Time quickly arrived at 1869.
Although no news had arrived from Spain yet, Carlo had already made full preparations for his possible entry into Spain.
First was the power of public opinion that Carlo had vigorously developed, which had now yielded certain results.
Carlo’s largest newspaper, Italy’s Il Sole 24 Ore, had become the largest newspaper in northern Italy.
Its average daily sales volume for the entire year of 1868 had exceeded 24,000 copies.
Aside from The Sun, under Carlo’s instructions, Loren had also founded multiple newspapers in northern and southern Italy.
Combined, the daily sales volume of these small and medium-sized newspapers was also over 10,000 copies.
Carlo could be considered to have completed his preliminary layout of public opinion power.
The various large and small newspapers together had tens of thousands of loyal readers, influencing a demographic of at least hundreds of thousands of people.
Whenever Carlo wanted to, he could ensure a piece of news reached hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of Italians in a short period.
In this era of extremely inconvenient transportation, where people mostly traveled by horses, oxcarts, and other livestock, this was extraordinarily impressive.
These various newspapers also brought Carlo nearly 250,000 lire in income over two and a half years.
Thanks also to Garibaldi’s reputation allowing The Sun to quickly open up the market, otherwise over two hundred thousand lire wouldn’t have been so easy to earn.
As time entered February 1869, Spain’s parliamentary elections officially arrived.
Just as in history, Prim, as the most powerful individual in the provisional government and bearing massive prestige in the revolutionary army, smoothly secured the majority of seats in parliament.
This piece of news made Carlo breathe a sigh of relief.
It meant Spain would move towards a constitutional monarchy rather than a republic, and Carlo still had a great hope of becoming the King of Spain.
As soon as the new Spanish parliament was established, it announced it would not abolish the monarchy, but would establish a national government under a constitutional monarchy to manage Spain’s affairs.
Because the Spanish throne remained unresolved, the parliament appointed the Prime Minister of the provisional government, Francisco Serrano y Domínguez, as the Regent of the Kingdom of Spain, and the Minister of War, Prim, as the new Prime Minister.
These two were not only the most prestigious figures in the provisional government but also two generals heavily supported by the revolutionary army.
This was actually the true reason Spain continued to maintain a monarchy, since the two men with decision-making power both supported it.
Thanks to the report promoting the advancements of the monarchy, the news of Spain continuing to maintain a monarchy didn’t cause much of a stir.
As long as it wasn’t another foolish monarch like Queen Isabella ruling Spain, the objections of the Spanish people would at least not be so fierce.
With the parliamentary matters temporarily settled, the most headache-inducing issue for Regent Serrano and Prime Minister Prim became choosing a suitable King for Spain.
Although they could pick anyone from the European royal families, the chosen candidate absolutely had to be recognized by the public.
Those with a poor reputation couldn’t be selected; the Spanish people wouldn’t believe such a King could do better than Isabella.
If it was just another Queen Isabella ruling Spain, then what was the purpose of the Spanish people’s revolution?
Those with controversial backgrounds couldn’t be chosen.
For Spain, only a King with noble origins supported by a major family could stabilize Spain’s order.
If the new King’s background was controversial, it would deal another blow to Spain’s hard-won constitutional monarchy.
Adding on various other conditions, ultimately, there were only a handful of European princes suitable to become the King of Spain.
After more than a month of screening, Serrano and Prim finally decided on a five-person shortlist.
The first choice was Prince Leopold of the German royal family.
Born into the House of Hohenzollern, Prince Leopold was backed by the Kingdom of Prussia, which had just won the Austro-Prussian War; both his background and reputation met Spain’s requirements.
The second choice was Ferdinand, who had served as the Regent of Portugal.
Ferdinand’s wife and son were Portuguese monarchs, and his performance as King of Portugal (jure uxoris) and during his regency was above passing, and his prestige was quite good.
The third choice was Prince Amedeo from Italy’s House of Savoy.
After unification, Italy had a voice along the Mediterranean, and the prestige of the Savoy family among European royals had seen a slight increase.
For Spain, Amedeo might not be as reliable as the first two, but he was considered a qualified candidate.
The fourth choice also came from Italy’s House of Savoy: Amedeo’s younger brother, Carlo.
Carlo’s drawback was being slightly young, still a few months shy of turning 18.
But Carlo’s reputation in Italy was no weaker than Amedeo’s; The Sun’s propaganda regarding Carlo had been very effective.
Even many Italians deeply loved this youngest prince because he didn’t put on airs when going out and would friendly greet the Italian people.
Due to the power of public opinion, some Spaniards had also heard of this friendly Italian prince.
This was the reason Carlo was able to enter the shortlist; after all, both Prim and Serrano believed the Spanish people wouldn’t reject a friendly King.
The last candidate was Queen Isabella’s brother-in-law, the Spanish Duke of Montpensier.
However, considering the Spanish people’s disgust for Queen Isabella and the potential “love me, love my dog” (or rather, “hate me, hate my dog”) mentality, Prim placed the Duke of Montpensier at the very end of the shortlist and considered removing him.
After all, selecting a Spanish King was extremely strict.
Any flaw in a candidate would be magnified infinitely, and any possible impact had to be considered by Serrano and Prim.
To Prim’s disappointment, just after the Spanish government released a little information to Ferdinand, Ferdinand directly refused the Spanish throne.
This also theoretically cut off the possibility of another union between Spain and Portugal, because Ferdinand’s son was the current King of Portugal.
If Ferdinand could secure the Spanish throne, the future King of Portugal might have inherited the Spanish throne, achieving the merger of the two Iberian countries.
Ferdinand’s voluntary withdrawal turned the five-person list into four.
After a long discussion with Serrano, Prim finally decided to remove the Duke of Montpensier from the list as well, leaving the shortlist with only three candidates.
Although Spain’s process of choosing a king was kept relatively secret, there is no wall in the world that is completely airtight.
At this moment, Prim and Serrano still didn’t know what kind of massive impact their king-selection process would have on the European situation, even directly causing a European hegemon to be trampled underfoot by other countries.