alternatehistory.com

Suppose that the English under Henry VI win the Hundred Years War by... I don't know. first off Henry VI is not insane. Let's have the Burgundian allies win a huge field battle letting Plantagnet power go further South. A young Hapsburg scion was in an English army with a few knights as hired guns... I mean hired lances and captures Charles VII.

Charles's son is an adult and he has a religious vision and decides to be a bishop three years before his dad is taken. It's easier to kill both him and his father in a fire or something, but I find the idea of a cardinal-king too funny, and the Armagnac faction claiming this line to be royal means they are claiming a bishop to be king, so... ha

Anyways, Henry VI still has his disastrous marriage with Margret, but despite giving up land to the Anvegins, the Plantagenets are now king of France, so all is good.

He has several children. Edward of Westminster is born in 1453 (it's probably a recycled name not literally OTL Edward). Matilda is born in 1456 with a twin Henry. In 1457, another son named Richard is born. (Those three names are really loved by the Plantagenets...).

But a series of events temper the good news. In 1460, Henry VI is in Paris when a mob overruns his knights and palace guards and kills him in a riot.

The Plantagenet quickly reconsolidate control with Suffolk leading the English regency council for Edward IV and his mother leading the French regency council. She mobilizes the Plantagenet-loyal and Burgundy-Valois loyal knights to strategic castles. Her time in France keeps her away from the English court (which means her bad manners stop aggravating the Earls...)

Edward IV marries a lowly English countess because... breasts. I vaguely remembering OTL Henry VI thinking Margret was so attractive he simply had t have her, so this isn't entirely

Edward IV lives to 1490 without any issue. Sometime in a hunting trip in France... his disappears with his only two companions (he always insisted on traveling lightweight...). The expected ransom note never appears.

OK... now it's time for Henry VII (A Plantagenet, not a Tudor FYI). He married with daughter of a Hapsburg Holy Roman Emperor, who also owns land in Hungary in her own name (great... this gets complicated). The Emperor Frederick III (not OTL one, but I'm going to assume since our POD is in France, those in Germany would name their differently born children similarly for the first few decades) has his oldest son married to Mary of Burgundy (again, not literally the OTL person, but Mary is a really common female name) whose brother died recently, giving her control of Netherlands and Burgundy.

Henry VII decides the inheritance of his brother-in-law is indivisible and agrees that the county of Burgundy should stay with his wife instead of splitting it up. He thinks he earned the trust of the Hapsburgs forever thanks to this.

Henry VII has over his lifetime 8 children, 7 daughters and... one dead son. Unlike OTL Henry VIII, he doesn't feel a compelling need to divorce his wife. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th are identical triplets, Flavia, Cornelia, and Julia. The crown princess is named... Mary born in 1471.

Mary was not expected to inherit England-France (remember Edward IV was King) and was betrothed to Hans of the Kalmar Union. The Danish nobility had no desire for an English monarch and thanks to their partial elective succession, come to an agreement with Hans that if he has one child, a personal union is OK, but if his multiple children survive, the crowns would be split.

A Danish-English-Swedish contingent of 10,000 beat a Swedish force of 30,000 and took many prisoners, ending a revolt.

Henry VII thinks to put lots of English outposts in the new world. He doesn't bother to do so with the French, thinking that the sea-faring English would fare better far away from home. His troops carve out an exclave controlling Glasgow in Scotland.

Meanwhile, Henry VII of England and Gascony (Henry III of France) is visiting the Duke of Orleans. His advisors think this is a really bad idea. Rumors is that he's a serial killer (think OTL Elizabeth Bathrony http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Báthory). In fact, in three separate incidents visiting French counts died on his land. Nevertheless, Henry attends and... whoops he's dead along with 32 others of his guard. RIP Henry VIII 1456- 1480.

Mary I avenges her father by ordering the offending Duke killed. Her regents approve (she's underage). His land is seized and divided into 4 parts. The city of Orleans went into the royal demesne and rest was split into 3 new counties which she gave to her favorite English Earls. This did not sit well with some French, because the male-preference primogeniture heir was the Duke's second cousin, a girl married to a German prince and this should have been hers.

Mary also trims the English taxes by 70%. The duel monarchy is more reliant to its demesne income and its income from France rather than its English one. She thinks the taxes from Charles VI of France's day no one complained, so she leaves that one alone despite it being triple what her English nobles pay. She also reminds the English nobles this is a gift, not a right. Parliament approves and the taxes are set to go back to normal automatically at the end of each monarch's reign unless the new monarch approves of a continuation.

Her oldest child Isabella had the approval of the Scandinavian lords. Mary's son Fulk born in 1486 was expected to inherit England and France (and all the royal demesne like Normandy Aquitaine Lancaster...).

The discussion of marriages pop up. Mary thinks her oldest daughter should decide for herself, but her other two (very young) she hopes to arrange with an scion from the Holy Roman Emperor and the other from a prominent English family.

In 1493, Mary dies of dysentery in Paris. Dysentery normally kills those on the march, not those in palaces. Medieval people are really suspicious of poisonings. More suspiciously, only she dies. Dysentery can be easily treated by fluids and food. Now, bloodletting was counterproductive and often used, but even then dying of dysentery was rare.

All hail Fulk I! A few questions.

One, do you think Henry VII was right to leave the Burgandian inheritance unmolested since that results in the Hapsburgs controlling a significant part of France?

Also, do you think Fulk Oldenburg-Plantagenet thinks about the deaths in France? Three generations of duel monarchs died non-naturally (Paris riot, hunting disappearance, serial killer, Dysentery which looks like poison) in France. Suppose he has an English tutor, who thinks the duel monarch should spend 75% of his time in London and is suspicious of non-Gascon French (the Gascons were very loyal to the Plantagenets). Will he keep France at a distance despite being a descendant of Margret of Anjou and Catherine?

Third, what other developments might take place in the duel monarchy? Or Europe? How does the suspicious deaths change court intrigues?
Top