The moral reputation of the Spanish empire would never survive Alva, in the universe which had produced the history books which Rebecca had read in Grantville. She knew that for a certainty. Coming atop the Inquisition and the conquistadores, Alva would ensure that history’s memory of the Spanish in their heyday—that much of it written in the English language, at least—was one of simple cruelty, brutality and intolerance.
Which, in truth, was hardly fair. Spain would produce Parma and Spinola, also, just as it produced the line of shrewd and tolerant archduchess regents of the Spanish Netherlands beginning with Margaret and ending now with Isabella, reported to be lying on her deathbed. The same nation which produced Torquemada and Pizarro would also produce Bishop de las Casas and Miguel Cervantes. As a Sephardic Jewess, Rebecca understood the contradictions perfectly. Her own people had been driven out of Iberia by that Castilian darkness—yet still retained the culture of a land which was actually quite sunny. To this day, in private, she and her father Balthazar spoke to each other in Spanish. And why not? It was their tongue also.
But it mattered not. Alva had burned too deeply.
And, in the end, for no purpose. Alva’s policy would backfire—and backfire badly. Whether they wanted to or not, the population of the northern provinces really had no choice but to fight a ferocious war of resistance. So, a cruel and vicious old man would create a rebellion which not only defeated him, but would endure for as long as he had lived himself. Sixty years, now.
She and the prince stared at each other. Yes, sixty years—until now. But what would happen next?
“I am still glad of it,” she said softly. “The world does not need another Alva, Prince. However greatly that may burden your task.”
Frederik Hendrik squared his shoulders. “And I am glad of it also, in the end. I am only a prince to a certain point. Or, it might be better to say, beyond a certain point I need to consider what the very word ‘prince’ means in the first place.”
He tilted his head to one side, eyeing Rebecca shrewdly. “But let us move now to the immediate circumstances. What do you want from me, Madame Stearns? And what do you offer?”
Rebecca’s response came instantly. “I can offer you an immediate alliance with the United States. And I am quite certain—although I cannot speak for him—with the king of Sweden.”
The prince said nothing, for a moment. Then, bringing his head level, he pursed his lips. “I find myself—quite astonishing, really, for a prince—possessed by an overwhelming urge to speak the truth. Madame Stearns, I will gladly accept your offer. But I must warn you in advance that, in the end, I will almost certainly betray you.”
Rebecca nodded. “Of course. You will seek a settlement, not a victory. Which is, in my opinion, exactly what you should do.”
Frederik Hendrik hissed in a breath, his eyes widening. “Good God, am I that transparent?” He seemed genuinely aggrieved.
Barely, Rebecca managed to keep herself from emitting a nervous giggle. “Oh . . . not to most people, I think.”
“I had heard you were shrewd,” the prince murmured. “The reputation does not do you justice.”
“Ah . . . I think that is because people underestimate my husband, actually. They see me, and estimate the intelligence of a cosmopolitan Jewess, sired and raised by the philosopher Balthazar Abrabanel. And so they miss the influence—and training—of the man I married.”
The prince spread the fingers of his hands, inviting her to continue.
“Insofar as Europe’s nobility knows much at all about my husband—insofar as they deign to do so, I should say—what they see is simply a man who is reputed to have once been a leader of unruly workmen.” Again, Rebecca suppressed a giggle. Truth be told, Mike’s coal miners were a fairly unruly lot. “But that is only part of it, Prince. The American trade unions of his time were not a mob of apprentices in the streets, hurriedly assembled and waving torches about. It was an organized movement—and one which had more than a century of history behind it before he was even born. So he also knows how to negotiate as well as fight; retreat, as well as advance; concede, as well as demand. Most of all, he understands when a settlement is worth making, and when it is not. Or, as he puts it, when a settlement allows for later victory, whatever it costs at the moment.”