You’ll want to add his second marriage to Catherine de Bourbon. They had two children a boy and a girl.
List of monarchs III
- Thread starter Shiva
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Out of curiousity, is that a new thing or has this thread been in the wrong spot for nearly a decade?
I too am puzzled by this - it seems to have come out of nowhere, especially since Mods have contributed to the thread in the past?
May I ask why? There have been previous versions of this thread in the Before 1900 forum before and this has been active for 9 years now.
Burton K Wheeler
Moderator
Guess it had just been overlooked? I never realized it was a game thread.
Perhaps the thread could be “grandfathered” in at put back in pre 1900? Seeing as that’s where everyone is familiar with it.
I would guess then that Against The Grain and its predecessor Along The Watchtower will also be moved as well then, which is a shame as they are both great threads.
POD: Francois I dies in the battle of Pavia.
Kings of France
1515-1525: Francois I (House of Valois-Angoulêm)
1525-1556: Francois II (House of Valois-Angoulêm) [1]
1556-1599: Francois III (House of Valois-Angoulêm) [2]
1599-1616: Robert III (House of Valois-Angoulêm) [3]
1616-1633: Henri II (House of Valois-Angoulêm) [4]
1633-1665: Philippe VII (House of Valois-Angoulêm) [5]
[5] Philippe was born in 1603 as the second child and only surviving son of King Henri II and Margaret of Austria and as such he was expected to one day succeed his father as King of France and was taught the basics by tutors such as political thinking and military strategy. Much of his early learning was influenced by his mother who was more loyal to her native Austria than France and tried to convince him that the former was more superior than the latter. Philippe was fascinated by the works of late Renaissance Artists specifically English Playwright William Shakespeare who he considered “The last significant artist of a dying era”. Philippe would often beg his father to allow him to travel to England to see one of Shakespeare’s plays for himself but he would hear none of it. In 1611 when Philippe was eight years old his mother would die suddenly and though it would be a relief for Henri it wouldn’t be the same for his son who was extremely close with his late mother. In the late Queen’s will it would be discovered that she had left enough money for her son to see at least one of his favorite artists’s plays. It however would be two years however until he would be able to travel to see one of Shakespeare’s plays but eventually Philippe’s father would allow it and along with him. They would travel to England where they would initially stay with King James I due to the reason Henri had gone was to discuss some trade agreements with England on behalf of Robert III. On June 29 Philippe along with his father would go to the Globe Theater to see a showing of Henry VIII but this exciting trip for Philippe would be cut short after the building caught fire after a cannon used for special effects caused it. While Henri would see the trip as a waste of time and money Philippe was glad that he got to see part of it.
Philippe would go back to his studies in France and life would stay the same for a while until in 1616 his grandfather, Robert III, would die and his father would become King of France and as such he would become Dauphin of France. Later that year his father would marry Isabella of Navarre and like his father would come to detest her or as Philippe would describe in his autobiography later in life “someone I found to loathe entirely.” Despite his feelings towards his stepmother, Philippe would be surprisingly close to his half-siblings who he would describe as “people that I could love in a depressing time.” In 1621 Philippe would come of age and his father would put him in charge of his own regiment during the Catholic Rebellion of that same year. While his father would be in charge of the ambush near Paris, Philippe would be sent to Lorraine to help siege down the region with the help of reinforcements from Navarre. The siege would last almost three years with it ending after Henri II, Duke of Lorraine, would die and his brother, Francis, would surrender soon after. In his autobiography Philippe would describe the siege as “tiresome and unnecessary” with himself seeing it as an excuse to fulfill his father’s ambitions. When he would return home he would discover that his father had arranged a marriage with King Henri III of Navarre which involved him marrying Henri III’s daughter, Henriette Marie, when she would come of age. Philippe would be furious with this decision citing how his father never wanted to marry his stepmother embarrassing him in front of the King of Navarre.
Despite the embarrassment Philippe would still be arranged to marry Henriette Marie and the two would wed in 1627 when she came of age. Though he hadn’t had wanted to marry her Philippe at least would try to love her wishing his marriage to not be as unloving as his father’s first marriage and as a result the two would have five children that would live to adulthood. Philippe would continue his duties as Dauphin of France until he would receive the news in 1633 of his father’s death while on vacation with his family in Normandy. Philippe and his family would travel to Paris where preparations for his coronation were already underway and a few days later he would officially be crowned as King of France. One of the main issues in the first few years of his reign was the significant Catholic population in the kingdom and while many pushed for greater pressure on these people to convert to Protestantism Philippe would instead pass the Religious Tolerance Act of 1635 which guarantied the right for anyone in the kingdom to practice any form of Christianity that they wished citing that his wife was a Catholic. This act also helped influence his foreign policy with himself soon offering Louis II of Navarre who had succeeded his father as King of Navarre to become an autonomous region of the Kingdom of France as protection against the Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon who were beginning to eye the small kingdom. The King of Navarre would accept in exchange for a marriage between his heir and one of Philippe’s daughters to which he agreed since one of his daughters was already in contact with the Prince of Navarre.
Philippe’s reign would be considered a very peaceful one with little conflict allowing himself to focus on internal improvements. He would be succeeded by ____.
Kings of France
1515-1525: Francois I (House of Valois-Angoulêm)
1525-1556: Francois II (House of Valois-Angoulêm) [1]
1556-1599: Francois III (House of Valois-Angoulêm) [2]
1599-1616: Robert III (House of Valois-Angoulêm) [3]
1616-1633: Henri II (House of Valois-Angoulêm) [4]
1633-1665: Philippe VII (House of Valois-Angoulêm) [5]
[1] Francois II became king just four days shy of his seventh birthday. With both his parents dead, Francois and his siblings would be taken care of by their grandmother and their aunt. In 1530, peace would be made with the Holy Roman Emperor by having Francois be betrothed to the emperor's niece, Maria of Portugal. They would marry in 1536 when Francois would begin ruling for himself. Unlike most men of his time (including his two brothers) Francois was noted to be completely devoted to his wife, never taking a mistress, claiming that they all paled in comparison to his darling Marie. From 1538 to 1555, they would have nine children.
Once, he began ruling in his own right, Francois was eager to continue his father's renaissance, he invested his money in many projects including ventures in trade and exploration. He commissioned several hospitals and churches along with creating a new palace in Paris. In hopes of expanding his diplomatic relation, he made dynastic matches for his siblings, having his sister Madeline marry the King of Scots, his sister Marguerite was wed to the Duke of Savoy, his brother Henri would marry Catherine de' Medici, and his youngest brother, Charles, would wed Amalia of Cleves. He also gained an alliance with the Ottoman empire.
After over a decade of peace, Francois decided to restart the Italian wars in 1542, hoping to regain control of the Duchy of Milan, not to mention avenge his father against the emperor. Charles V lacked funds to continue fighting and had to deal with the rebellious Lutheran Germans. Not to mention, his ally, King Henry died during the Siege of Boulogne in 1544. The war would end in 1546 with Emperor Charles conceding Milan and the Duchy of Burgundy to King Francois in exchange for a small price. Francois, high on victory, decided to take advantage of England's boy-king and recapture Calais in 1547, removing England's last foothold in Europe.
For the next nine years, Francois tended more domestic affairs, trying to be a mediator in the growing religious tensions. Sadly, he was only starving off the inevitable. And in 1556, he collapsed suddenly at a feast, after drinking from his goblet. He was suspected of being poisoned by one of the factions in his court. His heir Francois would be left to deal with the growing animosity.
[2] Francois III was the eldest of Francois II and Marie’s children. Born in 1538, he would have an idyllic childhood in the flourishing renaissance of his father’s court. His mother tried to instill in him a proper Catholic fervor, but Francois’s dearest friend was Louis of Conde, so he never could quite understand this idea that Huguenots were ungodly heathens.
Also, complicating the issue was that young Francois fell in love with the Lady Elizabeth Tudor when her portrait was sent to France and her hand was offered as part of the peace negotiations with England in 1547. (Francois II said no, wanting a more prestigious bride for his son than the recently legitimized sister of the English King). So, after his father’s mysterious death in 1556, Francois III inherited a kingdom that was more and more divided on religious lines, and he himself was more and more likely to side with the Huguenots.
The first thing the 18 year old king did was send an ambassador to England to beg for the Lady Elizabeth’s hand. (The Lady Elizabeth was once again single after her husband, Robert Dudley, died in the Tower from a winter chill. He was in the Tower for the crime of wedding the King’s sister without the King’s permission) While the Lady Elizabeth was very resistant to the idea of remarriage, her brother Edward was very keen on an alliance with France.
Francois and Elizabeth married early in 1557, and Francois set about winning his new wife’s regard: Francois gifted her with tons of elaborate gowns, decadent jewelry, and sundry books. But perhaps the most impactful of his actions was quietly arranging for several of her ladies-in-waiting to be women who had been close to her mother back when Anne Boleyn had been in the French court. And so after several months of Francois’s charm offensive, Elizabeth was just as taken with her husband as he was with her. Their first child was born early in 1558. It was said they never slept apart. This did lead to them having 10 children in 13 years.
While Francois tried to use his marriage as an example of how Catholics and Huguenots could live in harmony, (Francois was still nominally a Catholic, and Elizabeth had quickly converted to the Huguenot flavor of Protestantism) but many of his subjects weren’t having it. Religious tensions would continue to rise throughout the 1560s.
1571 was the worst year of Francois’s life.
The year began with Elizabeth falling ill. What seemed to start as a winner chill, quickly worsened. Elizabeth weakened continuously until she was unable to leave her bed. This baffled the doctors as Elizabeth had always been of excellent health: 10 pregnancies in 13 years would have killed another woman, but Elizabeth had easy pregnancies and quick childbirth, bouncing back after every pregnancy.
And so after months of this strange wasting illness, Francois became convinced that Elizabeth was being poisoned. He arranged for himself, Elizabeth, and their children to travel to a remote hunting lodge and sent for all new doctors. And Elizabeth did begin to recover which just cemented in Francois’s mind that Elizabeth was being poisoned.
Unfortunately Elizabeth took a turn for the worse in November and died mid December of 1471.
Francois was distraught and utterly convinced the love of his life had been murdered. Then, when Francis of Guise, suggested that Francois remarry… possibly to Francis’s sister, Francois thought he’d found his culprit. He arrested the Duke of Guise for the murder of the Queen of France, and France erupted into a religious war.
Francois did well in the war, he was a decent commander. But it was on the field of diplomacy that he shined bringing many Protestant nations onto his side. Though perhaps this had to do with the large number of relatives he had to marry off: Francois had six unmarried siblings to marry off, and all his children to arrange betrothals for. By the end of the war there wasn’t a Protestant nation that France wasn’t allied with through marriage or betrothal.
It was a long war. Once that Francois was fervently determined to win. Once Francois was captured and escaped through serious disregard for his own life: he jumped into a river they were crossing. After seven years of bloody drawn out fighting, after a war that had spread to most of Europe, in 1478, Francois finally won; France was Huguenot.
The last two decades of his life were rather quiet, mostly because no one was really capable of fighting another war. Francois lived to see his children marry their Protestant princes and princesses, he lived to see grandchildren be born. He surprised everyone by remarrying in 1591 to Catherine de Bourbon, Princess of Navarre. They had a calm marriage mostly of companionship, though they did have two children, a boy and a girl.
Late in 1599, Francois fell ill with fever. His last few days were full of fevered delusions, mostly of the Religious War. But finally he grew calm, stared off into the distance and uttered: “Mon Élisabeth.” He fell asleep and never wakened. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Robert.
[3] Francois III’s firstborn child and eldest son by his beloved Elizabeth, Robert was born in February 1558. His name wasn’t supposed to be Robert, but rather Francois…right up until the moment his mother, fresh from the rigours of childbed, fixed his father with a glare of Tudor steel, and said ‘If you truly love me, Francois, you’ll let me name our son for my dearest Robin.”
That, as they say, was that. Robert he was.
Titled Dauphin from birth, Robert was raised at Amboise with his immediate younger siblings, Francois, Duke of Orleans, Charles, Duke of Chartres, Mademoiselle Elisabeth and Mademoiselle Marie, until he was seven, at which point, he was sent to Nantes, in the former Duchy of Brittany, to learn how to rule.
His tutor in arms was an Englishman, Sir Henry Sidney, which many Frenchmen resented, but the man’s position was upheld at the insistence of his father, who wished to please his wife by giving her an excuse to have another Englishwoman in her retinue. This meant that among Robert’s companions in Nantes was the eleven-year-old Phillip Sidney, who would become his closest friend, and be appointed a Marshal of France upon Robert’s ascension to the throne.
Aged thirteen at the outbreak of the War of Religion in late 1571, Robert was deemed old enough to play his part in securing France’s future as a Protestant nation. He was promptly betrothed to the ten-year-old Anna Maria of the Palatinate and sent to ride with the troops, under the supervision of his father’s oldest friend, the Prince de Conde.
On the one hand, this was a rousing success, for the Dauphin’s involvement in the war broadened his knowledge of the land and people he was to lead immeasurably, and his military successes, particularly his leading role in relieving the Siege of La Rochelle in 1575, rendered him a hero of almost titanic proportions among his father’s Huguenot subjects.
However, it also brought the teenage Prince into contact with the Prince de Conde’s many children, including his eldest daughter, Mademoiselle Marguerite.
Born in November 1556, Marguerite de Bourbon was fifteen months the Dauphin’s elder, with her father’s brown hair and flashing blue-grey eyes. The teenage Prince fell passionately in love with the beautiful, educated Princesse du Sang as soon as he laid eyes on her, and they were wed in secret on Robert’s sixteenth birthday, the 26th of February 1574.
By early 1576, their marriage could be hidden no longer, for Marguerite was four months pregnant and starting to show. Francois III wasn’t thrilled, but as he couldn’t exactly have his eldest grandchild branded a bastard, he hastily banished his eldest son from Court to show his displeasure and then arranged for Anna Maria of the Palatinate to become Duchess of Orleans instead, giving her a Princess’s jointure to soothe her father’s injured pride.
Robert’s first child, a daughter, was born in July 1576, and he and Marguerite went on to have seven more surviving children, the last of whom was born in 1599, the year their father ascended the throne.
For all Robert’s skill on the battlefield, exploration and settlement was his real passion. He sponsored several voyages to the New World and Africa, and indeed, the South African capital, Cite du Roi, is named in his honour, as is the city of Dauphin in South Carolina.
He also enjoyed literature and the arts, as did his wife, and indeed, the frontispiece of the 1600 edition of the Duchess of Bouillon’s French translation of the Bible, shows Robert and Marguerite as Solomon and Deborah, the wise judges of the Old Testament, handing the word of God down to their grateful subjects.
It was Robert’s love of travel that would prove his undoing, however. In 1616, he insisted on accompanying his youngest daughter Anne on her journey to wed King Alexander IV of Scotland, against his wife’s protestations.
Marguerite was right to worry. Although he delivered Anne to Holyrood without incident, as he turned for home, Robert’s ship ran into fierce storms along the Scottish coast, and sank with all hands.
Robert’s unexpected death at the age of 58 meant France would now be ruled by his heir, Henri.
[4] Henri was named for his father's best friend and his mother's brother, Henri de Bourbon. He was born in 1580, almost four years after his sister's birth. In 1591, King Robert decided to make peace with the Holy Roman Empire by having a double match. Henri's eldest sister would marry the emperor's heir, his brother Matthais while Henri would marry one of the emperor's cousins. His father choose Margaret of Austria. Henri protested against the marriage, feeling the religious differences would doom both matches.
Regardless of his feelings on the matter, the double wedding would take place in 1599. As he feared, his marriage was anything, but loving. Margaret was a fervent Catholic and was also eager to promote pro-Austria matters at court. She acted cold and distant whenever she and the Dauphin had an argument which was often. Despite this, Margaret would fall pregnant four times, unfortunately only two of these babies would survive. She died in 1611 after giving birth to a stillborn son.
Henri wanted to marry his long time mistress Catherine Henriette de Balzac d'Entragues with whom he had three acknowledged natural children. His father refused. Instead insisting his son marry, Isabella of Navarre, daughter of King Henri III of Navarre despite her being almost twenty years his junior. In 1616, Henri was attending the joint coronation of Emperor Mattais and Elizabeth of France when he received the news of his father's death. Unwilling to upset his sister on his special day, he discreetly left the celebrations, requesting that his ambassador wait until the next day to pass on the news.
In respects to his father's last wish, Henri married the eighteen-year-old Isabella. Although they got along better than his first marriage, it was clear there was still tension as Isabella hated that her husband's mistresses always had more political influence than she did. However, unlike Margaret, she did not argue with her husband over it, instead using her own charms to get her way. They had five surviving children.
In 1621, a large Catholic uprising broke out led by Charles, Duke of Guise and Henri II, Duke of Lorraine. Using the rebellion as an excuse, King Henri annexed Lorriane, sending his troops to invade. He sent false reports to Guise, hinting that he had sent the majority of his army to Lorraine. As he suspected Guise marched straight for Paris where Henri had set up an ambush. Meanwhile, his allies in Navarre joined up with the French troops seiging Lorraine. The Duke of Lorriane sought help from Spain and Italy, unfortunately they were too busy with the Lutheran revolt in Germany. In 1524, the Duke of Lorriane died and his brother, Francis immeditally surrended in exchange for being named Duke of Lorriane over his nieces. With the Duke of Guise already dead by execution and with Lorriane surrendering, the Catholic rebellion ended in a crushing defeat.
In more domestic matters, Henri opened trading relations with Japan and established peaceful relations with the natives of his American colonies. He also established a trading agreement with the Dutch. However, as his sister was the Holy Roman Empress, he found he could not continue his predecessor's alliance with the Ottoman Empire as they were encroaching on her sons' future inheritance.
After the catholic uprising, Henri's health began to deteriorate thanks to an infected wound. He died in 1633 at age fifty-three, leaving his kingdom to Philippe VII.
Once, he began ruling in his own right, Francois was eager to continue his father's renaissance, he invested his money in many projects including ventures in trade and exploration. He commissioned several hospitals and churches along with creating a new palace in Paris. In hopes of expanding his diplomatic relation, he made dynastic matches for his siblings, having his sister Madeline marry the King of Scots, his sister Marguerite was wed to the Duke of Savoy, his brother Henri would marry Catherine de' Medici, and his youngest brother, Charles, would wed Amalia of Cleves. He also gained an alliance with the Ottoman empire.
After over a decade of peace, Francois decided to restart the Italian wars in 1542, hoping to regain control of the Duchy of Milan, not to mention avenge his father against the emperor. Charles V lacked funds to continue fighting and had to deal with the rebellious Lutheran Germans. Not to mention, his ally, King Henry died during the Siege of Boulogne in 1544. The war would end in 1546 with Emperor Charles conceding Milan and the Duchy of Burgundy to King Francois in exchange for a small price. Francois, high on victory, decided to take advantage of England's boy-king and recapture Calais in 1547, removing England's last foothold in Europe.
For the next nine years, Francois tended more domestic affairs, trying to be a mediator in the growing religious tensions. Sadly, he was only starving off the inevitable. And in 1556, he collapsed suddenly at a feast, after drinking from his goblet. He was suspected of being poisoned by one of the factions in his court. His heir Francois would be left to deal with the growing animosity.
[2] Francois III was the eldest of Francois II and Marie’s children. Born in 1538, he would have an idyllic childhood in the flourishing renaissance of his father’s court. His mother tried to instill in him a proper Catholic fervor, but Francois’s dearest friend was Louis of Conde, so he never could quite understand this idea that Huguenots were ungodly heathens.
Also, complicating the issue was that young Francois fell in love with the Lady Elizabeth Tudor when her portrait was sent to France and her hand was offered as part of the peace negotiations with England in 1547. (Francois II said no, wanting a more prestigious bride for his son than the recently legitimized sister of the English King). So, after his father’s mysterious death in 1556, Francois III inherited a kingdom that was more and more divided on religious lines, and he himself was more and more likely to side with the Huguenots.
The first thing the 18 year old king did was send an ambassador to England to beg for the Lady Elizabeth’s hand. (The Lady Elizabeth was once again single after her husband, Robert Dudley, died in the Tower from a winter chill. He was in the Tower for the crime of wedding the King’s sister without the King’s permission) While the Lady Elizabeth was very resistant to the idea of remarriage, her brother Edward was very keen on an alliance with France.
Francois and Elizabeth married early in 1557, and Francois set about winning his new wife’s regard: Francois gifted her with tons of elaborate gowns, decadent jewelry, and sundry books. But perhaps the most impactful of his actions was quietly arranging for several of her ladies-in-waiting to be women who had been close to her mother back when Anne Boleyn had been in the French court. And so after several months of Francois’s charm offensive, Elizabeth was just as taken with her husband as he was with her. Their first child was born early in 1558. It was said they never slept apart. This did lead to them having 10 children in 13 years.
While Francois tried to use his marriage as an example of how Catholics and Huguenots could live in harmony, (Francois was still nominally a Catholic, and Elizabeth had quickly converted to the Huguenot flavor of Protestantism) but many of his subjects weren’t having it. Religious tensions would continue to rise throughout the 1560s.
1571 was the worst year of Francois’s life.
The year began with Elizabeth falling ill. What seemed to start as a winner chill, quickly worsened. Elizabeth weakened continuously until she was unable to leave her bed. This baffled the doctors as Elizabeth had always been of excellent health: 10 pregnancies in 13 years would have killed another woman, but Elizabeth had easy pregnancies and quick childbirth, bouncing back after every pregnancy.
And so after months of this strange wasting illness, Francois became convinced that Elizabeth was being poisoned. He arranged for himself, Elizabeth, and their children to travel to a remote hunting lodge and sent for all new doctors. And Elizabeth did begin to recover which just cemented in Francois’s mind that Elizabeth was being poisoned.
Unfortunately Elizabeth took a turn for the worse in November and died mid December of 1471.
Francois was distraught and utterly convinced the love of his life had been murdered. Then, when Francis of Guise, suggested that Francois remarry… possibly to Francis’s sister, Francois thought he’d found his culprit. He arrested the Duke of Guise for the murder of the Queen of France, and France erupted into a religious war.
Francois did well in the war, he was a decent commander. But it was on the field of diplomacy that he shined bringing many Protestant nations onto his side. Though perhaps this had to do with the large number of relatives he had to marry off: Francois had six unmarried siblings to marry off, and all his children to arrange betrothals for. By the end of the war there wasn’t a Protestant nation that France wasn’t allied with through marriage or betrothal.
It was a long war. Once that Francois was fervently determined to win. Once Francois was captured and escaped through serious disregard for his own life: he jumped into a river they were crossing. After seven years of bloody drawn out fighting, after a war that had spread to most of Europe, in 1478, Francois finally won; France was Huguenot.
The last two decades of his life were rather quiet, mostly because no one was really capable of fighting another war. Francois lived to see his children marry their Protestant princes and princesses, he lived to see grandchildren be born. He surprised everyone by remarrying in 1591 to Catherine de Bourbon, Princess of Navarre. They had a calm marriage mostly of companionship, though they did have two children, a boy and a girl.
Late in 1599, Francois fell ill with fever. His last few days were full of fevered delusions, mostly of the Religious War. But finally he grew calm, stared off into the distance and uttered: “Mon Élisabeth.” He fell asleep and never wakened. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Robert.
[3] Francois III’s firstborn child and eldest son by his beloved Elizabeth, Robert was born in February 1558. His name wasn’t supposed to be Robert, but rather Francois…right up until the moment his mother, fresh from the rigours of childbed, fixed his father with a glare of Tudor steel, and said ‘If you truly love me, Francois, you’ll let me name our son for my dearest Robin.”
That, as they say, was that. Robert he was.
Titled Dauphin from birth, Robert was raised at Amboise with his immediate younger siblings, Francois, Duke of Orleans, Charles, Duke of Chartres, Mademoiselle Elisabeth and Mademoiselle Marie, until he was seven, at which point, he was sent to Nantes, in the former Duchy of Brittany, to learn how to rule.
His tutor in arms was an Englishman, Sir Henry Sidney, which many Frenchmen resented, but the man’s position was upheld at the insistence of his father, who wished to please his wife by giving her an excuse to have another Englishwoman in her retinue. This meant that among Robert’s companions in Nantes was the eleven-year-old Phillip Sidney, who would become his closest friend, and be appointed a Marshal of France upon Robert’s ascension to the throne.
Aged thirteen at the outbreak of the War of Religion in late 1571, Robert was deemed old enough to play his part in securing France’s future as a Protestant nation. He was promptly betrothed to the ten-year-old Anna Maria of the Palatinate and sent to ride with the troops, under the supervision of his father’s oldest friend, the Prince de Conde.
On the one hand, this was a rousing success, for the Dauphin’s involvement in the war broadened his knowledge of the land and people he was to lead immeasurably, and his military successes, particularly his leading role in relieving the Siege of La Rochelle in 1575, rendered him a hero of almost titanic proportions among his father’s Huguenot subjects.
However, it also brought the teenage Prince into contact with the Prince de Conde’s many children, including his eldest daughter, Mademoiselle Marguerite.
Born in November 1556, Marguerite de Bourbon was fifteen months the Dauphin’s elder, with her father’s brown hair and flashing blue-grey eyes. The teenage Prince fell passionately in love with the beautiful, educated Princesse du Sang as soon as he laid eyes on her, and they were wed in secret on Robert’s sixteenth birthday, the 26th of February 1574.
By early 1576, their marriage could be hidden no longer, for Marguerite was four months pregnant and starting to show. Francois III wasn’t thrilled, but as he couldn’t exactly have his eldest grandchild branded a bastard, he hastily banished his eldest son from Court to show his displeasure and then arranged for Anna Maria of the Palatinate to become Duchess of Orleans instead, giving her a Princess’s jointure to soothe her father’s injured pride.
Robert’s first child, a daughter, was born in July 1576, and he and Marguerite went on to have seven more surviving children, the last of whom was born in 1599, the year their father ascended the throne.
For all Robert’s skill on the battlefield, exploration and settlement was his real passion. He sponsored several voyages to the New World and Africa, and indeed, the South African capital, Cite du Roi, is named in his honour, as is the city of Dauphin in South Carolina.
He also enjoyed literature and the arts, as did his wife, and indeed, the frontispiece of the 1600 edition of the Duchess of Bouillon’s French translation of the Bible, shows Robert and Marguerite as Solomon and Deborah, the wise judges of the Old Testament, handing the word of God down to their grateful subjects.
It was Robert’s love of travel that would prove his undoing, however. In 1616, he insisted on accompanying his youngest daughter Anne on her journey to wed King Alexander IV of Scotland, against his wife’s protestations.
Marguerite was right to worry. Although he delivered Anne to Holyrood without incident, as he turned for home, Robert’s ship ran into fierce storms along the Scottish coast, and sank with all hands.
Robert’s unexpected death at the age of 58 meant France would now be ruled by his heir, Henri.
[4] Henri was named for his father's best friend and his mother's brother, Henri de Bourbon. He was born in 1580, almost four years after his sister's birth. In 1591, King Robert decided to make peace with the Holy Roman Empire by having a double match. Henri's eldest sister would marry the emperor's heir, his brother Matthais while Henri would marry one of the emperor's cousins. His father choose Margaret of Austria. Henri protested against the marriage, feeling the religious differences would doom both matches.
Regardless of his feelings on the matter, the double wedding would take place in 1599. As he feared, his marriage was anything, but loving. Margaret was a fervent Catholic and was also eager to promote pro-Austria matters at court. She acted cold and distant whenever she and the Dauphin had an argument which was often. Despite this, Margaret would fall pregnant four times, unfortunately only two of these babies would survive. She died in 1611 after giving birth to a stillborn son.
Henri wanted to marry his long time mistress Catherine Henriette de Balzac d'Entragues with whom he had three acknowledged natural children. His father refused. Instead insisting his son marry, Isabella of Navarre, daughter of King Henri III of Navarre despite her being almost twenty years his junior. In 1616, Henri was attending the joint coronation of Emperor Mattais and Elizabeth of France when he received the news of his father's death. Unwilling to upset his sister on his special day, he discreetly left the celebrations, requesting that his ambassador wait until the next day to pass on the news.
In respects to his father's last wish, Henri married the eighteen-year-old Isabella. Although they got along better than his first marriage, it was clear there was still tension as Isabella hated that her husband's mistresses always had more political influence than she did. However, unlike Margaret, she did not argue with her husband over it, instead using her own charms to get her way. They had five surviving children.
In 1621, a large Catholic uprising broke out led by Charles, Duke of Guise and Henri II, Duke of Lorraine. Using the rebellion as an excuse, King Henri annexed Lorriane, sending his troops to invade. He sent false reports to Guise, hinting that he had sent the majority of his army to Lorraine. As he suspected Guise marched straight for Paris where Henri had set up an ambush. Meanwhile, his allies in Navarre joined up with the French troops seiging Lorraine. The Duke of Lorriane sought help from Spain and Italy, unfortunately they were too busy with the Lutheran revolt in Germany. In 1524, the Duke of Lorriane died and his brother, Francis immeditally surrended in exchange for being named Duke of Lorriane over his nieces. With the Duke of Guise already dead by execution and with Lorriane surrendering, the Catholic rebellion ended in a crushing defeat.
In more domestic matters, Henri opened trading relations with Japan and established peaceful relations with the natives of his American colonies. He also established a trading agreement with the Dutch. However, as his sister was the Holy Roman Empress, he found he could not continue his predecessor's alliance with the Ottoman Empire as they were encroaching on her sons' future inheritance.
After the catholic uprising, Henri's health began to deteriorate thanks to an infected wound. He died in 1633 at age fifty-three, leaving his kingdom to Philippe VII.
[5] Philippe was born in 1603 as the second child and only surviving son of King Henri II and Margaret of Austria and as such he was expected to one day succeed his father as King of France and was taught the basics by tutors such as political thinking and military strategy. Much of his early learning was influenced by his mother who was more loyal to her native Austria than France and tried to convince him that the former was more superior than the latter. Philippe was fascinated by the works of late Renaissance Artists specifically English Playwright William Shakespeare who he considered “The last significant artist of a dying era”. Philippe would often beg his father to allow him to travel to England to see one of Shakespeare’s plays for himself but he would hear none of it. In 1611 when Philippe was eight years old his mother would die suddenly and though it would be a relief for Henri it wouldn’t be the same for his son who was extremely close with his late mother. In the late Queen’s will it would be discovered that she had left enough money for her son to see at least one of his favorite artists’s plays. It however would be two years however until he would be able to travel to see one of Shakespeare’s plays but eventually Philippe’s father would allow it and along with him. They would travel to England where they would initially stay with King James I due to the reason Henri had gone was to discuss some trade agreements with England on behalf of Robert III. On June 29 Philippe along with his father would go to the Globe Theater to see a showing of Henry VIII but this exciting trip for Philippe would be cut short after the building caught fire after a cannon used for special effects caused it. While Henri would see the trip as a waste of time and money Philippe was glad that he got to see part of it.
Philippe would go back to his studies in France and life would stay the same for a while until in 1616 his grandfather, Robert III, would die and his father would become King of France and as such he would become Dauphin of France. Later that year his father would marry Isabella of Navarre and like his father would come to detest her or as Philippe would describe in his autobiography later in life “someone I found to loathe entirely.” Despite his feelings towards his stepmother, Philippe would be surprisingly close to his half-siblings who he would describe as “people that I could love in a depressing time.” In 1621 Philippe would come of age and his father would put him in charge of his own regiment during the Catholic Rebellion of that same year. While his father would be in charge of the ambush near Paris, Philippe would be sent to Lorraine to help siege down the region with the help of reinforcements from Navarre. The siege would last almost three years with it ending after Henri II, Duke of Lorraine, would die and his brother, Francis, would surrender soon after. In his autobiography Philippe would describe the siege as “tiresome and unnecessary” with himself seeing it as an excuse to fulfill his father’s ambitions. When he would return home he would discover that his father had arranged a marriage with King Henri III of Navarre which involved him marrying Henri III’s daughter, Henriette Marie, when she would come of age. Philippe would be furious with this decision citing how his father never wanted to marry his stepmother embarrassing him in front of the King of Navarre.
Despite the embarrassment Philippe would still be arranged to marry Henriette Marie and the two would wed in 1627 when she came of age. Though he hadn’t had wanted to marry her Philippe at least would try to love her wishing his marriage to not be as unloving as his father’s first marriage and as a result the two would have five children that would live to adulthood. Philippe would continue his duties as Dauphin of France until he would receive the news in 1633 of his father’s death while on vacation with his family in Normandy. Philippe and his family would travel to Paris where preparations for his coronation were already underway and a few days later he would officially be crowned as King of France. One of the main issues in the first few years of his reign was the significant Catholic population in the kingdom and while many pushed for greater pressure on these people to convert to Protestantism Philippe would instead pass the Religious Tolerance Act of 1635 which guarantied the right for anyone in the kingdom to practice any form of Christianity that they wished citing that his wife was a Catholic. This act also helped influence his foreign policy with himself soon offering Louis II of Navarre who had succeeded his father as King of Navarre to become an autonomous region of the Kingdom of France as protection against the Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon who were beginning to eye the small kingdom. The King of Navarre would accept in exchange for a marriage between his heir and one of Philippe’s daughters to which he agreed since one of his daughters was already in contact with the Prince of Navarre.
Philippe’s reign would be considered a very peaceful one with little conflict allowing himself to focus on internal improvements. He would be succeeded by ____.
Burton K Wheeler
Moderator
I’ll take a look. Not sure why you think it’s a “shame” for threads to be in the right place.
Because they won't get the audience they deserve as they will be hidden away in the Shared Worlds forum. It feels like the definition of collaborative game may need to be reevaluated or clearly defined.
Well for one the forum description says “roleplaying scenarios where different people contribute to the development of the same alternate world over time” and this isn’t roleplaying.
Also, the audiences of the two forums are different and we very much want to interact with the pre 1900s audience.
Where do collaborative timelines fall then? Do they go in shared worlds or the forum that best suits their POD?
This, a lot of the people who partake in this thread are from the pre 1900 thread who don’t venture in the shared worlds normally and may not have the list on watched mode, so may not be aware it’s still going on.
This part is very important. It’s a coincidence that I had the thread watched when it was moved, normally I don’t watch it since it gets so many updates and I don’t want that many alerts.
Burton K Wheeler
Moderator
Advertise in signatures? I like the premise of this thread a lot and would love to see more stuff like this in Shared Worlds.