Chapter 12: Audience with the Queen

Before the "Golden Jubilee Celebrations", Barron was summoned by Her Majesty the Queen.This is not Barron's first time to come to Buckingham Palace. To be precise, as far as his previous memory goes, he had come here several times accompanying his father during some royal celebrations, but this is definitely the first time he has been personally received by the Queen.

In other words, if Barron was not the only heir left in the Devonshire Dukedom, it would be difficult for him to be summoned by Her Majesty the Queen when he had not yet been officially granted the title of Duke.

Although he had expected this, Barron still couldn't help but sigh when the reality was presented to him.

The fact is, the Queen didn't summon him for long. He just showed up and chatted for a few minutes.

The content of the conversation was, on the one hand, expressing regret for what had recently happened to the family of the Duke of Devonshire. The Queen said that she had originally planned to attend their family's funeral in person, but was really busy and could not attend, so she sent His Majesty the Prince of Wales, the Crown Prince, to go.

In Barron's opinion, another reason for this is probably that it is the Golden Jubilee celebration of the Queen's 50th anniversary of her accession to the throne. Therefore, not only herself, but also the people around her certainly do not support the Queen to attend such a funeral - not to mention that although the Queen looks energetic, she is 76 years old after all...

She specifically mentioned the old lady of the Duke of Devonshire's family -

"I heard her name when I was young and talked to her at several gatherings. It's sad to hear about her passing after so many years."

The Queen also stated that she will personally present the title to Barron at the ceremony where he is conferred the title of Duke.

As for the rest, there is none.

The implication was obvious, that is, she was also aware of the current situation of the Duke of Devonshire's family. If the family could survive this crisis, they would not deserve less.

But if Barron is unable to survive this crisis, then there is probably nothing they can do to help.

Barron did not have too many illusions about this. After all, it was obvious that the most obvious point of successive British governments since World War II was to constantly restrain and restrict the aristocracy. Even in the new century, they had begun to direct this weakening towards the royal family.

Under such circumstances, in order to maintain its relationship with the government, the royal family could not support the nobles too obviously.

Besides, since World War I and World War II, until now, countless British aristocratic families have been submerged in the long river of history. In view of this situation, the royal family is unwilling to intervene.

After all, if I help you this time, will other noble families help you next time? Although there are only more than 20 non-royal duke families, there are still so many others including marquisates, earls, viscounts, etc. If I really intervene this time, I'm afraid I won't have a peaceful life in the future.

Therefore, although they felt sorry for what happened to the Duke of Devonshire's family, they still stood by and watched.

…

This audience with the Queen is just a procedure before the official start of the "Golden Jubilee Celebrations" tomorrow. In addition to Barron representing the Duke of Devonshire's family, many other nobles and celebrities and politicians have also been received by the Queen.

It is better to rely on oneself than on others. Barron has already realized this, so after returning to the apartment, he immediately began to study the next bet.

He did not place any bets on today's match. After all, the World Cup will last for a month and he cannot bet on every match. That would be too obvious and high-profile.

It's not that he can still remember the results of all the games. The ones that left a deep impression on him only account for about one-fifth of them.

But he still has some impressions of tomorrow's games, because those games include Argentina and England.

The Asahi World Cup is one of the very few World Cups in which the Argentine team did not appear in the group stage. Their Group F includes Nigeria, England, Sweden and Argentina.

Nigeria, the African Eagles, is a traditional strong team in Africa; England is also a traditional strong team in Europe; Sweden is also strong, and with the addition of the Campos Eagles Argentina, this group can be said to be a definite group of death.

In the end, Argentina had one win, one draw and one loss, accumulating four points, and was eliminated by England and Sweden, who also had one win and two draws...

In tomorrow's game, Argentina will beat Nigeria and England will draw with Sweden. Both games, especially the latter, are worth betting on...

…

Although the last meeting ended in a rather unpleasant manner, after Barron was received by the Queen, Yulia visited him again.

After hearing from him about the Queen's reception today and asking for some details, Yulia sighed, 

"It would be even better if they could come out and say hello to those banks. But that's the way it is now. Everyone always blames the nobles, so the royal family is very cautious in this regard."

"What is the attitude of those banks now?"

Hearing Barron's question, Yulia shrugged:

"Fortunately, we still have time. The earliest loan due is only two months away. However, this year, a total of more than 15 million pounds of loans will expire. If we can't solve the problem of losses well before then, well, at least give the other party some confidence, I'm afraid even if we want to extend the loan, it won't be that easy."

"How much funding do we need to solve in two months?"

"The £2 million loan from Barclays Bank is due in two months. This money was used to mortgage some of our assets in London at the time, so we either have to give up these assets or find a way to sell some other assets to raise funds. However, at this time, many real estate properties cannot be sold at a high price. London real estate has even fallen a lot in the past six months."

It can be said that the large-scale Internet bubble crisis that broke out last year had an impact on the global economy. After all, the US stock market was severely affected. The Nasdaq index fell nearly 80% from its peak and has continued to be sluggish until now.

As the most important part of world finance, the crisis in America spread to the world and also triggered the decline of the European economy.

"Of course, Lord, the first thing for you now is to find a way to pay the inheritance tax and complete the inheritance procedures for the family title and assets."

Before leaving, Yulia said, 

"Also, London will be very lively in the near future, but you still need to be extremely careful, especially at night. Don't show up in nightclubs or any carnival parties... Once you are spotted by those tabloids and reported, I'm afraid the negative impact will be very great..."

The thought of finding joy in misery is that, precisely because of the huge losses in the family trust fund, the inheritance tax required for Barron to inherit these assets has been reduced a lot...

Because of the tax-free nature of the trust fund, after calculation, the inheritance tax he needed to pay at this time was less than two million pounds.

You know, more than half a century ago, his grandfather faced inheritance tax of up to 7 million pounds...

This also shows from one side the decline of the Duke of Devonshire's family at that time.