La generación magnífica//The Magnificent Generation - A Catholic Monarchs TL

Thank you those who are interested for bearing with me, but I’m planning upcoming updates and, well, how do we feel about Maximilian remarrying? Bianca Maria Sforza, unfortunately, is not an option, as she will be marrying in Naples.
 
Honestly, I'm leaning towards Max not remarrying. He's got his heir and his spare and, very soon, grandchildren as well. After all, he didn't remarry after Bianca Maria died IOTL and he was clearly capable of fathering children right up until the end.
 
Honestly, I'm leaning towards Max not remarrying. He's got his heir and his spare and, very soon, grandchildren as well. After all, he didn't remarry after Bianca Maria died IOTL and he was clearly capable of fathering children right up until the end.
I suppose, and given that he actually liked Elizabeth he may not be inclined to remarry at all...
 
Honestly, I'm leaning towards Max not remarrying. He's got his heir and his spare and, very soon, grandchildren as well. After all, he didn't remarry after Bianca Maria died IOTL and he was clearly capable of fathering children right up until the end.
I suppose, and given that he actually liked Elizabeth he may not be inclined to remarry at all...
His OTL remarriages after Mary’s death were mostly for his brides dowry (Anne was heiress of Brittany and Bianca Maria arrived with an enormous dowry and he needed money)
 
VIII: Three Years, Three Kings
Three Years, Three Kings
1483-1486



Eward V.jpg

The future King Edward V as Prince of Wales, from a manuscript miniature dated to 1480.


As Elizabeth of York departed from Sandwich for her wedding to Archduke Maximilian at the end of March 1483, her father, King Edward IV, was dying at Westminster. There seems to be no consensus as to what killed Edward. Malaria and pneumonia have both been suggested, but his physicians at the time didn’t seem to think it was either. Most attributed the king’s ill health to habitual overindulgence, in food, wine, and sex. Regardless, Edward entered his final illness around Easter 1483. On his deathbed, he called certain of his advisors to his side and arranged for his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester to be named Lord Protector of the realm in the event of his death, since the Prince of Wales was still only a lad of 12.

The King finally died on 9 April 1483, three days before his daughter’s marriage in Vienna. Elizabeth of York would not find out about her father’s passing until the 23rd, two weeks later. News reached the Prince of Wales at Ludlow on 14 April, however, and he and his entourage, including his Woodville uncles, departed on the 24th. At the same time, the Duke of Gloucester began to travel south from York. The two parties planned to rendezvous at Northampton. However, by the time Gloucester and his party arrived, it was found that the King and his party had already traveled on. Word reached of Gloucester’s arrival and Earl Rivers, the King’s maternal uncle, Sir Richard Grey, the King’s half-brother, and Sir Thomas Vaughn, his Welsh chamberlain, traveled back to Northampton. On 29th April, the three men dined with Gloucester and were invited to stay on for the night. In the morning, all three were arrested.

King Edward was reportedly furious when he heard the news. He loved his uncle and half-brother dearly, having spent most of his life in their care. Gloucester met with the king on the 30th and managed to pacify him for the time being. At this point, the Queen Dowager also arrived, come from London with her younger son, Richard, Duke of York and Norfolk [1]. She too was incensed by the imprisonment of her brother and son. Again, Gloucester had to remind her that he was now Lord Protector, and that she should not dare to raise her voice in support of those whom he believed to be traitors if she wished to retain custody of her children. The Queen was displeased with her brother-in-law’s high-handedness but ultimately agreed not to intercede on behalf of the imprisoned men.

The two or so weeks were spent in a slow procession towards London. Young King Edward showed himself to his people, and many remarked on his resemblance to his father. He was said to being tall, well built, and golden haired, in contrast to his younger brother. The Duke of York, despite being only nine years old to Edward’s 12, was already as tall as his older brother, of a more slender build, and had much darker hair. One chronicler somewhat sardonically remarked that they rather resembled the late King Edward IV and the Duke of Gloucester when standing together, with York representing Gloucester. Queen Elizabeth made a fine figure as well at her public appearances, draped in gowns of black crepe silk and with a sheer black veil hiding her face. By 17 May, the new King and his entourage, minus his Woodville uncle and his half-brother, arrived in London. Edward, York, and the Queen took up residence in the Tower while preparations began for Edward’s coronation.

The date for the coronation was set for 24 June 1483. Edward’s sisters who were still in England - Cecily, Anne, Catherine, and Bridget - were recalled from Eltham Palace for the occasion. At the same time, Gloucester set about establishing his protectorship. His first move was to have Earl Rivers, Richard Grey, and Thomas Vaughn sent to his castle at Pontefract near York. There, all three would be executed on 4 June 1483. Of course, with the execution of her son, Gloucester made an intractable enemy of the Queen Dowager. Still, Elizabeth Woodville wisely proved able to set this aside in order that she might remain with her sons, who were, after all, far younger and in greater need of her love and guidance than Richard, a fully grown man to be sure, had been. Final touches on Edward’s coronation ceremony were completed by June 22, and on 24 June, as planned, Edward entered Westminster Abbey and was crowned King of England and France [2].


King Edward V from NPG.jpg

Posthumous portrait of Edward V by an unknown artist circa 1550-1600.


The ceremony itself was a grand event, with the Duke of Gloucester playing a great role. It was he who handed the Archbishop of Canterbury the crown of St. Edward. The ladies Cecily, Anne, and Catherine carried their brother’s robes as he processed down the nave. They were given a seat of honor alongside the Duchess of Gloucester and the Dowager Duchess of York [3]. The sumptuousness of the occasion was well recorded, with one nobleman commenting that there did not seem to be enough gold in England to account for the gilded embroidery on the clothes of those in the procession. Among the first to swear homage to King Edward after the ceremony were his brother, the Duke of York, and their young cousins: Edward of Middleham, earl of Salisbury, the son of the Duke of Gloucester, and Edward of Clarence, earl of Warwick, son of the attained, deceased Duke of Clarence. These three would form a core part of the young English court in the coming years. After the ceremony, then, came four days of feasts and fetes. That same evening, King Edward and his court dined in magnificence at Westminster Palace, with the Queen Dowager now in attendance. It was during the course of this dinner that, in a move that has been seen as somewhat apocryphal throughout the ages, Edward requested that his crown be removed, as it was too heavy for his head.

Following his coronation, King Edward went to Windsor with his mother and sisters. Gloucester moved back north, taking his wife and his son, who was gravely ill but survived the journey, with him. The two Clarence children, the earl of Warwick and his sister Margaret, went with Gloucester and his family as well, since Duchess Anne was their aunt also through their mother and thus took a special interest in them. Meanwhile, word began seeping across the Channel of a Lancastrian invasion gathering in Brittany, led by Henry Tudor, earl of Richmond and the closest thing to a pretender that the depleated Lancastrians could produce. Gloucester made sure to keep on top of these developments, and his intelligence reported mercifully that it was still very much in the beginning stages. He moved quickly to neutralize the threat, and in early 1484 Henry Tudor landed at Southhampton, not as the Lancastrian candidate for the throne but simply as the earl of Richmond. His mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, then Countess of Derby, ultimately proved instrumental in his return to royal favor. Though Henry Tudor was not given the most enthusiastic welcome, he made good use of the chance that he had been given and managed to secure himself a place at court. In September 1484, he was officially betrothed to the eight year old Elizabeth Herbert, niece to the Dowager Queen through her sister Mary Woodville and heiress of the Yorkist supporter William Herbert, earl of Pembroke.

In the meantime, Gloucester secured the Duke of Brittany’s pledge of friendship towards the Yorkist regime and the betrothal of his daughter and heiress, Anne, to the young King Edward. He also took the opportunity to make peace with the French, as the regent for underage Charles VIII, his older sister Anne de Beaujeu, Duchess of Bourbon, had previously hinted at support for Henry Tudor’s planned invasion. Admittedly, this volte face was not necessarily due to any great diplomatic arts on Gloucester’s or anyone else’s behalf. Anne de Beaujeu had only recently headed off an attempt by the Duke of Orleans to claim the regency and custody of the King, and her regime was reeling under the threat of conflict with a number of lords both in and around France, conflict which would erupt by 1485. She thus had about as much interest in antagonizing the English as the English had in being antagonized.

By 1486, everything seemed to be going well for both Edward V, who was now 15 and seemed to be developing a sense of himself as a man and ruler, and the Duke of Gloucester. There was, however, a sore spot for both of them - their relationship with each other. King Edward was apparently still bitter with Gloucester over the execution of his Woodville uncle. Gloucester seems to have made every effort to be conciliatory but as Edward spent more time on the throne he became much less inclined to trust or listen to the only adult male Plantagenet around. It was under these circumstances that Edward went out riding with a small group of noblemen from Windsor Castle on 15 May 1486, about three years after he had ascended the throne. The king and his companions, including the Duke of York, were out until late in the evening. At some point, Edward and his horse became separated from the others. His companions shouted after him for some time but it was in vain. In the dark of the descending night, on an unfamiliar path and in a dense wood, King Edward’s steed had tripped carelessly over a large tree root and thrown his kingly rider. Edward almost surely broke his neck in the fall and was dead for some time before his body was finally recovered in the wee hours of the morning of the 16th.

On the death of boy-king (as he would be remembered) Edward V, the new king was immediately his younger brother, Richard, Duke of York. Young Richard had been out riding with his brother on that fateful night, and he seems to have retained a sense of survivor’s guilt over Edward’s death for most of his life. There was no room for guilt, however, as the body of Edward V was brought from Windsor to Westminster Abbey and Richard III prepared for his coronation. This duly occurred as Westminster on 29 July 1486. Richard was 12, like his brother had been at his coronation. As with her elder son, Elizabeth Woodville accompanied Richard to the Tower on the night before his coronation but this time, she also insisted on being present for the event itself. It went off much like Edward’s had two years previously, with Gloucester, the Duchesses of York and Gloucester, Richard’s sisters, and his cousins Warwick and Salisbury all playing prominent roles. Notably, however, Richard did not ask for the crown to be removed from his head as he dined.


[1] ITTL Elizabeth, feeling more confident that Richard will not try anything against Edward with one of her daughters already married off to a powerful foreign monarch, does not seek sanctuary with her daughters and goes to meet her son when news arrives of her brother and son’s arrests.
[2] The monarchs of England were still claiming France into the 17th century, IIRC.
[3] Elizabeth Woodville, as a monarch herself, was not present at her son’s coronation. And Proud Cis was really the one in the seat of honor in this case, as she’s not about to let herself be upstaged by poor Anne Neville.
[4] Speaking of Middleham, I can tell you right now that he is going to live longer than IOTL.
 
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But his revolt in 1483 was in the name of Henry Tudor, no?
Not really. He was an Edwardian Yorkist and so his revolt was originally aimed to restore Edward V. After the rumours about the death of the princes of the Tower increased Henry Tudor was proposed as alternative under condition to marry Elizabeth of York. A Lancastrian uprising called by Buckingham (unlikely as he was grown-up Yorkist) would be aimed to put himself on the throne not his cousin.
EDIT: For what reason Maximilian and Elizabeth married in Vienna?
 
Exactly, he was still based there at this point (and would be mostly based there until 1493 in OTL, so for all the length of his ATL wedding to Elizabeth), but the mistake was an easy one. Also, Elizabeth would be Queen of the Romans (as Maximilian was elected in 1486) but not Holy Roman Empress (her father-in-law death in August 1493, but Maximilian assumed the title, who usually was given with a coronation by the Pope in Rome, only in 1508 at Trento)
 
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Excellent update, though for some reason I didn't get the notification for it.. Interesting to see Edward's short reign end in tragedy, though at least Richard is still alive and well, though I fear his uncle's intrigues...
 
Excellent update, though for some reason I didn't get the notification for it.. Interesting to see Edward's short reign end in tragedy, though at least Richard is still alive and well, though I fear his uncle's intrigues...
Don't worry about Gloucester. He has his ambitions, sure, but ITTL they will mostly revolve around making sure that he can pass along the largest inheritance possible to his son, and getting Edward a suitable wife so that there can be some little Richards running around when the time comes.
 
Buckingham was NOT a Lancastrian, unlike his ancestors. With the Crown in the hands of Edward IV’s sons he has no reason for rebelling
Now correct me if I'm wrong but I thought Buckingham was pretty buddy-buddy with Richard III? And he rebelled because he wasn't being rewarded as richly as he expected? Or he feared Richard wanting to cut him down? And yes, I realize that this changes nothing for this TL, as Buckingham here will never be in his OTL position.
 
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