Xu Guangqi asked someone to translate a letter from Queen Elizabeth of England, which was written half-literally and half-white. He tried hard to show that although the "Western Yi" had written words, they were rarely powerful and elegant, and could not be elegant. After all, he took great pains.
For the translators of Seikan, writing such half-literary and half-white text is even more uncomfortable.
Zhu Yijun read the letter and felt a long-lost excitement about the Queen of England establishing contact with it - after all, the Virgin Queen Elizabeth was the true founder of the Empire on which the sun never set, and was the queen who had the greatest influence on the world pattern in Western history.
So the emperor asked the Ministry of Rites the next day where the John Newbery mentioned in Queen Elizabeth's letter was. The Ministry of Rites knew that this question was unavoidable, and he was busy writing it in the future.
It turned out that after Luo Mingjian was allowed to preach in China from Luo Wanhua in the ninth year of Wanli, the news spread to Rome quickly as if it had grown wings. By the time Fan Li'an returned to Goa from Japan to prepare for the establishment of the mission, all European countries knew about it.
: Seris, the country that European navigators after Marco Polo were searching for, has finally established contact with the Holy See, and the two sides are about to start official exchanges.
Along with this news arrived in Europe, and the different attitudes of the Ming government towards Spain and Portugal described by the Governor of Burma - the Ming Emperor was extremely dissatisfied with the Spanish occupying the Philippines, but expressed a certain degree of dissatisfaction with the Portuguese authorities occupying Manchuria.
"understanding".
This attitude will certainly attract the attention of the European monarchs who are dissatisfied with Spanish rule. The kings take it for granted that although King Seris's dissatisfaction with Spain is of no use in Europe, if they take this opportunity to have a relationship with Emperor Seris,
On the one hand, it can earn more gold coins. On the other hand, if Ming Dynasty causes trouble in the Philippines, it will hinder Spain, right? - This is the motivation of Elizabeth I writing the letter. [Note 1]
In consideration of the dangers of the sea voyage, a total of three copies of the letter with the Queen's seal were produced. In addition to John Newbery, a maritime merchant who was trusted by the Queen, the Greenwich court also commissioned two other people.
They took different merchant ships to the East.
In Europe in the tenth year of Wanli, Felipe II of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty had basically dominated the world, and the navy was even more powerful. In order to prevent the letters from falling into the hands of the Spanish, the British asked the latter two to conceal their identities.
Take a Portuguese merchant ship and head to Malacca.
However, what happened was counterproductive - after the two men left on a Portuguese merchant ship, the British Queen's spies around Felipe II wrote to inform the Queen that Felipe II had learned that the Queen had sent a special envoy to the East to contact Seris, and
Ordered the colonies along the way to be intercepted.
She had no choice but to resign herself to fate, and the letter only requested trade and did not write any unnecessary words. Queen Elizabeth could only comfort herself in this way. Of course, if the real envoy John Newbery fell into the hands of the Spanish, he would reveal that he encouraged the Ming Dynasty to take over
It's really hard to explain to Felipe II the Philippines' intentions - at this time, Spain had already annexed Portugal, and the Habsburg dynasty was too powerful.
In Europe at that time, hundreds of years of royal and aristocratic marriages, with special emphasis on status and lineage, led to large-scale inbreeding. The kings were basically related to each other. The mother of Felipe II of Spain was Isabel.
The eldest daughter of King Manuel I of Portugal and his second wife Maria - therefore Felipe II is Manuel's grandson and has the qualifications to succeed the King of Portugal.
In the seventh year of Wanli, King Sebastian of Portugal, the "Wuzong", personally led troops to attack Morocco, but was killed and drowned in the Mahazan River - historically known as the Battle of the Mahazan River. Sebastian died
Later, the only direct descendant of King Manuel of Portugal was Cardinal Enrique I, who was 64 years old and had no heirs. The Portuguese nobles put him on the throne.
Felipe II of Spain saw that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So he raised an army in the ninth year of Wanli, expelled Enrique I on the grounds that he had no heirs, occupied Lisbon, and proclaimed himself King Felipe I of Portugal.
This move made the major royal families in Europe feel like they had eaten flies, but all of them dared to be angry and dare not speak out. Portugal was stolen by Felipe, which made Portugal and its colonial empire also ruled by the Spanish Habsburg dynasty, forming Spain-
The Portuguese Communist Confederation and the Habsburg Dynasty thus became the largest country in the world with the most extensive territory, and its strength was unparalleled in the world. Elizabeth of England, Henry III of France, the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and other bigwigs were very angry, but there was nothing they could do.
.
After Felipe II stole Portugal, he immediately set his sights on Queen Elizabeth of England. Felipe II's ex-wife was Elizabeth's half-sister Mary I. The couple were Catholic fanatics, and their greatest ideal was to marry their heterosexuals.
Kill all the believers and heretics.
Felipe II wanted to unify Europe with Catholicism. His ex-wife Queen Mary got the nickname "Bloody Mary" because of her indiscriminate killing of heretics. It later became a synonym for witch and gradually evolved into the name of a cocktail.
After the death of Bloody Mary, Felipe II once proposed to Elizabeth, but the queen rejected her. Elizabeth was a Catholic on the surface, but actually a Protestant. The two could not urinate in the same pot.
How could Felipe II let Elizabeth go? If he married the Queen of England, his descendants might be able to unify Europe. This temptation would be absolutely irresistible.
Therefore, Felipe II had already spent a lot of money to infiltrate the Greenwich Palace like a sieve. When the two backup envoys were dispatched, the Queen did not go out of her way to carry them out, which led to the leakage of the plan to go to the Ming Dynasty.
Felipe II, who had already conquered Portugal, certainly did not want any changes in the Asian colonies, so he immediately sent a clipper ship from Africa to Malacca, asking all colonies to stop the British envoy. The two unlucky guys had not yet left Africa.
He was caught by the Spanish colonial authorities, who either tied an iron ball and threw it into the sea, or dug a hole and buried it - anyway, later generations have not verified it.
Because he owned a boat and had many friends from all over the country, John Newbery finally reached Malacca safely - but his luck ran out, and before he could contact the Chinese businessmen, he was arrested and sent to Goa.
In the original time and space, John Newbery died in Goa. This letter was never sent, and was finally sent back to England, which also cut off the Queen's idea of contacting the Ming Dynasty again. In 1986 AD, China's **** visit
When she was in England, Queen Elizabeth presented this letter to Chairman Mao Zedong - it was four hundred years late.
John Newbery's failed outcome in this time and space was changed by the butterfly effect. When he was sent to Goa, Fan Li'an and Luo Mingjian had already achieved brilliant results in the Ming Dynasty. They not only built the first church in the Ming Dynasty, but also
The Jesuits of Goa, who were cooperating with the Ming Dynasty to establish a mission to the Holy See, were shocked and speechless by the achievements of the Falian mission.
As mentioned before, the Jesuits were extremely powerful in Goa, and Alfonso, the governor of Goa, had to give Archbishop Vincennes face, otherwise he would not be able to gain a foothold in Goa.
At this time, Archbishop Vincennes would never allow the Goa authorities to make the slightest move that might cause misunderstandings with the Ming Dynasty, so John Newbery received his protection. The letters he brought were also transmitted to the mission through church channels
hands - and finally reached the hands of Xu Guangqi.
Although John Newbery received the protection of Vincennes, the Governor of Goa could not disobey Lisbon's order and let him go to Ming Dynasty to complete his mission. Therefore, Mr. Newbery remained in Goa at this time, and Wen
All Sens could do was to save his life and help him send letters at the same time.
This information was explained in the letters delivered by the Catholic Church in Goa to the mission in the capital, so that the Ministry of Rites could grasp the specific situation in Europe. The arrival of this information greatly enriched the Ming court's understanding of Europe, and also gave way to
This greatly accelerated the establishment of the Holy See Mission.