2024 Turtledoves - Best Mediaeval Timeline Poll

The Best Mediaeval Timeline Is...

  • To Delve and Spin; @BurkeanLibCon

    Votes: 43 19.9%

  • The Pale and the Purple Rose; @Kellan Sullivan

    Votes: 25 11.6%

  • The Red Rose and the Golden Fleece; @eliamartin65 and @Zestinobambino

    Votes: 20 9.3%

  • Sea of Blood, Sea of Ice -The Mongol Conquest of Japan; @Arkenfolm

    Votes: 48 22.2%

  • The Thrice Crowned King - A Trastámara Timeline; @BlueFlowwer

    Votes: 33 15.3%

  • The Eagle’s Left Head; @Lascaris

    Votes: 40 18.5%

  • Maid of Norway, Queen of Scotland: A Plantagenet Britain Timeline; @pandizzy

    Votes: 60 27.8%

  • The Grand Duchy of the West - A Valois-Burgundian TL; @BlueFlowwer

    Votes: 37 17.1%

  • What if Edmund, Earl of Rutland survived? - A Second White Rose; @Zestinobambino

    Votes: 28 13.0%

  • The Eternal Empire: Emperor Maurice dies before being overthrown; @wcv215

    Votes: 28 13.0%
  • Total voters
    216
  • Poll closed .
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Gwrtheyrn Annwn

Gwrtheyrn Annwn

To Delve and Spin; @BurkeanLibCon

The Pale and the Purple Rose; @Kellan Sullivan

The Red Rose and the Golden Fleece; @eliamartin65 and @Zestinobambino

Sea of Blood, Sea of Ice -The Mongol Conquest of Japan; @Arkenfolm

The Thrice Crowned King - A Trastámara Timeline; @BlueFlowwer

The Eagle’s Left Head; @Lascaris

Maid of Norway, Queen of Scotland: A Plantagenet Britain Timeline; @pandizzy

The Grand Duchy of the West - A Valois-Burgundian TL; @BlueFlowwer

What if Edmund, Earl of Rutland survived? - A Second White Rose; @Zestinobambino

The Eternal Empire: Emperor Maurice dies before being overthrown; @wcv215
 
pandizzy

pandizzy

I guess I'll kick off the wagon: A Maid of Norway, Queen of Scotland is a story where Margaret I of Scotland survives the voyage from Norway to Scotland and is able to be engaged to Edward of Caernarfon. With a union of the crowns three hundred years earlier, many shenanigans will ensue from this match.
 

BlueFlowwer

My elder TL, The Grand Duchy of the West starts with a surviving Duchy of Burgundy as Charles the Bold has a son by his third wife Margaret of York. Instead of the Duchy being absorbed by the Hapsburgs as in real life, The Grand Duchy of Brabant becomes a force to be recconed with in the end of the 15th century and into the next one. Featuring the Netherlands, Richard III of England, France getting kicked in the delicates more than once and more Trastamaras than I intended to in the beginning.
 
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BlueFlowwer

My younger TL, The Thrice Crowned King starts of in December 1485 with Catherine of Aragon, the youngest child of Ferdinand II and Isabella I, being born an infante rather than a infanta. With a spare to their heir, Spain remains independent and the beginning of their full union as one kingdom begins with Navarre being brought along the ride. Featuring adorable Infantes, turtles, no appreciation of poetry, and the House of Albret that lives rent free in my head right now.
 
eliamartin65

eliamartin65

OK, here goes a blurb for my TL, The Red Rose and the Golden Fleece:

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Emma de Valois-Bourgogne, Duchess suo jure of Burgundy, Limburg, Luxembourg and Guelders, Holy Roman Empress and Queen consort of Hungary, and her husband, Maximilian von Habsburg (future Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary, and Duke of Burgundy jure uxoris - future main characters of the TL) [courtesy of Freepik AI]
​
The Red Rose and the Golden Fleece begins in 1430 with the marriage of Philippe III of Burgundy and and his third wife, Isabella of Portugal. Butterflies have already flapped in England in 1424 with the birth of Marie Plantagenet, daughter of John, Duke of Bedford, and his first wife, Anna of Burgundy. The young girl is betrothed to her cousin, the young King Henry VI (who becomes a stronger ruler here), and being the Duke of Burgundy's niece, the alliance between Burgundy and England endures a little longer. The birth of two more children in 1434 - Marek Jagiellon and Jean of Burgundy (second sons of King Wladyslaw II Jagiello and Philippe III of Burgundy) for the House of Valois-Burgundy and the House of Jagiellon, respectively - changes history irrevocably (as little Jean will play a very important role in Burgundian and European politics in his adulthood, thanks to his strategic marriage), and little Marek.... well, he's a different beast entirely.

It's in this world of politics, foresight, war and marriage, that Emma and Maximilian will inhabit and change history for the better.​
 
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BurkeanLibCon

BurkeanLibCon

Blurb from "To Delve and Spin"

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"...and when the King seeth us, we shall have some remedy,​

either by fairness, or otherwise..."​

– John Ball, 1381​


Gerald Brown had seen battle before. He'd served with the King's armies in France since 1369. He'd seen his commander John Chandos killed in a skirmish outside Lussac in 1370, and he'd done plenty of sacking himself in other towns throughout France. A decade and four years service had forged the Kentishman into a skilled tradesman for his craft, from tavern brawler to exerienced warrior. Pushing 38, he was older than many other men standing in the Yorkshire field on the morning of the 6th of August.

He'd found his way to the revolters cause after he'd seen enough of what he saw as the unnatural and illegitimate exploitation of the common people. He'd grown up hearing the stories of the plague from the village elders in his home town Challock. The tales of men waking up healthy and dropping dead by sundown had haunted him for many years. He'd also seen the methods used by royal tax collectors to ensure that no one dodged the new poll taxes levied to fund the same war that had made Gerald a well-known and respected veteran in his community. In Gerald's eyes, he would gladly pick up his sword again in defence of his countrymen and in the name of the King just as he'd done in France. When the tension finally snaped in 1381, he was part of the mob that marched on Canterbury in search of those evil men who misadvised the King and schemed against the common people.

That was months ago. What was once a rag-tag group of commoners and disgruntled gentry had been refined into a fighting force, the French wars having created no shortage of men willing and able to fight for what they believed in. By the time they'd trekked north as part of the new army to the Yorkshire town of Brompton, they were a well-drilled and capable force.

Before battle was to commence there was a sermon given by the most famous priest in England. John Ball, the apostle for the common Englishman. Once imprisoned for his convictions, he was the collective voice of a people throwing off the shackles of feudal tyranny:

"...There before you stands those who call you bondmen. There stands those who would disavow the King himself, and make us again do them servitude. By the will of God, England hath made itself free. He hath commanded that there will be neither villein nor gentleman in this Realm. The King, he hath seen our cry for liberty and for justice and hath answered the Lord's calling."

"And yet over there be those who would disavow his word and the work of God. Traitors, thieves and tyrants. To them, the King's word is nothing. They would attempt to deceive him, to strip us of our forefathers' liberties and tell us 'villeins ye be still and villeins ye shall remain'. Are we villeins? Are we their bondmen? No! We are men of justice. Zealots for truth and for justice. We wish to bring our message to the whole of England and they stand in our way. If they do not come to heel in fairness, we shall give them our message by other means."​

Soon after the sermon concluded, the King's sword was raised. Battle was to commence.
 
Zestinobambino

Zestinobambino

Well, if everyone's doing a blurb, I don't want to miss out, do I?

The story of my TL, What if Edmund, Earl of Rutland survived? - A Second White Rose imagines a world where Edward IV's brother Edmund survives the Battle of Wakefield and lives to see his big brother take the throne of England. From there, a whole host of butterflies is released across Europe and beyond, such as an independent Burgundy, a united Iberia, a brief Borgia kingdom in Navarre, a vicious civil war in France that rivals the Wars of the Roses in terms of chaos, various crusades of various levels of success, Habsburgs EVERYWHERE and much, much more.
 
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Arkenfolm

Blurb for my TL? Okay.

My TL Sea of Blood, Sea of Ice is a look at just what it would take for the Mongols to succeed in the largest naval invasion in premodern history and its dramatic effects on both Japan and Yuan China. I hope it proves quite informative to read, since many events and figures both major and minor of the mid to late Kamakura Shogunate and Kenmu Restoration make an appearance in these VERY changed circumstances, from the paranoid regent Houjou Sadatoki to the scheming chancellor of the (mostly) powerless court Saionji Sanekane to the highest of warrior nobility like Ashikaga Sadauji and Takeda Tokitsuna to idealists like Shouni Kagesuke or the prince who OTL became Emperor Go-Daigo. The great players in the Yuan dynasty are also well-detailed, such as the ambitious Prince Khayishan, the treacherous Hong Dagu, or the heroic young general Burilgitei.

And it doesn't just stop in Japan. The Mongol Empire reached across the world from Russia to Korea and Vietnam to Syria, and the Yuan Emperors nominally commanded this vast amount of land and its people. I aim to show the sort of people who might have served in Japan such as the Russian Guard of the kheshig or Nestorian monks, and sometimes the Japanese who might have traveled abroad such as various monks and scholars. The other khans of the divided Mongol Empire likewise make many appearances as I explore just how such a vast campaign in Japan affects their own affairs and dealings with neighbours.

This era was a crucial one for East Asia and the world as a whole, perhaps to the point it is the root of the modern era itself. I hope that I can present an informative and intriguing picture of how it might have turned out differently, and just who might have risen to prominence.
 
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