There is no need to say how grand the Queen Mother’s funeral was.

In terms of money, there was a whole rich country to support it; in terms of character, although she was a foreign princess, the French praised the lady for being chaste and kind; in terms of emotion, although she had some shortcomings, this deficiency was not because of her true heart - as a woman of this era, she had done a good job; except for Versailles, the civilians even loved the Queen Mother, one because she gave birth to two outstanding talents for France, especially Louis XIV, and the other because the Queen Mother, with the support of Louis, was extremely keen on charity activities. Thirty years ago, when it came to doing good deeds, the ladies would go to the church, and the Queen Mother always spent a lot of money on mass and pilgrimage, but in these thirty years, this behavior was almost no longer visible. The noble ladies prefer to build good churches, liberal arts and orphanages.

Louis's minister, Colbert, was born in a humble background, and he was not very clear about the tricks played by the lower-level officials. He also knew how the moral bottom line of those seemingly lonely poor people had - almost no low, and knew how criminals who were hidden in the dark and more terrifying than the devil were good at making trouble. If he set up projects as he wanted, allocated funds in chaos and disorderly manner, and only looked at the surface and relationships to arrange managers, the result would be almost the same as the charity described by a famous writer.

In short, it is the battlefield where the strong prey on the weak, the quagmire of doing nothing, the theater that makes money and fame, and the nest that nourishes poisonous insects and animals.

In view of the above reasons, Colbert carefully sent his most capable assistant to the noble ladies headed by the Queen Mother to ensure that tens of thousands of Rifles would not flow to places that would make His Majesty the King furious, such as someone's pocket. These money may not be of much to the church. They would often spend thousands of Rifles at a single Mass, which was not considered extra fees, such as prayer fees, special fees, announcement fees, sermon fees, etc. In addition, if you want to invite icons elsewhere, priests and bishops, you will need to pay extra money.

But when Louis XIII bought the current Versailles - even if it was just a barren sandy land, 117 acres were not a small number, and only 10,000 livres were used.

Paris-Versailles, these two cities that look like pearls, are still surrounded by many useless land, especially those that cannot be planted by swamps and gravel land. These places are very cheap to buy. In order to build the Palace of Versailles, a large number of craftsmen gathered here, so that a small town of Limoges was formed. The carpenters and plasterers in the town were happy to work for the Queen Mother and the poor. To put it bluntly, there is no problem with raising a family for their profession, but once they are injured, they can only go to the aid house.

But these people didn't expect that they thought that just a job of extra money would have been done for more than ten years, and they might have to continue in the future.

It was mainly because after investigating the situation about the aid house with all his heart and strength, Colbert officials found that these places could no longer lock men, women, elderly people, and children together like they did before, as they did with livestock.

Their report is shocking. In the imagination of the good people, the poor but moral people gathered together in the aid house. Although the donations they may not be so much, if the hardworking young people are willing to work hard, the elderly and children can always survive and even save some money to leave the aid house.

In fact, this is not the case. The real aid house is a stinking garbage dump. Here, people with moral conscience always die the fastest - new people will be exploited by the administrator and the people around you when they come, completely empty, and even a fig leaf will not be left behind for you. Women will inevitably become public vessels, and young men are sometimes no exception. Old people will become objects of humiliation and beating - purely for fun, as for children - they are three.

The concentration is also the lowest-level doll, because they are not as physically as adults and their brains are not as good as those of the elderly. They work all day long and suffer insults. Some madams come in to choose future money-making tools, and some factory owners and workshop owners come to buy slaves at a low price, or leaders of thieves and robbers to recruit new blood and scapegoats - but this is still a way out, and more children disappear silently in the room without doors and windows without leaving any trace.

The worst things you can think of will happen here.

Colbert and his disciples were even afraid that they would not guarantee that such a thing would not happen in the aid house they opened. So, after submitting a report to the king, the charity undertakings led by the Queen Mother, from the perspective of the architectural system, became a charity hall, aid house and an orphanage.

Among them, the charity hall is only for elderly people over fifty years old, while the aid house is separated by men and women. Young people over fourteen years old are gathered here. The orphanage is the Garden of Eden of newly born babies. To be honest, whether they can compare with the charity places hundreds of years later, of course, they cannot. In addition to the elderly who are unable to move, and the babies who are about to be oiled and cannot walk and talk, everyone here has to work, but there is a place where there is no need to pay high rent, and the countenance tax is exempted. The workshops and workshops of noble ladies such as the Queen Mother can also provide them with a job.

How the managers should arrange it is also a problem. The salary of the manager is meager, but it cannot stop the huge profits from the madam, factory owner and criminal leader. Later, His Majesty the King found a good way for them, which was to let the soldiers and officers who had to choose managers from the retired soldiers and officers in the army. These retired non-commissioned officers originally had the retirement money promised by His Majesty the King. The money was quite considerable, but it was not distributed to them at once, but was distributed monthly. At that time, it was to avoid throwing the money on the tavern and the wandering girl as soon as they got it. Now it can become a constraint - unless the money bribes and embezzlement can exceed this money, the managers will not be moved.

Moreover, in order to avoid long-term employment, management will eventually turn into rule, these managers will change their homes at any time. During the handover, the accounts will be supervised and checked by accounting. If there are any errors and chaos, the person responsible will not leave the home without making up for the deficit, or directly go to the Bastille from the home.

Before the death of the Queen Mother, such charity sites had expanded to 300, Paris, Versailles and several other cities in the basin. When people saw the black iron gates with the emblems of gold lilies, the sun and the Virgin belt, they knew that this was a relief house donated by the Queen Mother. The Queen Mother did not have a private emblem, so the king gave her his sun portrait and the golden lilies. As for the Virgin belt, it was a leather belt inlaid with the Virgin portrait that was popular among noble girls. The thirty-seven-year-old Queen Mother had a miscarriage. People said that she could not give birth to a healthy heir, but a storm left the king in the Louvre - she had Louis XIV.

At that time and when he was confirmed to be pregnant, the Queen Mother wore a Virgin belt. Louis XIII also vowed to offer France to the Virgin Mary, so there was a part of the Virgin Mary's emblem. In addition, all the mourning houses were named after the holy name of the Virgin Mary and the place name, such as the Virgin Mary-Paris Church, or the Virgin Mary-Limoges Wells House.

But for those lonely and poor people, the Queen Mother is their Virgin, or she is the human incarnation of the Virgin. When they heard the news of the Queen Mother's death, they couldn't help but burst into tears, like ancient Romans, tearing their hair, taking off their shoes, and smearing mud and sand on their faces. This mourning is not pretentious and looks extremely ugly, but no one will accuse them of being uneducated.

Some of them asked the administrator to go to Paris to bid farewell to the Queen Mother, which of course would cost them several days of wages, exhaust their meager savings, and even directly affect their lives ten years later. However, they still showed a firm will, just as the devout believers were going to Jerusalem to pilgrimage, "If you disagree, we will escape, it doesn't matter if we don't come back." They said this, even the most stalwart people could not be shaken, and the administrators here were still believers of the king. When they thought of how sad the king was, they could not help but agree to the requests of these people.

Several smart managers gathered those who wanted to attend the funeral and formed a team to Paris, so that they would not get lost, have accidents, or be intercepted by local officials and people. Their colleagues also thought this method was good, so the team became longer and longer, and for a while, some people thought they were really a pilgrimage team - because they were actually holding crosses and praying on the road.

When the Marquis of Lois and Colbert received the application from his subordinates, the king did not take it too seriously when he learned about this from the "Bird" and the officials. Who knew that along the way, 15,000 people finally came to Paris.

Louis XIV's original plan was to transform Paris from the political center of France into an economic center and an art center, and to move the political center to Versailles, because the Parisians were no longer trusted by him, and because Paris, as an ancient capital, could no longer meet the needs of Louis XIV. Not to mention anything else, if the current French government and all the officials and nobles were to be stuffed into Paris, the city of Paris would be overcrowded and burst. The Louvre would not allow every king to value and like a room of his own.

Fortunately, for this reason, Paris and Versailles have countless houses, even the sides of the avenue connecting them. Agile people built rows of three- or four-story buildings here. The servants and servants of the Palace of Versailles live here, as well as families of officers and soldiers, officials, tourists from other provinces, etc. They are also hotels, shops, restaurants... In Versailles and the Limoges on the same side, it is enough to supply the demand of 100,000 people, and when Paris lives in 150,000 people, it is not a problem to accommodate 15,000 people who unexpectedly arrive.

Louis XIV allocated a sum of money to ensure that these people stayed and fed in Paris and their travel expenses, and ensured that even if they did not make money, they could not help themselves in their future lives. However, this sorrow added a soft comfort to his previous pain and sorrow. If the Queen Mother could know about this, she would definitely be happy - not only because her efforts were rewarded, but also because it was not because she was a princess of Austria, or the Queen Mother of France, the Queen Mother, but because she received a response because of her kindness.

Even the noble ladies like Queen Theresa and Duchess Monponcier were moved by it. They personally sent candles to these people because they knew that they could not afford it - although the candles could be extracted from oil, they were not affordable by these poor people who had no place to live. After they came back, they all said that more relief houses were built. Louis looked at the pair of shiny eyes and could not find any reason to object - he had not wanted to object.

The injustice against women in this era is engraved on the sacred scriptures and stone tablets. Louis XIV's school allowed the shelter of female and male students at the same time, which attracted many accusations. If it were not for the power of the Sun King, they might have died early for various reasons. Even so, for more than ten years, the way out for female students can only be found in marriage. It can only be said that those who received education, who were still sleeping in tradition, finally knew how to start looking for a way forward. Of course, this is difficult and very difficult. Louis would not blame the girls who retreated in the face of various difficulties, but he still hoped that they could see a little light.

If the battlefield, politics and the academy still stubbornly reject women, then what about charity? Women have an advantage over men in this regard. If men are sentimental, they will be regarded as cowardly, while women are recognized as creatures born with maternal and kindness. Men should not mind giving up their power in this regard - they just don't know that anything, any matter, will bring the same amazing power after becoming huge.

But that may take a long time later.

—————

But from now on, people will firmly remember Anne of Austria. In history books, she is no longer just the king's daughter, the king's wife, the king's mother, or the king's grandmother - she is also a saint, a good person who saved countless people. Such a title may be the best suitable for this ill-fated lady.

"His Majesty……"
Chapter completed!