As shown by the capture of Salvador, the sacking of Olinda, the holding of Fort Charlotte and the surrender of São Vicente, it was clear that the French were here to stay and that Portuguese were to get out, both parties met up in Lisbon in order to hash out a treaty that would “respect the conditions and traditions of fellow Christian powers”, even if it was quite obvious to everyone that Portugal had lost the French weren’t totally brutal in their terms and in fact gave the pill a good sugar coating.
As stipulated by the Treaty of Lisbon of 1561:
- Portugal would cede the whole of Brazil as well as any claims to the colony to France. Any captured booty during the war would stay in the hands of the winner which mostly meant the property and material like sugar and ships.
- In turn, Portugal would get an exclusive 50 year right of monopoly to sell slaves towards the colony in order to compensate for “loss”.
- France would also buy the islands of São Tome, Principe and Cape Verde for a sum of 10 thousand Francs, this was stipulated by Henry II who wanted a foothold in Africa and that the Portuguese crown looking to reform their government and colonial apparatus agreed.
- A peace of 20 years between the two parties would neither war against one another nor aid their rivals in a war. This was very much a clause for Spain.
Map of Brazil in the 16th century, with the treaty of of Lisbon, Portugal was fully expelled from the Americas.
As seen by the treaty, it was quite clear Henry despite the victory did not wish to make an enemy out of Portugal, while many in the court wanted revenge(mainly by allying with Spain) the Queen Regent Catherine refused despite it being something that benefited her birth country, the fact was that Portugal had many cleaning up to do in it’s institutions if it hoped to ever one day stand strong against any kind of foreign aggression, so for now they would take defeat and focus on making themselves stronger. Of course the other major reasons was the fact the French could very well incite rebellion on it’s far East Asian colonies[1] and that would truly been a blow to Portuguese wealth as well as the fact Catherine already wasn’t the most popular in court given her Spanish birth which made a good amount of nobles inherently distrust her, therefore she needed to balance acts that benefited her new country as well as appearing to the courts she indeed was acting in the favor of the Terrinha instead of Spain.
For now however, the diplomats of both countries shook hands and went on their merry ways even as both countries prepared to expand and war not against one another but against anyone who stood in the way of their growing power and territories.
In the whole of France, the country was in celebration over the victory against the Lusitanians, while not a big party worth of jousting like Henry was fond of doing, it was clear that both the army and navy were in good shape in order to have managed to defeat the Portuguese in their own home turf, never mind that Brazil had been left to languish and was badly looked over for Asia and India, something Henry II had no intentions of doing.
Immediately, thanks to the coming of Brazil wood into France proper, Henry ordered for enlargement of the fleet arguing it was necessary to defend their new colonial possessions as well as the transporting of it’s goods, not to mention the fact the navy played a pretty key role in securing it in the first place, therefore the training of new sailors, a look for a new admiral(Jean Ribault would be chosen)[2] and the building of new ships would be necessary in order to avoid France failing Brazil the same Portugal did.
The second order of the day would be one related to the colony of Brazil itself, mainly the status of the natives, enslaved and the few free people of color. The called
Code des Sauvages stipulated that:
“The Tamoios, the Potiguaras and the Tapuias had been the allies of the brave French forces and thus despite their savagery, they have been converted to the Gospel of Our Lord and while keeping many of their practices have mostly been civilized, especially the Tamoios, the missionaries will be sent still in order to further evangelize alongside the mixed blood children who have been the greatest warriors of our cause in helping tame the natives. For the rest however, we see fit that the governors take the appropriate measures in dealing with them in the way they see most fit for ensuring the expansion and development of His Majesty’s colony of L'Antarctique of Brazil.”
The Tamoios were key during the French conquest of Brazil by leading their own troops against Sao Vicente and damaging it so hard the city surrendered once the French arrived. Here we see such assault illustrated.
In a nutshell, it demonstrated that while the French were happy to have their 3 main allies around, as long as they prayed to Jesus and abandoned their “barbaric practices” like the eating of flesh[3](which to be fair was not a bad demand), they still did not care one iota about the other native peoples just as unique and interesting as their “friends” and would happily trample over them in the name of wealth or even of expanding the colony as people like the “private entrepreneurs” of São Vicente would be happy to show them in a century[4] as while African slaves were slowly replacing the regular natives slaves it remained that having indian slaves was still very much valued, especially those from far away region[5].
Meanwhile the
Code des Noires made it law that:
“The owner of the slave is the one who sees fits on how to punish and discipline his property in awareness of course to the possibly damage as well as his Christian consciousness[6] to not do it out of sadism and revenge but only to instill proper punishing of the breaking of laws, the master also decides on where and when to free their slaves, it’s the right of the owner to decide if they property can be freed, with the exception of the manumission debt in which a slave would pay 85.75 Francs to their owner in order to buy their freedom and compensate their owner. Children born of white parents will also be considered free if their white parents claimed for them to be freed, otherwise the son or daughter of a slave will remain a slave. A master also has the obligation to baptize and christianize their slave in order to save their souls and ensure they would receive the Blessings of the Lord, giving them new names to reflect their newfound salvation.”
As for the situation of those that were freed it had this to say:
“The situation of a freed black remains that he or she will have the same rights as a Frenchman would as only the condition of a slave is necessary for the inequality of their rights, of course said freedman needs to be a proper Catholic[7] Christian as well as having learned to speak the proper French language in order to be fully considered a citizen.”
It was quite clear from the code that the slavery of the Africans would be a important aspect of the colony for its whole existence if the situation in the Northeast was anything to go by, however it did allow for chances of enslaved to be freed in various circumstances as well as ensuring the rights of freedmen, this wasn’t done out of love however as Henry realized that avoiding instability in his colony was key to success thus by giving rights to freed slaves who managed it they would fight with their souls to keep it that way, meaning they could be collaborators to the colonial government to suppress dissidents in the colony, either native, white or enslaved, not to mention the fact more men than women were going to the colony thus mulattoes being created also made up another caste of a “loyal” population that would side with the system that guaranteed their rights and would be used to enforce orders. It was a cold calculated move of the “best way” of running the place.
A painting of a mulatto soldier from the Northeast region, the French hoped that these mixed race people(alongside the caboclos and cafusos) would serve as a loyal caste who would be loyal to the state apparatus above all and be used as an "ideal repressor" who would have no problem brutalizing other groups as long as their own rights were not revoked. During the colonial times, the army was seen as the best institution for advancement both social and economical as well as developing local talent that meant France didn't have to send it's own.
The final and more important(and polemic) decision would be the Edict of Dieppe, where it stated that:
“The religion of the Kingdom of France is that of the Catholic rite, the nation and its people follow the doctrine set by Popes of earlier and faithfully attempt to fulfill its tenets in order to live a proper Christian life. However the Heretics that are called Protestants reject such notion and instead follow a blasphemous interpretation of the Christian faith of which are too many to retell here, the important aspect however is that they undermine France, its people and their Sovereign Monarch and therefore could very well be accused of Lese Majeste for their inherent nature to destabilize the country. Still, His Majesty is patient and kind to His subjects regardless of how they act towards him, therefore this decree offers a solution to the dilemma of Kingly tenderness and blasphemous acts by certain subjects:
- “The so called Huguenots as well as those of non Catholic faith will be free to exercise their religion on the grounds that they will be forced to pay the Dieppe Tax: a set of 20% of all the income of the non believer, this tax will go both to strengthen the nation, to allow His Majesty to defend even his non believers subjects as well as proof of loyalty that even with inherently subversive nature, they can aid the realm. Any worship must also be made in private and not under any circumstances in public spaces or buildings.”
- “Failure to comply with the tax or refusal to pay shall see the property of the tax evader stripped entirely alongside their lands and confinement for up to 20 years or more or death depending on how long it went unpaid.”
- “These stipulations are valid in all the realms of His Majesty with the exception of the colony of Brazil and those in Africa of São Tome, Principe and Cape Verde where the non believers are allowed to practice their faith in the open, however they must not convert neither natives nor slaves nor other settlers to their heretical ways on the penalty of death, they are allowed to take their wealth with them and no longer have to pay the tax however their land and property left in France will become possession of the crown since they will no longer be inhabiting it.”
- “Failure to comply with or to resist these laws is treason against the crown and nation and punishable with death and confiscation of wealth.”
This map shows the divide between the Catholic north and the mainly Protestant South and the tense situation happening that made Henry II implement his edict.
As expected, once news of the Edict of Dieppe it rocked and shocked the nation, not only domestically but also abroad. To the radical Catholics inside France it was seen as a major defeat of sorts, the triumph of the army of darkness over the light as the hated Protestants were given limited rights instead of being slaughtered in mass and that the king allowed for such thing either meant that he was insane, that he was in cahoots with the heretics or that he was being manipulated or lead astray by corrupt ministers and nobles, whatever the justification, they were plainly against them and made it clear to Henry in many ways, from tearful letters to begging in the court and even to angry accusations.
To more moderate people it was seen as a practical thing if very much self serving towards the monarchy but wondered if such edict could truly hold together the nation in face of increasing tensions between both communities that had already spiraled into violence in several cities by angry Protestants and Catholics brutalizing one another in reaction to the edict, only with the royal guards coming in to slaughter everyone that they would calm down.
Even supporters of the king called it into question because regardless of it being a solution to the “Huguenot question” given the massive reach of authority it had both in secular and religious matters, after all if the King could impose something like this without question it could set up a precedent of the king making justifications to arrest anyone inside the realm who could be accused in the vague wording of “destabilizing the realm”, especially those from the Catholic clergy who in theory answered to him and were further tools of Royal control over the country given Henry had earned the right in the Italian wars by the Pope to basically control who got to be in the important positions in the clergy who questioned their king about not only his act of meddling with faith affairs as well as the fact he was profiting out of it.
If the reaction of many Catholics in France ranged from bad to questioning acceptance, the Huguenots(especially the noble ones) were in a Apocalyptic mood over it, this was it, the Antichrist forcing them from their homes into some hot heathen hellhole and stealing the profit their hard work ethic was achieving, to the nobles it was especially alarming given the seizing of lands(which was deliberate, Henry did want to put them back in line for daring going against his centralizations attempts) part and was seen as proof of the tyrannical rule of Henry II who was basically the Beast of The Apocalypse in everything and name, ready to sprout horns and hoofs and lead the armies of Satan to eat babies and plunge France into the realm of darkness with only them standing against it.
However it was clear by now that attempting a uprising was asking for death in a massive scale and was exactly the kind of answer Henry wanted, he was a vehement hater and opponent of Protestantism and would do everything to stamp them out, he wanted them to revolt so he could paint killing them not as a religious war but as them being hooligans and rebelling nobles going against the Crown, something that would only make them look like the bad guys and rally the nation against them, especially the hated Guise family who made it clear they wanted nothing more than to eradicate them off the earth. For now, they would play Henry’s game, either leaving for Brazil and Africa[8] or in the cases of most Huguenots nobles and rich merchants, staying in and paying the tax and watching the noose around their neck forming.
If there was anyone happy with the news it was two people: Henry II watching the hated Protestants leave and enlarging crownlands or filling up his coffers with extra taxes. The other people happy with this deal were the jews who suddenly had more rights than ever and many came from the Iberian peninsula, Italy, the Low Countries and Germany in order to live in France or more commonly left for Brazil to help there and be able to practice their faith in freedom, this would have the important aspect that since many of them were involved in usury they would help start many French banks in cities like La Rochelle, Dieppe, Rouen, Calais, Paris, Nantes, etc, where they would be joined in by Catholics colleagues, these banks would prove essential in giving loans to the state as well as helping finance the restarting and new sugar and other monocultures[9] plantations in the colonies, not to mention filling in “gentle” positions like lawyers, apothecaries, doctors and such. Many weren’t happy with that but since they were protected by law now, unless they wanted to face jail time they would keep their anger to themselves.
Another one who had mixed reactions had been Francis, the Duke of Guise and in many ways alongside the Cardinal of Lorraine, the leading faction of the Radical Catholic cause and very much a opponent of the Huguenots but at the same time, his best friend Coligny had not a insignificant number of Protestants in his family that in letters he wrote how "he feared for their lives in this maelstrom of violence sweeping through the kingdom", in order to balance out his loyalty to the crown, the church and his friend[10] he became a sorta of propaganda for the edict of Dieppe where he framed the king's decision as an wise and merciful move that rid "proper France" of "heretical scum" and letting them live in the still very much unexplored Brazil as the best fate they could have to worship in their green hell, paradoxically however he incentivized many of his fellow nobles to send their own people to Brazil in order to "make it an ideal place for proper Catholic worship" and "to convert the heathen natives and arriving Africans", while he didn't convince all of them it was still many nobles who started sending their own colonists in the hopes of "stemming the Protestant tide", thus giving quite a nice boom of catholic Frenchman to the colony, mostly males who were the second sons of farmers and craftsmen who didn't inherit but still had the skills taught by their parents, most of them went into the northeast, especially the growing city that had formed in Fort Charlotte but Bahia, Ilhéus, Porto Seguro and others were also popular destinations alongside Henriville, therefore Guise was seen as a important figure in France that the radical Catholics trusted and Henry found him reliable, making him one of the most influential men in court.
Helping him was also the Queen Catherine of Medici, who while shunned and essentially ignored by her husband King Henry II was still very much active in preserving French power and with Henry getting older and older with age, he simply did not care about isolating Catherine politically anymore, so using truly ruthless and Machiavellian methods to help enforce her husband’s edict throughout France, Catherine was determined to keeping the Valois in power and France ascendant over the Habsburg hegemony, while this was only the beginning of her tale in the political sphere outside of making children it wouldn’t be the last since when Henry would eventually die, her successors would look for her for advice and inspiration for policies, essentially making her the most powerful woman in the realm that she nonetheless was using her immense power to increase the power of the nation, something that would get her the nickname of
La mère de fer, The Iron Mother.
Reactions outside of France were equally explosive or at least curious about it, to places like Italy, German Catholic states, the Iberians and the Catholic Swiss Cantons this was France suffering the Heretics to live as well as allowing them to spread their poisonous words around Europe to plunge it into Heretic doom, even Pope Pius IV who had called for councils in order to reform the faith was furious with act calling Henry “a fake Catholic who begets God’s teachings and gospels in order to profit over serious matters of the soul of men and his salvation or damnation”, he had been tempted to excommunicate him on the spot but then he remembered the last Italian war had been just a bit older than a decade by now and he did not want French armies marching against the Peninsula again, especially as Spain seemed to get more lethargic by the day, so he contented himself with writing a strongly worded letter to Henry who read it and promptly used it to further warm himself by feeding it into his fire. Still however, these countries used skillful propaganda(especially Austria) in order to erode French image to many Catholic nations that while not isolating them, certainly did make the situation more tense.
To the protestant countries the reaction was mixed, while countries like England continued to be skeptical of France others were more happy, the Scots who had their queen live in France wondered if something similar could not be made for their own realm, especially since now she was pregnant with the sons[11] of Dauphin Francis II who could take the realm and start a Valois Dynasty on the realm(something that spooked Queen Elisabeth to her core alongside most of England), the Scandinavians while far away did feel mixed feelings since it was toleration it was very much a cash grab too so Henry wasn’t exactly doing this out of the goodness of his heart but selfish toleration is still better than outright killing so they were receptive to France at least.
The Holy Roman Empire was where the idea caught fire however, many rulers wondered if something like this couldn’t be possible on their own realms but instead of colonies it would be to other realms, thus allowing for more stable lands between the HRE(as well as further source of wealth in order to resist the authority from Vienna) and lessening of religious tensions, the protestant states would still throw their weight with France against the Habsburgs so that was a relief. The idea would be very much mentioned in the next diet and while no one could come into a consensus yet it could be only a matter of time before it was voted, something that while Austria was weary of allowing were considering the benefits of it to keep the HRE stable especially with the Ottomans looming so largely to East.
On more positive news in France not related to sectarian violence, the crates of sugar were arriving in France and refineries of private origin started going online, being the sole distributors of sugar to Europe from Iberia to the Baltics was a major cause of profit from France that soon began paying off it’s massive debt it had accumulated from the last war[12], that alongside the new tobacco plantations that were making a massive profit under Jean Nicot[13] who had acquired a farms in Brazil and had slaves working in extracting the plant and more importantly buying more land to increase his profits as more and more Frenchman and Europeans in general were getting addicted to “drinking the fumes”, especially the Queen Catherine of medici[14] in order to deal with her headaches and relax in general, the taxes upon both of these was filling the coffers alongside the new taxes that while going to the navy and the colony was also erasing French debt, with this rate, they would no longer be in the red.
Jean Nicot himself, while a diplomat to Portugal would renounce his post and became the first of the "Tobacco Barons" due to creation of essentially a noble land in all but name in Brazil dedicated towards the exploitation of tobacco that would make him one of the richest men in France as well as doing an patriotic duty given the taxes the crown charged on his monopoly.
Another important mark would be the admiral Jean Ribault exploring the coasts of Africa alongside a crew, from West Africa towards the coasts of Egypt, Ribault would be registering promising places for France to build forts to trade with the natives and acquire golds and ivory, an important discovery however had been when he had made contact with the Ethiopians and found some strange black beans who according to his translator “would make him awoken forever”, doing business with the man with a full bag of seeds who asked only for a bit of gold and the fashionable hat Ribault wore, the admiral made a stop in the capital of Salvador(or
Sauver as it was being called now) to meet with his friend Gaspard Coligny who greeted him and as a gift, he gave the General Governor his bag of seeds of a “fantastic plant from the Lands of Prester John ”[15] alongside a few seeds of a “tree that bleeds”[16] from Socotra island and other ones, using a last stop in Africa, he set out towards the Bight of Biafra, establishing a fort in the mouth of the Benue river called Fort Trois Rois in it and leaving it as the first major outpost of France in Africa, something that would have consequences later on.
A picture of the types of the threes that would soon spread around Brazil and especially in the arid interior of the Northeast, valued for their capacity for shade, pigment of red color as well as the many medical uses ranging from it's leaves to the roots and others. Something that will be the impetus for the creation of a botanical garden in Salvador.
Finally, Henry II started an important ministry, the
Ministére de l'administration coloniale, which would be responsible for overseeing the colonies, how much money was being poured into them, what was coming out and what was going, reports from the governors and general governor, census, etc. The ministry would serve its purpose in integrating and working with the government to ensure it would work and give profit to France.
So originally this was meant to be a full on chapter covering France, Spain and Portugal as well as some minor movements by the other powers but it was getting too big so I’ll be splitting this into two parts, so there’s that, I’ll promise however that we will be talking about French Brazil as well as the changes the colony is going through after this, anyway check out my footnotes.
[1]:This was true in OTL, Portugal wasn’t exactly a dear in the Far east, especially in southeast asia given their conquering as well disrupting of local trade routes, this was so bad it actually soured chinese opinion on the Portuguese that led them getting expelled from China and was only skilful diplomacy that allowed them to come back so there’s actual founded fear in some anti Lusitanian opposition to expel them from the East Indies, something that without spoiling Portugal will take care of in the next update.
[2]: A friend of Coligny that went Protestant with his friend, here with Coligny neither becoming Protestant nor in France, Ribault stays catholic and loyal to the crown with him being chosen as an admiral ITTL. You may also remember him as the guy who attempted to found a Calvinist settlement in Florida before being decimated by the Spaniards.
[3]: Something that was one of the main tension points in Henryville and a cause for discord, something that has been smoothed over TTL.
[4]:Yes this a reference to the Bandeirantes coming in, they will have their chance to be the “Pirates of the Sertao” soon enough
[5]: True in the colony, one of the main issues outside of the fact that the semi nomadic natives weren’t used to such intense labor was the fact they knew the land so well it was an easy manner to escape eventually and simply not be found, those two main issues alongside church pressure to avoid native slavery alongside the quickly dying population of natives who were wiped out by war, disease and slavery lead to the replacement of them being African slaves.
[6]: lol, lmao.
[7]: Very obvious reason why it’s specifying Catholics here. Tip: it starts with “Heretic” and ends with “scum”.
[8]: Something that will be the focus of the next update about Brazil and will have important effects on the Luso population and the French catholic and French Calvinists.
[9]: Another aspect that will be focused on the Brazil update, the French just won’t limit themselves towards one thing and will plant anything that will give them money, so a more diversified economy will be present. Not to mention that jews as well as new christians and crypto jews were key in essentially running the managing part of several sugar operations in the Portuguese America or working in the banks and sugar refineries in the Netherlands, having a land that allows them to be practice their religion in peace is one where they’ll put their skills and money to good use, so a great boom for getting the several monocultures going.
[10]: Remember Guise and Coligny keeping their friendship alive? This is one of the results.
[11]: Another big butterfly, Francis II lives a few years longer and is able to impregnate his wife who will see her carry on this pregnancy even, this of course has huge effects on the British islands as well for succession of the kingdoms of Scotland and England.
[12]: Wars are really expensive, especially ones where you don’t exactly win land. Here thankfully Brazil is starting to pay for itself and more.
[13]: Yes, the name nicotine comes from him and he was responsible for popularizing tobacco in France and eventually in Europe, here he does the same and because of him “discovering it” here too he gets a monopoly to sell it, taxed by the crown of course.
[14]: True from OTL, Catherine suffered from terrible headaches as well as the stress of being regent queen of France, here while she’s not regent she’s still a very stressed out person due to her usual intrigues so she takes on smoking quickly to cope with it, with makes it popular on the court and high classes.
[15]: coffee beans, something that will of course impact the economy of the colony as well as France.
[16]: Dragon Blood Tree, they don’t have much purpose since Brazil wood is better as pigment as well as wood, I just think they look cool and deserve a proper place to be instead of being stuck in a small island that is going through desertification. It will also be the impetus for the start of a Botanical Garden.
