WI: Charles the Bold won the Burgundian Wars
Dukes of Burgundy (1467-1733)
1467 - 1488: Charles I 'the Bold' (House of Valois-Burgundy) [1]
1488 - 1513: Charles II 'the Bald' (House of Valois-Burgundy) [2]
1513 - 1549: Robert III 'the Brave' (House of Valois-Burgundy) [3]
1549 - 1588: Philip IV 'the Good' (House of Valois-Burgundy) [4]
1588 - 1645: Robert IV 'The Red' (House of Valois-Burgundy) [5]
1645 - 1660: Robert V "The Maid" (House of Valois-Burgundy) [6]
1660 - 1695: Charles III 'The Exile' (House of Valois-Burgundy) [7]
1695 - 1700: Philip V 'the Perverted' (House of Valois-Burgundy) [8]
1700 - 1730: Robert VI 'the Restorer' (House of Valois-Burgundy) [9]
1730 - 1733: Odo IV 'the Pious' (House of Valois-Burgundy) [10]
Elector of Burgundy (1733-1946)
1733 - 1762: Odo IV 'the Pious' (House of Valois-Burgundy) [10]
1762 - 1769 Robert VII 'the Forgiver' (House of Valois-Burgundy) [11]
1769 - 1841: John IV 'the Emperor' (House of Valois-Burgundy) [12]
1841 - 1851: Philip VI 'the Peaceful' (House of Valois-Burgundy) [13]
1851 - 1875: Philip VII 'the Content' (House of Valois-Burgundy) [14]
1875 - 1925: John V 'the Drunk' (House of Valois-Burgundy) [15]
1925 - 1946: Robert VIII 'the Noble' (House of Valois-Burgundy) [16]
King of Burgundy and France (1946-)
1946-2011: Robert VIII/III 'the Noble' (House of Valois-Burgundy) [16]
2011-Present:Marie-Victoire I 'The Vivacious' (House of Valois-Burgundy) [17]
[1] Charles of Burgundy won the epic Battle of Grandson against the Swiss Confederation and was able to capitalize on the success at the Battle of Morat which left the Swiss/Austrian/French Alliance in tatters. As a result the Peace of Ghent gave Charles the regions of Alsace and Lorraine, linking his northern and southern territories together and was granted Lordship over the Swiss Confederation, which would allow Burgundy further ability to intervene in HRE politics. Charles dedicated the rest of his reign to reconciling his various territories into a more cohesive unit, with mixed results. Despite his three marriages, Charles only had one daughter by his second wife and one son by his third wife, when he died at age 54 in his sleep it was his son, Charles II who inherited his various lands.
[2] Charles II, also known as Charles the Bald, due to his repeatedly shaving his own head for no apparent reason ruled for 25 years as Duke of Burgundy and was content to rule peacefully through that time. He died from a heart attack at the age of 47 to be succeeded by his nephew Robert, as Charles II had not fathered a child through five marriages.
[3] Robert III, came to the throne at the aged of 24, the only son of Philip, who was the second son of Charles I.
Robert first wife, Katherine, a daughter of a Burundian nobleman, died in 1511, providing no heir, so in 1515, Robert married again, this time the widow of King Louis XII of France, Queen Mary Tudor.
She would provide seven children for Robert, with four surviving into adulthood.
Robert, gained the title of, "The Brave" for his fearless fighting and tactical skills, during the war with France, supporting his brother-in-law, Henry VIII's claim to the French throne.
He died during the siege of Paris, when a wound became septic. Leaving his throne to his son, Philip.
[4] The only son of Robert III, Philip IV became known as 'Good Duke Philip' or 'Philip the Good' for his patronage of the arts, support of the Catholic Church as the Protestant Reformation quickly spread out from the HRE, and his political machinations in which he extracted massive concessions from the weak French King Henri II (known in history as 'Henri the Fool') that left him married to his daughter Elisabeth (who bore him many children) and with such authority in his 'French' territories that he truly ruled Burgundy as a King in all but name. He was succeeded by his grandson, Robert.
[5] Only 18 years old when he ascended to the ducal throne of his grandfather, Robert IV would in the vein of his father for the next 57 years. His constant support of the Catholic Church brough into him into conflict and war with the HRE in which he exacted a bloody price for peace. His nickname was The Red due to his blood red hair and beard that he kept until they turned grey in the later years of his reign, his furious temper and his repeated brutal disembowelment executions of rebel Burgundian lords. He died in 1645, just a day shy of his 75th birthday. He was succeeded by his son Robert.
[6] Robert IV was a man convinced that women were all the devil's whores. His tutor, Matthew Knoles, was a Scottish scholar known for his hatred of inter-gender relationships and put forward the idea that only a chaste man could truly ascend to heaven. When this teaching was discovered by Elisabeth of France (a well-known scholar in her own right who wrote three spiritually guided books rebuking Knoles' opinions), the education of Robert was placed into the hands of the far more acceptable Pole scholar Albin Bak. This, however, did not help the situation and the impressionable Robert grew fearful of all women, including his beautiful sisters Charlotte, Margaret, Elisabeth and Eleanor, though he seemed not to have minded his youngest sister Mary, a poor girl whose beauty was destroyed by a particularly scaring case of smallpox. He was forced to marry upon his succession at the age of 23, to the beautiful Scottish Princess Anne Stewart (19 years old). However, this ended in disaster when she became pregnant by his younger brother Charles (17 at the time), who was sent into exile while the marriage to the Princess was quietly annulled and she joined Charles in Scottish exile. Robert was then forced by his mother to remarry, this time to French noblewomen Victoria of Guise, who married him in 1650 and died a year later of smallpox. Robert then was forced to consider marriage a third time, this time to the aging English Queen Elizabeth Tudor, who refused to consider her young niece (the daughter of her younger sister Jane Tudor, aged 14) but instead the 50 something queen offered first herself, then her favoured noblewoman, the young, poor (but intelligent) Agnes Howard. This was deemed unacceptable, so another French option, Madeline of Anjou, was considered. But she, unfortunately, rejected the thin, angry Duke of Burgundy for Antoine de Burgundy, King of Navarre. Finally, in 1657, he married the Polish Princess Anna, who arrived in 1660, in time to meet her husband and then become a virginal widow. This left Burgundy with a succession crisis. Who takes the throne, the ever flighty but dashing and fertile Charles of Burgundy (who at this point had married Anne Stewart in Scotland and had six children: Robert, Henry, James, Charles, Elisabeth and Philip) or the also married Philip of Burgundy (to Agnes Howard in an attempt to pacify England, two children: Elisabeth and Arthur)? One is in exile but the other is younger and therefore lower on the succession line.
[7] The lords of Burgundy chose to end the exile of Charles and have him invested as Duke of Burgundy in not long after his brother's death. Philip, his brother was not angry about the choice as he realised that Charles was a more secure choice due to his higher number of children. Charles would make Philip one of his advisors and listen to his ideas and go over his own ideas with his brother leading to a Golden Age for Burgundy for the thirty-five years that Charles ruled as the Duke. Charles was succeeded by his grandson Philip
[8] Philip V was not a good Duke in the five years he ruled. He was perverted and rude to all visiting nobles and had an obession with both of his sisters. This obession led to his announcement in the final year of his reign that Burgundy had broken away from the Catholic Church to form the Church of Philip, in which he was God and everything he said was to be obeyed. His first law after this mad move was to overturn the biblical ban on incest. He then forced his elder sister to marry him. Before he could consumate this unholy marriage, he was stabbed from behind by his younger sister. He died in a pool of blood in his own bed whilst his two sisters watched. He was succeeded by his cousin Robert VI
[9] Robert VI had been horrified at his cousins actions in the final year of his reign and so the first action of his own was to restore the Catholic Church in the Duchy. His reign after that was peaceful and he died in his bed in 1730 to be succeeded by his son Odo.
[10] Odo, was named after his ancestor, Odo IV, who was Duke of Burgundy from 1315-1350. His reign saw the continuation of the restoration of the Catholic Church in the Duchy.
In 1733, the Odo was made an elector as a reward for protecting the Catholic Church with Odo wages a never-ending war against the Protestant Reformation Church.
Odo died in 1762, with his heart being buried separately, in the tomb of his younger brother, Pope Pius VI in Rome, Papal States.
He was succeeded by his son, Richard.
[11]Robert was born in a turbulent time in Burgundy's history, during Odo's campaigns against the Protestants. Robert however was a very compassionate man who fell in love with a Protestant woman early in his life, but hid their relationship. When he took the throne he publically married her and stopped fighting the Protestant minority in Burgundy. Instead he decided to give them a full pardon and tried to convert them using the Scripture and not the Sword. He only ruled for seven years before his was assassinated by a band of Catholic knights. There is evidence suggesting they were sent by the Pope or the Emperor. He sired a son, John.
[12] John was born in 1769, a few weeks before his father's death, and with his mother, being arrested for heresy, John was adopted by the Emperor Charles X of the Holy Roman Empire and lived with the Emperor in Munich, and was brought up as a devout Catholic, a strong fighter and a wittier statesman.
When Charles X died in 1799, John was elected as the new Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, causing tension between the Protestant states of Hanover and the French Kingdom, who saw a member of the House of Burgundy, on the throne as a massive threat.
His marriage to Princess Henrietta Habsburg-Wittelsbach, gave him one son and two daughters.
When he left both of his thrones to his son, ________, his death also brought about one of the series of major conflicts pitting an array of, not only European powers, but World powers, know as the "Great Global Wars"
[13] Philip VI was Duke for only ten years but in those ten years, he fought and was on the winning side of the first Great Global War. His own peacekeeping skills allowing for a balanced treaty to be created which did not favour either side of the war, despite many attempts (mostly by the arrogant American government) to punish the losing countries with heavy taxes and reparations. Philip VI died in 1851 and was greatly mourned. He was succeeded by his eldest son
[14] Philip VII was 39 years old when he ascended to the electoral title of his father. He oversaw the election of his uncle John as Emperor John II of the Holy Roman Emperor. Despite this close connection to the Emperor, he refused to try and get his uncle to name him as heir and was content to rule as Elector of Burgundy for twenty-four years before his death in 1875. He was succeeded by his 19 year old grandson John V
[15] John V ruling for 50 years in Burgundy became thought of as the man who couldn't die due to his survival of nearly twenty assassination attempts. Outside of these constant attempts on his life, he was well loved within the Electorate. He died in 1925 and was succeeded by his grandson Robert.
[16] Robert was only 9 when he succeeded to the throne on his grandfather, death in 1925, and had been heir since the age of 4, when his father, Prince Philip, died of French Flu (OTL Spanish Flu)
For the first 7 years of his reign, his two regents were his mother, Dowarage Charlotte of Savoy and Prime Minister, Raymond Poincaré.
When at the age of 16, Robert married Princess Maria-Victoria, heir presumptive of France.
In 1946, with the death of King Louis XXXIV, Maria-Victoria and Robert became joint monarchs of the two Kingdoms (similar to England and Scotland before 1801.)
Together, they settled historical tension and began a great union, that would see their two countries grow closer and stronger.
He died in 2011, aged 95, the longest living monarch of both Kingdoms, ruling them singulary since the death of Maria-Victoria in 1992. He is succeeded by his eldest son's eldest daughter, Marie-Victoire.
[17] The young Queen ascended to the throne at the age of 25. She continued to strengthen the unity of her two countries. She has appoint a French Minister and a Burgundian Minister to help her greater understand her people's needs. Her passion to rule but also to help people, combined with her beautiful looks earned her the name vivacious. She married an Scottish commoner, Henry MacArthur, in 2013. They fell in love while she was vacationing in Edinburgh. Despite the controversy surrounding their marriage, it was approved. In March 2015, she had a son named Henry. The Queen continues to maintain the stability between the two countries with the advice of her Ministers.
