Empire Rise: Spain

Chapter 178: Naming The Eldest Son

Louis I and his wife stayed in Spain for just over a week, during which the interactions between the two royal families were fairly harmonious.

After reaching a unified opinion with Louis I on cooperative colonization, most of the remaining time consisted of relatively relaxed banquets and outings.

Carlo and Louis I spent most of their time discussing political affairs, while Queen Sophie and Queen Maria discussed matters related to childbearing.

Although the private doctors of the Spanish Royal Family were renowned medical experts throughout Spain and even all of Europe, medical technology in this era was not so advanced, and childbearing was still highly dangerous.

Moreover, as Queen Sophie’s first pregnancy, she was somewhat panicked about the potential dangers of giving birth. The Spanish Royal Family lacked experienced elders to guide and help her, so Queen Maria, with her experience, could indeed appropriately comfort Queen Sophie and help her better adapt to life after pregnancy.

By the timeline, Queen Sophie’s delivery should be around mid-year, approximately May or June.

And now it was already late March, which also meant that Carlo would soon welcome his first child in the coming months.

For Carlo, naming his first child also required careful selection and consideration.

Of course, there was actually not much to consider. As the King of Spain, Carlo’s first child’s name would definitely lean toward a Spanish style.

This was also a way to express the royal family’s closeness to the Spaniards; after all, if the royal family members all had Italian-style names, it would make the Spaniards even more dissatisfied with the foreign royal family. For his first child’s name, Carlo had already decided. Of course, Carlo did not share the European nobility’s habit of using the same name across several generations.

If his son were also named Carlo, daily address would always feel awkward.

If the first child was a prince, his name would be Juan Fernando, a standard Spanish-style name.

If it was a princess, the name would be Sophia, symbolizing wisdom and intelligence.

Not only was Carlo very concerned about his first child, but even Vittorio Emanuele II far away in Italy and Franz Joseph I in Vienna frequently sent telegrams inquiring, and royal families and government leaders from various countries also showed symbolic concern.

Since Prime Minister Primó’s reforms had shown effectiveness, in the eyes of European countries, Spain had once again returned to the ranks of the European powers.

Although there was still a significant gap compared to the five countries Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Austria, it was already on par with a power like Italy, and even slightly surpassing it in some aspects.

Especially after Spain rebuilt its ironclad ships, there was a faint trend of pulling ahead of Italy. If Italy at this time was a great power, then Spain, which was about to pull ahead, was undoubtedly another great power.

Whether it was a great power or not was no longer important; with Spain’s current strength, it was not surprising to receive symbolic concern from government leaders of other countries.

Moreover, this soon-to-be-born first prince or princess of the Spanish Royal Family held such a noble identity.

In addition to being Carlo’s eldest son or eldest daughter, they were also the grandson or granddaughter of King of Italy Vittorio Emanuele II and the first granddaughter from outside of Austro-Hungarian Empire Emperor Franz Joseph I.

Before Franz Joseph I’s other children grew up, this little one about to be born was indeed his only grandchild-generation family member.

Spain, Italy, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire—any one of these three countries was a great power-level European power. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was one of Europe’s five traditional great powers, a true powerhouse, so other countries could not afford to ignore it.

Additionally, European royal families were inherently connected by blood like broken bones linked by tendons. Although the overt kinship relations involved only Spain, Italy, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, if one included relatives like Carlo’s brother-in-law, King of Portugal Louis I, then the European countries with blood ties to the little one were plentiful.

Not to mention anything else, just the favoritism from Vittorio Emanuele II and Franz Joseph I toward him was enough to ensure that this little one could thrive in any country.

Speaking of Carlo’s father Vittorio Emanuele II, there was some bad news that could not be ignored: his health had deteriorated significantly.

Carlo had been in this world for seven years, and the passage of these seven years had changed too much.

Vittorio Emanuele II, born in 1820, was already 55 years old, which in contemporary Europe was definitely an elderly age.

By current European life expectancy, 55 years was already quite long-lived. However, the living standards of European royal families far exceeded those of ordinary people, so the life expectancy of royal family members was also much higher.

But regardless, at 55 years old, one had passed the peak of life, and Vittorio Emanuele II’s health had gradually worsened, to the point where it now affected his handling of political affairs.

Italy was indeed a constitutional monarchy, but as the king who unified all of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele II held lofty prestige among the Italian public and possessed extremely high authority in the government.

A considerable portion of political affairs required Vittorio Emanuele II’s personal handling to be finally decided, which might also be one of the reasons for Emanuele II’s continuously deteriorating health.

Although Italy’s territory was not large compared to other powers, it had a population as high as 66 million, over 10 million more than the Spanish population.

Such a massive population also meant a multitude of political affairs to handle, with a considerable burden resting on Vittorio Emanuele II’s shoulders.

For this king who had endured multiple losses of sons, his health had indeed worsened over a long period of busyness, yet he faced an increasing volume of political affairs, trapped in a persistent vicious cycle.

Although since this year, Vittorio Emanuele II had delegated some political affairs to his eldest son, Crown Prince Umberto of Italy, to handle, this could only reduce his fatigue to a certain extent and not effectively improve his physical condition.

Vittorio Emanuele II was very clear about the matters he would face in the future.

But precisely because of this, he was still very concerned about the future development of his several sons. His eldest son, Crown Prince Umberto, would inherit the Kingdom of Italy in the future, and Vittorio Emanuele II was quite reassured about the crown prince’s abilities.

As a prince who had received elite traditional noble education, Crown Prince Umberto had a commendable performance in military aspects. He graduated from Carlo’s alma mater, the Turin Royal Military Academy, and had a fairly good performance in the Austro-Prussian War.

Italy’s role in the Austro-Prussian War was somewhat awkward, as Italy had no influence on the war’s outcome from beginning to end.

If not for the Austrian army’s massive withdrawal to defend against the Prussian Army, Italy probably would not have recaptured Venice and taken South Tyrol so easily.

Although the Italian Army’s performance was poor, as an ordinary commander, Crown Prince Umberto’s performance in the war was still excellent.

Even after the army suffered defeat, the crown prince’s overall demeanor was relatively calm, and he could even propose some responsive decisions.

Although his overall abilities were not that outstanding, if the goal was merely to succeed to the throne and pass it on, Crown Prince Umberto was absolutely qualified.

His second son, Amadeo, had little interest in political affairs and instead preferred hosting balls, inviting local noblewomen to attend.

Vittorio Emanuele II was not too concerned about his son’s such romantic escapades. With the Italian throne to be inherited by Crown Prince Umberto, and Carlo doing well in Spain, these two were sufficient to ensure that his brother Amadeo could enjoy his leisurely noble life.

Carlo was also quite concerned about his father Vittorio Emanuele II’s health condition.

Although he had only been in this world for a few years, Carlo had indeed felt paternal love from his father, which was rare and precious in royal families.

Although Eastern and Western royal families had certain differences, a king was after all a country’s ruler, especially a hands-on king like Vittorio Emanuele II.

The fact that he unhesitatingly agreed to the interest-free loan to Carlo showed that his affection for Carlo was genuine.

In their telegram exchanges, Carlo informed him of Queen Sophie’s approximate delivery time and promised to return to Italy with his family within a year to visit his father.

After handling some miscellaneous matters, Carlo finally welcomed a long period of leisure.

After all, the power in Carlo’s hands at this time was not that great, and most of Spain’s government political affairs were still handled by Prime Minister Primó.

For Carlo, this was perhaps not a bad thing. At least he still held certain powers, ensuring that his authority would not be completely bypassed.

On this basis, he could even gain long stretches of free time to enjoy life in this world.

After all, kings were also human and needed time for rest and entertainment. If most of one’s time was spent handling political affairs, such a king’s life would instead be a torment.

Not everyone could endure the busy life of handling political affairs early in the morning, dealing with midday affairs after meals, and still meeting government officials and foreign guests during afternoon tea time.

The greater the power, the greater the responsibility—this was not just empty words. Since becoming Prime Minister of Spain, Primó’s aging had accelerated noticeably.

The main reason was that the burden of Spain’s reforms rested entirely on Prime Minister Primó alone. Reforms concerned the destiny of Prime Minister Primó and Carlo, as well as Spain’s future development, and could absolutely not be taken lightly.

This led to extreme times when Prime Minister Primó slept less than five hours a day, constantly traveling back and forth across Spain to inspect the implementation of government-promulgated reform policies in various places.

It was only after the official performance appraisal system was promulgated that the burden on Prime Minister Primó lightened somewhat.

As time reached mid-April 1875, Carlo was almost always by Queen Sophie’s side, accompanied by a large number of servants and doctors.

Queen Sophie discovered her pregnancy at the end of October, but she was already several months along by then. After all, the technology now was not advanced, making it impossible to detect pregnancy quickly.

By the ten-month gestation period, Queen Sophie’s delivery should be between April and June. Although there was no sign of labor yet, due to becoming a father for the first time, Carlo was somewhat expectant and nervous.

With his first child imminent, Carlo was of course excited. But the delivery procedures of this era were too dangerous, and Carlo did not want to see his wife Queen Sophie or his child face risks.

This was unavoidable; before medical technology advanced, childbearing was indeed extremely dangerous.

Deliveries in this era only had natural birth as an option. Cesarean sections were possible, but wound healing was a major issue, and infection could easily occur.

Once facing infection, regardless of identity, death was basically the only outcome.

The advent of various antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs would not come until decades later. Even though Carlo had vigorously developed Spain’s biology and medicine, it could not be improved in the short term.

Perhaps by the time of Carlo’s next generation—that is, when the future princes and princesses had children—they could enjoy a more advanced and safer medical environment.

The royal family was about to welcome its first prince or princess, which was big news in Spain today.

Prime Minister Primó’s reforms were quite successful, with the best proof being the continuous growth of Spain’s per capita income. With people able to eat their fill and live better lives, they naturally felt grateful to the king above them and the government high officials.

As the king promoting the reforms, Carlo naturally received warm welcome and adoration from the Spaniards. If during the time just after Carlo arrived in Spain, some people slightly rejected this foreign king due to his Italian identity, then after the completion of the first five-year development plan, such rejection had completely vanished.

People not only had no rejection of Carlo’s Italian identity but even saw him as the savior sent by God to Spain, come to rescue the Spaniards who could not eat their fill at the time.

Although part of this was propaganda from Carlo’s media empire, it was undeniable that public support and adoration for Carlo had risen boundlessly.

Compared to Amadeo I in history, Carlo had already laid a relatively stable foundation for his descendants. As long as the subsequent monarchs did not self-destruct, the Spanish throne could circulate long-term within the House of Savoy.