An Unsuspected Pregnancy 2.0: A Plantagenet Timeline
Wedding of James I of Scotland and Seban Maccarthy
Wedding of James I of Scotland and Seban Maccarthy
In early 1411 James I finally found a solution to getting Tadhg to aid him in his quest to return to Scotland: marriage. James proposed the union of himself and the King's youngest child and only daughter, Sebán (Joanne in English, in honor of her mother). Though Tadhg had been initially reluctant to help the young King, the thought of his daughter as Queen of the Scots excited him and he enthusiastically accepted. In Dublin on February 7th the young couple was joined in the rite of matrimony. James was just 15 and his bride was only 14, as Tadhg had refused to wait for the marriage until after he had aided James, not entirely trusting the boy and his advisers. The wedding feast afterwards was to be the most extravagant affair yet held in the newly established Irish Royal Court. The marriage was duly consummated, and within weeks the Irish King began to quietly assemble an army. Though he had no intention of leaving his realm, fearing revolts in his absence, he was willing to provide his young son-in-law with troops and commanders, which included his sons Donall and Cormac.
Meanwhile, the English continued to fight their war against France. Edward IV began a renewed offensive in March, with winter finally beginning to thaw, and moved south out of Normandy, towards Paris. Panic struck the French capital as it was relatively undefended, with the nearest army in the east unable to march back without allowing the Duke of Burgundy to make further gains into French territory. The Duke of Orleans was just a young boy, and yet the hopes of his side in the civil war rested on his shoulders. Charles proved fit for the task and surprised many individuals with the calmness he responded to the news. He quietly sent out envoys to Edward, while ordering the Orleanist army to slightly move to the west, back towards Paris. When his envoys arrived at the camp of Edward IV they offered the King generous terms in return for a treaty of peace, or at very least a truce. Edward, who was growing concerned by reports from his north that parts of Normandy were up in arms, agreed. The head of the party of envoys had in fact been the Duke of Berry, the last son of John II and a widely respected figure in France and it was whispered without him, negotiations would have failed. He remembered the defeat of his father at the hands of the English at Poitiers and believed a second defeat on that magnitude, especially after the disaster that was the Battle of Rouen, would spell the end for Valois rule in France.
Marie Valois hears her fate (1607)
The Dukes of Orleans and Berry were to offer Edward generous peace terms. They promised to acknowledge English control over both Normandy and Guyenne, and also agreed to numerous territorial cessations. England was to take vast tracts of land on the edges of both duchies. In return, Edward IV agreed to marry the French Princess Marie. Marie had been educated to be a nun, but she was the child of the closest age to Edward and was unceremoniously removed from her convent and sent back to Paris. Legend had it she clung to the altar, crying when she heard the news, and had to be pulled from the Church by the Orleanist soldiers. By March she had returned to the Capitol and was reunited with her parents for several hours before being sent with an escort to the English camp at Dreux. She and Edward were married that same evening, where she was reportedly weeping heavily, and the following morning the Orleanists and English signed a treaty. Edward agreed to refuse to fight in France for 10 years and happily turned back to Normandy with his new, unhappy wife. Though the marriage was quite unhappy at first, with Edward complaining of Marie's constant crying and dismal attitude, both soon came to at very least respect one another as Marie came to accept her situation. In April the Dauphin was released and sent back to Paris, though his imprisonment had been hard on him and he died en route. France had yet another Dauphin.
The Duke of Burgundy was furious about Edward's repudiation of their alliance (one of the clauses in the Treaty of Dreux) and, understanding it was no longer practical to take Paris, moved south with his army from Reims to Champagne. The French Civil War began to look more and more like a stalemate as both armies refused to give battle for the time being, instead contenting themselves with raiding the countryside of their enemies. For several months civilians in territories belonging to both sides faced wretched conditions as raiders seized their food, clothing, and livestock while also ruining their crops and raping local women. Public order began to break down in Eastern France, where most of the soldiers were located, though conditions were not much better in the west as citizens tried to recover from the English invasions over the past two years.
On May 5th James and his army departed from Ireland, sailing north and landing at Carrick, which was hereditary land of the King and where he held widespread support. With James was his new wife Seban, who was now pregnant despite her still young age of 15, as well as Seban's brothers, who had both commanded men in their father's war for the Irish throne. The Irish army was reinforced by James' own personal levies and the young King began to march North, claiming he had returned just to assume his personal rule, not to battle his uncle. No one believed this claim and so the Duke of Albany and the Earl of Douglas organized their own forces. Within a couple of weeks James moved so far east however, his much larger force sat in between the two men's armies. En route James had strictly enforced his command that no looting or raping of his subjects would be tolerated and, while this endeared him to the common people, it did damage his reputation amongst his soldiers.
The Duke of Albany found no widespread support amongst the magnates or the common people, and therefore had a tough time assembling an army. His only major ally in Scotland were the Black Douglases and he knew the Earl of Douglas would abandon him on a moment's notice if the King were to offer him a pardon. Albany therefore sent envoys to his nephew, promising to lay down his arms and return to his estates in return for peace, knowing full well he was James' heir and the King could be easily assassinated if need be. The King initially contemplated this offer, but eventually refused. He had been in exile for most of his life due to his uncle's murder of his elder brother and he knew that he would never be able to fully trust or forgive him. The envoys were imprisoned by the King who now marched north to do battle with Robert Stewart.
The Duke of Albany's army melted away when news reached the camp that James was marching North, but the Duke dug in to fight anyways. He and his nephew's forces encountered each other just to the south of Edinburgh on June 20th, and battle commenced the following morning. In a somewhat expected result, Robert Stewart's men were quickly routed and the Duke attempted to flee north and raise a second host. Before he could however, him and his guards were encountered by chance by several English scouts, captured, and taken before James. The King did not hesitate. The following morning Robert Stewart, the Duke of Albany was beheaded alongside his two sons Murdoch and John. While some decried James as a kinslayer, most viewed the killings as justified. James marched on Scone several days later and within a week was crowned King of Scotland. He offered peace to Douglas, who hastily agreed and disbanded his forces. James had finally achieved his long sought for aim, he was now King in his own right of the Scots. He was to ultimately hold onto a resentment of the magnates of Scotland due to the fact they had been slow in supporting his cause, something which would prove crucial during his reign and would make him very much a "common-man's king". Within two months of his coronation, Seban gave birth to a baby girl, christened Annabella in honor of James' late mother. The King was elated, even though the child was not a male heir, and the birth brought the couple much closer together.
The following weeks saw Edward return to England with his new wife, leaving behind Edmund Mortimer and John Holland as governors of Normandy and Guyenne respectively. In June 1411 the King reentered London in triumph and had the highest popularity of any monarch since his great-grandfather following the victory at Poitiers. For the first time since he had regained his throne 4 years prior, Edward finally ruled a realm at peace. James and Scotland were being cautious towards England, though relations at best could be described as cold, and with France in civil war there was no real threat to English stability. That being said, Edward would still continue to rattle his sabre, something which highlighted to his contemporaries he was not a capable administrator, regardless of how great a military commander he was. By August England had begun to send monetary aid to the Duke of Burgundy, who was willing to forgive Edward's peace with the Orleanists in exchange for the gold, in direct violation of the treaty of Dreux. The Orleanists did not object however, not wanting to provoke another war with England so soon after a peace had been crafted. Furthermore with Marie now Edward's Queen, they hoped his sympathies to the Duke of Burgundy would begin to fade.
Marie was coronated in Westminster Abbey in an amazing show of English extravagance. veterans of the King's campaign escorted the new Queen in a grand procession through London with much of the crowd being dazzled by the display of power. Surprisingly, Queen Marie proved to be initially quite popular with the common people throughout the realm. Many saw her as a symbol of English victory in France and her piety, having been a nun, was genuine enough that she enjoyed support in the Church as well. Under Marie alms-giving tripled to the extent there were times early in their marriage Edward complained about his wife's excessive generousity. These complaints would soon be silenced however, when word reached the King in February 1412 that Queen Marie was pregnant.
In Ireland Tadhg continued his process of updating the country to match other feudal realms. Unlike Edward in England, Tadhg showed himself to be both a capable soldier and administrator. He was highly regarded by most of his new subjects, with his their only complaint being his excessive fondness for wine. Local assemblies were established throughout Ireland on the King's orders beginning in 1411. These assemblies gathered taxes and conducted local law enforcement on the King's behalf. After this Tadhg also created a small assembly (called the General Council) of his newly-created Dukes and Earls. While the local assemblies collected taxes and conducted day-to-day governance, the Council was to advise the King on a variety of issues including how much to tax, what laws to pass, and where money should be appropriated. The King held final say on most matters, and in early years ignored the advice of the Council on many occasions, but over time came to use his Council as a tool for governing the realm. It was the Council which conducted business with the local assemblies (as the King viewed himself as too important to deal with them) and settled disputes over jurisdiction. In 1413 at the Pope's insistance, the King added several clergymen to the Council, which roughly held 10-15 individuals at any given time (numbers varied based on who was at Court as well as who was presently in the King's favor).
Ireland had changed a lot during Tadhg's reign, as his early policies show, but these extensive changes to government were not all positively received. Many peasants resented the new system of local assemblies as they meant for the first time, widespread and effective taxation. In the past, Chiefs and Kings had been unable to collect their dues from all of their subjects, but Tadhg had created the infrastructure allowing everyone to be taxed nationwide at once. Furthermore many citizens of the lower class disliked Tadhg's policy of moving the Church in Ireland from being based to monasticism, to one based on bishoprics. Monastaries had been present in Ireland since the earliest days of conversion on the Island and provided support for many communities spiritually. Therefore when Tadhg and the General Council announced in the summer of 1413 an expansion of powers for local bishops, as well as the creation of several new ones, people in central Ireland took up arms. Though the revolt collapsed before Tadhg had even left the Capitol, it unsettled the King and he pursued a more cautious religious policy for the remainder of his reign, leaving his successor to deal with ecclesiastical matters.
Jan Hus
Religious matters came to a head in Bohemia during this period as well. Jan Hus, a preacher and a man committed to reforming the Church, began to gain a wide base of followers during the early fifteenth century. He had supported the Council of Constance and the elevation of Alexander V to the Papal Throne as well as the Pope's early reforms, but as his base grew he attracted the opposition from conservative clergymen (namely Archbishop Zajíc) in Bohemia. Hus had a wide range of followers and his numbers were growing steadily in Bohemia and among his supporters numbered even King Wenceclaus IV, a brother to Sigismund and the uncle of Edward IV. Naturally the conservatives in Bohemia appealed directly to the Pope, seeing they would receive no aid from the government and Alexander V, despite being a reformer, took a strong stance against the Hussites and declared them heretical. They were even threatened with excommunication. The reasons behind Alexander's opposition to Hus were initially unclear, though with Europe having just begun to recover from the schism, he likely wanted to enforce and maintain doctrinal unity throughout the continent. King Wencelaus, who was planning to be coronated Holy Roman Empreror, was furious at the Pope and refused to move against Hus. This feud began to gradually escalate to the point where, in 1414, Sigismund sided with the Pope against his brother. The two had feuded for quite some time in the past, so this was not particularly suprising to most observers, but with Sigismund as Wencelaus' heir it meant the Hussites knew that the next in line to the throne was opposed to them.
In October 1414 Wencelaus died suddenly, and naturally some whispered of poisoning and pointed the finger at the King of Hungary. While Sigismund technically became the King of Bohemia upon the death of his brother, the people refused to acclaim him and it looked as though war would soon be approaching. Cooler heads prevailed however, and Pope Alexander V hastily dispatched mediators to Bohemia were they were received by several nobles and Jan Hus. Another group went to Sigismund in Hungary where he supposedly was preparing for war. The Pope wished to compromise with the Hussites in order to prevent their views from deviating further from mainstream Catholicism, but also wanted Sigismund to have a peaceful ascension so he could crown him Holy Roman Emperor. Sigismund, Hus, and the Church all left negotiations dissapointed, but peace was achieved. Alexander V agreed to prohibit in perpetuity the sale of indulgences in the Kingdom of Bohemia, Hus and the Hussites to allow Sigismund to ascend to the throne and to reaffirm loyalty to the Vatican, and Sigismund to allow the Hussites to continue to have relative autonomy. The Peace of Prague prevailed and Sigismund arrived in Bohemia a month after the agreement was signed. As a result of the Peace of Prague, Bohemia was to remain in the Catholic fold, in full communion with Rome, though it's doctrine and practices would deviate slightly. Alexander V had prevented a war, though reportedly insiders in the Vatican and religious conservatives were highly unhappy. Therefore when Alexander died in March 1415, quite a few individuals were suspicious.