An Imperial Match: Anne Boleyn marries Charles V
- Thread starter pandizzy
- Start date
There's always her OTL husband, the Earl of Lennox. Or she wanted Charles Howard...
Or perhaps Thomas Seymour?
Or perhaps Thomas Seymour?
So here are some choices…I looked more into English choices because OTL she was raised in England and I don’t recall if anything contradicting that was said in the TL
Scottish:
William Hay, 6th Earl of Erroll
English:
Henry Grey, 3rd Marquess of Dorset
Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter
A widowed Charles Brandon?
Francis Talbot, 5th Earl of Shrewsbury
Scottish:
William Hay, 6th Earl of Erroll
English:
Henry Grey, 3rd Marquess of Dorset
Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter
A widowed Charles Brandon?
Francis Talbot, 5th Earl of Shrewsbury
Honestly, the Howards are gonna get an important marriage in the future so I don't know if giving them Meg as well will bode well.
And Thomas Seymour... That's a no from me dawg.
Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby? Or I second @BriarRose and like the idea of Henry Grey!
Well if Henry is NOT troubled by the succession Meg can have her love match with this Thomas Howard. In OTL they married secretly so they would simply need to get away with it
20th of November, 1530.
Outskirts of Coimbra, Portugal. 20th of November, 1530.
João was not afraid. Why would he be? He knew he was in the right. He knew the Lord was by his side. Last night, a rider came from Alcochete with a letter from Leonor. She was with child again, quickened just before she sat down to write to him, and her words spoke of the children they already had as well as they gave him the news. How healthy they were, how studious.
Manuela had lost one of her front teeth, it was sooner than what they were expecting, but it seemed it fell out when she and Filipe were playing a ball game with Afonso. She was so excited that she had saved the tooth so João could see it when he returned. Joana had mastered French, it seemed, and Leonor’s letter included one written by his child that spoke of her love for him and asked when they could come home. To Lisbon. He wasn't man enough to admit that he shed two tears reading it, unable to contain the longing he felt for his children.
Filipe had learned how to dance and the alphabet and wanted to show it to João, also when he returned. He was a shy and sensitive boy who hated attention, but he was proud for mastering the moves his tutor taught him and was eager to show them to him. And Afonso, his heir, the Prince of Portugal, was finally allowed to learn how to shoot an arrow. He could hardly stop talking about it, Leonor said.
Reading about his children was a balm to his heart, as well as a stab. It only reminded him of how much he missed them, how much he hated his cousin for having forced João to keep them in his grandmother’s castle for their own safety. When had Portugal ever become a dangerous place for children to live in? How far had they come, and how deep had they sunk.
In the cold light of the weak sun, João looked at his cousin. Jorge de Lencastre, who had been a thorn in the side of the King of Portugal ever since he could remember. They were meeting under a peace banner, trying to reach an accord that could bring back the peace that once reigned in their glorious land. Neither were wearing armour, but João could sense the barbs that were exchanged.
Behind him were his brothers on their own horses, Afonso and Luís. Duarte had remained in Lisbon, much to his displeasure, though there was nothing he could do against João’s clear orders.
Jorge had his two eldest sons with him, João and Afonso. João de Lencastre had a smug look on his face, a look that the King wanted nothing more than to slap it off.
“My terms are clear, cousin,” said João. “Accept that I am your one true king, call off your men and I will take you back into the fold with open arms.”
Jorge arched an eyebrow.
“It is not over yet, cousin,” he spit out the last word like a curse. “The order of Pope Innocent was clear.”
“Do you mean your blatant forgery?” asked João with a dry laugh. “My brother Henrique has already found out the truth in Rome, by our current Holy Father, who has no record of any legitimization by Pope Innocent.” He smiled, turning his eyes to João de Lencastre. “In our gratitude, my niece, daughter of the Duke of Beja and the Countess of Marialva was named Clemência, after the Holy Father.”
João, who once aimed to marry Guiomar, frowned, a dark shadow covering his face in anger.
“So you must see now,” said João de Aviz, “Your little plan would never work out. Accept the gift of mercy I have offered you and bend the knee, cousin.”
Jorge looked at his sons with a question on his eyes. They looked back at him and Jorge, whatever he saw, turned back to João with a resolute expression.
“We’ll see,” he murmured. “We’ll see.”
They turned their horses around with their men and João observed as they ran back to the city with their tail between their legs, cowardly fleeing to the safe protection of its walls. When they were sufficiently distant, João made the sign for his own men to be prepared, the blowing horn screaming across the world. His agents in the city were prepared to act, even as the rulers waved the flag of Jorge de Lencastre.
After all, Coimbra’s walls only ran so far and the river Mondego ran both as a matter of pride and a hindrance to their plans to stand through a siege. Jorge had no ships of his own that could ever compare to even a fraction of the royal Portuguese fleet.
So, as the dark points that were once Jorge and his men got even smaller, João murmured, mostly to himself, “When the sun sets, your line shall end.”
Thomas is a younger son, pretty far in the succession to Norfolk. He and Margaret marrying for love is unlikely to influence too much other things…
I never though that…