At long last, it has returned! And it was very much worth the wait, as we all knew it would be
Like most such charges, it can be argued that the strength of these crazy rumors--aside from the ever-present desire to believe in some corners--is that they are based, very loosely, on a certain truth. Henry IX and Mary are both rather flirtatious personalities, with a tendency to surround themselves with a great deal of charming, good-looking, young men and women, many of whom find themselves showered with favors. Indeed, it's not unknown for a favorite to be picked up by the husband or the wife, and then quickly become part of the spouse's retinue as well. More than a few historians will note about the general feeling of loneliness the pair can give off--the ever-shifting "inner" circles they keep, the tendency for what amount to substitute parental figures to climb to prominence only to be discarded as needed. It makes for often dramatic and frequently oddly intimate court, a place where the border between official and personal relationships is exceedingly hazy. This is hardly unique, of course, but it is... pronounced, and the mutual interest of husband and wife only underlines it further. None of which changes the fact that this is a horribly embarrassing and offensive piece of work.
In addition to the effect this pamphlet has on society and diplomacy in the "present", I can't help but picture how it will influence historians in the centuries to come. This paragraph hammers home how the pamphlet manages to take a kernel of truth and stretch it into some of the tallest tales ever recorded. The question is going to be where the kernel ends and where the exaggeration begins, and historians with an agenda (pardon my redundancy) will no doubt find it best suits their purposes to be quite arbitrary in marking the dividing line.
Space Oddity said:
But the slightly-smaller marriage of the young Dauphin of Auvergne's father, Louis, Duke of Montpensier to Louise de Lorraine[7], of the Mercouer Lorraines, is equally important, tying the conservative branch of the Bourbons to the ultraconservative branch of the Lorraines. Present at this marriage, the families' mutual distant cousin, Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon, who has served as the something of a go-between for the involved parties. This, he feels, will guarantee that he is going to be, if not king, the man behind the king in the future of France.
Not if young Louise isn't any more fecund than her OTL sister...
Space Oddity said:
The pregnant Queen Margaret of Hungary and Bohemia will go to bed one night, complaining of feeling warm. It will soon become clear she is ill with typhus. Within a week, she will be dead. She is only a few months shy of her twenty-seventh birthday.
Well!
This was certainly shocking, although I suppose it wasn't entirely unexpected - death by childbirth was quite common in those days, after all. In any event, that's one more Tudor down, three more to go - interesting that (miscarriage aside) the first two of Anne's children to die were her two youngest. I can't imagine what Anne feels, herself being quite old by now (over 65, assuming she was born in 1501) and having survived yet another child - this one in the prime of her life.
Space Oddity said:
Indeed, Leander, who is now attending meetings of state under the direction of his great-uncle--his regency will formally end next year--insists that every meeting begin with a prayer for the success of "the great and holy endeavor to free the New World of heretics".
Why does something tell me Leander's religious devotion doesn't
quite extend to cover the directive to be fruitful and multiply?
Space Oddity said:
Yes, El Cid's getting a river named after him in the new world, as well as the fort being built near the river.
Worth noting is that the river in question IOTL is the Mobile River, which just as ITTL shares the name of the city located at the mouth of said river, not settled IOTL until 1702, by the French.
Space Oddity said:
In many ways, it's a tragedy for the Spanish, as the French in what will come to be known as "Acadia"--as a result of colonial founder Jean Ribault's effort to name it "Arcadia", partially in homage of ANOTHER section of the New World the French explored
The region in question being largely coterminous with the present-day Maritime provinces of Canada (plus parts of Maine and Quebec). Acadia "proper" was what is now mainland Nova Scotia.
Space Oddity said:
As for poor Charles Stuart, he continues to enjoy English custody in the Tower of London, as England and Scotland quietly argue over who has the right to try him and then kill him. They want to be fair over this, after all.
I don't suppose this might be a scene in a future instalment of
Aske Away!, by any chance?
Space Oddity said:
While Hawkins has put a good deal of his own capital into this, and yes, has the King's backing, the fact remains more money is needed. A lot more--Henry IX's unofficial motto on these things is "get some other poor bastard to pay for it".
Wonderful, he really
does take after his grandfather in some respects, then
(Edward must be so proud.)
Space Oddity said:
Once that's out of the way Aguirre gets his rebellion into overdrive, grabbing as much of Lima and its environs as he can, before attempting his own, rough imitation of the Marquis' coronation.
Sheesh, do the Spanish authorities have to do
everything in South America that they've already done in Mesoamerica?
Space Oddity said:
Yes, it's clear to the Libertines they need an angle. And then John Jewell, in what he likes to chalk up to divine inspiration, gets an idea. And as his fellows hear it, they agree--this is a GREAT idea. And having agreed on this, they get to work on their arguments in favor this idea, which, they hope, will disarm the Puritans.
Looking forward to reading about this idea! Will it give the Libertines the edge they need against the Puritans?
Space Oddity said:
Yes, Henry and Mary see this as a brilliant way to kill TWO birds with one stone--the Borderers lose a lot of ruffians, and Ireland... well gets a lot of new ruffians, but ruffians with a vested interest in keeping the local ruffians down.
I'm sure this totally won't blow up in everyone's faces a few centuries down the line.
Space Oddity said:
--At the opening of the latest session of the Council of Mantua, Pope Pius begins with a ringing denunciation of the man he declares the most awful prince in Christendom, a man who, despite his claims of loyalty to the Catholic Church, serves only himself--your friend and mine, Philip II of Spain.
I'm very impressed by the Pope's cunning
realpolitik. Forget Germany, he's going to consolidate his
temporal power in Italy by antagonizing the Catholic monarch with whom he is arguably on the best terms - because he can afford to. After all, what is
Philip going to do about this,
convert? Ha! He's a
Hapsburg, they don't know the meaning of the word.
Space Oddity said:
But that hardly means that matters are incredibly better in Spain's other Italian holdings--even Sardinia sees a few angry remonstrances, while Naples and Sicily see riots and protests, with unruly crowds loudly declaring their undying loyalty to "Good King Charles". (It is a matter of debate--both then and among future historians--whether the crowds are referring to Charles V & I, or Charles, Prince of the Asturias. Or both.)
Although we know that Charles, Prince of the Asturias, will
not become King of Naples, since "Carlo V di Napoli", reigning in 1643, is quoted elsewhere, and HRE Charles V was also Charles
IV of Naples.
Space Oddity said:
King Henri will be informed of this by a humble Corsican nobleman of small standing, Gabriele Buonaparte, sent largely because he's viewed as reputable enough not to be insulting to his majesty, but minor enough that he's not dangerous--further, his interests in Corsica are insignificant enough that he really isn't going to lose anything by heading off for France.
Must be a hereditary trait. We'll see if he can achieve as much success in
la Métropole as an OTL descendant of his.
Space Oddity said:
Meanwhile, in Yemen, the Turkish forces there that have been fighting off the rebels lead by Al-Mutahhar find themselves in hot water as the reinforcements they were expecting don't arrive. The resulting victory greatly encourages the Yemeni Imam, who now hopes to liberate the Yemeni from the Turkish yoke within a year, and is even starting to get... bigger ideas.
Looks like Ottoman control and influence around the Mandeb Strait is about to become a
lot more precarious. That should be exciting!
Space Oddity said:
A resistance led by priests, Spaniards not in line with the local elites backing the Cortez brothers, and native nobles who are justifiably nervous about how things may go for them in a Mexico without Spanish protection gathers together, choosing for a figurehead a native convert to Catholicism of impeccable lineage and significant wealth, one Tlacahuepan Ihualicahuaca, or as the Spanish know him, Pedro de Moctezuma, and yes, of those Moctezumas. Thus begins the strangest second round in a family feud imaginable...
It amuses me greatly that this second round will have each patriarch on the opposite side of the conflict from the first go-round...
