Well, there you go.
IMO, without huge and incontrovertible proof anyone who has suspicions going forward will decidedly be of the opinion ‘let sleeping dogs lie’. Especially once the couple are actually married.
An Imperial Match: Anne Boleyn marries Charles V
- Thread starter pandizzy
- Start date
IMO, without huge and incontrovertible proof anyone who has suspicions going forward will decidedly be of the opinion ‘let sleeping dogs lie’. Especially once the couple are actually married.
Well, they're pretty inconsequential people. Neither Eleonora nor Henrique are first in line to any sort of thrones. Henrique has many older brothers and sisters with children, while Eleonora has her brothers to inherit Ferrara before her. If anyone does find out, I dare say they'd accept whatever bribe offered their way cause why else would they give a shit?
Trust me, there were much worst forgeries than that one or this of Ippolito in Rome between 1400 and 1600 (see the Armagnac case)…
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Yeah, I’ve already seen the Laughing Cavalier’s videos on the matter, so I put no stock into this series’ realism.
Me too! Also, why are you calling her Edwige, wouldn’t she be referred to as Jadwiga, like her namesake the King?
Oh yes, Hedwig will marry Francis! Her children may not inherit the throne, but she'll be Queen, and they'll surely be very prominent in the realm. Also yay to the forgery, Ippolito is a good brother.
Might we see Hedwig's french children become important for the continuous Jagellion dynasty if Sigismund Augustus and his linages go as otl?...
Well Hedwig had children OTL but the Polish throne ended up going (through election) to her sister Anna and then to the Vazas, descended from her sister Catherine.
Yes but a French prince was elected before Anna and the Vasas so it could be Edwige's French son ITTL.
20th of October, 1533.
Toledo, Castile. 20th of October, 1533.
The door to her rooms opened and closed, heavy steps coming in. Anne raised her head, her eyes moving away from Fernando's calm expression as he slept to the burning hearth before her. The flames played shadows over her face, hitting Fernando's golden hair and reflecting its light and still, Charles said nothing.
She could feel his gaze upon her, eyes focused and her heartbeat fastened, deep in her chest. Anne ran a finger down Fernando's blonde hair, stroking his chubby cheek and turned her own face slightly, trying to catch her husband at the corner of her sight.
"I wondered when you'd come to see me," she murmured. Anne saw when Charles waved Fernando's nurse in, the woman coming quickly to take her son and when they were alone, she turned to her husband. He had a strange look on his face, almost resigned and Anne knew, even if she hadn't been expecting it, that whatever news he was going to tell her, she wouldn't like it. "Ever since news came from Rome, I wondered when you'd come here."
Charles shook his head, hissing lightly. "The next pope must look favorably upon us," he said. "There is a large chance I will be able to influence the election if I'm close to Rome."
"Where will you go?" she asked, softly.
Charles sighed. "Naples," he said. "It is high time I visit my kingdom in Italy, then maybe Austria and the Low Countries thereafter."
Anne blinked. Such a trip would take weeks, maybe even months just on the road. Not to mention, the time spent at each location, each of his different courts and seats of power. She knew he was leaving, she always knew deep in her chest when he was going to leave her, and yet, she hadn't expected it to be for so long. And for such a silly reason as to choose the next pope.
Charles must have seen something on her face, something that spoke of her inner pain because he stepped forward. His hands slid across her neck, pulling her into a kiss and Anne sighed, leaning their foreheads together as they came apart. She felt the heart emanating from him, wrapping her in a warm embrace and Anne placed her hands on his waist. She didn't know whether she wanted to hug him or pull him into another deep kiss of her own.
"I'll come back," said Charles, stroking the line of her jaw. "I always do."
"I know," Anne murmured. "I know, I know." She shook her head. "I just hate to see you leave."
This time, Anne didn't ask him to take her with him. Probably because she knew that her children needed her and, in some strange way, these Spanish kingdoms of his needed her too. She couldn't just leave.
"You mustn't take long," Anne said. "Catalina and Fernando are still young. They must know your face, no matter what." Juanita had already acclimated herself to Charles and treated him just as she did any other member of their family, with love and kindness. It would greatly hurt Anne to see her other children treat her husband, their father, as a stranger all over again.
"I won't," Charles promised. Anne didn't believe him.
She closed her eyes and when she opened them again, Charles was staring at her.
"I have one final request," she said.
"Say it, and it's yours," he responded and Anne smiled, sadly. There was nothing in her that didn't want to ask him to stay, to ask him not to ever leave her, but she didn't.
Instead, she murmured, "Put another child in me. So I have something to remember you by."
He blinked, probably surprised by her request so soon after Fernando, but he mustn't have forgotten about Felipe and María. Just a one year difference between them, their eldest daughter conceived so quickly after the birth of their son. He couldn't have forgotten, because Anne sure didn't.
A smile curled his mouth and he kissed her again. When he began to tug at the laces of her dress, it was all too easy for Anne to do the same to his doublet.
--
Vienna, Austria. 31st of October, 1533.
"Anke and Karl Ferdinand seem to be getting on quite well," George murmured. Ferdinand turned to look at him, holding a goblet of wine close to his mouth and nodded, before turning back to the window before him.
The children were playing in the gardens, some sort of game where one tied a handkerchief around their eyes and tried to find the others. It was Ferry's turn and he was laughing, hands stretched forward as his siblings and George's children escaped him. Ferdinand watched them with a strange longing for the easy days of his boyhood, when everything was much simpler.
"Yes," he murmured, when his lack of response was starting to become awkward. "One may hope their friendship will blossom into a romantic love in the future."
George nodded, even as he said, "Isn't it too soon for that? They're just six. Maybe we should give it a time before we speak of romantic love."
"People like us can't afford to give it time," Ferdinand responded. "I was betrothed to Anna at thirteen and my cousin, Marie, was engaged at four to my brother." He looked at George. "Is your own Anna not betrothed to the heir to Bavaria? Did the Wittelsbachs not wish for an imperial alliance without entangling themselves in our mess?"
George, at least, had the gall to look sheepish. He turned away, cheeks flushed and Ferdinand saw his pulse point, trembling underneath the flimsy skin of his neck. He wanted to kiss it, to suck it into his mouth and feel it pulsing between his lips.
He looked away.
"Yes," said the Englishman. George shook his head. "Forgive me. I'm still getting used to all of this. In England, I was no one practically, but now, I'm someone important."
"You were always someone important," Ferdinand responded. George looked at him in astonishment and he gulped. He hadn't actually meant to say that, and yet the words left his mouth easily. Without a command. "If not to the world, then to your sisters, to your parents."
George smiled. "My sisters," he repeated. "I haven't seen Anne in years and Mary is a Scottish countess now, though she didn't write to tell me so."
"So what?" Ferdinand asked. "They are still your family, no matter what." He smiled sadly. "If you lose your sister, do you stop saying you have one?"
"Of course not," said George. He looked out the window again. "Your wife came to me yesterday."
Ferdinand stepped back, surprised. "What did she say?" he asked, already thinking about what Anna could have talked to him about. She promised, he thought. Not without me present.
"She offered to take my daughters as her wards, to educate them," he said. "Nan and Ella don't have a mother to mold them into proper German ladies, but your wife offered to do so." George smiled. "As Anne of Brittany did for her mother, and Margaret of Austria did for my sister. I think I will accept it."
"That's good," said Ferdinand. "I know we just had another daughter, Katharina, but having your girls here will be good for them."
George smiled. "At least, it will give me an excuse to visit," he said. "To see you again."
Ferdinand gasped and a torrent of words rushed out of him, unable to be stopped. "You do not need an excuse to visit," he said. "You will always be welcome here, no matter what. I will always…"
The words died in his throat when George kissed him. Ferdinand felt a question rising, a gasp or a moan and he wrapped his arms around the other's neck, pulling him close. Their clothes came off easily after that, all other matters forgotten.
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Family Tree - Austrian Habsburgs
King Ferdinand I of Bohemia and Hungary (March 1503-) m. Anna of Bohemia and Hungary (July 1503-)
- Elisabeth of Austria (July 1525-) bet. Zygmunt August (August 1520-)
- Maximilian of Austria (July 1526-) b. Juana of Austria (December 1526-)
- Anna of Austria (July 1527-) b. Karl Ferdinand Bullen (September 1527-)
- Ferdinand of Austria (June 1528- ) b. Báthori Erzsébet (1528 -)
- Maria of Austria (May 1530-)
- Magdalena of Austria (August 1532-)
- Katharina of Austria (September 1533-)
I've said before that some of the kids (until Magdalena) were born a year before. It wasn't a secret.