Empire Rise: Spain

Chapter 14: Selecting A King For Spain

Time quickly arrived at.

Although there was still no news from Spain, Carlo was already making full preparations for the possibility of taking charge in Spain.

First was the public opinion power that Carlo had vigorously developed, which had already achieved certain results.

The largest newspaper office in Carlo’s hands, the Italy 24 Hours Sun Newspaper, had become the largest newspaper in Northern Italy, with an average daily sales volume exceeding 24,000 copies for the whole year of

In addition to the Sun Newspaper, Loren, under Carlo’s instructions, had also established several newspaper offices in northern and southern Italy. The combined daily sales volume of these small and medium-scale newspaper offices also exceeded 10,000 copies.

Carlo could also be considered to have completed his initial deployment of public opinion power. These various newspaper offices together had tens of thousands of loyal readers and could influence at least hundreds of thousands of people.

As long as Carlo wanted, he could make hundreds of thousands or even millions of Italians learn of a piece of news in a short time.

In this era when transportation was extremely inconvenient and the public mostly relied on horses and ox carts for travel, this was extremely exaggerated.

These large and small newspaper offices had also brought Carlo nearly 250,000 lira in income over the two and a half years.

It was also thanks to Garibaldi’s prestige that the Sun Newspaper was able to quickly penetrate the market; otherwise, more than 200,000 lira would not have been so easy to earn. As time entered February 1869, Spain’s parliamentary election also formally arrived.

As in history, Primó, as the most powerful individual in the provisional government, coupled with his enormous prestige in the revolutionary army, smoothly controlled the majority of seats in parliament.

This news made Carlo breathe a sigh of relief, as it meant Spain would move toward constitutional monarchy rather than republic, and Carlo still had a great hope of becoming King of Spain.

The new Spanish Parliament, upon its establishment, announced that it would not abolish monarchy, but would establish a national government under constitutional monarchy to manage Spain’s political affairs.

Because Spain’s throne was vacant, parliament appointed the provisional government’s Prime Minister Francisco Serrano Domínguez as Regent of the Kingdom of Spain, and Minister of War Primó as the new Prime Minister.

These two were not only the most prestigious individuals in the provisional government, but also the two generals who enjoyed the greatest support in the revolutionary army.

This was actually the real reason Spain continued to maintain monarchy, after all, the two people with decision-making power both supported monarchy.

Thanks to that report promoting the advanced nature of the monarchical system, the news of Spain continuing to maintain monarchy did not cause too much of a stir.

As long as it was no longer an incompetent ruler like Queen Isabella ruling Spain, the Spaniards’ opposing opinions would at least not be so intense.

Parliamentary matters came to a temporary close, and for Serrano, who was involved in politics, and Prime Minister Primó, the most headache-inducing issue had become selecting a suitable king for Spain.

Although they could choose anyone from the European royal family, the chosen candidate also had to gain the public’s recognition.

Those with poor reputation could not be chosen; Spaniards would not believe that such a king could do better than Isabella. If it was just a new Queen Isabella to rule Spain, then what was the purpose of the Spaniards’ revolution?

Those with controversial backgrounds could not be chosen. For Spain, only a king of noble birth and supported by a great family could stabilize Spain’s order.

If the new king’s background was highly controversial, it would be a new blow to Spain’s hard-won constitutional monarchy.

Plus all sorts of other conditions, in the end, there were actually only a few European princes suitable to become King of Spain.

After more than a month of screening, Serrano and Primó finally settled on a list of five candidates.

The first choice was Prince Leopoldo from the German royal family. Prince Leopoldo was born into the Hohenzollern family, backed by the Kingdom of Prussia, which had just won the Austro-Prussian War; both his background and reputation met Spain’s requirements.

The second choice was Fernando, who had served as Regent of Portugal. Fernando’s wife and son were both King of Portugal; his performance as husband） of the Portuguese Queen（ and during his regency was above the passing line, and his prestige was also quite good.

The third choice was Prince Amadeo from Italy’s House of Savoy. Post-unification Italy still carried weight along the Mediterranean coast, and the House of Savoy’s prestige among the European royal family had also seen a slight rise. For Spain, Amadeo might not be as reliable as the first two, but he was still a qualified candidate.

The fourth choice also came from Italy’s House of Savoy, Amadeo’s own younger brother Carlo. Carlo’s shortcoming was that he was slightly young, still a few months shy of turning But Carlo’s reputation in Italy was no weaker than Amadeo’s, and the Sun Newspaper’s propaganda for Carlo had been quite effective.

Even many Italians greatly admired this youngest prince, because this little prince did not put on too much airs when traveling and would friendly greet the Italian public.

Under the influence of public opinion power, some Spaniards had also heard of Italy’s friendly prince. This was also the reason Carlo could enter the candidate list; after all, Primó and Serrano both believed that Spaniards would not reject a friendly king.

The final candidate was Queen Isabella’s brother-in-law, the Duke of Pontejos of Spain. However, considering the Spaniards’ disgust toward Queen Isabella and the possible hate-by-association mentality, Primó placed the Duke of Pontejos at the end of the candidate list and considered removing him from it.

After all, selecting the King of Spain was extremely strict; any flaw in a candidate would be magnified countless times, and any possible influence was something Serrano and Primó had to consider.

What disappointed Primó was that after the Spanish government had just floated a bit of feeler to Fernando, Fernando directly rejected the Spanish throne.

This also theoretically cut off the possibility of Spain and Portugal uniting again, after all, Fernando’s son was the current King of Portugal.

If Fernando could obtain the Spanish throne, the future King of Portugal might inherit the Spanish throne, achieving the merger of the two Iberian countries.

Fernando’s voluntary withdrawal turned the five-person list into four. After lengthy discussions with Serrano, Primó finally decided to also remove the Duke of Pontejos from the list, leaving only three candidates.

Although Spain’s king selection work was done quite confidentially, there was no such thing as an impenetrable wall in the world.

At this time, Primó and Serrano were still unaware of what major impact their king selection work would have on the European situation, even directly causing the European hegemon to be trampled underfoot by other countries.

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