Prince Miguel is dead.

The 2-year-old is the only child of Manuel and Isabella of Aragon. If nothing unexpected happens, he will be the future King of Portugal.

But now when he was 2 years old, the little prince suddenly died, which shocked the entire Portugal Kingdom.

Various speculations and gossips rage in Lisbon, and then spread to other parts of the kingdom at an astonishing speed. The most eye-catching keywords among these rumors are: queen, food and crown prince.

As the eldest son, Miguel is the natural heir to the crown prince's status. As long as Miguel is in one day, the children of Queen Maria will be destined to be out of the throne. Now Prince Miguel suddenly dies. Even if Maria has no boy in the future, her 1-year-old daughter will be the heir to the throne. According to some rumors, Prince Miguel suddenly fell ill after eating food seen by Queen Maria, and then exposed the news of the prince's poisoning.

Everything seemed to be clear all of a sudden. The poor prince, the jealous stepmother, the greed for the throne, and perhaps even the grudges between sisters when they were still in the Aragon court in their early years. Various speculations have gradually covered up the need to know what the fact is, or people never want to know what the fact is, they only want to get what they want to see and hear.

The Lisbon court was shocked, and although the ministers were talking, they became more cautious than ever. People knew that the prince's death was an extremely big blow to Manuel I. The blow even caused the king's spirit to collapse. He refused to talk to anyone, but locked himself in the prince's room and looked at the empty bed for several hours.

Moreover, Manuel also refused to see the queen. Although he was not angry, he directly asked the guards to block the maid whom the queen sent to him to pass the message outside. This signal was very obvious, which made Maria extremely angry. She decided to go to see Manuel in person, but when she was about to walk outside Prince Miguel's room, Maria hesitated when she saw the guard standing at the door.

She was worried that Manuel would simply order the soldiers to block her. If that were the case, her face would be completely trampled on in public, and she would not dare to take it.

So after hesitating for a while, Maria turned around and left.

Rumors are still circulating everywhere and are intensifying. At some point, some people began to shout the slogan "depose the queen". Although this slogan was only a few people shouted it with courage at the beginning, when they found that no one seemed to say that they would do anything to them, these people became more and more courageous.

Maria has been the queen of Portugal for two years. Compared with her sister Isabella of Aragon, Maria obviously has a stronger personality and a more suitable sense of responsibility as a queen. This was originally a good thing, but this personality is a bit too firm and a sense of responsibility is too strong. Her background is destined to be hostile in Portugal.

So in comparison, her sister is more suitable for the identity of Portugal queen at least in Isabella's short two-year career as a queen, it was obvious that the Portuguese went from being hostile to her to being eased.

But Maria never refused to compromise with the nobles. She stubbornly believed that she had come to Portugal with a firm belief and a mission of changing the relationship between the two countries, rather than as a wife, which made her inexplicably hostile to all Portuguese, including her husband, from the very beginning.

If Prince Miguel had not died suddenly, if Manuel had not developed a strong interest in the new colony, or simply said that if Alexander had not appeared, Maria would not have encountered these changes. She would have died of a serious illness after having seven children with Manuel. Then Manuel would miss her sister, while marrying the daughter of her other sister Juana, her niece who was only 13 years old at the time.

But this is all if, now because of a reason she absolutely could not imagine, Maria's position as the Portuguese queen is in jeopardy.

When he heard about Prince Miguel's sudden death, Alexander was discussing some details of the voyage with Da Gama. Although Manuel seemed a little hesitant at the critical moment, they all knew whether to conduct an Atlantic expedition was actually no longer up to the king.

The huge temptation of interests and the huge investments that have been invested have made Lisen crazy. Whether it is a powerful nobleman or a rich businessman, people's eyes are now staring at the two new routes that can make them richer.

The route to India brought gold, ivory, gems and pepper, and the mysterious new colony was said to have more rare treasures that had never been seen before, which was enough to make anyone with the conditions to participate.

So even though I knew that Manuel was still a little in a hurry at the last moment, this did not affect the adventurers' strong interest in exploration.

The news was Ferdinand Magellan, the student at Don Antonio at the Navigation Office.

When Da Gama heard that Prince Miguel died suddenly, he exclaimed unexpectedly. Although Miguel was too young, his identity as the king's eldest son naturally attracted much attention.

Now that the prince suddenly died, everyone was shocked.

Alexander was also unexpected, and this accident was even more unexpected than Da Gama.

Alexander knew that the future Portuguese king in history was Maria's son rather than Prince Milg, but he didn't know when the prince died.

Now that he suddenly heard this news, Alexander couldn't help but feel a strange feeling in his heart.

Elliodor Don Antonio came soon, and he looked a little strange. After greeting Da Gama casually, he signaled to talk to Alexander alone. Then as soon as Da Gama left, he suddenly pulled out the short sword from his waist and pointed it at Alexander!

"Did you do this?" Don Antonio panted and trembled. His gray beard was trembling because of anger and excitement. The tip of the sword in his hand was trembling. "You just asked to make Juanna queen, Prince Miguel died. Then now everyone is saying that the murderer is Maria. Is this your plan? Assassinate the prince and then push the charges on the queen, so that two obstacles can be eradicated at once, right?"

Seeing Don Antonio trying to suppress the sound, he still couldn't help but yell. While stretching out his hand, Alexander shook his eyes at Schell, who was already standing at the door and aiming his musket behind him.

"I didn't do this, I can swear to God," Alexander said slowly, simply sitting down to look at Don Antonio. "I do have plans to make Juana queen, but you said that murdering a 2-year-old child for this is an insult to me."

"But the prince was poisoned to death. He is the future king of Portugal!" Don Antonio took a step forward angrily, and the sword edge of the dagger almost touched Alexander's chest.

"So you think this is what I did? First, murder a prince, and then put the charge on his stepmother. When his stepmother was deposed or even imprisoned for this, he could push the one I supported to the throne of queen. This would not only eliminate Maria and even allow Juana's children to inherit the Portuguese throne in the future. This is indeed the best plan."

"It was you who did it!" Hearing Alexander's words, Don Antonio was instantly excited. He took a step forward and tried to grab Alexander's chest, but then he was hugged from behind and then fell to the ground.

"Sir, I think you are so excited," Alexander shook his head as he looked at Don Antonio who was pressed to the ground by several hunting guards. He squatted down to look at the old man, and then he suddenly smiled. "Or you actually know that this was not what I did, otherwise why did you come to meet someone who murdered the prince alone? Or you actually don't care about this?"

As he said that, Alexander waved his hand to the hunting guards and told them to let go of Don Antonio.

Don Antonio slowly got up from the ground, staring at Alexander with his eyes, and then he placed the chair he knocked down next to him opposite Alexander.

"So tell me who it is," Don Antonio asked in a dull tone.

"I don't know," Alexander shook his head helplessly. "We all know that although the prince's death is indeed a very unexpected and sad thing, it is indeed very beneficial to us, right?"

Don Antonio's eyes narrowed.

As Alexander said, he would come to see the murderer in his mouth alone, just because although he was surprised by Prince Miguel's death, there was actually a voice deep in his heart that kept saying that this was not bad either.

Miguel is the son of Sister Maria and the grandson of Queen Isabella. In this regard, no matter whose children succeed to the throne, the meaning of this is the same for Portugal.

For Portuguese nobles such as Eliodo Don Antonio, what they hope is to help Portugal get rid of the threats and influences from the couple.

Because of this, although Prince Miguel's death shocked the entire kingdom, for some reason, many people felt an inexplicable relaxation and release in their hearts.

The prince with the blood of the two kings died, and the queen with the same blood was suspected, which made many Portuguese vaguely feel that things didn't seem so bad.

Of course, this kind of thought must not be made public, so Eliodor Don Antonio used such anger to conceal the true thoughts in his heart.

But now, he also felt that there was no need to hide anything.

"But this will never be forgiven," Don Antonio looked at Alexander. "A prince is still a child after all, and now it is no longer the era when he could murder the royal family wantonly. This is a terrible crime."

"I'll say it again, it's not what I did." Alexander shook his head. He didn't want Don Antonio to believe that he was just murdering a 2-year-old child. Even if no one really cared, Alexander still didn't want to take such a charge. "Maybe I will find the murderer in the future, but we should not talk about this now."

Don Antonio was silent and finally nodded: "Indeed, we should talk about what to do next."

Maria sat blankly in front of the semicircular convex bay window near the corner of her room. This is her favorite place. From here, you can see a low mountain in the distance of Lisbon. If the weather is good, you can also see the shallow lake further away.

Maria likes to sit in front of the window and look outside, which is a rare time in the day when she makes herself look less deliberately imitating her mother.

But today she looked blank and looked out the window blankly, but she seemed to see nothing.

All night, Maria did not close her eyes. She stood beside Miguel, watching the doctor treat him, and moaned as her stepson and nephew struggled and groaned in pain.

Mary prayed to God, to Jesus Christ and the Virgin, to all the divine beings she knew.

At this moment, she was an aunt and mother. It can be said that at least for a while she hadn't thought about too much.

But when morning came, Maria was told that Prince Miguel had left the world and went to heaven.

At the same time, what she didn't expect was that Manuel did not let her look at the poor prince again, but told her to "go back to her room."

Manuel looked terrible at that time. Maria swore that she had never seen such a king before. Maria, who had refused like usual, finally chose to compromise. She knew that she could not anger Manuel at this time.

But even so, Maria still thought that it was just a father who had lost his beloved son because of his overly sad loss of composure, so she was going to wait until Manuel calmed down before comforting her.

And after calming down a little, Maria's thoughts inevitably thought about the issue of Portugal's succession after losing Miguel.

Although she kept telling herself that she should not think about this, at least she could not think so quickly, she was still somewhat vaguely excited by Miguel's death.

But the excitement hidden in his heart soon turned into panic. As a servant panicked to her the next day, he reported to her a terrible rumors circulating inside and outside the palace, Maria finally realized that she had been trapped in a huge conspiracy.

Only then did she panic that she had been under house arrest. Her armed entourage had been replaced at some point. The guards outside the door were unfamiliar and hostile. When she insisted on walking out of the room to meet her husband, the guards immediately blocked her back without hesitation.

Maria was completely panicked. She didn't know why things turned out like this. She didn't even understand what was wrong.

Her angry scolding of the guards was only indifferent and ignorant. Just as she was furious because she was helpless, some people around her began to be forcibly taken away for interrogation.

Maria felt that the whole world seemed to be collapsed, and she began to ask the officials to ask them to send a message to the king, but the Portuguese who were usually humble and respectful to her only replied in a seemingly polite but rather cold tone, "Your Majesty is sad for Prince Miguel's death, so please forgive me for being unreasonable, and I really cannot convey your request to you."

At this time, Maria knew that she was really in danger.

Manuel refused to see her, which was a very dangerous sign.

If we could meet, Maria believed that she could still defend herself, but Manuel's attitude made her realize the real danger.

At this time, she realized that she was trapped in a huge conspiracy, and Manuel's actions made her even more scared.

Maria may not be as good as her mother, but she is the daughter of Isabella and Ferdinand II, and is a descendant of the Mastarama family.

Although the rumors outside were against her, Maria did not think she had no chance to clarify everything and prove her innocence, but Manuel did not even give her the chance to meet her, which made Maria realize that Manuel was not willing to see her because of suspicion, but rather she was more like "I want to" believe that she was the mastermind of the murder of Prince Miguel.

When Maria thought of these, she couldn't help but feel chills all over. Of course, she knew that Manuel could not have murdered his only son, but he didn't seem to mind using this to attribute all the charges to her.

Maria never thought her husband would hate her so much, or she didn't expect Manuel to really attack her.

But this time, due to an unexpected and special reason, Manuel gave a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Miguel is not only a Portuguese prince, he is also the only child of the eldest daughter of the Spanish two kings and their grandson.

Just this identity is enough to make the couple face this matter in a dilemma.

No matter what the reason his daughter is suspected of murdering her grandson will put the couple in a dilemma, and no matter what kind of response they make, it seems inappropriate.

The door behind him opened, and a fierce argument came from the room outside. Maria moved and looked back at the maid standing behind her: "What happened?"

"Your Majesty, they are going to take Dr. Hudokka away." The maid whispered, and seeing Maria showing anger, the maid whispered, "They brought several soldiers."

Maria closed her eyes slightly, and she tried to calm the anger that was about to burst out in her chest. After thinking about it, she waved her hand: "Let Dr. Hudoka go with them, I want everyone to know that I am innocent."

The maid's expression changed slightly. Dr. Hudoka was Maria's personal physician. The death of Isabella in Aragon made the couple sad and worried that Maria would also encounter the same fate, so they specially arranged a private doctor with superb art to follow her to the Portuguese court.

Maria trusted Dr. Hudoka very much. He was not only her doctor but also her counselor and confidant.

Before, only servants were taken away, but now when they heard that the Portuguese were going to take Dr. Hudoka away, everyone around Maria was panicked.

They knew that they would probably be the ones who would be taken away next, and as Iberians with similar customs and experiences, these people knew very well how the Portuguese would treat them.

Maria could feel the panic of the people around her, but she had no choice at this time.

She was puzzled and hoped to find someone in the palace who could help her, but she couldn't know anything that was happening outside now, which made her fall into confusion.

In fact, there are still people who support Maria in the palace, and many of them, either with Castia or Aragon, or because they are worried that it may cause a fierce reaction from their strong neighbors, these people strongly oppose the house arrest of the queen, and at the same time ask Manuel to find the "real murderer" as soon as possible.
To be continued...