Oh snap! Caterina’s wasting no time taking over Milan! And creating a Milanese Tordesillas…
An Imperial Match: Anne Boleyn marries Charles V
- Thread starter pandizzy
- Start date
Is the spanish elderly woman Catherine of Austria? Who is Caterina? I think I lost track of who's who in Milan.
It is - Caterina is Catherine de Medici who married Catherine of Austria's son, the Duke of Milan
Ah, then I see.It is - Caterina is Catherine de Medici who married Catherine of Austria's son, the Duke of Milan
There's two women talking. The elderly one is Catherine of Austria, Charles' youngest sister and the other is Catherine de Medici.
Caterina is doing well, asserting herself while still fully allowing her mother in law what she is due as a dowager Duchess (truly I had no idea the relationship between the two was so bad!)
Poor Caterina never has the easiest marital life, does she?
Eh, she may not like it, but unless she enters the French camp, I don’t think she has much choice.
It is probable that something died in Catalina with Francesco, and from there on she was incapable to really love anyone save her elder son, and even then only for the power she was able to administrate throught him, and so she was a bed mother in law for Caterina.
Oh no poor Catherine of Austria, I hope that she finds some measure of peace in her later years...
Elderly? Wouldn't she just have turned forty if the math checks out?
Considering average life expectancy was around 50 during this time, yes elderly in that regard
13th of October, 1548.
Bruges, Low Countries. 13th of October, 1548.
Charles wrung his fingers together as he observed the careful tension surrounding the room, enclosing them in a suffocating environment. The snapping of Duchess Elizabeth's fingers as she moved her cutlery about her plate, the careful chewing of Juan's food as he pointedly ignored his wife.
They weren't loudly arguing with each other anymore, thank the Lord. It seemed that Archduchess Marguerite's death snuffed out the fire in them, leaving only cool anger behind. Charles didn't know whether to be thankful about that or not. It was clear that they still had strong resentment for each other, and their position, but they weren't falling into slaps and screams and kisses again. Bessie hadn't even conceived since Marguerite's passing.
"The new Duke of Milan is a boy of ten," Charles thought to comment, wanting to break the suffocating silence they were in. "His mother is his regent."
Juan looked at him. "How does my dear aunt fare with her son's death?" he asked.
"Not well, I imagine," Bessie commented lightly as she spooned some cream into her plate. Juan looked at her for a brief moment before he turned back to his father.
"I don't know," he murmured. "My sister only wishes for my help in securing the Milanese regency for herself against Caterina di Médici." His son snorted. "What?"
"Nothing," Juan said, cutting into his venison.
"No, tell me," Charles demanded. "What is so funny?"
Juan sighed and rolled his eyes. "It's funny that my cousin is barely cold in his grave and yet, his mother and wife are already fighting over his lands," he said. "And that my aunt thinks you will help her. Everyone wants something from you, but hardly anyone wishes to help you, father."
“Should the Emperor even bother with helping his sister secure the regency of Milan?" Bessie asked, swirling her glass of wine around. "She already held that role for her son when the old Duke died. Is the young Duke’s widow to be kept from a position she has as much a right to as the archduchess did those years before?”
"Especially with Savoy," Juan murmured. "They will take advantage of this weakness in Milan to take the Swiss Confederacy for themselves." He smiled. "Margarita might soon be a future queen, instead of just a duchess."
"What a dream," Bessie said sarcastically. Juan stared at her, a message silently conveyed through his expression and she frowned at him, as if ready to pull out an offensive gesture. Instead, she just showed him her two fingers, which confused Charles.
"The Swiss Confederacy is under the control of the Empire," said Charles.
"Only nominally," Juan replied acidly. "And uncle Ferdinand doesn't care about Italy and the Alps. He is only focused on getting Hungary back from Sultan Mustafa and his janissaries."
“Your uncle Ferdinand forgets that dominion over those territories was hard won by our family," Charles said with a curt tone. "And that his multiple ties to Germany do not erase that the Empire expands past the Alps into Italy. Those territories need to be kept secure, same as Hungary.”
His son rolled his eyes. “If you say so,” he murmured. “It’s not as if my opinion truly matters anyway.” Charles sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Not this again,” he said. “The agreement has always been that you would have Burgundy and the Low Countries, Felipe would have Spain and Ferdinand, the Empire.” He looked at his son. “Why must everything be resisted by you, as if to the death? I’m trying to do what is best for this family.”
“The Duke can’t be happy with what he is given, my lord father,” Bessie said, sipping her wine. “He will always wish for more.”
His son snorted again. “Is it so wrong that I feel slighted?” he asked, almost insulted. “I’m granted a mere Duchy while my brother is set to inherit an ancient and prestigious crown with vast territories and my uncle will have dominion over swathes of Europe? Why couldn’t Felipe be given the Empire and I be given Spain?”
“Juan, be careful with what you’re saying,” Charles said.
“The Empire is the jewel of Christendom,” his son said. “The largest plum would go to the eldest, it would only be right, but you give it to your brother instead. And all I am left with is this pitiful tract of land where I must deal with the bellicose French on my doorstep. That is when I’m not sitting idle and overseeing trade with my harridan wife’s foolish brother.”
“Burgundy is my grandmother’s inheritance, that which was stolen from us,” Charles responded, having half a mind to slap the young man’s face. “I took it back and gave it to you. Not to Felipe, or to Fernando, or Eduardo, but to you.”
“What you did was take me away from my mother when I was only two,” Juan replied. “So when she died and everyone had memories of her, all I had were letters and paintings. Because of you.”
“It was for this family,” said Charles.
“Family?” His son laughed, shaking his head. “You dare to speak about family when you weren’t even here? When you took Christina away and sent Aunt Maria to raise me, while my grandparents cared for my siblings in Spain, because you were too busy with your own grief to give a shit?”
“You were a spoilt boy and you’ve grown into a spoilt man,” Charles said carefully. “To think of all I’ve done for you, all the care and consideration I dedicated to your education. Christina had to marry for the sake of this family, she understood her duty, and your whining at these supposed slights I have rained upon you is little more than a wailing brat who has not been given his toy.” He shook his head. “You don’t understand what I lost when your mother died.”
“You’re right,” Juan said. “How could I understand when you ripped me from her arms and handed me to nurses and tutors, when you gave me a grieving widow who could hardly be bothered to offer warmth, when you took my only dear cousin, the only person I had who cared for me? How could I understand?”
“We’ve all had things to sacrifice for this family,” Charles responded.
“What did you sacrifice for this family?” his son asked. “An alliance with England? A marriage treaty with Portugal? Was that truly a sacrifice for you?” He chortled, a sardonic smile cutting across his face. “Now I’m saddled with her,” he pointed at Bessie with his chin, “And my sister María is in her grave. Because of you.”
For a moment, no one spoke. The air was thick with tension, practically sizzling with the rage that simmered about them. Then, Juan rubbed a hand over his face, and sighed.
“I have lost my appetite,” he said. “By your leave, Your Majesty.” Charles didn’t have the strength of mind to stop him.
When the door closed noisily behind him, Bessie stood to her feet, her blue eyes shining as she clutched her gown in her hands. “You see now the cruelty I suffer?” She took a shuddering breath and curtsied. “By your leave, Your Majesty. I must go and soothe my irritated husband or it will only be worse for the servants. And you have my thanks, I’m truly grateful that my children do not see him like this.”
Charles said nothing, merely staring at the empty seats they left behind, the echo of Juan’s words in his mind. It was interesting how he hardly ever spoke to his brother Felipe, even in letters, and yet, they sounded exactly the same. But Juan was more dangerous, less inclined to turn on himself during his tempers. And his ambition could ruin everything.
“The only thing that can take down the House of Austria is itself,” a voice said behind him. He turned and saw an olive-skinned figure sitting by the window, dark hair falling in rings behind her back. Black eyes glinting with love as she looked at him. “Don’t let him affect you. He is just upset, my poor boy.”
“I don’t know what to do,” he told Anne. It wasn’t the first time he saw her. It was the most vivid, however. As if she had been invoked through Juan’s words.
She smiled. “Yes, you do,” she said. “You’ve always known exactly what to do, my love.”
Charles nodded. She was right. As always, she was right.
Well, that went as badly as it could have.
I gotta say that the image of Margarita as Queen is a beautiful one however.
And Juan eventually had to complain about the inheritance huh? Burgundy is them by right and it's the proud Teeritory of Charles the Bold, Mary the Rich, Philip the Good and Jean the Fearless. Juan is lucky to have such an ancestral and rich territory to call his own.
I gotta say that the image of Margarita as Queen is a beautiful one however.
And Juan eventually had to complain about the inheritance huh? Burgundy is them by right and it's the proud Teeritory of Charles the Bold, Mary the Rich, Philip the Good and Jean the Fearless. Juan is lucky to have such an ancestral and rich territory to call his own.