Chapter 4 The Queen's Decision

"I understand, Arthur. I agree with you going out, but not now." Queen Victoria was silent for a long time, then nodded with difficulty and said.

"Thank you, grandma." Arthur finally breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Queen Victoria gratefully.

"When the matters during this period are settled, I will accompany you to Australia to have a look!" Queen Victoria suddenly spoke, but her words were shocking.

"Are you going to Australia?" Arthur was suddenly startled, and then thought of Queen Victoria's massive expedition to the Isle of Wight, a small island in the north of New Zealand, at the end of 1900, just to remember her husband and Prince Albert at the last moment of her life. A wonderful time for the children.

"Yes." Queen Victoria seemed to be immersed in beautiful memories. It took a long time to come back to her senses. She looked at Arthur and said with a smile: "Grandma will be able to stay with Arthur for a while, and she may never see her again. ”

Hearing Queen Victoria say this, the tip of Arthur's nose suddenly became sore, and tears seemed to well up in his eyes, but Arthur held them back.

"No, grandma. You can stay with Arthur for a long time, and grandma will at least live a long life." Arthur said quickly.

In fact, when Queen Victoria went to the Isle of Wight, she had clearly learned about her physical condition, but she still chose to travel hard to miss her husband and children.

Now that Queen Victoria has once again experienced the pain of losing her son, she may have felt that her body is not as good as before, and she plans to go to the Isle of Wight to bring her life to a successful end.

"Haha, okay, grandma will live a long life." Queen Victoria smiled and nodded, not refuting Arthur's words, but her slightly sad eyes and slightly trembling hands proved that she did not believe it.

"Arthur, are you really going to Australia?" After coming back to her senses, Queen Victoria looked at Arthur with some solemnity and asked.

"You must know that Australia is no better than the British mainland. It used to be a penal colony for our criminals. Although it is no longer there, there are still a large number of Australians who are disobedient to education." Queen Victoria explained: "If you want to go to Australia , then you must be prepared at any time, the people there are not obedient people, you must hold on to your gun and wealth to ensure that you and your most important people will not be harmed. "

"Yes, I'm ready, grandma." Arthur nodded and said equally solemnly.

"That's OK, Arthur." Queen Victoria touched Arthur's head and said, "I will tell the government that all the territories you inherit now will be exchanged with Australia, and the title will also become the Duke of Australia. Of course. "If you can't stand life in Australia, grandma will always welcome you back."

"Thank you, grandma." Arthur nodded gratefully.

After all, Queen Victoria is good to her family, especially to Duke Arthur and Princess Beatrice. Queen Victoria is the dearest mother.

Of course, Queen Victoria's care for Arthur can also be felt now, especially after Duke Arthur's unexpected death. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, Queen Victoria cares more about Arthur.

Queen Victoria acted quickly. Just the next day, the British government issued a notice that several Australian colonies were merged into the Duchy of Australia, ruled by Arthur.

Several titles that Arthur originally inherited from his father were also returned to the British Empire.

On the surface, this territory exchange was a huge loss for Arthur. After all, although his two dukedoms were not large in area, they were actually the core areas of the British Empire.

In exchange, Australia was once a penal colony for criminals in the British Empire decades ago. Now it is just a colony with a vast land area, but sparse population and backward economy and industry.

Even if it becomes a complete territory after integration, it still lacks infrastructure and will not be able to compare with Arthur's original two duchies for at least several decades.

Although everyone from the British government to the British civilians were surprised by this territory exchange, they understood something when they thought about the assassination of Duke Arthur not long ago.

January 31, 1900.

At this time, 20 days had passed since Arthur's territory exchange, and everyone had accepted it, including Queen Victoria and Arthur.

During this time, in addition to Queen Victoria occasionally paying attention to Arthur and Princess Louise as well as Margaret and Patricia, Princess Beatrice and Crown Prince Edward also visited.

Perhaps knowing that he would have no trouble inheriting the throne after Arthur exchanged territories, Crown Prince Edward was also very kind to Arthur and even promised to sponsor Arthur with a sum of money when he went to the territory.

Because of Queen Victoria's deliberate concealment, Arthur did not yet know that his father-killing enemy was his uncle, Prince Edward.

But no matter what, Arthur would not refuse Prince Edward's gift.

After all, Australia's future development will take time and also require a large amount of funds to support it.

Although Arthur has a way to obtain a large amount of funds, it may even be able to support Australia's development in the next few years.

But this amount of money is difficult to obtain in a short period of time. At least until Arthur has complete control of Australia, Arthur will not touch the idea of ​​​​this unexpected wealth.

After 20 days of preparation, Queen Victoria also announced a message to all her children and the government, that is, she chose to drag her tired body to the Isle of Wight in New Zealand for recuperation.

The Queen's decision still caused turmoil in British politics. After all, when Prince Albert died in 1861, Queen Victoria had been in seclusion for more than ten years.

Although Queen Victoria became active again and was welcomed by a large number of British civilians at the grand celebrations of the 50th and 60th anniversary of the Queen's accession to the throne.

But this does not mean that Queen Victoria's seclusion has little impact on British politics.

On the contrary, the current Queen Victoria plays an irreplaceable stabilizing role in both British politics and the entire British Empire.

Queen Victoria is a great and irreplaceable monarch in the hearts of British politics and even all British civilians.

This phenomenon also appeared in Queen Elizabeth II in later generations. The long-term rule greatly improved the prestige of the Queen and the royal family among the people. Coupled with the great rise of the British Empire in the Victorian era, Queen Victoria became more important to Britain.

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