A TL I've been planning for a while now
– you can find the original thread
here.
So, without further ado, here are the first twenty years!
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1483–1505 – The reign of Richard III. His reign would bring an end to the Wars of the English Succession and launch England into a new era of prosperity.
1485 – The Battle of Bosworth Field. The King and his fellows meet Henry Tudor and his rebels in combat. The decisive factor is the Earl of Derby's intervention on Richard's behalf [1]. Henry Tudor is killed, and the Lancastrian forces routed.
The first cases of sweating sickness are recorded in England.
1486 – The Lady's Rebellion
– Margaret Beaufort attempts to rally the remaining Lancastrian support against King Richard to seize the throne for herself. Her attempt is mired by her gender, as the nobles are less than willing to install a woman on the throne
– particularly a woman so unsuited to puppetry. Richard imprisons her in the Tower for life, but his sister
–in
–law ensures that Beaufort is treated in a suitable manner.
Traditionally regarded as the end of the Wars of the English Succession.
1487 – John de la Pole, heir to the throne, marries Anne St. Leger in January. Their daughter Margaret is born on the 24th of November.
1489 – Further small
–scale Lancastrian revolts. Richard decides to create marriage
–alliances with powerful Continental families to ensure the security of the throne.
1490 – Princess Isabella marries Crown Prince Alfonso of Portugal. Later that year, her brother
– the heir apparent to the thrones of Castile and Aragon
– dies suddenly of consumption. She becomes the heir apparent to the Castilian throne, while the subtleties of Salic law mean that Alfonso becomes the heir to the throne of Aragon in the event of Ferdinand dying without conceiving another boy.
1491 – A young Venetian merchant called Christopher Columbus approaches Richard with ideas for an expedition to the far West to discover a trade route to Asia. Richard agrees to fund it in exchange for the lands being claimed in his name.
An agreement is reached for Princess Margaret to marry Philip of Burgundy upon her fifteenth birthday (1502).
The Peace of Pressburg is signed between Austria and Hungary. Among other things, it allows for Archduke Maximilian’s ascension to the Hungarian throne, should the current King die with no male heir.
1492 – Columbus sets off from Barnstaple to find a route to China and the Indies. It takes over a month, but he finally reaches a land on the other side of the ocean, which he proclaims to be China. He claims it in the name of Richard III, and returns to England with his news. [2]
Richard's experts, however, are not convinced that the land is Asia. After questioning Columbus's men, they come to the conclusion that they never went near Asia, and that their "Asia" is in fact a hitherto
–undiscovered land in between, as in the ancient legends of Hy
–Braseal. Richard names the land High Brasil.
1493–5 – Christopher Columbus launches his second expedition to High Brasil (or Asia, as he still believes). He maps much of the coastline of the area surrounding the landing site (or St. George's Land, as it is known).
Jean Cabot sails from Bordeaux on behalf of King Charles VIII of France, and maps a series of islands south of St. George's Land [3]. He names the sea Carolina in honour of his patron.
1493 – Death of Emperor Frederick III. Maximilian I inherits his father’s lands, including the title of Holy Roman Emperor.
1494 – Prince Edmund is born to Prince John and Princess Anne in January, while Princess Elizabeth arrives in late November.
John II of Portugal dies, and Alfonso V takes the throne of Portugal.
1494-5 – The War of the Neapolitan Succession. The death of Ferrante I of Naples results in a French invasion, as Charles VIII attempts to claim the kingdom for himself. He is forced to back down by Ferdinand II of Aragon, who would prefer to see his cousin Alfonso gain the throne.
In 1495, Charles VIII forces Alfonso out of Naples, and Alfonso abdicates. His son, Ferrante II, is championed as Ferdinand’s candidate, and placed on the throne once the French have been forced out of Naples once more by the League of Venice, a military union encompassing Milan, the Papal States, Venice, and Aragon.
1496 – Richard appoints the Duke of Norfolk as the first Lord Chamberlain.
1497 – Portuguese sailor
João Álvares Fagundes is contracted by the Cortes at Lisbon to explore the seas of Carolina. He discovers a region filled with small islands – the Fagundas, as they would become known. South of the Fagundas is a much larger land, named by Fagundes Terra Juana, but later known to Anglophones as “Low Brasil”.[4]
1499 – The Treaty of York proclaims an “everlasting peace” between England and Scotland, to be confirmed by the betrothal of Elizabeth of York to King James.
1500-4 – The Milanese War, as Louis XII of France attempts to conquer the Duchy of Milan. He is opposed by Naples, Aragon, and after 1501 by the Archduchy of Austria as well, but is supported by the Republic of Venice until 1503, when the Republic signs a separate peace with Austria. The French incursion is soundly trounced, and Louis is forced to surrender his claims on both Milan and the Kingdom of Naples.
1501 – Amerigo Vespucci sails to Brasil, where he maps much of the Carolinian Sea west of the Fagundas. He notes a large landmass stretching down on a north-south axis, and hypothesizes that it is a connection between the Brasils. [5]
1502 – Princess Margaret of England marries Philip of Habsburg, as stipulated in the 1491 Treaty of Ghent.
1504 – Isabella of Castile dies. Castile and Portugal are joined in personal union under Alfonso.
1505 – King Richard III dies in a hunting accident. The throne passes onto his heir, John II.
[1] In OTL, he fought for Henry, but it was a close call. This is the POD.
[2] He lands in Chesapeake Bay, roughly on the site of OTL Virginia Beach.
[3] OTL Caribbean Sea.
[4] South America, and the English probably
would call it Low Brasil, okay? We’re a sick people with little real humour outside of puns and crude innuendo.
[5] OTL Central America.
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Comments?