His most gracious Majesty Louis I King of England and France.

cashew

Banned
With the death of King John, the 9 year old Henry III's hold to the English throne was tenuous at best. Henry III was the first child to inherit the English throne since Ethelred the Unready in 987. But in 1216 Henry faced an even more dire situation than Ethelred faced. The civil war that erupted the previous year still continued unabated and the second French invasion led by Louis VIII on invitation by the rebel barons had landed in England. In 1216 otl Louis and the rebels had gained control of most of northern and southern England including London.

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Prince Louis was invited by the English rebel barons to become king of England


In the mean time Henry's supporters were concentrated primarily in the midlands and the west. William Marshal and Ranulf Earl of Chester controlled the marches of Wales which had traditionally served as a recruiting grounds. Also in the Midlands the French speaking Castelans of King John remained loyal to Henry III. Most of these French barons were born in the old Angevin heartland of Anjou. They had lost their estates when Normandy was captured by Louis VIII's father in the wake of the Bouvines War. However these French barons were unpopular in England, and the Magna Carta specifically called for their expulsion by name. For these Norman lords the civil war was a life or death struggle to retain what remained of their property in England. Its because of this that they remained loyal to the crown. Loyal as they were, they stood no real chance of defeating the French and rebel armies of Prince Louis.
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John signing the Magna Carta

In OTL Louis was bought off by the loyalists when the rebels lost political leverage and defected to Henry's camp, effectively terminating the civil war in England. But William Marshal's revision of the Magna Carta to entice the rebel barons to Henry's side wasn't very popular among the rebel barons either.
Even with the revision of the Magna Carta, only a handful of rebels accepted the offer, this was a sign of the deep seated devisions within the royalist faction due in no small part to John's tyranny in England. The death of King John proved to be a blessing in disguise since it gave the royalists a chance to end the civil war through peaceful means. This was achieved mainly by the actions of William Marshall. William was instrumental in gaining loyalist support and leading the resistance against Louis. Gradually overtime most rebel barons defected over to Henry III.

How could the rebels maintain their momentum by keeping Louis on the English throne? It seems the strongest figure in the civil war was William but let's say he's killed at the Battle of Lincoln, charging headlong into the forces of Comte de La Perche, William is unhorsed by spearmen. In OTL, as the French laid siege to Lincoln, William Marshall had assembled an army of 400 knights and about 250 crossbowmen along with a considerable force of infantry to break the French siege. Although Perche had knowledge of the approaching English forces, his knights couldn't agree on wether to take a more offensive or defensive action. Those who favored a more offensive action called for meeting the English on open field and defeat him before he could reach the city. The decision to go on a more defensive strategy probably sealed their fate. since not only did they have to delay Marshall's army behind them, but they also had to press the siege infront of them. Never a good idea.
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Perche rallying his forces at Lincoln


We can maybe change this to De La Perche taking a more offensive strategy by meeting Marshal head on in open field. In OTL the loyalist victory at Lincoln resulted in getting the barons to switch sides. Let's take it one step further and not only is William killed, but the loyalist army defeated. Lincoln was sacked by the English because the people there were loyal to Louis. At the base of a hill, the French army forms up in three divisions of infantry and cavalry. Falkes de Breauté's crossbowmen engaged the French left wing, while William Marshall's troops arrive on the field and engage the center division of the French line. The right wing of the French cavalry controlling the initial conflict allow their supporting infantry to reinfoce Perche's center division. William personally leads a charge on the French center and despite the left wing nearly crunbling from the murderious assault of Breauté's crossbows the center held Marshal's assault. William Marshal is unhorsed by French spearmen, although romantic poets and later moves, would represent Marshal's death as a result of a battlefield duel between himself and Perche. The English assault on the center is defeated and the French cavalry runs down Breauté's crossbowmen to the left. What's left of the English beats a hasty retreat back to the town of Stowe just several miles southwest of Lincoln.
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A popular image of the death of William Marshal unhorsed by De La Perche. Although in reality Marshal was probably killed
by spearmen




So after the battle most of the loyalist barons of the Midlands began to sense that the ship is sinking and like rat's abandoning a sinking ship defected over to Louis. A Frenchman on the English throne would be preferable to them anyway since these foreigners weren't very popular in England in the first place.
By the spring of 1217 the crushing defeat of the loyalist forces and the death of William Marshal robbed the loyalists of any political leverage in getting the rebel barons to accept any further revisions to the Magna Carta.
Henry III's abdication signals the end of Angevin England and the beginning of Capetian England.
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Louis I is crowned at Westminster Abbey



Sometime in 1217 Prince Louis VIII is crowned Louis I king of England at Westminster Abbey. In less than two hundred years, another Frenchman from the continent has wrested control of England, but unlike William the Conqueror, Louis had a precedent for governing a realm that already had continental institutions , established there by the Angevins before him. The Comte de La Perche, the victor at the Battle of Lincoln took the title of Earl of Pembroke and Striguil which had once belonged to William Marshall. The new Earl of Pembroke moved quickly to launch a campaign to sweep the Midlands of the last remaining vestiges of loyalist resistance. And Louis established a council composed largely of earls, barons and bishops that had supported him in the civil war, thereby providing some degree of consultation and consent to the new regime.
The astonishing degree in which the English government resumed some level of normalcy after the end of the war in 1217 was pretty remarkable.
The exchequer once again began to audit, enroll and collect the new king's revenues. New royal justices were appointed.
How would that change French and English history for the next 200 years? This would probably mean the Hundred Year's War never happens. Any thoughts?


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The Royal seal of Capetian England
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