He Became Napoleon’S Genius Son [EN]: Chapter 283

(283) Find a Way to Move the Russian Imperial Family

While the economy leans towards England, the culture of the Russian Imperial Family is pro-French.

“Did you hear, Louis-Philippe? Your cousin, Louis-Antoine, is cozying up to the Bourbon dynasty’s heir.”

For instance, Empress Maria Feodorovna keeps Louis-Philippe close.

Of course, the Russian Empress doesn’t meet French exiled nobles alone.

This is the studio where the Empress enjoys painting watercolors as a hobby.

With numerous maids and nobles observing, Louis-Philippe has been summoned.

The son of the Duke of Orléans, commonly known as the Duke of Chartres, Louis-Philippe bowed his head.

“I have heard, Your Majesty Tsarina.”

“Shouldn’t we hurry? If not you, we should call your brother Antoine or Louis Charles to charm her.”

“My brothers are all doing well in the New World. There’s no reason to call them over to suffer.”

At that moment, Maria fixed Louis-Philippe with a sharp gaze.

“Then are you going to let the orphaned princess marry a foolish cousin? I never liked that idiot Louis-Antoine.”

Louis-Philippe offered a wry smile.

In later history, the Duke of Chartres, Louis-Philippe, would be ousted by revolution, earning a less-than-stellar reputation.

A self-proclaimed [Citizen King] who only cared about the bourgeoisie [the middle class].

However, in 1800, Louis-Philippe is genuinely a man who understands the lives of ordinary people.

After the failed Dumouriez rebellion, Louis-Philippe was separated from his father and lived in exile in many places.

He sometimes worked as a history teacher in Switzerland and as a French teacher in London.

He even briefly visited New York and worked as a tutor.

In the original timeline, he even spent 15 years as a private school teacher in London.

However, he is currently in Saint Petersburg, accompanying his father, the Duke of Orléans.

You can tell that Louis-Philippe is no ordinary person without needing to examine all these exile experiences.

Because he is a handsome young man with intelligent eyes.

On the other hand, Louis-Philippe’s cousin and the presumed heir of the self-proclaimed Louis XVII, who has no children, Louis-Antoine, doesn’t seem very bright.

He is merely kind.

However, Louis-Philippe replied politely instead of criticizing his cousin.

“You are very direct, Your Majesty Empress.”

“I didn’t learn to mince words in my hometown. I visited Versailles with my husband when I was young. It was when the late Emperor was greatly oppressing the current Tsar.”

“I remember. I was young, but it was very tumultuous. Was it 1781?”

The Empress frowned.

“I remember the princess who was still a baby then. She was a very pretty child. I don’t want to see her suffer by marrying a foolish man.”

Tsar Pavel’s wife, Maria Feodorovna’s real name is Sophie Dorothea von Württemberg.

Her hometown is the Duchy of Württemberg, a prominent aristocratic family in the Rhine region of the western Holy Roman Empire.

Therefore, she is familiar with French culture and well-acquainted with German’s simpler culture.

After marrying into Russia, she adopted a Russian-style name and worked hard to assimilate into Russian society.

However, the former Empress Catherine tormented the Empress.

In fact, it was because Catherine hated Pavel I.

The eldest son, Alexander, and the second son, Constantine, were even taken away, preventing her from raising them.

Unable to withstand the stress, Maria and Pavel went on a European trip with the Empress’s permission.

Austria, Italy, Netherlands, and France.

She met Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI in 1782, and Marie was a very cute 4-year-old child at the time.

Maria became pregnant with Alexandra there.

Perhaps that is why Maria has more sympathy for Marie Therese.

The Duke of Chartres, Louis-Philippe, smiled and replied.

“I am not very smart either.”

“Everyone in our Saint Petersburg court knows that you are bright. Besides, if the monarchy is restored in the future, the Duchess of Orléans might be a better fit? Rather than a difficult queen position.”

“Will the monarchy be restored? It is an era when France dominates Western Europe.”

Louis-Philippe looked at Maria intently.

“Rather, a princess’s knight might be a better match for the princess’s husband.”

Empress Maria’s brush paused.

Maria’s maid, Ekaterina Ivanovna Nelydova, and other ladies-in-waiting frowned.

Everyone knows that the Empress detests the revolution.

But how dare he mention the marriage of the revolution’s ringleader’s adopted son and the noble French princess in front of the Empress? What is he implying?

However, Louis-Philippe maintained a calm expression.

“What are you suggesting, Duke of Chartres?”

“I know why Your Majesty Empress summoned me. The reason why France sent the Consul’s adopted son this time is to target the noble Princess Alexandra, correct?”

“It’s outrageous. How can a monster from Corsica have my daughter!”

Louis-Philippe shrugged.

“The Consul’s adopted son is from a Marquis family, though.”

“I have ears! He is the one who dismantled the Holy Roman Empire, right? My brother, the Duke of Württemberg, had to flee!”

“Look at it differently. Rather, that is why the only true [Emperor] in Europe is the Tsar of Russia.”

Empress Maria looked at Louis-Philippe as if he were an oddity.

“What is it, Duke of Chartres? Why are you defending rebels? They are the ones who killed your monarch?”

Louis-Philippe wore a peculiar smile.

In later history, the famous Hugo described Louis-Philippe like this.

The heir to the wealthiest royal family, a man who taught mathematics to earn bread, an officer of the revolutionary army who broke the iron bars of the palace with his own hands.

Also, Dumouriez’s subordinate, Lafayette’s friend, Mirabeau’s disciple, and a man called a close young man to Danton.

He became an exile because of the revolution, and in the original history, he was ousted because of the revolution, but it was also Louis-Philippe who brought Napoleon’s body back to Paris.

“I am ashamed to say that my father also played a part.”

“So, are you even sympathizing with the rebellion? Even now that you have been exiled like this?”

“Of course not. The revolution shed too much blood. However.”

A noble young man who does not sympathize with the revolution but is sympathetic to it said.

“The only way to protect Princess Alexandra is to marry the Consul’s son off to another match.”

Do you want to protect the Empress’s daughter?

Then, get rid of the problematic marriage prospect first.

Here, a problem arises.

Who should the Russian princess, whose marriage with the Swedish king has been broken and who has rejected the French Consul’s son, marry?

Maria looked at Louis-Philippe and smiled with satisfaction.

If you are a mother with an unmarried daughter, you always consider when you see a young man.

Is he a good man for a son-in-law?

“That’s an interesting idea. I’ll talk about it when I see His Majesty. Your name too.”

Advice that does not antagonize the revolutionary government, flatters the Russian imperial family, and also takes care of his own interests.

This is the tactic that Louis-Philippe is using on the Empress of the Russian Empire.

Louis-Philippe bowed with a very elegant, calm, and composed attitude.

“Thank you, Your Majesty.”

The man who would be called the [Citizen King] in later history, Louis-Philippe, is also moving quickly.

***

Anyway, when you go abroad, the most unsightly thing is your own people, and that was the same in France in 1800.

“Get out of here right now! I don’t want to see your face!”

Marie’s high-pitched voice was heard from the annex of the Peterhof Palace, the accommodation given to the French delegation.

Then, an innocent-looking young man hurried out.

The young man scratched his head and widened his eyes.

Because Eugene was in front of him.

“What’s the matter, [Monsieur – Sir]? This is a lady’s bedroom.”

The young man glared at Eugene and gritted his teeth.

“Are you that arrogant servant?”

Currently, there are not many people in this world who dare to call Eugene a servant.

But the young man in front of him is not among those few.

Eugene, who was staring at the young man, frowned and then smiled.

“Are you perhaps a person of the Count of Artois or the Count of Provence?”

At that moment, the young man got angry and pushed past Eugene.

“Don’t you dare address His Majesty and my father like that, you lowly servant!”

Of course, Eugene is a descendant of a Marquis family, so he wouldn’t be called that even during the old royal family.

Also, Eugene’s guards here were all loyalists who could kill the young man right away.

However, Eugene stopped the guards who were about to rush in and watched the young man leave.

“Are you here, brother?”

Eugene turned his gaze and asked his cousin who had just spoken.

“What’s going on again? Why is that dumb-looking friend coming out of Marie’s room?”

“Brother, he is not a dumb friend, he is the Duke of Angoulême. The son of Count Artois.”

“The Count’s son is a Duke, I’ve always thought it was a funny title. Could he have come to propose?”

Then his cousin, Émilie de Beauharnais, smiled awkwardly.

“I guess so? I let him in because he presented my father’s letter of introduction······.”

Eugene wore a bitter smile.

Émilie’s father is Eugene’s uncle, Marquis François de Beauharnais.

Originally a hardcore royalist who wandered as an exile in the original history, but now he remains in France because the Reign of Terror ended quickly.

But I thought he was quiet, but it seems he was communicating with the exiled royalty in Saint Petersburg.

Just as he was about to warn Émilie, a high-pitched voice was heard again from inside the inner room.

“Don’t ever let those people come again! If they come next time, I’ll shoot them!”

As expected, in the original history, Marie Therese was famous for her high-pitched voice and irritability.

I get the ominous feeling that it might not just be because she suffered, and Eugene stepped into the room.

The way her eyes flashed when she saw Eugene makes me think that it might be true.

“Aren’t you getting too angry, Marie?”

“Eugene, you are the biggest problem! Why are you letting those exiles visit us? We can refuse that much!”

“Because the Russian nobles and royals don’t allow our visits?”

Eugene chuckled and picked up a piece of paper.

“But I got an invitation. Now.”

A double-headed eagle.

The eagle pattern is originally the emblem of Rome, so many empires adopt it as their emblem.

However, in the case of the Russian Empire, it looks a little different from Austria or Spain.

Because the emblem of the Eastern Roman Empire is the origin.

Marie, who was accepting the invitation, widened her eyes.

“A party?”

“Well, isn’t it? Of course, the Tsar has something else to ask me.”

“You’re not going to propose tomorrow, are you?”

Eugene turned to Marie, who was glaring again, and burst into laughter.

“Puh! Sorry, but I don’t have a taste for Russian women. They get fat when they get old.”

“It sounds like you’ll abandon me if I get fat too?”

“No, the Queen doesn’t look like that. Anyway.”

Eugene, who was replying lightly, twisted his lips.

“Tomorrow, I’ll have to throw out a story that will resonate with Sidney Smith. It seems that friend has come to Saint Petersburg too.”

This is Russia, the land of the Tsar.

In the end, the decision-maker is also the Tsar.

So, something is needed to move the Tsar.

The time has come for Eugene to meet the Tsar again.