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I have been reading through Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror and came across this passage which made me wonder about the marriage which is blocked.

"Charles V had outmaneuvered the King of England to win for his brother Philip of Burgundy the same heiress that King Edward wanted for his son Edmund. She was Marguerite of Flanders, daughter and heir of Louis de Male, Count of Flanders, he who had once run away from union with Isabella. Edward had been negotiating for this lady of large expectations for five years, even to the point of pledging Calais and 170,000 livres to her father. But since the principals were related within the fourth degree of consanguinity, as hardly any two royal persons in Europe were not, a papal dispensation was needed. Determined to keep England and Flanders apart, Charles exploited the utility of a French Pope. Urban V refused the dispensation to Edmund and Marguerite and, after a decent interval, granted it to Philip and Marguerite, who were related in the same degree."

- Barbara W. Tuchman. A Distant Mirror

This got me wondering about what the effects of the marriage receiving dispensation might mean both for the future Burgundy and for the more immediate Hundred Years' War.

If this marriage occurs that leaves Edmund Duke of York as eventual Count of Flanders, an incredibly powerful and important position, which would give the British an incredibly powerful base from which to act with impunity in France. Further, these lands would fit closely with those held by Enguerrand VII de Coucy, Edmund's brother-in-law, and would strengthen the English hold on the area.

I was wondering if anyone could give me an idea of the implications behind such a marriage. Would it be able to hold? What are the effects on Burgundy? and on the wider 100YW?

Is there any possible way of the Pope granting the dispensation? What would it take to achieve it?
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