct.
At this time, due to the power of Barbarossa, Constance was engaged to Henry VI, Barbarossa's son and Eden's brother.
In other words, Henry VI, as the heir of Barbarossa, would not only inherit HRE, but also inherit Sicily from his wife.
The court officials in Sicily did not want Sicily to be forced to join the HRE, nor did they want to be ruled by the Germans.
Therefore, after the death of "William the Good", the Sicilian court officials found Roger II's illegitimate son Tancred to usurp the throne.
Tancred's usurpation of the throne naturally undermined the succession of "Good William", and "Good William's" Queen Joan had openly supported Constance's succession to the throne.
So in retaliation, Tancred imprisoned Joan, and also robbed Joan of her dowry and the inheritance she deserved in the will of "Good William".
It is true that he is bullying the "widow" and is going to kill him.
Originally this was nothing.
But Queen Joan of Sicily had a father named Henry, who had an ordinary name but was slightly famous in Europe and was the king of England.
There is also a brother named Richard, who is nicknamed "Lion Heart".
And the year Joan was imprisoned was 1189. Joan's brother Richard "Lionheart" joined the Crusades, and there were fifteen thousand brothers traveling with him. Everyone thought Richard was reliable. , willing to listen to him.
And as luck would have it, as soon as he landed in Sicily, Richard "Lion-Hearted" heard the news that his sister had been bullied by her husband's family and had her family cut off.
To make matters worse, Richard the Lion-Hearted was short of money.
Everything went smoothly after that. Joan was released by Tancred, but Tancred refused to give money. Lionheart stayed in Sicily, and Tancred incited the Sicilians to protest and march against Lionheart's army, letting Lionheart know that he was not welcome here.
But Tancred did not understand why "Lionheart" wanted to stay in Sicily.
When the demonstration team came near the "Crusader".
A pile of rotten eggs or rotten leaves were thrown into the military camp.
Immediately afterwards, the furious Crusaders, led by Richard, sacked Messina, the capital of the Kingdom of Sicily, and captured Tancred by the way.
Finally, the current scene appeared.
Tancred, who was not ready for war, became a prisoner in the face of more than 10,000 empty-pocketed Crusaders, while Richard, the Lionheart, sat carelessly on the throne of Sicily.
“Look at how this was done, it’s unlucky!”
"Devil."
Tancred cursed in a low voice, not loud enough but loud enough for Richard to hear clearly.
Richard knew what this meant, which meant that the lion-hearted Angevin blood was mixed with the blood of the devil.
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But Richard didn’t care. Contrary to Isabella, Richard didn’t care about the fact that he might have “hell blood” , not only did not struggle, but actually accepted it calmly.
Anjou’s family motto: [We are all descendants of the devil, destined to go to hell. 】For Richard, this is so cool!
“Come, let’s talk about the price.”
Richard Yangguang and Xi’s face looked inexplicably eerie in this dimly lit room. Slightly bowed behind, looking a bit scary.
You must know that Richard looks very handsome. His hair is between red and blond, his eyes are bright, his face is pale, and his height is unique for this era, being 6 feet 5 inches tall.
Tancred took a deep breath and began unequal negotiations.
After all, as a prisoner, he was essentially discussing his own ransom issue.
Finally, Richard and Tancred reached an agreement.
The dowry that England asked Joan to bring over must be returned in full. In addition, 20,000 ounces, or 570 kilograms, of gold must be paid as compensation.
And, Richard declared his nephew, his brother's son Arthur, to be his heir.
Tancred will marry one of his daughters to Arthur when he comes of age, and will also give him another 20,000 ounces of gold as a dowry.
It can be said that during this period, Tancred not only had to pay a ton of gold to Richard the "Lion-Hearted", but also sent a daughter to the Anjou family.
A ton of gold is actually roughly 240,000 gold dinars.
This wealth is also life-threatening for the prosperous Kingdom of Sicily.
As for "Lion-Hearted" Richard, his attitude of eating people without spitting out their bones really made the Anjou family famous far and wide again.
……
Birth, old age, illness and death, these things are inevitable.
For Garris, he just has a little more medical skills and knowledge from later generations, so he can cure some diseases within his power.
But he is not a miracle doctor and cannot cure all diseases.
Some people are sick, but he cannot save them. Even the diagnosis of the disease cannot be done by Garris without the equipment of the 21st century.
To put it bluntly, I was not a professional doctor in my previous life. At best, I was someone who knew first aid knowledge and received medical training.
Sibylla was lying on the hospital bed, looking at Garris with a pair of bright and beautiful eyes.
At this moment, she is no longer a noble queen, but just a human being.
She was tortured by illness and she was pale, sweaty and weak.
Gaillis had no way of diagnosing what disease Sibylla had. Simply prescribing medicine according to the symptoms would not cure it. At most, it would only relieve some pain.
What can be done?
The answer is nothing can be done, and he has experienced this powerlessness too many times.
It has nothing to do with a person's status or whether he is close or distant.
Just watching people's lives pass away is extremely intolerable.
At this moment, there was only one thing that Garris could do: anoint the sick.
[When the priest prays and anoints the sick, the entire Church is entrusting the patient to Christ, the Lord who suffered and was glorified, asking Him to comfort and save the patient; and He also advises the patient to participate through willing participation. The suffering and death of Christ also contributed a share of power to benefit the people of God]
Garris asked someone to fetch holy oil, and anointed Sibylla's forehead and hands with holy oil.
This holy oil made from olive oil made Sibylla's pale skin slightly smoother.
At this time, Garris began to recite scriptures.
“By this holy anointing, may the Lord, infinitely merciful, help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit, who, having forgiven your sins, may he save you and revive you.”
Sibylla's face turned slightly rosy and she twitched the corners of her mouth. She had been lying here for a long time. At this time when her life was dying, she could only place her life there. Infinite glory comes to the "Lord" who saves the world.
The anointing of the deathbed is actually derived from the sacrament of the anointing of the sick. The anointing of Sibylla, who was seriously ill by Gareth, is not completely equivalent to the sacrament of the deathbed.
Sometimes, what Garris has to admire is that Christianity has had a very clear design concept since its birth. Many times, it is difficult to tell whether many things are a coincidence or not. Deliberately designed.
In this era of the 12th century, the mainstream churches in Christianity were already quite self-consistent in their theological logic.
A considerable number of rituals, sacraments, and church regulations are very clearly designed to serve believers and encourage believers to become more religious.
This point, in Gallis' view, is completely different from Eastern religions.
Among Eastern religions, whether it is Buddhism or Taoism...
At the beginning of its birth, there was no preaching enthusiasm similar to the Abrahamic religions.
As an enlightened being, the World-Honored One does not discuss the various subsequent mythological colors and the exaggeration of Chinese local culture. Historically, he should have never thought of going to save all sentient beings.
As for Taoism and Taoism, let alone...
This is not to belittle a certain religion, but in terms of its performance, both the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church have shown strong [ Leaders give guidance] this characteristic.
Non-Abrahamic religions, especially Eastern religions, seem to show "positive feedback from the masses".
Among them, the Catholic Church has the Holy See as its leader, and this characteristic of [leadership giving guidance] has been carried forward to the fullest.
Before the 6th century AD, Christianity actually had the concept of reincarnation, but it was abolished and declared a heretical doctrine during the Second Council of Constantine.
There are actually quite a few similar examples. For Christianity, doctrines are interpreted according to missionary needs and forced unification is a matter of course.
But in other non-Abrahamic religious systems, this is actually very rare.
After the seven sacraments were summarized and refined, Christianity strived to allow a believer to live in a strong religious atmosphere from birth to death.
Take the anointing of the sick that Garris is currently doing. If Sibylla dies, it will be the call of the Lord, because the last sacrament will enter purgatory or heaven.
Purgatory is not hell, but one can go to heaven after washing away sins.
If Sibylla survived, then the Lord had mercy on her and gave her the opportunity to redeem herself.
This does not mean that this situation does not exist in non-Abrahamic religions. After all, if they cannot do something similar, they will have been eliminated in history long ago.
But relatively speaking, non-Abrahamic religions are not so mandatory, so unified, so clear, and have not been designed and implemented in this way from the beginning.
This makes Christianity, especially Catholicism, have a place in the long history of history, no matter how the times change, occupying the largest religious population in the world.
Gerris also discussed a topic with others in his previous life, and that was the Catholic doctrine of celibacy for priests.
The prohibition on marriage and the birth of descendants by priests is not completely implemented at the implementation level.
However, a large number of priests did voluntarily cut off their bloodline, so that the priest group did not have a large number of fathers who died and were passed down from generation to generation.
Since the priests themselves were not inherited from father to son, their employment positions were naturally favored by the nobles and could be used to arrange for the second son or illegitimate child in the family.
This makes the relationship between the nobility and the church not a confrontational attitude, nor a fight to the death, but an organic combination.
Even many believers from the lower class can climb up because of the vacant positions left by the death of the upper class, thereby obtaining an alternative channel for advancement.
When it comes to extermination, Garris actually has a lot of thoughts.
The situation in Europe is indeed very different from that in China.
It is true that there are some crazy kings who just want a son of their own to inherit the throne.
But most people don’t really care about bloodline inheritance.
Take "Good William" as an example. As a Sicilian king, his wife could not have children, and Roger II's legal bloodline was to be cut off. He was not in a hurry at all, and did not even take his mistress to find him. of.
This is completely different from the performance of the Celestial Dynasty.
Gaillis also understands the situation in the Celestial Empire. The core reason may be the knowledge of the afterlife.
Traditionally speaking, the Eastern Celestial Dynasty's understanding of the afterlife began to manifest itself clearly in the Zhou Dynasty and after the Zhou Dynasty.
If a person wants to live comfortably in the underworld, he needs someone to worship him.
Except for certain "gods" who can receive large-scale worship, the worship that the dead can receive basically comes from their own heirs.
This leads to everyone worshiping their ancestors, but as long as they leave their bloodline, they will become their ancestors and will be worshiped by others, so they can live comfortably in the underworld.
And the richer you are, the higher your fame is, and the higher you climb in the social pyramid, the better your descendants will be able to provide you with worship.
This had two very important impacts on the Chinese people.
One is the obsession with bloodline inheritance, and the other is the worry that one's social status will lead to the death of heirs and it will be difficult for anyone to worship him.
The obsession with bloodline inheritance will lead to a very special consequence. Take Wu Zetian as an example, when it comes to whether the Wu family wants to inherit the throne.
One of Wu Zetian’s subconscious reactions is that her nephews have their mother to worship after all. After her death, how the Wu family will treat her is actually unknown, which is very easy to worry about. thing.
As Li Xian's mother, no matter how many problems she has committed, Li Xian cannot change this fact.
Then Li Xian must pay homage to Wu Zetian.
This was also confirmed later.
In the first year of Shenlong, after the Shenlong Revolution, Wu Zetian abdicated and gave her the title "Great Sage Emperor Zetian".
In November of the same year, Wu Zetian died in Shangyang Palace at the age of eighty-two.
Zhongzong followed his orders and changed her name to "Queen Zetian the Great Sage" and was buried in Qianling Mausoleum as a queen. Later, she was given the posthumous title of "Queen Zetianshun".
The fear of the unknown world after death prompts humans to be extremely cautious in dealing with death.
The ancestor worship of the Celestial Dynasty provides a solution that is very consistent with human subconscious experience, but it also seems to lead to an obsession with bloodline inheritance that is difficult to understand in other national religions.
(End of this chapter)