Chapter 421: Process
King William of the Rhine League has been paralyzed and aphasic for many years, and recently he was in a coma for a long time. Now that he wakes up, everyone knows that his majesty has returned to his former glory.
William's bedroom is very large and is now full of people.
His son Rudolf and daughter-in-law Antonia knelt beside the bed. Rudolf held his right hand tightly, his face full of tears.
Before arriving, Antonia put on a simple white robe. Her long hair was tied behind her head with a hemp rope. She knelt beside Rudolf, holding a handkerchief in her hand and wiping her tears. One has to worry about her becoming dehydrated.
Cardinal Victor sat quietly on the edge of the bed to the left of William, holding William's left hand in one hand, playing the rosary beads in the other hand, and reciting scriptures in a low voice.
The Grand Duke of Mainz stood next to Victor and looked at William quietly. Thinking that he was older than him, his mood became complicated for a moment.
All the nobles in the city of Cologne have arrived. Earl Rank and Earl Shakespeare are standing in front of the end of the bed, with a secretary beside them. All the nobles with the title of earl are standing behind them. The bedroom door It was open, and nobles under the earl filled the corridor.
Sobbing could be heard from time to time in the crowd. William has given favors to many people during his reign over the years. Now that he is leaving, many people will be sad.
Everyone is waiting for a very important event - the king officially determines the heir to the throne.
It stands to reason that this kind of thing needs to be announced publicly, or leave a testament like Ferdinand.
William only has one child, Rudolf, and the heir to the throne is theoretically undisputed, so everyone forgot about it. It wasn’t until William fell into coma not long ago and someone started the new king’s coronation ceremony that they remembered that there was such a process. Didn’t leave.
It’s just that now that William woke up, he lay there with his eyes open, his whole body motionless, his eyes not blinking, only his eyeballs turning occasionally.
At this time, there was a shout outside the window, and the sound of alert rang out in the heavily guarded garden, as well as the roar of the fire dragon and the sound of flapping wings.
The Archduke of Mainz turned around and walked to the window, opened the curtains, opened the window, and saw a fire dragon preparing to land under the night sky.
He shouted: "Palatinate, come here quickly!"
Two seconds later, a sixty-year-old man wearing a flight leather jacket jumped in from the window.
The nobles in the room saw that the Archduke of the Palatinate was coming. Count Rank and others were overjoyed and saluted one after another. Rudolf also raised his head and called "Uncle".
The Principality of the Palatinate is located to the north of the Principality of Mainz. After Frederick swallowed up the Principality of Franconia, it joined it to the northwest.
The Principality of the Palatinate was originally very powerful, but it threatened the royal power. Over the past hundred years, it was dismembered into a smaller state than Wesen in the previous two years. In the end, it relied on the current Grand Duke of the Palatinate to become the God of Law and him. His sister married into the royal family to maintain her status.
The Grand Duke of the Palatinate was strong, but he had no heirs for so many years and had no desire to fight for power. He always stayed in the territory. When the queen was still alive, she only came to the royal capital during the holidays and rarely paid attention to worldly affairs.
Thanks to the telegram this time, he rushed over on a fire dragon as soon as he received the news.
Now all the Dukes and Grand Duke-level nobles of the Rhine Alliance have arrived, except Archduke Byrne who is in the Osmaga Empire and Frederick who is in the Helvetia Federation.
The Archduke of the Palatinate walked to the bedside and called William softly twice, but William had no reaction except for a slight movement of his eyes.
The Archduke of Mainz whispered in his ear William's current situation and that there was still a process to go through, and he frowned.
The Grand Duke of the Palatinate stroked his beard on his chin and whispered: "Now that my brother-in-law is in this situation, he only has Rudolf as his heir. Even if some things are not stated explicitly, everyone knows his wishes, so there is no need to be too red tape. "It's important."
Everyone thinks so, but if Rudolf said this, he would think that he couldn't wait to ascend the throne regardless of his father's life and death. If the ministers said it, they were not qualified to change the rules. As a relative of the king, he can only speak from the perspective of family affairs.
After the Archduke of the Palatinate finished speaking, he looked at the Archduke of Mainz. He was the highest-ranking vassal here. If he took the lead and nodded, others would not object.
The Grand Duke of Mainz nodded slightly.
Then the Archduke of the Palatinate looked at Count Rank and other important palace ministers. If these ministers agreed, then there would be no problem in this matter. The ministers naturally nodded.
After thinking for a while, Count Ranke whispered to the two grand dukes the solution he had just thought of: "Why don't you let the cardinal ask if your majesty objects to Rudolf's succession?"
The Grand Duke of the Palatinate thought this method was good, and if he did not object, he would acquiesce. Although it was not perfect, it could be regarded as making up for the process.
Looking at William like this, I don’t know how he should express his objection.
This matter can only be done by Cardinal Victor who is on the side. Royal power and divine power are interdependent. With the church's endorsement, it is difficult to investigate flaws in the process.
Victor nodded, and after doing the whole show, he asked someone to bring a "Holy Book", put William's left hand on it, and placed his own hand on William's hand.
Ready, he leaned over William's ear and asked in a calm voice that everyone could hear: "Your Majesty William Otto, do you object to your son Rudolf Otto Do you have all the rights and obligations that now belong to you before you go to the throne of light and succeed to the throne of the Rhine League?"
Rudolph wiped his tears and said: "If the God of Light can bless my father, let him? Health and longevity, even if I don’t want the crown, it doesn’t matter.”
He said it sincerely, and many people were moved to tears.
Next, everyone present held their breath, waiting for Cardinal Victor to announce the result.
Victor immediately announced that William had no objection, but counted down to one hundred in a low voice.
Only the Archduke of Mainz and the Archduke of Palatinate heard the countdown sound. Count Rank and others saw the mouth movements. They all felt that this was the right thing to do, so they didn’t say anything and just kept quiet. wait.
No one made a sound in the bedroom, only Antonia's sobs. She was not dehydrated from crying yet.
At this time, although William's eyes were wide open, he was seeing an illusion of a revolving door of life, with scenes from childhood to adulthood emerging one after another.
Suddenly, a scene from many years ago appeared in William's mind.
It was in a manor outside the city. Farmers were harvesting golden beans in the fields. I and Frederick were sitting on the edge of the farmland. At that time, I wrote many notes to Frederick, and Frederick took them away. .
Now that he recalled the contents of the note, he suddenly remembered that he had noticed that if the notes were rearranged, something big would happen, but he had forgotten about it after taking the medicine.
William realized that something was wrong, and suddenly came to his senses. He saw his son and ministers around him, and he had to remind them of Frederick's possible conspiracy.
Everyone in the bedroom saw that His Majesty William suddenly trembled, and took his right hand out of His Majesty Rudolf's hand. His body, which had been paralyzed for many years, suddenly sat up, and a voice came from his throat that had not spoken for many years. Gurgling sounds.
Everyone was overjoyed when they saw this scene and thought, could His Majesty the King's illness be cured now?
Could it be that His Highness the Prince's willingness to give up the throne in exchange for his father's health moved the God of Light, so the God of Light sent a miracle? !
Victor was also stunned and stopped counting after counting down 2.
I saw His Majesty William pointing to the south (in the direction of the bedroom door) and shouting with the last of his life:
"Wesson!"
"Wesson!"
"Friedrich von Wesson..."
(End of this chapter)