The Brother Kings

A Slightly Different Path for Henry de Valois:

Henry III, King of France (b.1551: d.1589) m. Anna I Jagiellon, Queen of Poland (b.1523: d.1596) (a)

1a) Henry, Dauphin of France (b.1574)

2a) John, Prince of Poland and Duke of Anjou (b.1576)​

OTL, Anna Jagiellon was meant to marry the French Henry de Valois, but whoever wrote up the Henrican Articles, which was the treaty to make him King of Poland, forgot or deliberately neglected to write in the marriage as part of his accession to the Polish Throne, and thus he delayed the marriage until suddenly he was King of France, and thus able to leave Poland, abdicate and Anna was left jilted, until she married Stephen Bathory in 1576. That marriage, however, was not consummated, and thus no children were born. It was likely that part of the reason that marriage OTL was unconsummated was that Bathory was afraid that Anna might die in childbirth, and thus he would lose the throne. However, rumors indicate she had not undergone menopause at this point, and still might have produced children. Thus, instead of this provision being left out of the treaty to put Prince Henry on the throne, it is placed in there and not only do they marry, but produce children, specifically two sons, Henry (b.1574) and John (b.1576).

Now the basics of the whole conceit of this is that, upon Henry de Valois' arrival in Poland in January of 1574, he is quickly and quietly marries to Anna Jagiellon, sometime in early February, so that they are coronated together. Like her marriage OTL, Anna is crowned in her own right, partially in case Henry gains the French crown and peaces out, which happened OTL and will happen here. But not as easily.

In mid-June of that same year, Charles IX of France dies and Henry has to rush to France to claim his rightful throne, leaving a pregnant Anna Jagiellon in Poland to deal with the issue. However, things are not so clear cut as OTL, because of the marriage and the pregnancy. So, instead of OTL, where he ran off with no ties to Poland and basically ignored them until they gave up and went looking for a new King, there's the added problem of Anna and her unborn child, who is born around November and is a healthy and strapping boy. The marriage can, obviously, not be annulled, and the child is heir to France and, presumably, Poland. And until this mess is sorted out, Anna is Queen of Poland as both Regnant and Consort. And Henry isn't about to give up his French Throne for Poland, and Anna is going to want to keep her Throne herself, and probably wants her son to inherit it.

So the couple is struck. Anna, in many ways, has the upper hand, her still having the child and all that. And so, my solution is that, around June/July of 1575, Anna (who OTL seemed to care a Henry and the whole potential marriage in question) travels to France, where they briefly reunite, Henry demands his son be sent to France, and Anna gets mocked for being so much older than her husband. He doesn't support her, she returns to Poland, only to find herself pregnant for a second time. The second son, called John, is born in February, and finally there's a son for each. After some negotiations take place, Prince Henry of France and Poland is officially granted the title Dauphin of France and sent to his father, while Anna keeps Prince John, who is granted the title Duke of Anjou (Orleans having been granted to Prince Hercule Francois during a brief period where the new King was considering making his brother his heir if regaining his son proved impossible), with the addendum that, should he inherit the Polish Throne, that title will be taken from him.

Thus, the brothers would be King of France and King of Poland.
 
Oooh, this does sound like it could prove very interesting.

Henri III having male heirs would have major ramifications for his reign and would basically toss everything up in the air. He wouldn't be as succeptible to rumors of homosexuality and would just generally have a better grip on power. However, given his personality I don't think major conflict could be avoided. Particularly Henri's later reign would see significant changes given the important role played by the succession struggle IOTL.

Have you given any thought to what Anna ruling Poland basically as Queen Regnant would mean for the PLC?

What about France? The Wars of Religion are reaching their height at this point and there are a lot of things going on. A royal heir would change a lot of calculations, particularly amongst the Bourbons, given the power and influence they gained from how close they were to the top of the line of succession.
 
Considering Anna's age, she and Henry having children looks like miracle. I once wondered about a bit different scenario-Charles IX has a son instead of daughter, Henry in Poland is not in hurry in marriage, finally he marries different Anna-Anna Vasa of Sweden, granddaughter of Sigismund I, and starts Polish line of House of Valois.
 
Considering Anna's age, she and Henry having children looks like miracle. I once wondered about a bit different scenario-Charles IX has a son instead of daughter, Henry in Poland is not in hurry in marriage, finally he marries different Anna-Anna Vasa of Sweden, granddaughter of Sigismund I, and starts Polish line of House of Valois.
Anna Vasa is the wife he needed to have children..she might be better than Louise..
 
Considering Anna's age, she and Henry having children looks like miracle. I once wondered about a bit different scenario-Charles IX has a son instead of daughter, Henry in Poland is not in hurry in marriage, finally he marries different Anna-Anna Vasa of Sweden, granddaughter of Sigismund I, and starts Polish line of House of Valois.

Anna's only 41 when the first child is born, her sister Katarzyna was 42 when Anna Wasa was born. So the first child isn't an issue. She'd be 45 when her younger son is born. Stretching it? Sure. But her ancestress Johanna of Pfirt had her last child at 50something IIRC. The birth (nearly) killed her, but it happened in RL.
Most likely the baby at 45 nearly kills her so its a good thing she and hubby are separated so there's no chance for more.
 
Personally I already thought about this scenario before as alternate history except that Henry get only one children that inherit of both realm.

But your alternate history seems really interesting i'm curious to see what will happen next.
 
Anna's only 41 when the first child is born, her sister Katarzyna was 42 when Anna Wasa was born. So the first child isn't an issue. She'd be 45 when her younger son is born. Stretching it? Sure. But her ancestress Johanna of Pfirt had her last child at 50something IIRC. The birth (nearly) killed her, but it happened in RL.
74-23 = 51, not 41.
 
So, there is very narrow window. If the first attempt (1574) are twin boys, and the birth near kills Anne like what happened to her ancestress, that's plausible. But a baby at 55? ASB.
 
There is difference between woman giving birth to her first child at age 50 and woman at the same age, who gave birth to several kids before, later option is not that unlikely as the former (Queen Maria Casimira, wife of John III Sobieski had her last child in her early 50s, although the child has not survived).

There is another option, that does not require Henry to wait untill 1580s, great-niece of Anna Jagiellonica:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Hedwig_of_Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
 
A Slightly Different Path for Henry de Valois:

After some negotiations take place, Prince Henry of France and Poland is officially granted the title Dauphin of France and sent to his father, while Anna keeps Prince John, who is granted the title Duke of Anjou (Orleans having been granted to Prince Hercule Francois during a brief period where the new King was considering making his brother his heir if regaining his son proved impossible), with the addendum that, should he inherit the Polish Throne, that title will be taken from him.

Thus, the brothers would be King of France and King of Poland.

There is a tiny problem: not only wasn't Poland (and later Commonwealth) an elective monarchy but a even much later attempt to change its constitution to allow the next monarch to be chosen during the life of a current one resulted in a rebellion (Lubomirski's rokosz). So Henry and Anna could have as many children as they want but they would not be able to guarantee the Polish line of the succession.
 
Once Henry is elected to the throne, he don't need to marry Anna Jagiellonica anymore, so he would not do it. Anna need to require Henry to marry her if he wants her support, not support him, hoping that he'll marry her once elected. So say Anna is more cautious than IOTL in this regard. Henry marry her to become king, but their marriage does not last long-Anna uses some potion to increase fertility, that cause cancer instead and she dies (there is theory, that something like this happened to her sister-in-law, Barbara Radziwiłłówna). So widowed Henry could remarry, prefferably to princess of Jagiellonian ancestry-Anna Vasa or Sophie Hedwig of Brunswick.
 
There is a tiny problem: not only wasn't Poland (and later Commonwealth) an elective monarchy but a even much later attempt to change its constitution to allow the next monarch to be chosen during the life of a current one resulted in a rebellion (Lubomirski's rokosz). So Henry and Anna could have as many children as they want but they would not be able to guarantee the Polish line of the succession.
Jagiellon-descending Vasa princes had no real competition for the throne of the Commonwealth in OTL once Sigismund put his butt on it. Election of Anna's and Henry's son would be practically assured.
 
Jagiellon-descending Vasa princes had no real competition for the throne of the Commonwealth in OTL once Sigismund put his butt on it. Election of Anna's and Henry's son would be practically assured.

You are missing the point: there is a fundamental difference between it being de-facto assured and it being officially guaranteed before Henry's death.
 
There is also difference between election of full-grown man and election of small kid.
True but if if we go by the OP they would be electing a 20 year old which should not be a problem. Things could be more complicated if they have an election after Henry's death, or if as it was proposed, the boys are twins and Anna dies in birth.
 
You are missing the point: there is a fundamental difference between it being de-facto assured and it being officially guaranteed before Henry's death.
Even if Sigismund August had a dozen sons, each and every one of them wise, valiant, handsome and charismatic, there would be no guarantee one of them becomes the next king of Poland. But in practice the election would be a formality.
 
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