I really must write the strict Spanish duenna trying to deal with Cecily at some point. It will be hilarious 😂
A Queen Twice Over: Mary Tudor the Elder Marries Francis I of France
- Thread starter FalconHonour
- Start date
Ok i hate to be the one to point this out but like - surely it would make more sense for cecily to have a governess from the low countries since, ya know, that's where she's gonna be ruling? like i'm sure mencia will give her a good education but like the woman is very firmly spanish and it makes sense for her to have a spanish governess given.
Awww, sweet to see Diane calm down Henry, and I'm not surprised he has moments of melancholy, he seems to have intrusive thoughts of the future of his realm without him before he was even forty, so it seems to fit his personality. To be honest, a stern Spanish governess may do Cecily some good, at least as far as her uh, mental state will allow. Excellent chapter!
That's why I chose Mencia over anyone else. I wanted the strict Spanish duenna, but Mencia married Henry of Nassau-Dillenburg-Dietz
in 1524. She's been a Flemish Countess for over a decade at this point. She'll know the Low Countries very well. There's method to the madness, I promise.
I know people used to love them together, so when the scene wrote itself like that, I wasn't going to argue. And I agree. Cecily will hate Mencia with a passion, but her firm boundaries and severe consequences may teach Cecily more than her households current haphazard methods are doing.
I'm hoping for Catherine and Henry to have a strong Duke of York next. I think she would be more secure with her second son.
I’m not sure who’ll swing first. Will Mencia slap Cecily first or will Cecily drive her to an early death?
Oh good. Someone mentioned the matches. I was hoping someone would. The Fitzroy brood is all matched up at last. (While Diana isn't officially betrothed yet, I will admit that we have actually met her future husband.)
And I promise you, and @BlueFlowwer that there is definitely a Duke of Calais in Catherine's future, although I have not confirming whether it is this pregnancy or not.
i was gonna say edward of wales before i realized that's her half-brother.
Henry VIII did consider Mary I/Fitzroy once upon a blue moon, so it could have been a valid suggestion here too.
A squicky one, but a valid one.
Oh, I know, just merely noting it could have been a suggestion if Henry had wanted it. After all, he does love Diane, so what better to way to get one of their daughters onto the throne too?
Oh absolutely, although the Pope did suggest it as a last resort measure to try and prevent Henry breaking with Rome, as I recall.
And now I totally want to do an ASB family tree for Mary and Hal Fitzroy...
Section CXXIX: October 1535
Milan, October 1535
Bella hates Milan. Oh, she’s loth to admit it, even to herself, because she knows how much her marriage means to her mother. She knows how much her mother schemed with Monsieur de Breze and Vicomte de Lautrec to bring it about, and how relieved she was when the change of power in France and Jean’s subsequent falling-out with his brother, didn’t affect Bella’s future, at least not materially.
Indeed, that was why her lady mother sent Bella to Milan this summer, even though she and Jean are only married by proxy and he won’t be able to consummate their marriage for at least another nine months. She didn’t want anything else to possibly stand in the way of Bella’s becoming Duchess of Milan.
Bella knows all that, and at sixteen, she’s more than old enough to understand the importance of her marriage.
Which is why she would never, in a million years, let on to her mother how unhappy she is.
But really! How is she meant to bear this, in the long term? Her husband is nothing but a silly little boy, one spoiled rotten by his own ducal power, and who will do anything to please his beloved Mama Isabelle. Madame de Valentinois is the only one Jean listens to, and he can’t make a single decision without consulting her, not even something as simple as what to have for breakfast.
Marriage is difficult enough when there are only two people involved. Bella’s own parents were proof of that. So how are she and Jean ever supposed to reach any kind of accord, when Madame de Valentinois refuses to cut him loose from her apron strings?
Why, she is sitting beside him even now, her hand resting possessively on the arm of his throne as they listen to the petitioner, a grizzled, weather-beaten old soldier. How dare she? Bella ought to be sitting there, not her.
Growling softly under her breath, Bella tunes back into the conversation, just in time to hear Madame de Valentinois say, “Oh, but Jean, darling, don’t you remember me talking about this just the other week? Lord Nemours is right. Your father would want you to go to Paris and persuade your brother to invade Boulogne. He died defending it. His ghost must be crying out for vengeance, and it’s only right that you should help. You were his favourite son, and you’re old enough to fight now.”
Bella’s heart sinks. She knows what they are talking about. Madame de Valentinois has been talking of nothing but Lord Nemours’ planned uprising ever since her brother’s coded letter arrived a month ago.
Can the Duchess not see how dangerous it is? Can she not see that, if Jean rises against his brother, he’ll tear France in two? More than that, he’ll shatter any remaining fraternal trust his older brother may still have in him. And if Jean doesn’t have King François’s support, he’ll never be able to resist the Emperor’s designs on Milan.
To Bella’s relief, Jean bites the inside of his cheek, “Papa might want me to push for Boulogne, but he wouldn’t want me to rise against François. He was always insistent that it was crucial for family to be loyal to one another. It’s why my Lady Mother’s abandonment of us all hurt him so much.”
“His Majesty was right,” the petitioner – Lord Nemours – agrees unctuously, “And Your Grace is right to remember it and to be cautious about what I am asking of you. But Your Grace wouldn’t be betraying King François, merely seeking to remove His Majesty’s evil councillors. The men and women who are turning a blind eye and letting him squander France’s precious resources on exploring the New World rather than recouping her territorial integrity. And your father would understand that. After all, as Madame de Valentinois says, His Majesty died defending Boulogne. That makes it clear where his priorities lay, surely?”
“He did…” Jean’s voice trails off, and Madame de Valentinois seizes her chance, pouncing on the boy’s hesitation.
“Besides, Jean, you can hardly pretend your brother has been a shining example of fraternal or familial loyalty himself, can you? He refused to call you back to France for either your father’s month mind or his coronation. He’s withheld my rightful income as Duchess of Valentinois from me, even though your father clearly intended those lands to be mine, and Gaston’s, in the event of his death. He’s kept my children from me, depriving them of a mother’s tenderness when they’re even younger than you were back in 1528. You know how much pain that sort of thing causes, how the grief aches and festers. Are you really going to stand by and do nothing, when it’s well within your power to relieve Gaston and Magdalena’s suffering?”
It is all she needs to say. Jean’s face softens, and he turns in his chair to kiss Isabella’s cheek.
“Of course I won’t, Mama Isabelle. Returning Gaston and Magdalena to you is the first thing I’ll do once I’m ensconced in Paris. And the second thing I’ll do is order troops to Pamplona to help your brother take back his crown. Then we’ll see about Boulogne.”
Lord Nemours looks sick as he realises Jean is only going along with his plan because it means he can enrich Madame de Valentinois and her family, and Bella doesn’t blame him. She feels just as ill, albeit for rather different reasons.
Jean is nearly fourteen. Surely he’s old enough now not to let his former maternal figure to play him so? Can’t he see that, as he melts like putty in Lady Isabella’s skilled hands, he’s putting his own patrimony at risk? Risking Bella’s rightful inheritance? They won’t be able to defend Milan, not without French support. And certainly not if they’re halfway to Paris when the Emperor attacks.
Half of Bella wants to cry out in horror at the colossal error Jean is making, but she doesn’t. It won’t do any good. She knows that. Jean never changes his mind once he’s made it up, and besides, he only ever listens to Madame de Valentinois anyway. No one else matters. Not to him.
For a moment, Bella has a wild thought: I could volunteer to stay behind as Regent, rather than Monsieur de La Marck.”
She dismisses the notion as soon as think of it, however. She might be Jean’s wife, but at this point, she’d probably do more harm than good. She just doesn’t know Milan the way he does. She simply hasn’t been in Italy long enough. And besides, she needs to be with Jean. If she’s to give Milan an heir with Sforza blood, the way her lady mother wants her to, if she’s not to lose Jean to Madame de Valentinois’s clutches even more than she already has, then she needs to be with him. She needs to be at his side and in his mind, even if only through sheer proximity.
Sighing, Bella slips from the Great Hall, beckoning to her favourite maid, Olenka, as she does so. She can’t bear to be in that disaster zone a moment longer.
No one even notices her go.
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