alternatehistory.com
1331: France and Navarre
1331: ON OUR SHIELDS WE RAISE HIM
"The immediate consequences of the famed 'Feast of Saint Stephen' incident was the Artois-Burgundy feud reaching a new level of intensity--the long term effects were to prove more insidious. Whatever King John had hoped to achieve by granting Robert the County of Artois, the reality was the nobleman had never held the area for any length of time, and the allies he had possessed at the start of his lengthy war against his aunt were largely gone. Thus, Artois became again the scene of furtive resistance and uprisings as the House of Artois and its Burgundian cousins fought. Arguably, France was saved the Disorder breaking two decades early only by the Duke of Burgundy's relative incompetence--a proud and prickly man, he proved unable to successfully marshal resistance to Count Robert. The next few years of the feud with be little more than a dull progression of lawsuits, counter-suits and the occasional act of brutality. Indeed, in the immediate future, the whole matter would be overshadowed by a more obvious bit of royal drama..
"The crown of Navarre was a small but proud Iberian possession, its Basque subjects prickly and protective of what they viewed as their rights. To their minds, they had dealt patiently with rule from Paris against all ancient custom for decades now, through not only John's life so far, but the entirety of his father's. Now they were beginning to make demands, calling for the King to come to Pamplona, to be properly invested with the kingship as custom called for.
"The Basques' appeal was propitiously timed--young John, while no longer under the regency, was still expected to rule with the advice of the senior members of his court, something the self-willed young monarch hated. Their demand that he visit Navarre freed him from the tutelage of the Duke of Anjou, and the quarrels that he unleashed over the Artois affair. The project, already possessing the good favor of the king, soon gained that of Philipe of Valois. Still fancying himself the protector of the French crown--quite possibly with good reason--he had no wish to see the recently gained Iberian possessions creep away, a threat he detected in the margins of the Basques' demands...
"John's royal tour to Pamplona would be the young king's first great procession through his kingdom, and succeeded in impressing on the young man a true measure of the vastness of what he ruled, as well as allowing the handsome young man to impress himself on his subjects. This is not all he would impress on them. Accompanying John was his elder half-sister Joan, her husband, Philip of Evreux, and their two children, Marie and Louis[1]. King John's favor to his sister, niece and nephew was pronounced, even in these days. Few mistook its meaning, given his famous denial of the Count-Palatine of Burgundy's status as his heir--John felt that his proper successors at the present were Joan and her children. In Toulouse, John was reported to have calmed the weeping Louis by taking him in arms, and declaring him a "bold fellow"--something he would insist in later years was the source of his nephew's famed sobriquet--proclaimed to his sister, "I swear to you, by the blessed Virgin, he shall do well by me." His sister was not however, the only person who was watching, and tongues soon began to wag...
"Navarre was a rural kingdom, its famed capital a small backwater--despite this, it won John's heart. Enjoying its bullfights, its easy customs and its ancient buildings, as well as the plainspoken manner of its nobles, he would be ceremoniously raised on a shield and formally accepted as King of Navarre in August. A week later, his sister would give birth to her third child, Blanche, who would be baptized there in Pamplona. As John enjoyed the adoration of his rural subjects, he could hardly know that miles and miles away, affairs in the British Isles were occurring that would spark the conflict that would engulf the rest of his life..."
--John I of France, Vol. 1; A King in His Cradle, Antony Oates (1978)
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[1] These were the names of Philip and Joan's children IOTL.
"The immediate consequences of the famed 'Feast of Saint Stephen' incident was the Artois-Burgundy feud reaching a new level of intensity--the long term effects were to prove more insidious. Whatever King John had hoped to achieve by granting Robert the County of Artois, the reality was the nobleman had never held the area for any length of time, and the allies he had possessed at the start of his lengthy war against his aunt were largely gone. Thus, Artois became again the scene of furtive resistance and uprisings as the House of Artois and its Burgundian cousins fought. Arguably, France was saved the Disorder breaking two decades early only by the Duke of Burgundy's relative incompetence--a proud and prickly man, he proved unable to successfully marshal resistance to Count Robert. The next few years of the feud with be little more than a dull progression of lawsuits, counter-suits and the occasional act of brutality. Indeed, in the immediate future, the whole matter would be overshadowed by a more obvious bit of royal drama..
"The crown of Navarre was a small but proud Iberian possession, its Basque subjects prickly and protective of what they viewed as their rights. To their minds, they had dealt patiently with rule from Paris against all ancient custom for decades now, through not only John's life so far, but the entirety of his father's. Now they were beginning to make demands, calling for the King to come to Pamplona, to be properly invested with the kingship as custom called for.
"The Basques' appeal was propitiously timed--young John, while no longer under the regency, was still expected to rule with the advice of the senior members of his court, something the self-willed young monarch hated. Their demand that he visit Navarre freed him from the tutelage of the Duke of Anjou, and the quarrels that he unleashed over the Artois affair. The project, already possessing the good favor of the king, soon gained that of Philipe of Valois. Still fancying himself the protector of the French crown--quite possibly with good reason--he had no wish to see the recently gained Iberian possessions creep away, a threat he detected in the margins of the Basques' demands...
"John's royal tour to Pamplona would be the young king's first great procession through his kingdom, and succeeded in impressing on the young man a true measure of the vastness of what he ruled, as well as allowing the handsome young man to impress himself on his subjects. This is not all he would impress on them. Accompanying John was his elder half-sister Joan, her husband, Philip of Evreux, and their two children, Marie and Louis[1]. King John's favor to his sister, niece and nephew was pronounced, even in these days. Few mistook its meaning, given his famous denial of the Count-Palatine of Burgundy's status as his heir--John felt that his proper successors at the present were Joan and her children. In Toulouse, John was reported to have calmed the weeping Louis by taking him in arms, and declaring him a "bold fellow"--something he would insist in later years was the source of his nephew's famed sobriquet--proclaimed to his sister, "I swear to you, by the blessed Virgin, he shall do well by me." His sister was not however, the only person who was watching, and tongues soon began to wag...
"Navarre was a rural kingdom, its famed capital a small backwater--despite this, it won John's heart. Enjoying its bullfights, its easy customs and its ancient buildings, as well as the plainspoken manner of its nobles, he would be ceremoniously raised on a shield and formally accepted as King of Navarre in August. A week later, his sister would give birth to her third child, Blanche, who would be baptized there in Pamplona. As John enjoyed the adoration of his rural subjects, he could hardly know that miles and miles away, affairs in the British Isles were occurring that would spark the conflict that would engulf the rest of his life..."
--John I of France, Vol. 1; A King in His Cradle, Antony Oates (1978)
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[1] These were the names of Philip and Joan's children IOTL.
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