The Dead Live: A Hundred Years' War Timeline
- Thread starter Zulfurium
- Start date
- Status
France begins its slow recovery, but there have been several fundamental shifts in the power balance since the start of the conflict. Most importantly, Royal power and lands in northern France have almost completely disappeared. Outside of Paris and the surrounding Île-de-France there aren't many bits of land who owe direct allegiance to the King rather than to one of the major lords of the region (including Jean "III" as one of those lords. For England it is more a question of finally being able to cut some of the taxes they have piled up and redirecting forces elsewhere.
This would completely undermine Pope Honorius' goal of asserting papal authority to intervene in conflicts across christendom, a key policy of the later Honorian papacy, and would require absolute certainty of success. A failure would completely undermine Charles' growing support and would clearly demonstrate English bad faith. The English are taking all opportunities they can to portray their interference in the conflict as being completely justified. The fact that the vast majority of Caroline forces for the duration of the war came from France and the important role played by French lords in the English armies helps to demonstrate this. The English parts of the Princes' War were significantly different from the OTL English interventions under the Lancasters because of the much larger role played by the French in their diplomatic, political and military campaigns. It is part of why the battles of this conflict differ so much from the OTL battles. While the longbowmen and artillery played a key role in most English victories, the heavy French cavalry was in many ways just as important a part of their armies. While events like the Sack of Auxerre and the like leave a blemish on the English reputation, they are largely understood to be a part of what happens during wars. An assassination would risk turning the French supporters of Charles against the English. The risks simply aren't worth the rewards when the English think that they can get many of the things they want in the negotiations to come. The English relationship with Honorius has been relatively friendly, so they are pretty sure that the papal legate will look favorably on them. Preventing papal intervention would also really piss off Honorius, which no one wants to do. Why take the risk when you are pretty sure you have won.
For the English an accomodation which leaves Charles in a dominant position in France is against their interests. If they can split France and leave the nobility powerful enough to weaken the monarchy, they remain able to intervene. At the same time, they hope that by having significant influence over King Charles they can gain more control over Aquitaine. What they want more than anything else is to have their control over Aquitaine outside of French control accepted. Keep in mind that most of the larger dukedoms are basically going to be outside of the regent's purview. They simply don't have the power projection needed to control them. Any regent for Charles would have to focus their attentions on rebuilding the royal domains and strengthening the French king's positions. The fact that most of these lands are in southern France pose some interesting challenges which will come up in the next update and will eventually probably cause issues.
Jean "III" is at his weakest point right now, but despite his losses he is viewed overwhelmingly positively by a large segment of the French nobility. His rashness and willingness to go into battle personally are highly regarded and in many ways he has many of the elements that the French really appreciate in a ruler. He is gregarious, he is charismatic and puts on a very convincing front, he is willing to punish opposition with overwhelming cruelty and many of his mistakes have to do with betrayal or unfair treatment (at least in the propaganda he has spread far and wide).
Pedro of Navarre's granddaughter is already going to be Queen of France due to her marriage to Charles. There is no reason for Pedro to oppose Salian inheritance law. If Salic Law is removed, the same people would still be becoming King and Queen of France. The Evreux and Valois claims have been joined by Charles' and Jeanne's marriage. Pedro is far more worried about whether he will be able to reclaim Navarre before he dies. He does not want to be remembered as the King who left Navarre dismembered, so that is going to be a important part of any negotiation on his side. At the same time it is important to remember that while the Navarrese are allied to the Angevins, they don't really share a candidate to the crown. King Philippe is married to Jeanne d'Anjou and really has no connection to the Navarrese. Pedro's support was mostly because he couldn't find a way of coming to an agreement with the English. It bears remembering that Pedro's wife was a Lancaster daughter by John of Gaunt while Prince Edward's mother is Pedro's sister. They areactually quite closely related and were allied for a significant period of time.
There is absolutely no reason for Pope Honorius to kill Jean, particularly after Jean initiated papal intervention in the conflict. Honorius' main issue with Jean was the latter's use of French prelates for political purposes, but now that he is basically begging for papal intervention there is a good opportunity to strengthen papal power in Jean's territories and to gain wider support from the pro-Jean part of the French population who haven't been as happy with papal power as other groups.
Pope Honorius, at least prestige wise, is actually a pretty strong counterweight to Imperial authority at the moment. It is the good relationship between the HRE and the Papacy which have allowed both of them to focus on strengthening their positions. Whether this will stay the case with their successors is another question. That said, Honorius does want to end the conflict in France because of the instability caused by the conflict. The chaos caused by Sforza's Sicilian adventure left Honorius quite put out, while the conflict in Viennois left Avignon threatened. It is more a question of improving papal authority and ending a destabilizing conflict which motivate Honorius, than creating a counterweight to the Emperor.
This was written rather quickly but I hope it makes sense and answers your thoughts.
@Zulfurium While it’s possible for Salic Law to remain as the succession law for the French throne, the aftermath of the Princes War presents the pretext for clarifying the succession laws as the consequences of the ad hoc decisions the last direct Capetian kings made concerning the royal succession (screwing over more rightful heirs such as the Évreux and the Plantagenets in favor of the Valois) coming home to roost. While Charles VII is the legitimate Valois claimant, the Plantagenets had performed the heavy lifting and the repeal of the Salic Law will be the price of their support. The Évreux like the English will also want the Salic Law abolished in order to keep their holdings together. The remaining Valois princes (Orléans and Burgundy) will want to keep the Salic Law, but faced with the choice between Charles VII (the rightful King ironically according to Salic Law) or the Évreux and Plantagenets eventually discarding their Valois figureheads and claiming the French throne themselves (as Pierre and Édouard III of France respectively), the Orléans and Burgundy factions will rather have Charles VII as their King with no Salic Law. The French nobility could then go with male preference primogeniture with a no foreign ruler clause as a concession to the remaining Valois princes (male line only primogeniture having alienated the Évreux and Plantagenets and sparked first the Hundred Years and later the Princes War).
Love this timeline, but I wish it had more maps. Otherwise I love the detail, the occasional looks at other areas e.g. Greece, and the media you do put in is fantastic!
I think it is more likely that you will see Salic Law enshrined than its removal. I think that arguing that the Évreux or Plantagenets are the rightful heirs doesn't really work. They are one set of heirs who could have been the rightful heirs if a certain set of inheritance laws are followed, but Salic Law is in many ways just as legitimate. The Plantagenets probably have the worst claim of the three, given that if you don't follow Salic Law then the Évreux should be considered the rightful heirs. However, there are good reasons for following Salic Law, most importantly that it makes it much harder for you kingdom to become part of a dynastic union and mostly keeps your heirs inside your nationality (something other powers struggled with numerous times).
I just don't see the logic in either Edward or Pedro declaring themselves kings or abandoning Salic Law in France. If Pedro declares himself king by descent from Joan of Navarre, then his logical heir is Jeanne de Navarre, wife to Charles VII. That would mean that when Pedro dies (he is in his mid-50s and of bad health) the Valois succeed to the throne anyway. For Edward, Charles is his grandson so why should he steal the crown from his underaged grandson when he already has all the influence he could want in addition to a (relatively) friendly French population - who might violently disagree with someone who woould steal his own grandson's inheritance. The Plantagenets and Valois are incredibly closely related by this point in time. Charles' mother is daughter to King Edward and Queen Joan of England, Charles' wife is daughter to Charles of Navarre and his Lancaster wife. Charles of Navarre's aunt is Queen Joan of England while his wife's grandfather King Edward III by way of John of Gaunt. The sheer level of consanguinity is honestly a bit stomach churning, but it demonstrates how many times over King Charles' is related to both the Evreux and Plantagenets.
Beyond that, King Edward has plenty of things to keep him busy. His other grandson, Valdemar, is deeply involved in a war for the Polish crown, his son-in-law David is struggling with his nobility in Scotland, his own kingdom is riven by knightly feuds and banditry from returning veteran soldiers while Ireland is also going through some stuff. Edward has lots of things to worry about, why add a bunch of fractious French nobles to the mix.
This isn't the English emerging completely victorious over all enemies. This isn't unconditional surrender by any of their enemies. The other factions have simply gotten to the point where they are willing to negotiate an end to a seemingly never-ending war. If necessary, the war could go on for years more. No one will come out of the negotiations completely happy, though there are some who do better than others, but in the end it will be a result that people can live with for the time being. A result which lets them rebuild and strengthen their own positions, and who knows, King Charles might turn out to be a better king than expected.
All that said, thank you again for the thoughts. I have at several points considered what would happen if we did away with Salic Law, as you can probably see, but largely tried to write out a scenario where it wouldn't make sense. King Henry V's decision to simply declare himself King of France is one of those decisions which have absolutely no legality behind it. IOTL King Edward used his claim to France (which everyone acknowledged as being rather flimsy) to press for concessions and lands. King Henry resurrected that claim in a bid to strengthen his own internal legitimacy in England after deposing the rightful king. If you follow the logic behind the English claim (and ignore the Évreux) then the next claimant after Richard II should have been the Earls of March who descended from Lionel of Antwerp, the second son of King Edward III. The heiress to the Earldom of March married into the York family, which is why they claimed that they were the rightful Kings of England. The Lancasters claimed their throne by Salic Law (once they had killed off the Mortimers who held the Earldom of March) by stating that Lionel's daughter didn't hold inheritance rights, meaning that with John of Gaunt being the third son of Edward III he was the rightful heir. Henry V then turned around and stated that while Salic Law should be upheld in England, it shouldn't in France and that he as a result inherited his great-grandfather's claim. However, this again ignores the Earls of March and the Dukes of York who would have a better claim in France than the Lancasters without Salic Law.
The whole thing is an absolute mess, which is part of why it led to a 116 years of war for the French crown and subsequently to a 32 year long civil war for the English crown.
Sorry for the monster text, it sort of got away from me.
I am happy you are enjoying it, I try to go in interesting directions in as many places as possible.
I think that I can dig out some of the various maps I have been using, though many of the borders and the like won't quite fit. I also use Google Maps a lot to identify smaller towns and to get an understanding of the regions I am writing about. The problem comes when trying to identify what cities, towns and villages are where and at what point. I think I can find most of them by the end of the day, which should help quite a bit.
@Zulfurium Thanks for your reply, in my last post I was pointing out that while the Salic Law in TTL could remain in place, given the weaken position of royal power in France against the great nobility in the aftermath of the civil strife, the chances of its removal is higher. Unlike OTL where the Valois dynasty managed to drive the English out and thus gain legitimacy in the eyes of the ruling elite, here the Valois all but committed suicide via infighting among the royal princes while the wolves and vultures (Plantagenet and Évreux) are at the front door. Thus abolishing the Salic Law could be presented by Pope Honorius as a concession to both the Plantagenets and Évreux with Charles VII remaining as King of France as a concession to the Valois (a boy who could be influenced is better option than either an adult English or Navarese king) with either the Duke of Orléans or the Duke of Burgundy becoming the Regent as further sweetener. Finally the non Valois nobility will try to make sure that the succession shenanigans that sparked the series of conflicts in France won’t happen in the future should a French monarch die without a direct heir.
At this point in time removing Salic Law would be in neither the Évreux nor Plantagenet interests for the reasons I had previously stated. I guess that is what my problems with doing anything about the Salic Law boil down to. No one has any interest, once both Jean and Philippe are out of the picture, in removing a relatively weak boy-king. The northern dukes are powerful enough at this point to rival royal power, something that would have been unimaginable during Charles V's reign, and would mostly be fine with being left to their own devices. There are a lot of similarities to the situation post-Thirty Years' War when the Habsburgs were forced to acknowledge their inability to police a large swathe of their nobility. The French King has been reduced to the largest, by a minor degree, and most powerful, again by a minor degree, of the French nobility. Another similarity would be to France in the pre-Philippe August era, where immensely powerful nobles were able to command as much respect and renown as their putative King.
All of the sides are pretty happy with this being the case, except perhaps Charles VII and his supporters. The English are happy because it significantly weakens the French, allowing the English to play one set of nobles against the other, while the nobles are happy to have their greater degree of personal power. King Charles might end up King of France in name, but he won't have the power to intervene in most of northern France without outside support.
I hope this makes sense.
Sorry about the delay n providing the maps @Joshuapooleanoxi. I had some difficulties digging them out and got distracted. None of these maps fit the current state of affairs, but many have city names/regions/general borders which should help locate many locations. Other than that, I use Google Maps alot to locate the smaller villages and the like, so you would need to start searching there to find most of the locations.
This is probably the most important map and definitely one of the best and most used, it covers France:
This should be helpful in regards to Germany, it fits very closely to the timeline so most of the borders are similar, unless something in the timeline has changed it:
This is the primary map used for Update 47 and covers all of Poland-Lithuania. Names are in Polish, which should explain why some of the town names in that update are in Polish when others might fit better. The time period fits very well with this one:
I used this one for the Teutonic and Baltic updates:
The map is from the Peace of Lodi, so the borders are significantly different ITTL, but many of the city names and regions are outlined quite well:
I have had difficulties finding a good map of the various duchies/earldoms and baronies in England, which is part of why I really haven't been very detailed with that part, but this map highlights important locations during the War of the Roses and has seen some use:
I hope these help. I really wish I could do a better job with the maps but I simply don't have the will, time nor the inclination to get into all of the work involved with that part of TL creation, and as might have become clear - when I start getting into stuff like this I can go down a rabbithole, so I am being a bit cautious here.
This is probably the most important map and definitely one of the best and most used, it covers France:
This should be helpful in regards to Germany, it fits very closely to the timeline so most of the borders are similar, unless something in the timeline has changed it:
This is the primary map used for Update 47 and covers all of Poland-Lithuania. Names are in Polish, which should explain why some of the town names in that update are in Polish when others might fit better. The time period fits very well with this one:
I used this one for the Teutonic and Baltic updates:
The map is from the Peace of Lodi, so the borders are significantly different ITTL, but many of the city names and regions are outlined quite well:
I have had difficulties finding a good map of the various duchies/earldoms and baronies in England, which is part of why I really haven't been very detailed with that part, but this map highlights important locations during the War of the Roses and has seen some use:
I hope these help. I really wish I could do a better job with the maps but I simply don't have the will, time nor the inclination to get into all of the work involved with that part of TL creation, and as might have become clear - when I start getting into stuff like this I can go down a rabbithole, so I am being a bit cautious here.
Philippe le Bel
Banned
This one's a great map of England, though large. Has many important towns, and also indicates important castles and boroughs with castles.
Update Forty-Six: The Splintered Realm
It is over! The Princes' War finally comes to a close. I hope that a lot of these outcomes make sense to people. Most importantly I don't think that I could simply remove Jean III from the board, he has too much support to be exiled, placed in a monastery or the like, and the papal legate has no reason to punish him more than what happens. I hope you enjoy.
Duke René d'Anjou is approached by a Papal Courier bearing formal summons to the Council of Soissons
Pope Honorius was swift to act once King Jean's request arrived, dispatching his trusted protegé Cardinal Giordano Orsini as Papal Legate of the rank Legatus a Latere (1) - possessing full plenipotentiary powers to negotiate a settlement on the issue of who the rightful King of France would be and many of the other issues bound up in the Princes' War. Giordano Orsini was a member of the powerful Roman Orsini family and was Archbishop of Naples, birthplace of Pope Honorius, from 1400 until he was made cardinal by the Pope. His staunch support of the papacy and great love for humanist culture made him a favorite of the pope and drew him into the central corridors of power and the center of an early circle of humanist culture that included Leonardo Bruni, Poggio Bracciolini, Leonardo Dati and Lorenzo Valla, who recalled how the scholars would gather, dressed in antique robes, to discuss topics of human conduct in Classical and Christian terms (2). The pope would occasionally join these gatherings alongside a host of other humanist scholars engendering a spirited and cultured atmosphere in the rapidly rebuilding City of Rome. Orsini had been a principle supporter of Honorius in the clashes with the Conciliarists and had been part of the delegation which ended the conflict in Lombardy, with many considering him the natural successor to the Holy See among the Honorian Reformists (3). On arriving in northern France he called together a Legantine Council at the ancient Abbaye de Saint-Médard de Soissons to resolve the disputes of all sides, calling on every major actor in France to send a representative. King Jean, having been granted passage to Soissons under guard by Enguerrand de Coucy, represented himself and his interests alongside Duke Louis d'Orléans, whose presence promised plenty of chaos, and the venerable Jean Gerson who arrived from Dijon where he had led the city's contingent of the former University of Paris for over a decade and had served as advisor to Duke Jean de Bourgogne and King Jean III. Prince Edward would participate on behalf of both his nephew, King Charles, and his father, King Edward, alongside a range of French nobles ranging from Charles d'Albret and the recently released Gaston de Foix to Georges de la Trémoilles and Pierre de Luxembourg and English nobles such as Ingleram de Mowbray and Sir Thomas Buckingham. King Phillip would respond rapidly to the papal legate's summons, against the wishes of René d'Anjou, and arrived at Soissons personally alongside the elderly King Pedro of Navarre and Duke René d'Anjou, having left behind the Scottish claimant king Robert and Archibald Douglas in an effort to reduce tensions at the already packed Council of Soissons. Lesser actors would send their own representatives, with Duke Arthur de Montfort sending his brother-in-law Alain de Rohan, Bishop of Nantes, to represent his interests while Phillip de Bourgogne dispatched Englebert de Nassau and dozens of others to hopefully regain his inheritance and Amadeus de Savoy represented his own interests at the council. Representatives from Emperor Sigismund, High King Olaf, King Enrique of Castile, King João of Portugal, King Louis III of Sicily and a whole host of others also made their presence felt in Soissons. For the duration of the council, the participants feasted, held tournaments and tried to upstage each other with ever greater displays of wealth and status, in the process turning Soisson into an international trade fair (4).
On the 3rd of June 1422 the Council of Soissons began its deliberations with the papal legate, Cardinal Giordano Orsini, presiding over the negotiations. The first and seemingly thorniest of the issues up for discussion would be the issue which had started the Princes' War more than a decade earlier - who would become King of France. Despite the blood shed over the issue, or perhaps for that very reason, it soon became clear that King Jean de Valois' position had weakened immensely in the aftermath of the Battles of Courtenay and Melun and his flimsy claim soon came under attack from the English and their Caroline French allies. The Philippine French found themselves weakened by this broadside as much as Jean had been, due to their even flimsier claim to the throne. While a few argued that the rightful heirs were in fact the Évreux and that King Pedro of Navarre should ascend to the throne, this was quickly dismissed with many pointing to the fact that he would simply be leaving the throne to his granddaughter Jeanne de Navarre, wife of Charles VII. In the end Cardinal Orsini ruled in favor of the young King Charles VII, who was even then slowly making his way south from Calais alongside his mother and wife, having been sent by ship from Bordeaux so that they could present themselves before the assembled nobility of France (5). In return for this concession, the English began releasing their prisoners at significant discounts, with Charles de Bourbon and Philippe de Berry being among the most prominent men to return to power in France, only for them to quarrel with each other and with Georges de la Trémoille over the regency of Charles de Berry - this would eventually result in the intervention of Cardinal Orsini who determined in favor of a tripartite regency with Philippe de Berry at its head, with the two other contenders able to veto any decisions made by Philippe de Berry. While Jean de Valois was unhappy at the dismissal of his claim he found his position too weak to oppose it and risk the Orsini turning completely against him, he therefore agreed to give up his claim to the throne if he was allowed to retain the lands he held in Burgundy, Champagne and Nevers - a request which the Papal legate found agreeable. At this point the representative of Phillip de Bourgogne began loudly protesting the loss of his inheritance, eventually resolved by Jean de Valois' purchase of the titles to the southern half of the Burgundian Inheritance including the title of Duke of Burgundy while Phillip de Bourgogne would style himself as Count of Flanders and Duke of Brabant - an agreement accepted by Englebert de Nassau with some trepidation (6). Phillip de Valois renounced his royal titles, to the chagrin of René d'Anjou, and took holy vows and entered the Abbey of Cluny after obtaining an annulment for his marriage to Jeanne d'Anjou from Cardinal Orsini on grounds of consanguinity with the original dispensation being found invalid. This brought the next issue, namely Aliénor de Navarre and her son Louis d'Orléans, into the negotiations. Secret talks between Jean de Valois and René d'Anjou ended with the hand-over of Aliénor de Navarre to face judgement, to the absolute outrage and horror of King Pedro who was only brought into line by an agreement to affirm his second son Pierre as heir to his lands in France including the Duchy of Normandy, although Aliénor's son Louis was kept at Angers and would grow up alongside René's children and was promised an important diocese and was acknowledged as the child of Phillipe d'Orléans and Aliénor d'Évreux. Aliénor was judged guilty of murder for her killing of Margaret de Bourgogne by the Cardinal and a panel of judges, including Prince Edward and René d'Anjou, and she was subsequently beheaded at Soissons. Jean de Valois would marry Jeanne d'Anjou in 1424 as per the secret agreement which ended in Aliénor's handing over (7).
By the end of September all of these agreements had been worked out by the furiously hard working Cardinal Orsini and the focus of the council began to shift towards ending the continued violence that the many thousands of bandits, routiers and mercenaries were wreaking across France. Particularly the conflict in Brittany, Anjou and Poitou continued unabated, while the initial conflict over the regency for the Duchy of Berry left central France in an anarchic state. After repeated attempts at bringing the remaining combatants to the table with little success, Cardinal Orsini excommunicated Gilles de Rais and William Douglas alongside a score of other lesser routiers and bandits who continued fighting despite the calls for peace (8). The Council of Soissons neared its end with the formal signing of the Treaty of Soissons which ratified all of the decisions made during the council on the 4th of October. The next three weeks were filled with celebrations and a massive tourney organized to celebrate the end of The Princes' War. King Charles made his ceremonial entry into Soissons on the 19th of October to immense fanfare and began receiving homage on the 22nd, King Pedro of Navarre was the first to do homage for his Duchy of Normandy after ratifying his granddaughter Jeanne de Navarre as his heir to the Kingdom of Navarre, followed soon after by Charles' uncle Duke Jean de Valois of Burgundy and Count Phillip de Bourgogne of Flanders. One by one the peers of France did homage, soon followed by the dukes, counts, viscounts, marquises and many others from across France over the course of the 22nd, 23rd and 24th. Conspicuously missing from the homage was Prince Edward, who did not do homage for the Duchy of Aquitaine and its expanded lands, including all of Gascony and incorporating La Rochelle and the surrounding lands in Poitou (9). Determining that Paris would be unsuitable as capital, Catherine of England and King Charles VII situated their court at Toulouse and drew their courtiers from across the Languedoc region. This symbolized a clear shift in the center of power from north-eastern France to south-western France and clearly demonstrated the way in which the upper nobility of France had divided the lands of northern France leaving the vast swathes of southern France as the only remaining Royal powerbase (10). The Council of Soissons formally came to an end on the 1st of November after almost half a year of intense negotiations and brought to a close the Princes' War. It would prove to be the crowning jewel of Cardinal Giordano Orsini's career as a cardinal and would stand him in good stead in the future. The successful papal intervention elevated the already immense prestige of Pope Honorius to even higher levels and strengthened support for the Honorian Reforms on a broad basis.
The Execution of Queen Aliénor de Navarre
Despite the treaty signed at Soissons, the war in Brittany continued unabated - driven ever onward by the feuding Gilles de Rais and William the Grim. Marked more by skirmishes, sieges, raids and ambushes than anything else, it proved next to impossible to control or constrain the violence. From its focus in Brittany, the war had spread into Poitou where it merged with the Potvin resistance against the English. After local French nobility from Poitou captured a convoy from La Rochelle bringing supplies to the Breton Duke and his supporters, Gilles de Rais dispatched a band of supporters to retaliate. William Douglas, on learning of the Breton attack on Poitou, reached out to the Potvin resistance and formed an alliance with them. When René d'Anjou tried to intervene in an effort to deescalate the conflict, the Douglases made accepting noises and then ambushed the Angevin courier and blaming de Rais for the attack. The Montmorency, Laval and Craon families in Anjou and Maine soon began aligning themselves with Gilles de Rais (11), spreading the conflict into those provinces. René d'Anjou turned to King Robert in the hopes that the Douglases would obey a direct order from their king, but Robert proved powerless and found himself invited to an indefinite stay in Rennes at the invitation of Archibald Douglas. Unable to refuse, Robert found himself a pawn of the increasingly powerful Black Douglases. His only daughter, Isabel Stewart, was married to William Douglas against Robert's wishes - leaving William the Grim as Robert's presumed heir - Robert's four sons having died either in the Scottish war against King David or in the fierce fighting in Brittany. The youngest, James, had been captured by Gilles de Rais and was returned, one piece at a time, to the horrified and grief-stricken King (12). The excommunication of Gilles de Rais and William Douglas gave neither of them a moments pause, the violence escalating and various monasteries, churches and abbeys finding themselves the target of raids and assaults in response to the ecclesiastical sanctions. The war in the region waged ever onwards, with Duke Arthur finding himself ever more closely bound to the murderous Gilles de Rais, to his personal disgust. By this point Arthur remained without a clear heir, his wife having only given birth to a single daughter named Jeanne de Montfort and a string of sickly sons, who died before the age of 5. Pressure grew ever greater from the Montmorency, Laval and Craon families for Jeanne to be betrothed to Gilles de Rais - who remained unmarried due to the kidnapping and forced marriage of his betrothed - Catherine de Thouars, heiress of la Vaudée (13) - to Archibald Douglas. Arthur would eventually bow to the pressure, with the eight-year old Jeanne de Montfort being betrothed to the seventeen-year old Gilles. The strife across the region would continue for many years to come in waves, reaching a crescendo of violence only to slow down for a couple of years before reigniting once more.
The Loire River Valley would prove somewhat more stable than the north-western corner of France, but not by a great deal. The sudden return of Louis d'Orléans proved a nightmare to many in the region who had played a part in Louis' removal from power. Although he was restrained from actively murdering them all, the tax regime he introduced alongside his punitive punishments of the slightest infraction quickly led to significant opposition from the lesser nobility of the region. Much of this opposition centered on the infant Louis d'Orléans, who could serve as a figurehead for a regency by the nobility for the region with the backing of René d'Anjou at one point. A series of assassination attempts, coups and revolts kept the Duke continually on the move and left him little time to spend with his new wife. Even so, she would give birth to two daughters and a posthumous son, named Albert for his Habsburg uncle. Although Louis d'Orléans proved adept at outmaneuvering his opponents, the years he had spent imprisoned and his fear of doctors who he thought could serve as assassins with ease, meant that when he caught a cold during one of his punitive expeditions he was unwilling to seek treatment and as a result collapsed from the untreated sickness. He died in 1427 at the age of 55, leaving his son Albert d'Orleans, to succeed him. Margrete von Habsburg took up rule as regent on behalf of her son, after a negotiated solution with René d'Anjou, and arranged the betrothal of her eldest daughter by Louis, Jeanne d'Orléans, to René's younger son Charles d'Anjou (14). Louis d'Orléans was one of the last great lords who presided over the start of the Princes' War and with his death the end of an era came ever closer. Another member of this older generation who was nearing the end of his life was King Pedro of Navarre. His rule over Normandy had finally been formally established and his granddaughter was officially Queen of France by her marriage to King Charles VII, but he remained without power over the kingdom to which he held title. Navarre north of the Pyrenees remained in English hands while south of the mountains, King Enrique of Castile continued to claim that he was simply protecting the kingdom from English aggression. Having consolidated control of Normandy and ensured that his son, Pierre d'Evreux, would succeed him to those lands, Pedro took ship for England where he met with King Edward and Pedro's sister Queen Joan of England to negotiate for a return of his kingdom. Over the course of 1424 and 1425 the English and Navarrese, having confirmed that Jeanne de Navarre would succeed to the Navarrese throne, began to make moves to reclaim the Kingdom in full. Enrique V of Castile found himself under immense pressure from King Edward and King Pedro to vacate the lands of Navarre. It would only be in 1426 that Enrique finally bowed to the pressure, having come under threat of invasion by Prince Edward and with revolts spreading across Aragon which needed to be crushed, and handed over the Kingdom of Navarre to Pedro. King Pedro of Navarre would die two years later, in 1428, and was succeeded in Normandy as Duke of Normandy by Pierre d'Evreux and by Queen Jeanne de Navarre of France as Queen of Navarre (15).
In Flanders, Phillip de Bourgogne had recently married Joan of Wales in accordance to his original alliance with the English and set about building up his position in the Low Countries. Relations with England remained tense and the power exerted by the Count of Flanders proved limited, with the powerful cities of the region significantly strengthening their grip on the region. Philippe de Bourgogne would work together with the Flemish merchant class with relative ease, succeeding in collecting a coalition of skilled supporters from the middle class. However, his position with the nobility of the region would prove contentious, with them disapproving of the degree of power that had been given over to the cities. Despite these troubles, the region remained mostly peaceful and Philippe began to rebuild his family's position at the heart of the Low Countries through alliances with noble rulers in the lower Rhineland and the Low Countries. Joan of Wales would give birth to two daughters to join their three sisters by Marie de Valois, but both of her young sons died before the age of 5, one in an accident and the other to sickness. This meant that Philippe's eldest daughter Marie de Bourgogne stood to inherit and through her betrothal to Enguerrand de Coucy the Younger stood to unite most of the region in a single dynasty (16). Enguerrand VIII de Coucy, Sieur de Coucy, had emerged from the conflict with immense personal prestige and secure rule over much of the Low Countries. His marriage with Jacqueline would prove to be a happy one, resulting in the birth of four sons and three daughters. The main issue that Enguerrand struggled with following the end of the Princes' War would be his attempts at reclaiming the Duchy of Benevento which had been held in trust by the Sicilian Royal Family since the death of Enguerrand VII de Coucy and his efforts at securing the lands captured by his father in the Gügler War, having been overrun multiple times during the conflict and currently being claimed by several of the Swiss cantons. The Duchy of Benevento would eventually be restored to the Coucy family, following the transfer of a significant sum of money to Francesco Sforza, but the Aargau, Sundgau and Breisgau would prove to be a more significant issue (17). Joining Enguerrand in his struggle with the Swiss would be both the Duke of Bar and Duke of Lorraine, with Duke Robert de Bar and his mother, Marie de Coucy, giving their wholehearted support. Robert de Bar's marriage to Jeanne de Béthune brought the Viscounty of Meaux to his family and proved to be a fruitful marriage resulting in the birth of three daughters and two sons. Ingleram de Mowbray and Isabella de Lorraine, having secured their claim, would join in the effort against the Swiss, and build a large family for themselves as well. These two duchies would quickly find themselves closely joined by marriage while Ingleram de Mowbray's lands in England would take somewhat of a backseat to Lorraine for the duration of the conflict. Of particular importance would be the betrothal of Jean de Champagne's newborn son Charles to Ingleram's daughter Marie de Mowbray and Jean's decision to join in the assault on the Swiss in an effort to strengthen his grip on the eastern-most reaches of his domains (18).
Jean II de Champagne, taking to that styling to differentiate himself from the rest of the Valois, took up his position as Duke of Burgundy and Count of Champagne with some trepidation. He had once been King of France and would on occasion yearn for those days but for the time being he was far too busy ensuring his lands recovered from the damage done to them and consolidating his claims to bother with too much else. He would initially find considerable opposition from among the regional nobility, resulting in harsh crackdowns and the transfer of land and titles to men he viewed as more trustworthy. His marriage to Jeanne d'Anjou strengthened his position significantly while his alliance to Albert von Habsburg stood him in good stead when he joined the assault on the Swiss. The marriage to Jeanne d'Anjou and reconciliation with the Angevins would actually prove to be easier than his efforts with the Navarrese, Flemish or Berry due to his constant conflict with the Angevins. They had never betrayed each other and had always fought honorably on opposite sides of the conflict, making the adjustment much easier once their alliance had been sealed by marriage. Jean's decision to dispatch support to René in an effort to help end the Breton conflict proved highly appreciated as well, while his decision to join the conflict with the Swiss helped draw away many of the routiers plaguing his lands. The Swiss found themselves under attack from all sides by veterans of a decade-long war and were crushed between the different sides. In battles at Montbéliard, Neuchâtel, Mulhouse and Basel, the multipronged assault proved successful in dismantling the resistance in the region. Particularly galling for the men of the northern Swiss cantons would be the presence of Swiss mercenaries in the Lorrainer and Burgundian armies, providing powerful pike infantry to oppose their own forces (19). By 1428 the conflict came to a close, having run on for two years with little success for the northern Swiss cantons, who would turn southward against their fellow Swiss, initiating a period of bloody civil war which for a time reduced the availability of Swiss mercenaries, before leading to a dispersal of them with the end of the conflict. Jean de Champagne would increasingly centralize his control of the region, reducing the power of the nobility and relying on a series of bureaucrats from the lesser aristocracy and building on the administrative state developed by Duke Jean de Bourgogne. The slow recovery would begin to speed up during the Swiss conflict while the Burgundian couple received multiple children for their efforts. However, no one forgot that the war had ended through Papal intervention and had seen Jean stripped of his royal title and the region relegated to a backwater. The administration in Toulouse drew on men of the Languedoc. No longer were the leading administrators of the French realm from Champagne, Burgundy or the Île-de-France, now they were a range of southerners from Gascony, Languedoc, Auvergne and more. While this strengthened the ducal administrations, it also highlighted that power had moved southward and led to significant dissatisfaction. While all of this was occurring, the young novice Jeanne d'Arc began to experience vivid visions of the Saints Margaret, Catherine and Michael telling her that a great struggle was coming and to prepare the world for the end of days. These visions were shared with the abbess of the nunnery and soon word of the visions and their message began to spread among the Augustine cloisters and monasteries of Western Europe (20).
Dowager Dauphine and Regent Catherine of England
When Georges de la Trémoille forced his marriage to Jeanne de Bourbon he immensely strengthened his position, becoming the step-father to the Duke of Berry and brother-in-law to the Duke of Bourbon. However, the return of Philippe de Berry and Charles de Bourbon would prove to be a significant blow to Georges' position, inaugurating a period of conflict over the regency of Berry which was eventually decided in Philippe's favor at the Council of Soissons. The joint regency that was inaugurated proved fraught with difficulties, Philippe finding himself consistently opposed by Georges while Charles flipped between the two on a regular basis, having come to an agreement with Georges regarding the treatment and disposition of Jeanne de Bourbon. This trio would spend most of their time butting heads with each other, in the process reducing their focus on the surrounding areas and leading to a powerful centralizing mechanic. By 1425 the Berry regency had reached an equilibrium and the three were increasingly able to look toward increasing their own power and tying together their families in a net of marriages (21). Most significantly, Charles de Bourbon succeeded in arranging for his marriage to Catherine of Wales, thereby closely joining himself to the English and French Royalty and elevating his position even further. At around the same time, in 1427, the young Duke Charles de Berry found himself betrothed to Louise de la Trémoille, Countess of Auvergne and daughter of Georges de la Trémoille. The closer ties had led to a consolidation of power in the two duchies and single county, creating a single powerful block with strong ties to royal power. Having stabilized their position and ended their infighting, the three regents were able to turn their attentions to the routiers who occupied several castles in the region and the bandits who plagued the countryside, initiating a period of repression and destruction for these harmful forces, culminating in the mass execution of over a dozen ringleaders from among the bandits. The move from Paris to Toulouse by the royal court proved less distressing for these duchies than those to their north, with particularly the nobility of Auvergne finding places in the royal administration. Charles de Bourbon would become a fixture of the court at Toulouse, travelling back and forth on multiple occasions and serving in a variety of posts on behalf of King Charles. Georges de la Trémoille would find himself less welcome, quarreling on several occasions with Amadeus of Savoy over the post as Lieutenant-Governor of the Dauphiné of Viennois - a struggle he lost multiple times due to Amadeus' close relationship with the royal family (22).
The moving of the French court to Toulouse and the decision to use the city as the new center of administration and government proved wildly popular in the Languedoc region, though the closeness of the English controlled Aquitaine caused quite a bit of trepidation. The fact that the English armies in the region and the forces they opposed had been composed largely of disciplined and semi-professional forces for the last decade, with limited numbers of routier bandits to cause destruction and chaos, meant that the southern reaches of France had come through the war mostly intact and the recovery from the war was therefore quick to occur (23). The establishment of the court at Toulouse brought with it all the needs of a large and modern court, both Dowager Dauphine Catherine of England and King Charles having become used to the sumptuous court at Bordeaux, which led to the rapid growth of Toulouse. The crossing of the Garonne would find itself the site of several bridges, connecting Gascony to the Languedoc and leading to a brisk cross-border trade. The various powerful noble lords would establish residencies in Toulouse in an effort to keep some degree of involvement in the court, though most would remain in their own territories. The court of Toulouse would prove reminiscent of the court at Bordeaux, with many members of the individual courts actually being part of both - travelling back and forth several times every year (24). The most significant lord to grace the royal court would prove to be Duke Amadeus VIII of Savoy, who served in a variety of capacities - not the least of which was Lieutenant-Governor of the Dauphiné and as Constable of France. Following his brief intervention in the conflict in Lombardy, Amadeus had turned back to France, working to put pressure on Provence during Prince Edward's campaign against Muzio Sforza, and working to secure central France after the collapse of the Berry and Bourbon positions following the Battle of Montpensier. In 1424 Amadeus' wife, Jeanne de Valois died suddenly - leaving a sickly son and two healthy daughters to survive her. Catherine of England, having long admired the pious, loyal and dutiful Duke of Savoy, was swift to console him and in 1426 married the 42-year old Duke, who in the process became step-father to the thirteen-year old King Charles and Princess Jeanne of France. As King Charles grew older it became clear that he had inherited his father's powerful physique and his mother's forceful personality. By 1423, at the age of ten, he had begun participating in the council of state and by 1428 his mother had given him an active voice in government. On the 18th of April 1429, at the age of sixteen, Charles ended the regency and took up rule of his unruly kingdom alongside his wife, Queen Jeanne of Navarre. Jeanne of France would marry her cousin twice-over, Duke Edward of Aquitaine in 1427 and returned to her one-time home of Bordeaux as Duchess of Aquitaine (25).
Duke Edward of Aquitaine attained the title from his father, Prince Edward, in 1423 when he turned eighteen. His mother, Isabella de Valois would return to England with Edward's siblings to join her husband in his increasingly influential role in the governance of England. Edward of Aquitaine would take up rule with John de Grailly as his primary advisor. The young Edward would prove instrumental, alongside his close friend Charles II d'Albret, in the hand-over of Navarre to Pedro of Navarre in 1424 and 1425 - mustering forces and preparing for the arrival of his father, who would bring a force of 5,000 to join the 14,000 mustered at Bayonne. Duke Edward's marriage to Jeanne of France would prove to be a love-match, having known and cared for each other since childhood, with children soon to follow. However it would be these very children which caused heartbreak and tragedy for the two young parents, when the young Duchess gave birth to a still-born son in 1428 and a sickly daughter in 1429 who died within a week of her birth, with a miscarriage between the two. It would be the birth of a daughter named Marie in 1430 which ended this tide of bad news. In the meantime, Henry of Wales found himself at the center of the negotiations surrounding the hand-over of Navarre. Enrique V would take a liking to the young prince after meeting him during the negotiations. This led Enrique V to initiate marriage negotiations with Prince Edward in an effort to end the strife between the Lancaster and Plantagenet dynasties by offering his daughter Blanche of Castile in marriage to Henry of Wales. Prince Edward, after turning over the offer with his father, accepted the offer with the result that Henry of Wales and Blanche of Castile married in 1429. Henry would soon find himself drawn into the Spanish Peninsula and would spend much of his time in the kingdoms of the region (26).
King David III of Scotland and his wife Queen Mary of England
Prince Edward of Wales returned to England in early 1423, having spent the winter putting everything in order in the expanded Pas-de-Calais, to immense fanfare. In a series of lavish celebrations, the victorious prince found himself at the center of a jubilant public. From the moment of his arrival, Prince Edward involved himself in ruling the English Kingdom. King Edward had by 1424 begun to weaken significantly, handing over more and more responsibility to his heir - who had recently been joined by most of his family from Bordeaux, and would increasingly take a backseat in the day-to-day running of the kingdom. Battle Palace would see further expansion, as Prince Edward utilized the Italian architects he had patronized in Bordeaux to introduce a host of magnificent buildings to the region. Edward would also spend some of his time in Wales, setting the administration of the principality back on track. The university of Oxford would find itself patronized by the Prince, who introduced some of the foremost thinkers of Italy to the skeptical administration. However, it would soon become clear that the cost of peace and war would both be exacted on the Kingdom of England. Having largely financed the first several years of warfare from lands in France, it had only been in 1414 that the drain of the war in France had really started to make itself felt in England. A series of taxes and tariffs were implemented over the following years, such that by the end of the war there was real popular discontent in England for the first time since the 1380s (27). Prince Edward's March on Paris had been just as much a matter of forcing an end to an increasingly expensive conflict as anything else, and the successful conclusion of the Treaty of Soissons would demonstrate the success of this gamble. The end of the war would see a significant reduction in extraordinary taxes and tariffs, widely publicized, but would remain significantly above the pre-war levels established at the end of the Great Peasants' Revolt. The stream of veteran soldiers who returned to England in the 1420s would also prove to be a significant issue, with many of them turning to banditry and service to constantly feuding nobles. While the royal family remained powerful, the English nobles had a hard time letting go of their war-time ways. The slightest insult quickly escalated to murderous brawls while feuds sprang up with frightening ease. Prince Edward would struggle mightily with these societal pressures, eventually redirecting them outward (28). This was part of the reason why the Prince was willing to muster such a large force for the hand-over of Navarre, and why he would dispatch thousands of men to Ireland.
In the thirty years since the ascension of Thomas FitzGerald as Earl of Desmond, Ireland had experienced a rapidly shift in power. While the Butlers had emerged victorious from their feud with the FitzGeralds, they soon found themselves the target of widespread jealousies. For the first fifteen years, the Duke of Clarence had succeeded in keeping peace in Ireland and arbitrating between the various families with some success, though the continued assimilation of the Hiberno-Norman lords would see an ever greater dissatisfaction with English rule. Edmund Mortimer's death soon after Richard's Rebellion and the succession of Roger Mortimer to the Dukedom of Clarence, Earldom of March and County of Ulster alongside his appointment as Lieutenant-General in Ireland would prove to be what started a general decline in English power across the island. The invasion of Scotland and subsequent involvement in the Princes' War drew away many of the resources that would otherwise have gone to Ireland and led to distraction in the English nobility - with predictable results. It was at this point that Thomas FitzGerald rapidly rose to prominence, having waited almost twenty years for his revenge. In a series of ambushes and assassinations, soon followed by skirmishes and battles across central Ireland, the Butlers of Ormund found themselves put to the sword in unprecedented numbers. The Butlers called on aid from their allies to the west and were joined by the O'Brians soon after. The Earldom of Kildare rose up against the dominance of the Pale soon after, declaring Thomas as Earl of Kildare, thus joining together the lands of the two branches of the family. The Butlers had largely been driven into retreat by the middle of the second decade of the century. In the meantime, in the north, the O'Neils had rapidly grown in power, subjugating the O'Donnels, O'Reillys, O'Farrels and O'Rourkes, creating a block of native Irish lords in northern Ireland who soon turned their sights on Ulster. Duke Roger Mortimer of Clarence was killed in battle when the County of Ulster was overrun in 1419. His successor, Edmund Mortimer would find himself forced to contend with both of these forces for several years with little support from England, beginning to receive a small stream of reinforcements from 1423 onward, growing rapidly into a flood of veteran soldiers by the middle of the decade. At the same time as these English veterans began arriving in Dublin, the O'Neils domination came under threat from a strengthened Kingdom of Connaught, having taken control of most of the ancient kingdom while the O'Neils and FitzGeralds were the focus of most attention in Ireland, under King Cathal mac Ruaidri Ó Conchobair who began border skirmishes with the O'Neils in the early 1420s. Thomas FitzGerald finally succeeded in cornering and butchering the Earl of Ormund in 1422, only to find himself suddenly under assault from the English forces streaming into Ireland. Edmund Mortimer would be joined by his royal uncle, Richard of Kent, Duke of York, who was dispatched to lead the reconquest of Ireland by his brother Prince Edward of Wales (29).
King David III of Scotland would find his reign anything but stable. Despite his successes in the early 1410s and the resultant exodus of many supporters of the Albany Stewarts, David found himself constantly facing rebellious nobles who greatly disapproved of the newly empowered royal dynasty or the close ties of the monarchy to England, bringing to mind among many the days of the Wars of Independence. While David brought with him significant advances in many spheres of life, and succeeded in creating a magnificent court at Stirling, the changes had many critics. The Red Douglases, having only recently recovered their inheritance, were quick to turn against the king when he issued prohibitions on border reiveing, and as a result soon faced widespread revolts in the Scottish Marches. David's decision to call for English aid, and the subsequent crushing of the revolt in blood and terror, proved wildly unpopular. The border region would remain a lawless region, marked by feuds and raids regardless of which side of the border the participants were on. David's struggles with the border nobility was worsened by unrest in the highlands, reacting to the imposition of David's supporters in the region to replace supporters of the Stewarts of Albany with violence, forcing David on countless campaigns in the highlands with limited success. Scotland was torn by civil strife for the first three decades of the 15th century, much of it centering on David's brother James, who proved to be avaricious and more than willing to serve as figurehead for revolt after revolt. David's leniency towards his brother would exasperate his wife, Mary of England, who feared for her children's safety. Thus, when James rose up in revolt in 1428 in response to King David falling ill, Queen Mary called for support from her brother, Prince Edward, who dispatched most of the forces immediately available to her aid - led by Sir Henry Percy, heir to the Duchy of Northumberland. The 1428 revolt would prove to be the last of James' revolts, ending in an absolute bloodbath for James' supporters at the Battle of Melrose including the King's brother, who was cut down when the Scots broke before an English cavalry charge. The violent repression that followed the 1428 revolt would lead to a flood of exiles fleeing the Kingdom of Scotland for happier shores, many of them ending up in northern Brittany where they would support the Scottish forces attempting to assert power over the region. King David had recovered by the time news arrived of the Battle of Melrose and collapsed at news of his brother's death. He died in early 1429 and was succeeded by his son, who ascended the throne as David IV of Scotland to a far more peaceful realm (30).
Footnotes:
(1) The Legatus a Latere was the highest rank of legate literally meaning "from the Pope's side", i.e. "intimately" trusted and is normally awarded to a priest of cardinal rank. It is an exceptional investiture and can either be focused or broad in scope. The legate a latere is the alter ego of the Pope, and as such, possesses full plenipotentiary powers.
(2) This is basically based on what I can find on Giordano Orsini from OTL. He was Archbishop of Naples IOTL as well and a staunch supporter of the papacy against the conciliarists, making him a natural supporter of Honorius ITTL.
(3) The Honorian Reforms is the name given to the various reform efforts undertaken during Honorius' Papacy and his supporters are called Honorian Reformists. We will get into this a lot more in a later update, but for now all that is important to keep in mind is that Giordano Orsini is a central figure in Honorius' regime.
(4) The Council of Soisson is an immense event with a truly incredible number of participants. It has a few similarities to some of the treaties and negotiations of OTLs Hundred Years' War but the added papal involvement bumps it up into a class of its own. This is an effort by all sides to bring an end to the warfare, with most sides interested in negotiating an end to the conflict.
(5) From a purely legalistic standpoint there really isn't a better candidate to the throne than King Charles. When you look at the reasons given for bypassing the Dauphin Charles, King Charles' father, they really don't hold up under scrutiny. The reason given for bypassing him had to do with fears of English domination, but by this point the situation is collapsing under King Jean while the Angevins and their support of Phillip was always an opportunistic grab at power. All sides are now going to try to position themselves in the best possible way.
(6) I strongly considered raising the title as Count of Flanders to a duchy but ended up holding off due to Flanders' position as one of the original 12 peerages, which means that it is of a higher position than all of the duchies besides Normandy, Aquitaine and Burgundy. Phillip is forced to take a step down in rank but he really had no way of reclaiming the rest of his inheritance at this point. It should be mentioned that the threat of Pope Honorius' displeasure hangs above all of these proceedings and that Giordano Orsini proves to be a masterful appeaser of egos which is the only thing keeping Phillip de Bourgogne in these negotiations.
(7) I am really skimming over the actual Council of Soissons, which is filled with tons and tons of intrigue, backroom negotiations, bribery, assassinations and much more. Aliénor's execution is just the most important of a series of lesser decisions being taken at this point. The irony of Jeanne d'Anjou's marriage being annulled for consanguinity and her then marrying the brother of her former husband is lost on no one, but the proper dispensations are in place and everyone just wants to move on with events.
(8) This is an important point to keep in mind. Just because the actual war has come to a close doesn't mean that fighting has ended. The Douglas-Rais feud continues at full force and Brittany remains a bloody horror. The rest of the country is also torn apart by routiers though papal forces are trying to end this as much as possible.
(9) This is a final acceptance of Aquitaine as an integral part of France. The lands in northern France held by the English are nominally held by a range of nobles who give homage to both King Edward and King Charles for their lands, though they are clearly in the English camp. This division of power leaves the English immensely powerful.
(10) I couldn't see any logical way for Charles or Catherine to stay at Paris when they would be so much closer to their English family and in lands under their personal control at Toulouse. This shift to the south is a very important shift which alienates a lot of northern French nobility, though they are more focused on their regional overlords. The Dukes of Brittany, Anjou, Normandy, Orléans, Champagne/Burgundy, Berry and Bourbon are all semi-independent rulers. They have more in common with the nobility in the HRE and before King Philippe August than anything else.
(11) It bears mentioning that the Breton and Angevin nobility were closely related and many families had branches in the various different regions. Without the war to keep these Angevin nobles in line and focused on opposition to the English, they move to support their familial alliances. Gilles de Rais just happens to be at the center of many of these alliances.
(12) Robert V, who was Murdoch Stewart, Duke of Albany IOTL was convicted on treason IOTL and lost most of his children in the fighting. This time he gets even more unlucky and loses everything to the conflict. The Douglases strike quickly and secure a claim to the throne of Scotland and more importantly leadership of the Scottish exiles.
(13) I was sort of surprised by how large of an heiress Catherine de Thouars was IOTL. She married Gilles de Rais IOTL but due to the conflict she becomes a target for the Douglases who view her kidnapping as both a blow to Gilles and a way of strengthening their claims to land. The Vendée isn't quite as large and powerful as OTL because parts of it have been incorporated in Aquitaine, but it is still a very powerful region.
(14) I am sorry about all of the Jeanne, Joan, Joanna etc. Names but it isn't really possible to escape them. Same could be said for the name Louis, Edward, John/Jean, Charles etc. I don't think I could keep it plausible if I started playing around with the names too much.
(15) The Kingdoms of Navarre and France are once more united under a single couple. I hope this section made sense. Enrique was simply too stretched, with Aragon in flames, Granada giving off noises and the threat of a northern Invasion he is forced to give in. As we will see later in the update, this has some beneficial effects on Enrique's standing with France and England.
(16) The Coucy's stand to unite Holland, Zeeland, Brabant, Flanders, Rethel, Hainaut, Soissons and more in north-eastern France and the Low Countries. At the same time they are soon to embark on an expedition to retake the Sundgau and Breisgau as well as planning to take over the Aargau as well after its loss to the Swiss y the Habsburgs. They also have extensive estates in England and hold claim to the Duchy of Benevento. They are truly one of the most powerful dynasties of western Europe, certainly among the top if you discount royal dynasties.
(17) The coalition targeted against the Swiss is a bit weird, but this conflict functions as a way of draining many of the mercenaries in the region from the area, and is a targeted attempt at weakening the Swiss, who have grown very powerful while everyone was distracted.
(18) Jean de Champagne is the name taken up by the former King Jean III of France. The Peace of Soissons allows France to heal and for the different parties to find support and allies where they might otherwise have faced enemies. Jean joining the coalition really pisses Phillip de Bourgogne off but he is unable to really do all that much about it, his lands being surrounded by other coalition members.
(19) The Swiss do far worse than could be expected, but that can mainly be attributed to the fact that it is only the northern swiss cantons led by Zürich and Berne involved in the conflict and that the southern cantons, led by Schwyz, actively supported the coalition. This is due to the rapidly increased strength of the northern cantons, expanding northward in competition with the Swabian League of City States. This will be explored more in a later update.
(20) Jeanne d'Arc's visions begin to play into the growing religious developments. We will get into this much more in a later update. It bears mentioning that Jean de Champagne still harbors royal pretensions, but for the time being felt forced to acquiesce to the term of the peace. If an opportunity presents itself he could easily reemerge.
(21) This block of nobles should largely be viewed as a single large coalition who largely share the same goals and interests and are largely related to each other. Despite their differences and initial tensions, they eventually find a way of working together and slowly but steadily put their domains back in order.
(22) Georges de la Trémoille's attempts at taking up rule in Vienne are a constant annoyance to the rulers of France and largely leads to Georges' disenchantment with the Caroline regime. For now he is willing to go along with the course of events, but he is an ambitious man whose ambitions are being blocked. The two others are less inclined to fight the new government but are even less interested in splintering their coalition.
(23) I honestly surprised myself when I went back and examined what kinds of warfare I had detailed where over the course of the conflict. The south, particularly Gascony, have basically been at peace since 1414 while the rest of the country went through some of the most intense fighting of the Hundred Years' War. The depopulation, destruction, banditry and economic loss which characterize the rest of France are significantly reduced in this region. All of this is in sharp contrast to the pre-Princes' War period where Gascony was at the center of the conflict and was riven by factional strife, feuds and routiers.
(24) I can't understate this. The courts of Bordeaux and Toulouse are basically one large court and constantly interact. This closeness alienates many of the northern French lords and those opposed to English influence in France, but mostly people are simply overawed at the splendor of these two southern courts. The court at Toulouse harkens back to the pre-Albigenses Crusade period of cultural flourishing combined with the forefront of the French Renaissance. Artists, freethinkers and musicians are a constant presence at the court and Toulouse itself is developing into a capital city at a mindboggling rate. Mansions and palaces are going up across the city and people are streaming into Toulouse to join in the booming growth of the city.
(25) I really had a hard time deciding on where to put Jeanne of France. While this marriage leaves the English royal family dangerously close to Habsburg levels of consanguinity, I couldn't get it to play out any other way. The two simply fit together too well to ignore. By their marriage the alliance between the royal Valois and Plantagenet families are secured for another generation, and there really weren't that many matches which would bring the same number of benefits to both sides. King Charles VII needs a friendly ruler in Bordeaux to ensure the security of Toulouse while the English need to ensure that Charles doesn't slip their grasp and become too independent a ruler.
(26) We will see more to Henry of Wales in the future, as he becomes involved in Spanish developments.
(27) I can't stress enough that England was nearing the breaking point with the financial system. Had the Princes' War continued for two more years, then you would have started seeing popular agitation at levels similar to the mid 1370s. The successful end of the conflict brings with it significant popular rejoicing, particularly when news of the removal of many war-time taxes spreads.
(28) The social developments of the later Hundred Years' War, with its feuding dynasts and overmighty lords are not completely avoided ITTL, but they are reduced to a level where competent rulership can manage it. This is not quite the OTL level of lawlessness and infighting, but the situation is serious. The sudden influx of hardened veterans who are used to simply living off the land are bad news, but by directing them in more helpful directions some of the pressure is lifted.
(29) It has been a ridiculously long time since I addressed Ireland, so it is quite brief and skims over a lot of events, but suffice to say the ongoing trends in Ireland from OTL are still largely present. However, due to the stronger central government there is more of an effort given to reversing those trends and the entire process of assimilation is slowed. The sudden arrival of all of these English veterans won't be addressed for a while, but there is a large campaign underway in the region.
(30) King David was never going to have an easy time of it, but at least he isn't assassinated like he and his brother were IOTL. David is a better king than most, but that very fact is part of why the nobility resists so fiercely. However, by 1430 the situation has settled somewhat and David IV sits on a more stable throne than many others.
The Splintered Realm
Duke René d'Anjou is approached by a Papal Courier bearing formal summons to the Council of Soissons
Pope Honorius was swift to act once King Jean's request arrived, dispatching his trusted protegé Cardinal Giordano Orsini as Papal Legate of the rank Legatus a Latere (1) - possessing full plenipotentiary powers to negotiate a settlement on the issue of who the rightful King of France would be and many of the other issues bound up in the Princes' War. Giordano Orsini was a member of the powerful Roman Orsini family and was Archbishop of Naples, birthplace of Pope Honorius, from 1400 until he was made cardinal by the Pope. His staunch support of the papacy and great love for humanist culture made him a favorite of the pope and drew him into the central corridors of power and the center of an early circle of humanist culture that included Leonardo Bruni, Poggio Bracciolini, Leonardo Dati and Lorenzo Valla, who recalled how the scholars would gather, dressed in antique robes, to discuss topics of human conduct in Classical and Christian terms (2). The pope would occasionally join these gatherings alongside a host of other humanist scholars engendering a spirited and cultured atmosphere in the rapidly rebuilding City of Rome. Orsini had been a principle supporter of Honorius in the clashes with the Conciliarists and had been part of the delegation which ended the conflict in Lombardy, with many considering him the natural successor to the Holy See among the Honorian Reformists (3). On arriving in northern France he called together a Legantine Council at the ancient Abbaye de Saint-Médard de Soissons to resolve the disputes of all sides, calling on every major actor in France to send a representative. King Jean, having been granted passage to Soissons under guard by Enguerrand de Coucy, represented himself and his interests alongside Duke Louis d'Orléans, whose presence promised plenty of chaos, and the venerable Jean Gerson who arrived from Dijon where he had led the city's contingent of the former University of Paris for over a decade and had served as advisor to Duke Jean de Bourgogne and King Jean III. Prince Edward would participate on behalf of both his nephew, King Charles, and his father, King Edward, alongside a range of French nobles ranging from Charles d'Albret and the recently released Gaston de Foix to Georges de la Trémoilles and Pierre de Luxembourg and English nobles such as Ingleram de Mowbray and Sir Thomas Buckingham. King Phillip would respond rapidly to the papal legate's summons, against the wishes of René d'Anjou, and arrived at Soissons personally alongside the elderly King Pedro of Navarre and Duke René d'Anjou, having left behind the Scottish claimant king Robert and Archibald Douglas in an effort to reduce tensions at the already packed Council of Soissons. Lesser actors would send their own representatives, with Duke Arthur de Montfort sending his brother-in-law Alain de Rohan, Bishop of Nantes, to represent his interests while Phillip de Bourgogne dispatched Englebert de Nassau and dozens of others to hopefully regain his inheritance and Amadeus de Savoy represented his own interests at the council. Representatives from Emperor Sigismund, High King Olaf, King Enrique of Castile, King João of Portugal, King Louis III of Sicily and a whole host of others also made their presence felt in Soissons. For the duration of the council, the participants feasted, held tournaments and tried to upstage each other with ever greater displays of wealth and status, in the process turning Soisson into an international trade fair (4).
On the 3rd of June 1422 the Council of Soissons began its deliberations with the papal legate, Cardinal Giordano Orsini, presiding over the negotiations. The first and seemingly thorniest of the issues up for discussion would be the issue which had started the Princes' War more than a decade earlier - who would become King of France. Despite the blood shed over the issue, or perhaps for that very reason, it soon became clear that King Jean de Valois' position had weakened immensely in the aftermath of the Battles of Courtenay and Melun and his flimsy claim soon came under attack from the English and their Caroline French allies. The Philippine French found themselves weakened by this broadside as much as Jean had been, due to their even flimsier claim to the throne. While a few argued that the rightful heirs were in fact the Évreux and that King Pedro of Navarre should ascend to the throne, this was quickly dismissed with many pointing to the fact that he would simply be leaving the throne to his granddaughter Jeanne de Navarre, wife of Charles VII. In the end Cardinal Orsini ruled in favor of the young King Charles VII, who was even then slowly making his way south from Calais alongside his mother and wife, having been sent by ship from Bordeaux so that they could present themselves before the assembled nobility of France (5). In return for this concession, the English began releasing their prisoners at significant discounts, with Charles de Bourbon and Philippe de Berry being among the most prominent men to return to power in France, only for them to quarrel with each other and with Georges de la Trémoille over the regency of Charles de Berry - this would eventually result in the intervention of Cardinal Orsini who determined in favor of a tripartite regency with Philippe de Berry at its head, with the two other contenders able to veto any decisions made by Philippe de Berry. While Jean de Valois was unhappy at the dismissal of his claim he found his position too weak to oppose it and risk the Orsini turning completely against him, he therefore agreed to give up his claim to the throne if he was allowed to retain the lands he held in Burgundy, Champagne and Nevers - a request which the Papal legate found agreeable. At this point the representative of Phillip de Bourgogne began loudly protesting the loss of his inheritance, eventually resolved by Jean de Valois' purchase of the titles to the southern half of the Burgundian Inheritance including the title of Duke of Burgundy while Phillip de Bourgogne would style himself as Count of Flanders and Duke of Brabant - an agreement accepted by Englebert de Nassau with some trepidation (6). Phillip de Valois renounced his royal titles, to the chagrin of René d'Anjou, and took holy vows and entered the Abbey of Cluny after obtaining an annulment for his marriage to Jeanne d'Anjou from Cardinal Orsini on grounds of consanguinity with the original dispensation being found invalid. This brought the next issue, namely Aliénor de Navarre and her son Louis d'Orléans, into the negotiations. Secret talks between Jean de Valois and René d'Anjou ended with the hand-over of Aliénor de Navarre to face judgement, to the absolute outrage and horror of King Pedro who was only brought into line by an agreement to affirm his second son Pierre as heir to his lands in France including the Duchy of Normandy, although Aliénor's son Louis was kept at Angers and would grow up alongside René's children and was promised an important diocese and was acknowledged as the child of Phillipe d'Orléans and Aliénor d'Évreux. Aliénor was judged guilty of murder for her killing of Margaret de Bourgogne by the Cardinal and a panel of judges, including Prince Edward and René d'Anjou, and she was subsequently beheaded at Soissons. Jean de Valois would marry Jeanne d'Anjou in 1424 as per the secret agreement which ended in Aliénor's handing over (7).
By the end of September all of these agreements had been worked out by the furiously hard working Cardinal Orsini and the focus of the council began to shift towards ending the continued violence that the many thousands of bandits, routiers and mercenaries were wreaking across France. Particularly the conflict in Brittany, Anjou and Poitou continued unabated, while the initial conflict over the regency for the Duchy of Berry left central France in an anarchic state. After repeated attempts at bringing the remaining combatants to the table with little success, Cardinal Orsini excommunicated Gilles de Rais and William Douglas alongside a score of other lesser routiers and bandits who continued fighting despite the calls for peace (8). The Council of Soissons neared its end with the formal signing of the Treaty of Soissons which ratified all of the decisions made during the council on the 4th of October. The next three weeks were filled with celebrations and a massive tourney organized to celebrate the end of The Princes' War. King Charles made his ceremonial entry into Soissons on the 19th of October to immense fanfare and began receiving homage on the 22nd, King Pedro of Navarre was the first to do homage for his Duchy of Normandy after ratifying his granddaughter Jeanne de Navarre as his heir to the Kingdom of Navarre, followed soon after by Charles' uncle Duke Jean de Valois of Burgundy and Count Phillip de Bourgogne of Flanders. One by one the peers of France did homage, soon followed by the dukes, counts, viscounts, marquises and many others from across France over the course of the 22nd, 23rd and 24th. Conspicuously missing from the homage was Prince Edward, who did not do homage for the Duchy of Aquitaine and its expanded lands, including all of Gascony and incorporating La Rochelle and the surrounding lands in Poitou (9). Determining that Paris would be unsuitable as capital, Catherine of England and King Charles VII situated their court at Toulouse and drew their courtiers from across the Languedoc region. This symbolized a clear shift in the center of power from north-eastern France to south-western France and clearly demonstrated the way in which the upper nobility of France had divided the lands of northern France leaving the vast swathes of southern France as the only remaining Royal powerbase (10). The Council of Soissons formally came to an end on the 1st of November after almost half a year of intense negotiations and brought to a close the Princes' War. It would prove to be the crowning jewel of Cardinal Giordano Orsini's career as a cardinal and would stand him in good stead in the future. The successful papal intervention elevated the already immense prestige of Pope Honorius to even higher levels and strengthened support for the Honorian Reforms on a broad basis.
The Execution of Queen Aliénor de Navarre
The Loire River Valley would prove somewhat more stable than the north-western corner of France, but not by a great deal. The sudden return of Louis d'Orléans proved a nightmare to many in the region who had played a part in Louis' removal from power. Although he was restrained from actively murdering them all, the tax regime he introduced alongside his punitive punishments of the slightest infraction quickly led to significant opposition from the lesser nobility of the region. Much of this opposition centered on the infant Louis d'Orléans, who could serve as a figurehead for a regency by the nobility for the region with the backing of René d'Anjou at one point. A series of assassination attempts, coups and revolts kept the Duke continually on the move and left him little time to spend with his new wife. Even so, she would give birth to two daughters and a posthumous son, named Albert for his Habsburg uncle. Although Louis d'Orléans proved adept at outmaneuvering his opponents, the years he had spent imprisoned and his fear of doctors who he thought could serve as assassins with ease, meant that when he caught a cold during one of his punitive expeditions he was unwilling to seek treatment and as a result collapsed from the untreated sickness. He died in 1427 at the age of 55, leaving his son Albert d'Orleans, to succeed him. Margrete von Habsburg took up rule as regent on behalf of her son, after a negotiated solution with René d'Anjou, and arranged the betrothal of her eldest daughter by Louis, Jeanne d'Orléans, to René's younger son Charles d'Anjou (14). Louis d'Orléans was one of the last great lords who presided over the start of the Princes' War and with his death the end of an era came ever closer. Another member of this older generation who was nearing the end of his life was King Pedro of Navarre. His rule over Normandy had finally been formally established and his granddaughter was officially Queen of France by her marriage to King Charles VII, but he remained without power over the kingdom to which he held title. Navarre north of the Pyrenees remained in English hands while south of the mountains, King Enrique of Castile continued to claim that he was simply protecting the kingdom from English aggression. Having consolidated control of Normandy and ensured that his son, Pierre d'Evreux, would succeed him to those lands, Pedro took ship for England where he met with King Edward and Pedro's sister Queen Joan of England to negotiate for a return of his kingdom. Over the course of 1424 and 1425 the English and Navarrese, having confirmed that Jeanne de Navarre would succeed to the Navarrese throne, began to make moves to reclaim the Kingdom in full. Enrique V of Castile found himself under immense pressure from King Edward and King Pedro to vacate the lands of Navarre. It would only be in 1426 that Enrique finally bowed to the pressure, having come under threat of invasion by Prince Edward and with revolts spreading across Aragon which needed to be crushed, and handed over the Kingdom of Navarre to Pedro. King Pedro of Navarre would die two years later, in 1428, and was succeeded in Normandy as Duke of Normandy by Pierre d'Evreux and by Queen Jeanne de Navarre of France as Queen of Navarre (15).
In Flanders, Phillip de Bourgogne had recently married Joan of Wales in accordance to his original alliance with the English and set about building up his position in the Low Countries. Relations with England remained tense and the power exerted by the Count of Flanders proved limited, with the powerful cities of the region significantly strengthening their grip on the region. Philippe de Bourgogne would work together with the Flemish merchant class with relative ease, succeeding in collecting a coalition of skilled supporters from the middle class. However, his position with the nobility of the region would prove contentious, with them disapproving of the degree of power that had been given over to the cities. Despite these troubles, the region remained mostly peaceful and Philippe began to rebuild his family's position at the heart of the Low Countries through alliances with noble rulers in the lower Rhineland and the Low Countries. Joan of Wales would give birth to two daughters to join their three sisters by Marie de Valois, but both of her young sons died before the age of 5, one in an accident and the other to sickness. This meant that Philippe's eldest daughter Marie de Bourgogne stood to inherit and through her betrothal to Enguerrand de Coucy the Younger stood to unite most of the region in a single dynasty (16). Enguerrand VIII de Coucy, Sieur de Coucy, had emerged from the conflict with immense personal prestige and secure rule over much of the Low Countries. His marriage with Jacqueline would prove to be a happy one, resulting in the birth of four sons and three daughters. The main issue that Enguerrand struggled with following the end of the Princes' War would be his attempts at reclaiming the Duchy of Benevento which had been held in trust by the Sicilian Royal Family since the death of Enguerrand VII de Coucy and his efforts at securing the lands captured by his father in the Gügler War, having been overrun multiple times during the conflict and currently being claimed by several of the Swiss cantons. The Duchy of Benevento would eventually be restored to the Coucy family, following the transfer of a significant sum of money to Francesco Sforza, but the Aargau, Sundgau and Breisgau would prove to be a more significant issue (17). Joining Enguerrand in his struggle with the Swiss would be both the Duke of Bar and Duke of Lorraine, with Duke Robert de Bar and his mother, Marie de Coucy, giving their wholehearted support. Robert de Bar's marriage to Jeanne de Béthune brought the Viscounty of Meaux to his family and proved to be a fruitful marriage resulting in the birth of three daughters and two sons. Ingleram de Mowbray and Isabella de Lorraine, having secured their claim, would join in the effort against the Swiss, and build a large family for themselves as well. These two duchies would quickly find themselves closely joined by marriage while Ingleram de Mowbray's lands in England would take somewhat of a backseat to Lorraine for the duration of the conflict. Of particular importance would be the betrothal of Jean de Champagne's newborn son Charles to Ingleram's daughter Marie de Mowbray and Jean's decision to join in the assault on the Swiss in an effort to strengthen his grip on the eastern-most reaches of his domains (18).
Jean II de Champagne, taking to that styling to differentiate himself from the rest of the Valois, took up his position as Duke of Burgundy and Count of Champagne with some trepidation. He had once been King of France and would on occasion yearn for those days but for the time being he was far too busy ensuring his lands recovered from the damage done to them and consolidating his claims to bother with too much else. He would initially find considerable opposition from among the regional nobility, resulting in harsh crackdowns and the transfer of land and titles to men he viewed as more trustworthy. His marriage to Jeanne d'Anjou strengthened his position significantly while his alliance to Albert von Habsburg stood him in good stead when he joined the assault on the Swiss. The marriage to Jeanne d'Anjou and reconciliation with the Angevins would actually prove to be easier than his efforts with the Navarrese, Flemish or Berry due to his constant conflict with the Angevins. They had never betrayed each other and had always fought honorably on opposite sides of the conflict, making the adjustment much easier once their alliance had been sealed by marriage. Jean's decision to dispatch support to René in an effort to help end the Breton conflict proved highly appreciated as well, while his decision to join the conflict with the Swiss helped draw away many of the routiers plaguing his lands. The Swiss found themselves under attack from all sides by veterans of a decade-long war and were crushed between the different sides. In battles at Montbéliard, Neuchâtel, Mulhouse and Basel, the multipronged assault proved successful in dismantling the resistance in the region. Particularly galling for the men of the northern Swiss cantons would be the presence of Swiss mercenaries in the Lorrainer and Burgundian armies, providing powerful pike infantry to oppose their own forces (19). By 1428 the conflict came to a close, having run on for two years with little success for the northern Swiss cantons, who would turn southward against their fellow Swiss, initiating a period of bloody civil war which for a time reduced the availability of Swiss mercenaries, before leading to a dispersal of them with the end of the conflict. Jean de Champagne would increasingly centralize his control of the region, reducing the power of the nobility and relying on a series of bureaucrats from the lesser aristocracy and building on the administrative state developed by Duke Jean de Bourgogne. The slow recovery would begin to speed up during the Swiss conflict while the Burgundian couple received multiple children for their efforts. However, no one forgot that the war had ended through Papal intervention and had seen Jean stripped of his royal title and the region relegated to a backwater. The administration in Toulouse drew on men of the Languedoc. No longer were the leading administrators of the French realm from Champagne, Burgundy or the Île-de-France, now they were a range of southerners from Gascony, Languedoc, Auvergne and more. While this strengthened the ducal administrations, it also highlighted that power had moved southward and led to significant dissatisfaction. While all of this was occurring, the young novice Jeanne d'Arc began to experience vivid visions of the Saints Margaret, Catherine and Michael telling her that a great struggle was coming and to prepare the world for the end of days. These visions were shared with the abbess of the nunnery and soon word of the visions and their message began to spread among the Augustine cloisters and monasteries of Western Europe (20).
Dowager Dauphine and Regent Catherine of England
When Georges de la Trémoille forced his marriage to Jeanne de Bourbon he immensely strengthened his position, becoming the step-father to the Duke of Berry and brother-in-law to the Duke of Bourbon. However, the return of Philippe de Berry and Charles de Bourbon would prove to be a significant blow to Georges' position, inaugurating a period of conflict over the regency of Berry which was eventually decided in Philippe's favor at the Council of Soissons. The joint regency that was inaugurated proved fraught with difficulties, Philippe finding himself consistently opposed by Georges while Charles flipped between the two on a regular basis, having come to an agreement with Georges regarding the treatment and disposition of Jeanne de Bourbon. This trio would spend most of their time butting heads with each other, in the process reducing their focus on the surrounding areas and leading to a powerful centralizing mechanic. By 1425 the Berry regency had reached an equilibrium and the three were increasingly able to look toward increasing their own power and tying together their families in a net of marriages (21). Most significantly, Charles de Bourbon succeeded in arranging for his marriage to Catherine of Wales, thereby closely joining himself to the English and French Royalty and elevating his position even further. At around the same time, in 1427, the young Duke Charles de Berry found himself betrothed to Louise de la Trémoille, Countess of Auvergne and daughter of Georges de la Trémoille. The closer ties had led to a consolidation of power in the two duchies and single county, creating a single powerful block with strong ties to royal power. Having stabilized their position and ended their infighting, the three regents were able to turn their attentions to the routiers who occupied several castles in the region and the bandits who plagued the countryside, initiating a period of repression and destruction for these harmful forces, culminating in the mass execution of over a dozen ringleaders from among the bandits. The move from Paris to Toulouse by the royal court proved less distressing for these duchies than those to their north, with particularly the nobility of Auvergne finding places in the royal administration. Charles de Bourbon would become a fixture of the court at Toulouse, travelling back and forth on multiple occasions and serving in a variety of posts on behalf of King Charles. Georges de la Trémoille would find himself less welcome, quarreling on several occasions with Amadeus of Savoy over the post as Lieutenant-Governor of the Dauphiné of Viennois - a struggle he lost multiple times due to Amadeus' close relationship with the royal family (22).
The moving of the French court to Toulouse and the decision to use the city as the new center of administration and government proved wildly popular in the Languedoc region, though the closeness of the English controlled Aquitaine caused quite a bit of trepidation. The fact that the English armies in the region and the forces they opposed had been composed largely of disciplined and semi-professional forces for the last decade, with limited numbers of routier bandits to cause destruction and chaos, meant that the southern reaches of France had come through the war mostly intact and the recovery from the war was therefore quick to occur (23). The establishment of the court at Toulouse brought with it all the needs of a large and modern court, both Dowager Dauphine Catherine of England and King Charles having become used to the sumptuous court at Bordeaux, which led to the rapid growth of Toulouse. The crossing of the Garonne would find itself the site of several bridges, connecting Gascony to the Languedoc and leading to a brisk cross-border trade. The various powerful noble lords would establish residencies in Toulouse in an effort to keep some degree of involvement in the court, though most would remain in their own territories. The court of Toulouse would prove reminiscent of the court at Bordeaux, with many members of the individual courts actually being part of both - travelling back and forth several times every year (24). The most significant lord to grace the royal court would prove to be Duke Amadeus VIII of Savoy, who served in a variety of capacities - not the least of which was Lieutenant-Governor of the Dauphiné and as Constable of France. Following his brief intervention in the conflict in Lombardy, Amadeus had turned back to France, working to put pressure on Provence during Prince Edward's campaign against Muzio Sforza, and working to secure central France after the collapse of the Berry and Bourbon positions following the Battle of Montpensier. In 1424 Amadeus' wife, Jeanne de Valois died suddenly - leaving a sickly son and two healthy daughters to survive her. Catherine of England, having long admired the pious, loyal and dutiful Duke of Savoy, was swift to console him and in 1426 married the 42-year old Duke, who in the process became step-father to the thirteen-year old King Charles and Princess Jeanne of France. As King Charles grew older it became clear that he had inherited his father's powerful physique and his mother's forceful personality. By 1423, at the age of ten, he had begun participating in the council of state and by 1428 his mother had given him an active voice in government. On the 18th of April 1429, at the age of sixteen, Charles ended the regency and took up rule of his unruly kingdom alongside his wife, Queen Jeanne of Navarre. Jeanne of France would marry her cousin twice-over, Duke Edward of Aquitaine in 1427 and returned to her one-time home of Bordeaux as Duchess of Aquitaine (25).
Duke Edward of Aquitaine attained the title from his father, Prince Edward, in 1423 when he turned eighteen. His mother, Isabella de Valois would return to England with Edward's siblings to join her husband in his increasingly influential role in the governance of England. Edward of Aquitaine would take up rule with John de Grailly as his primary advisor. The young Edward would prove instrumental, alongside his close friend Charles II d'Albret, in the hand-over of Navarre to Pedro of Navarre in 1424 and 1425 - mustering forces and preparing for the arrival of his father, who would bring a force of 5,000 to join the 14,000 mustered at Bayonne. Duke Edward's marriage to Jeanne of France would prove to be a love-match, having known and cared for each other since childhood, with children soon to follow. However it would be these very children which caused heartbreak and tragedy for the two young parents, when the young Duchess gave birth to a still-born son in 1428 and a sickly daughter in 1429 who died within a week of her birth, with a miscarriage between the two. It would be the birth of a daughter named Marie in 1430 which ended this tide of bad news. In the meantime, Henry of Wales found himself at the center of the negotiations surrounding the hand-over of Navarre. Enrique V would take a liking to the young prince after meeting him during the negotiations. This led Enrique V to initiate marriage negotiations with Prince Edward in an effort to end the strife between the Lancaster and Plantagenet dynasties by offering his daughter Blanche of Castile in marriage to Henry of Wales. Prince Edward, after turning over the offer with his father, accepted the offer with the result that Henry of Wales and Blanche of Castile married in 1429. Henry would soon find himself drawn into the Spanish Peninsula and would spend much of his time in the kingdoms of the region (26).
King David III of Scotland and his wife Queen Mary of England
Prince Edward of Wales returned to England in early 1423, having spent the winter putting everything in order in the expanded Pas-de-Calais, to immense fanfare. In a series of lavish celebrations, the victorious prince found himself at the center of a jubilant public. From the moment of his arrival, Prince Edward involved himself in ruling the English Kingdom. King Edward had by 1424 begun to weaken significantly, handing over more and more responsibility to his heir - who had recently been joined by most of his family from Bordeaux, and would increasingly take a backseat in the day-to-day running of the kingdom. Battle Palace would see further expansion, as Prince Edward utilized the Italian architects he had patronized in Bordeaux to introduce a host of magnificent buildings to the region. Edward would also spend some of his time in Wales, setting the administration of the principality back on track. The university of Oxford would find itself patronized by the Prince, who introduced some of the foremost thinkers of Italy to the skeptical administration. However, it would soon become clear that the cost of peace and war would both be exacted on the Kingdom of England. Having largely financed the first several years of warfare from lands in France, it had only been in 1414 that the drain of the war in France had really started to make itself felt in England. A series of taxes and tariffs were implemented over the following years, such that by the end of the war there was real popular discontent in England for the first time since the 1380s (27). Prince Edward's March on Paris had been just as much a matter of forcing an end to an increasingly expensive conflict as anything else, and the successful conclusion of the Treaty of Soissons would demonstrate the success of this gamble. The end of the war would see a significant reduction in extraordinary taxes and tariffs, widely publicized, but would remain significantly above the pre-war levels established at the end of the Great Peasants' Revolt. The stream of veteran soldiers who returned to England in the 1420s would also prove to be a significant issue, with many of them turning to banditry and service to constantly feuding nobles. While the royal family remained powerful, the English nobles had a hard time letting go of their war-time ways. The slightest insult quickly escalated to murderous brawls while feuds sprang up with frightening ease. Prince Edward would struggle mightily with these societal pressures, eventually redirecting them outward (28). This was part of the reason why the Prince was willing to muster such a large force for the hand-over of Navarre, and why he would dispatch thousands of men to Ireland.
In the thirty years since the ascension of Thomas FitzGerald as Earl of Desmond, Ireland had experienced a rapidly shift in power. While the Butlers had emerged victorious from their feud with the FitzGeralds, they soon found themselves the target of widespread jealousies. For the first fifteen years, the Duke of Clarence had succeeded in keeping peace in Ireland and arbitrating between the various families with some success, though the continued assimilation of the Hiberno-Norman lords would see an ever greater dissatisfaction with English rule. Edmund Mortimer's death soon after Richard's Rebellion and the succession of Roger Mortimer to the Dukedom of Clarence, Earldom of March and County of Ulster alongside his appointment as Lieutenant-General in Ireland would prove to be what started a general decline in English power across the island. The invasion of Scotland and subsequent involvement in the Princes' War drew away many of the resources that would otherwise have gone to Ireland and led to distraction in the English nobility - with predictable results. It was at this point that Thomas FitzGerald rapidly rose to prominence, having waited almost twenty years for his revenge. In a series of ambushes and assassinations, soon followed by skirmishes and battles across central Ireland, the Butlers of Ormund found themselves put to the sword in unprecedented numbers. The Butlers called on aid from their allies to the west and were joined by the O'Brians soon after. The Earldom of Kildare rose up against the dominance of the Pale soon after, declaring Thomas as Earl of Kildare, thus joining together the lands of the two branches of the family. The Butlers had largely been driven into retreat by the middle of the second decade of the century. In the meantime, in the north, the O'Neils had rapidly grown in power, subjugating the O'Donnels, O'Reillys, O'Farrels and O'Rourkes, creating a block of native Irish lords in northern Ireland who soon turned their sights on Ulster. Duke Roger Mortimer of Clarence was killed in battle when the County of Ulster was overrun in 1419. His successor, Edmund Mortimer would find himself forced to contend with both of these forces for several years with little support from England, beginning to receive a small stream of reinforcements from 1423 onward, growing rapidly into a flood of veteran soldiers by the middle of the decade. At the same time as these English veterans began arriving in Dublin, the O'Neils domination came under threat from a strengthened Kingdom of Connaught, having taken control of most of the ancient kingdom while the O'Neils and FitzGeralds were the focus of most attention in Ireland, under King Cathal mac Ruaidri Ó Conchobair who began border skirmishes with the O'Neils in the early 1420s. Thomas FitzGerald finally succeeded in cornering and butchering the Earl of Ormund in 1422, only to find himself suddenly under assault from the English forces streaming into Ireland. Edmund Mortimer would be joined by his royal uncle, Richard of Kent, Duke of York, who was dispatched to lead the reconquest of Ireland by his brother Prince Edward of Wales (29).
King David III of Scotland would find his reign anything but stable. Despite his successes in the early 1410s and the resultant exodus of many supporters of the Albany Stewarts, David found himself constantly facing rebellious nobles who greatly disapproved of the newly empowered royal dynasty or the close ties of the monarchy to England, bringing to mind among many the days of the Wars of Independence. While David brought with him significant advances in many spheres of life, and succeeded in creating a magnificent court at Stirling, the changes had many critics. The Red Douglases, having only recently recovered their inheritance, were quick to turn against the king when he issued prohibitions on border reiveing, and as a result soon faced widespread revolts in the Scottish Marches. David's decision to call for English aid, and the subsequent crushing of the revolt in blood and terror, proved wildly unpopular. The border region would remain a lawless region, marked by feuds and raids regardless of which side of the border the participants were on. David's struggles with the border nobility was worsened by unrest in the highlands, reacting to the imposition of David's supporters in the region to replace supporters of the Stewarts of Albany with violence, forcing David on countless campaigns in the highlands with limited success. Scotland was torn by civil strife for the first three decades of the 15th century, much of it centering on David's brother James, who proved to be avaricious and more than willing to serve as figurehead for revolt after revolt. David's leniency towards his brother would exasperate his wife, Mary of England, who feared for her children's safety. Thus, when James rose up in revolt in 1428 in response to King David falling ill, Queen Mary called for support from her brother, Prince Edward, who dispatched most of the forces immediately available to her aid - led by Sir Henry Percy, heir to the Duchy of Northumberland. The 1428 revolt would prove to be the last of James' revolts, ending in an absolute bloodbath for James' supporters at the Battle of Melrose including the King's brother, who was cut down when the Scots broke before an English cavalry charge. The violent repression that followed the 1428 revolt would lead to a flood of exiles fleeing the Kingdom of Scotland for happier shores, many of them ending up in northern Brittany where they would support the Scottish forces attempting to assert power over the region. King David had recovered by the time news arrived of the Battle of Melrose and collapsed at news of his brother's death. He died in early 1429 and was succeeded by his son, who ascended the throne as David IV of Scotland to a far more peaceful realm (30).
Footnotes:
(1) The Legatus a Latere was the highest rank of legate literally meaning "from the Pope's side", i.e. "intimately" trusted and is normally awarded to a priest of cardinal rank. It is an exceptional investiture and can either be focused or broad in scope. The legate a latere is the alter ego of the Pope, and as such, possesses full plenipotentiary powers.
(2) This is basically based on what I can find on Giordano Orsini from OTL. He was Archbishop of Naples IOTL as well and a staunch supporter of the papacy against the conciliarists, making him a natural supporter of Honorius ITTL.
(3) The Honorian Reforms is the name given to the various reform efforts undertaken during Honorius' Papacy and his supporters are called Honorian Reformists. We will get into this a lot more in a later update, but for now all that is important to keep in mind is that Giordano Orsini is a central figure in Honorius' regime.
(4) The Council of Soisson is an immense event with a truly incredible number of participants. It has a few similarities to some of the treaties and negotiations of OTLs Hundred Years' War but the added papal involvement bumps it up into a class of its own. This is an effort by all sides to bring an end to the warfare, with most sides interested in negotiating an end to the conflict.
(5) From a purely legalistic standpoint there really isn't a better candidate to the throne than King Charles. When you look at the reasons given for bypassing the Dauphin Charles, King Charles' father, they really don't hold up under scrutiny. The reason given for bypassing him had to do with fears of English domination, but by this point the situation is collapsing under King Jean while the Angevins and their support of Phillip was always an opportunistic grab at power. All sides are now going to try to position themselves in the best possible way.
(6) I strongly considered raising the title as Count of Flanders to a duchy but ended up holding off due to Flanders' position as one of the original 12 peerages, which means that it is of a higher position than all of the duchies besides Normandy, Aquitaine and Burgundy. Phillip is forced to take a step down in rank but he really had no way of reclaiming the rest of his inheritance at this point. It should be mentioned that the threat of Pope Honorius' displeasure hangs above all of these proceedings and that Giordano Orsini proves to be a masterful appeaser of egos which is the only thing keeping Phillip de Bourgogne in these negotiations.
(7) I am really skimming over the actual Council of Soissons, which is filled with tons and tons of intrigue, backroom negotiations, bribery, assassinations and much more. Aliénor's execution is just the most important of a series of lesser decisions being taken at this point. The irony of Jeanne d'Anjou's marriage being annulled for consanguinity and her then marrying the brother of her former husband is lost on no one, but the proper dispensations are in place and everyone just wants to move on with events.
(8) This is an important point to keep in mind. Just because the actual war has come to a close doesn't mean that fighting has ended. The Douglas-Rais feud continues at full force and Brittany remains a bloody horror. The rest of the country is also torn apart by routiers though papal forces are trying to end this as much as possible.
(9) This is a final acceptance of Aquitaine as an integral part of France. The lands in northern France held by the English are nominally held by a range of nobles who give homage to both King Edward and King Charles for their lands, though they are clearly in the English camp. This division of power leaves the English immensely powerful.
(10) I couldn't see any logical way for Charles or Catherine to stay at Paris when they would be so much closer to their English family and in lands under their personal control at Toulouse. This shift to the south is a very important shift which alienates a lot of northern French nobility, though they are more focused on their regional overlords. The Dukes of Brittany, Anjou, Normandy, Orléans, Champagne/Burgundy, Berry and Bourbon are all semi-independent rulers. They have more in common with the nobility in the HRE and before King Philippe August than anything else.
(11) It bears mentioning that the Breton and Angevin nobility were closely related and many families had branches in the various different regions. Without the war to keep these Angevin nobles in line and focused on opposition to the English, they move to support their familial alliances. Gilles de Rais just happens to be at the center of many of these alliances.
(12) Robert V, who was Murdoch Stewart, Duke of Albany IOTL was convicted on treason IOTL and lost most of his children in the fighting. This time he gets even more unlucky and loses everything to the conflict. The Douglases strike quickly and secure a claim to the throne of Scotland and more importantly leadership of the Scottish exiles.
(13) I was sort of surprised by how large of an heiress Catherine de Thouars was IOTL. She married Gilles de Rais IOTL but due to the conflict she becomes a target for the Douglases who view her kidnapping as both a blow to Gilles and a way of strengthening their claims to land. The Vendée isn't quite as large and powerful as OTL because parts of it have been incorporated in Aquitaine, but it is still a very powerful region.
(14) I am sorry about all of the Jeanne, Joan, Joanna etc. Names but it isn't really possible to escape them. Same could be said for the name Louis, Edward, John/Jean, Charles etc. I don't think I could keep it plausible if I started playing around with the names too much.
(15) The Kingdoms of Navarre and France are once more united under a single couple. I hope this section made sense. Enrique was simply too stretched, with Aragon in flames, Granada giving off noises and the threat of a northern Invasion he is forced to give in. As we will see later in the update, this has some beneficial effects on Enrique's standing with France and England.
(16) The Coucy's stand to unite Holland, Zeeland, Brabant, Flanders, Rethel, Hainaut, Soissons and more in north-eastern France and the Low Countries. At the same time they are soon to embark on an expedition to retake the Sundgau and Breisgau as well as planning to take over the Aargau as well after its loss to the Swiss y the Habsburgs. They also have extensive estates in England and hold claim to the Duchy of Benevento. They are truly one of the most powerful dynasties of western Europe, certainly among the top if you discount royal dynasties.
(17) The coalition targeted against the Swiss is a bit weird, but this conflict functions as a way of draining many of the mercenaries in the region from the area, and is a targeted attempt at weakening the Swiss, who have grown very powerful while everyone was distracted.
(18) Jean de Champagne is the name taken up by the former King Jean III of France. The Peace of Soissons allows France to heal and for the different parties to find support and allies where they might otherwise have faced enemies. Jean joining the coalition really pisses Phillip de Bourgogne off but he is unable to really do all that much about it, his lands being surrounded by other coalition members.
(19) The Swiss do far worse than could be expected, but that can mainly be attributed to the fact that it is only the northern swiss cantons led by Zürich and Berne involved in the conflict and that the southern cantons, led by Schwyz, actively supported the coalition. This is due to the rapidly increased strength of the northern cantons, expanding northward in competition with the Swabian League of City States. This will be explored more in a later update.
(20) Jeanne d'Arc's visions begin to play into the growing religious developments. We will get into this much more in a later update. It bears mentioning that Jean de Champagne still harbors royal pretensions, but for the time being felt forced to acquiesce to the term of the peace. If an opportunity presents itself he could easily reemerge.
(21) This block of nobles should largely be viewed as a single large coalition who largely share the same goals and interests and are largely related to each other. Despite their differences and initial tensions, they eventually find a way of working together and slowly but steadily put their domains back in order.
(22) Georges de la Trémoille's attempts at taking up rule in Vienne are a constant annoyance to the rulers of France and largely leads to Georges' disenchantment with the Caroline regime. For now he is willing to go along with the course of events, but he is an ambitious man whose ambitions are being blocked. The two others are less inclined to fight the new government but are even less interested in splintering their coalition.
(23) I honestly surprised myself when I went back and examined what kinds of warfare I had detailed where over the course of the conflict. The south, particularly Gascony, have basically been at peace since 1414 while the rest of the country went through some of the most intense fighting of the Hundred Years' War. The depopulation, destruction, banditry and economic loss which characterize the rest of France are significantly reduced in this region. All of this is in sharp contrast to the pre-Princes' War period where Gascony was at the center of the conflict and was riven by factional strife, feuds and routiers.
(24) I can't understate this. The courts of Bordeaux and Toulouse are basically one large court and constantly interact. This closeness alienates many of the northern French lords and those opposed to English influence in France, but mostly people are simply overawed at the splendor of these two southern courts. The court at Toulouse harkens back to the pre-Albigenses Crusade period of cultural flourishing combined with the forefront of the French Renaissance. Artists, freethinkers and musicians are a constant presence at the court and Toulouse itself is developing into a capital city at a mindboggling rate. Mansions and palaces are going up across the city and people are streaming into Toulouse to join in the booming growth of the city.
(25) I really had a hard time deciding on where to put Jeanne of France. While this marriage leaves the English royal family dangerously close to Habsburg levels of consanguinity, I couldn't get it to play out any other way. The two simply fit together too well to ignore. By their marriage the alliance between the royal Valois and Plantagenet families are secured for another generation, and there really weren't that many matches which would bring the same number of benefits to both sides. King Charles VII needs a friendly ruler in Bordeaux to ensure the security of Toulouse while the English need to ensure that Charles doesn't slip their grasp and become too independent a ruler.
(26) We will see more to Henry of Wales in the future, as he becomes involved in Spanish developments.
(27) I can't stress enough that England was nearing the breaking point with the financial system. Had the Princes' War continued for two more years, then you would have started seeing popular agitation at levels similar to the mid 1370s. The successful end of the conflict brings with it significant popular rejoicing, particularly when news of the removal of many war-time taxes spreads.
(28) The social developments of the later Hundred Years' War, with its feuding dynasts and overmighty lords are not completely avoided ITTL, but they are reduced to a level where competent rulership can manage it. This is not quite the OTL level of lawlessness and infighting, but the situation is serious. The sudden influx of hardened veterans who are used to simply living off the land are bad news, but by directing them in more helpful directions some of the pressure is lifted.
(29) It has been a ridiculously long time since I addressed Ireland, so it is quite brief and skims over a lot of events, but suffice to say the ongoing trends in Ireland from OTL are still largely present. However, due to the stronger central government there is more of an effort given to reversing those trends and the entire process of assimilation is slowed. The sudden arrival of all of these English veterans won't be addressed for a while, but there is a large campaign underway in the region.
(30) King David was never going to have an easy time of it, but at least he isn't assassinated like he and his brother were IOTL. David is a better king than most, but that very fact is part of why the nobility resists so fiercely. However, by 1430 the situation has settled somewhat and David IV sits on a more stable throne than many others.
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@Zulfurium Well. A bit recently, i have thinking about Humphrey of Lancaster (Humfrey (?) de Lancaster, Duke of Gloucester IOTL), who is in ITTL (my idea) was an ambassador to France but deeply involved in Foix network (thanks to his wife, who is a sister of Gaston V) and somewhat on France, English politics. He is in there by Enrique IV to keep Foix in peace with Castilians and it's worked for a long time. He is close to Jean de Grailly (duke of Foix IOTL, reference to John de Grailly's relationship with Prince Edward). In Foix he is the one of the most pro-Castilian nobles in there along with his friend and occassionally conflicted with Gaston V due to this, and occassionally thinked about seizing the county of Foix and it's inheritances for his own. But he managed to keep up with his head and decided to keep away with these decisions. His connections to English are because his daughter Melissa de Lancaster would marry with Owen Tudor's young son Edmund, so i expect Tudor's descendants naturally aligned towards Enrique and his descendants. With his wife he would have 6 children: 4 son and 2 daughters, per order they would be Gaston (named after their forebearers, 1422), Jacques (1426), Melissa (1429), Georges (1433), Diane (1436) and Alexandre (1440). With his mistress, he does have 2 son and 3 daughters, Artur (1420), Antigone (1423), Antoine (1425), Aliénor (1429), and Jacqueline (1437). I am okay with him not mentioned in Update Forty-Six but i expect a mention of him at Update Forty-Nine, as a strong supporter of Castile along with his friend Jean de Grailly (Archambaud de Grailly's son, Foix branch), but also very respectful and always relenting each time to save his own skin. I hope you can adopt this idea soon! Anyways, you seems to make, IMO bit realistic path on most of Update 49. I'll had to adjust my idea i posted before to match it and still, i want to sent more details about João II of Lancaster, Henry's brother and corrections.
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It bears reminding that the Foix family have been significantly weakened, and that Gaston V and the Foix family were in limbo for half a decade. Archambaud de Grailly isn't very important ITTL and mostly serves under John de Grailly.
The Tudor's don't really exist as an important family since Katherine de Valois never married Henry V and as a result never went to England.
Humphrey might pop up, but he is mostly a background figure, he holds lands in Castile and Aragon and helps to keep Aragon under control.
I am sorry to say that I haven't looked very closely at Asia in a long time. If I do, it will be after the hiatus, but things are basically running along the lines set out in the last updates on it.
The Ottomans are busy trying to secure Anatolia. The Aq Qoyunlu and Qara Qoyunlu struggle to assert control of their new domains. The Timurids move into north-western India and eventually towards Gujarat, while the Bengal Sultanate emerges as a counterweight to its dominance in the east. The Chinese remain split between a Muslim Mongol North under the Great Yuan while the south consolidates around Taoism under the Ming.
Japan is largely on track while the Joseon dynasty's establishment proved far more challenging ITTL. I haven't gone into Korea at all, but things will be quite different if I ever get around to it.
Thank you for reminding me that Humphrey is a background character and major landowner, but i still hope that he is somewhat connected to the France through Foix family, which is from marriages (via Gaston V's sister). Here is some suggestion stories based from it: When Foix is in limbo, he comes to Foix lands and put it under control (especially the ones in the east (around Andorra), while the west Pedro controls it) during the most of the 1415-1420's to keep stability of the Foix lands. When in Foix lands during that half-decade, he keeps his lands on Castile and Aragon under control via representatives, and while controlling (eastern) Foix he is occassionally tend to be pro-Castilian in views, but he holds back these views so he can keep up the development of the Foix. When he is back to Aragon, he relinquishes some of his lands in (eastern) Foix back into Foix family and with his return he got some support from Foix to keep Aragon under control. Note why Foix is favoring him despite Navarrese highly controlling the affairs are because of Humphrey's contribution on keeping Foix (especially eastern lands) safe, but at same time holds neutral views to prevent conflict within it.
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So the war ends not with a bang but a whimper. To be completely honest I'm not sure how I feel the Treaty of Soissons. First off, though I understand why Jean kept Burgundy (I'm with Philippe in objecting but definitely understand why), I don't get why Jean was given Champagne. The County (not Duchy as implied at one point, unless Champagne has been elevated) had been part of the Royal demesne sense the marriage of Philippe IV and Jeanne I. Confirming the lands he holds there makes sense but not giving him the entire County. It unnecessarily alienates valuable territory from the Crown Lands and further weakens an already broken Monarchy. I also don't understand why Louis II d'Orléans was made his grandfather's heir. By any interpretation of the law he was a bastard; while Aliénor's marriage to Jean was annulled by both French ecclesiastics and the Pope himself her marriage to Philippe was never granted the necessary dispensation, either for consanguinity or for marrying before the annulment happened. It would have been better to make Louis II a bastard and have him enter the church; perhaps promise him a rich diocese or two, even an Archdiocese, and leave his half-aunts (and later posthumous uncle) as the Orléans heirs. I really don't see why he had to be accepted as heir: Pedro of Navarre already got enough out of the other deals that a grandson of Orléans wasn't necessary. At this point I can easily see a lawsuit developing later own as Albert grows up, even with the betrothal of his sister to their nephew. Other than these points however, I very much enjoyed the chapter!
The shift from Paris to Toulouse really shows just how far France has fallen. From the earliest days northern France, as the lands of the Franks, was considered the true France. Now the entirety of the North has been abandoned by the Royal family; the ancient capital lies empty and the government has completely shifted south. At this point France really resembles the post 30 years' war HRE: central authority has vanished, the crown has little power in the north, their nominal vassals have their own (basically) standing armies and the Sovereign is dependent on personal rather than royal territories. Though I expect that the Valois position will be strengthened when they inherit Navarre. This inheritance could also include Normandy later own, considering that Jeanne's uncle is a crippled drug addict that (as far as I remember) has yet to marry or produce an heir. He might not even be able to do so.
Then we have the potential unification of the low countries under the Coucy dynasty. Before your TL I had no idea that the even existed (well I knew about it from CKII but never gave it a thought) but am now completely enthralled by them. In a way they're perfectly encapsulating the goal in that game of going from a minor count to a full (or near) Sovereign. Of course that's dependent on Philippe de Brabant failing to produce a son. If he does it could turn into a succession war, especially if the Coucys try to use the same logic that Louis XIV did, that a daughter from a first marriage comes before a son from a second. Will definitely be something to watch.
Finally Scotland and Ireland. While Scotland seems to be relatively stable (by Scottish standards I mean) Ireland seems to be in desperate need of English attention. While the Edwards have the necessary troops and would love to direct their nobles' warlike tendencies towards the other island, I question how they plan to pay for such expeditions with their treasury tapped out. Perhaps extra taxes in Aquitaine? Will be interesting to see.
You know I just realized that with this chapter your going on hiatus soon. Now I'm sad.
The shift from Paris to Toulouse really shows just how far France has fallen. From the earliest days northern France, as the lands of the Franks, was considered the true France. Now the entirety of the North has been abandoned by the Royal family; the ancient capital lies empty and the government has completely shifted south. At this point France really resembles the post 30 years' war HRE: central authority has vanished, the crown has little power in the north, their nominal vassals have their own (basically) standing armies and the Sovereign is dependent on personal rather than royal territories. Though I expect that the Valois position will be strengthened when they inherit Navarre. This inheritance could also include Normandy later own, considering that Jeanne's uncle is a crippled drug addict that (as far as I remember) has yet to marry or produce an heir. He might not even be able to do so.
Then we have the potential unification of the low countries under the Coucy dynasty. Before your TL I had no idea that the even existed (well I knew about it from CKII but never gave it a thought) but am now completely enthralled by them. In a way they're perfectly encapsulating the goal in that game of going from a minor count to a full (or near) Sovereign. Of course that's dependent on Philippe de Brabant failing to produce a son. If he does it could turn into a succession war, especially if the Coucys try to use the same logic that Louis XIV did, that a daughter from a first marriage comes before a son from a second. Will definitely be something to watch.
Finally Scotland and Ireland. While Scotland seems to be relatively stable (by Scottish standards I mean) Ireland seems to be in desperate need of English attention. While the Edwards have the necessary troops and would love to direct their nobles' warlike tendencies towards the other island, I question how they plan to pay for such expeditions with their treasury tapped out. Perhaps extra taxes in Aquitaine? Will be interesting to see.
You know I just realized that with this chapter your going on hiatus soon. Now I'm sad.
I am still not sure if I will go with this. I have so many different events ongoing in Spain that while it might be an ongoing course of events (though it is more likely that Humphrey married into a Spanish noble family) it simply isn't important enough at this point.
So the war ends not with a bang but a whimper. To be completely honest I'm not sure how I feel the Treaty of Soissons. First off, though I understand why Jean kept Burgundy (I'm with Philippe in objecting but definitely understand why), I don't get why Jean was given Champagne. The County (not Duchy as implied at one point, unless Champagne has been elevated) had been part of the Royal demesne sense the marriage of Philippe IV and Jeanne I. Confirming the lands he holds there makes sense but not giving him the entire County. It unnecessarily alienates valuable territory from the Crown Lands and further weakens an already broken Monarchy. I also don't understand why Louis II d'Orléans was made his grandfather's heir. By any interpretation of the law he was a bastard; while Aliénor's marriage to Jean was annulled by both French ecclesiastics and the Pope himself her marriage to Philippe was never granted the necessary dispensation, either for consanguinity or for marrying before the annulment happened. It would have been better to make Louis II a bastard and have him enter the church; perhaps promise him a rich diocese or two, even an Archdiocese, and leave his half-aunts (and later posthumous uncle) as the Orléans heirs. I really don't see why he had to be accepted as heir: Pedro of Navarre already got enough out of the other deals that a grandson of Orléans wasn't necessary. At this point I can easily see a lawsuit developing later own as Albert grows up, even with the betrothal of his sister to their nephew. Other than these points however, I very much enjoyed the chapter!
The shift from Paris to Toulouse really shows just how far France has fallen. From the earliest days northern France, as the lands of the Franks, was considered the true France. Now the entirety of the North has been abandoned by the Royal family; the ancient capital lies empty and the government has completely shifted south. At this point France really resembles the post 30 years' war HRE: central authority has vanished, the crown has little power in the north, their nominal vassals have their own (basically) standing armies and the Sovereign is dependent on personal rather than royal territories. Though I expect that the Valois position will be strengthened when they inherit Navarre. This inheritance could also include Normandy later own, considering that Jeanne's uncle is a crippled drug addict that (as far as I remember) has yet to marry or produce an heir. He might not even be able to do so.
Then we have the potential unification of the low countries under the Coucy dynasty. Before your TL I had no idea that the even existed (well I knew about it from CKII but never gave it a thought) but am now completely enthralled by them. In a way they're perfectly encapsulating the goal in that game of going from a minor count to a full (or near) Sovereign. Of course that's dependent on Philippe de Brabant failing to produce a son. If he does it could turn into a succession war, especially if the Coucys try to use the same logic that Louis XIV did, that a daughter from a first marriage comes before a son from a second. Will definitely be something to watch.
Finally Scotland and Ireland. While Scotland seems to be relatively stable (by Scottish standards I mean) Ireland seems to be in desperate need of English attention. While the Edwards have the necessary troops and would love to direct their nobles' warlike tendencies towards the other island, I question how they plan to pay for such expeditions with their treasury tapped out. Perhaps extra taxes in Aquitaine? Will be interesting to see.
You know I just realized that with this chapter your going on hiatus soon. Now I'm sad.
Thank you so much for the comments on Champagne and Orléans, I took them to heart and changed some things. Regarding Champagne, While Jean gains the title to the county he has lost most of the northern half of the county which remains part of the royal domain under Coucy governance. Him retaining Champagne has to do with his close bonds to the reason. It was the heartland of his own lands and he based himself out of Champagne for most of the war, giving it up would expose Jean to too much reliance on the more uncertain Burgundian nobility.
I was always a bit iffy about what I would do with the Orléans inheritance but had forgotten the importance of religious posts. I have changed things around as a result, so now Louis is promised an important diocese while Albert succeeds to the Duchy as Albert I d'Orléans. Thank you for mentioning this, really it helped a lot
If you find the Coucies interesting then I would strongly suggest reading Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror which has Enguerrand VII de Coucy as its main focus and works to explain the world of the latter half of the 14th century. It is absolutely fantastic and was a key source for large parts of the early TL.
Right now the English are struggling with exactly that question, though with peace in France they had had a couple of years to rebuild. That said, their campaigns in Ireland are going to be difficult.
I have a bunch of ideas for where to go after the Hiatus, but I am about tapped out at the moment. I also have another TL that I have started reading up for and making notes on which I might prioritize instead, but I think that people will find that one interesting as well. Focused on the 16th century, the Italian Wars, Reformation, Ottoman advance and a ton of other stuff. I will have significant divergences in all these areas which should create a significantly different world.
A few other things I forgot in my previous post. First in regards to Catherine of England, she wouldn't be Queen Mother, but Dowager Dauphine (or Dauphine Douairière) as she was never Queen. I also find it quite interesting that she ended up remarrying. Usually Queens and the few widowed Dauphines didn't remarry. Second, is there a chance to get a list of the various living members of the major royal families? I'm having trouble remembering who's alive/dead and married/unmarried. Third, would Jean III and Philippe VII be counted on the official list of monarchs or not? Finally, in regards to the Holy Roman Empire (and this is something I've meant to ask but forgot about) how does the Luxembourg main line holding two Electorates work exactly? Will Brandenburg become a sort of training ground for the heir or will it end up in the hands of a second son later on? I ask because I remember how after the Palatinate inherited Bavaria the former's electoral vote was suppressed instead of one ruler holding two votes. Though here it's so early on in regards to the Golden Bull that presumption might not have caught on.
I honestly don't have a list of families written out. I know that I should have, but I never got started on one and now it is something of a monster which I can't wrap my head around doing. I mostly have all of this in my head, and written into the various updates, but I actually have difficulties keeping track of it myself. It is one of those things that I have learned are very important to get ready from the beginning.
Neither Jean nor Philippe are considered legitimate monarchs and aren't included in the official lists.
The Luxembourgs were the ones who propogated the Golden Bull and it was designed to favor them above all others. At the moment Sigismund holds the Electoral post as King of Bohemia while Charles von Luxembourg is Elector of Brandenburg. For now at least this formation will be kept on track, with the Luxembourgs aiming to place another family member as Archbishop of Mainz - though for now they are simply positioning Charles' younger brother to take this post and haven't actually done so yet. These three posts are going to be the corner stone of Luxembourg power, with significant efforts at intermarrying with the Wettins in an effort to gain control of that post as well. All of that is for later, but for now they control two of the seven electorships themselves and have significant influence on all of the others. The Luxembourg's goals aare to consolidate their power over the Empire, and they are not going to be gentle about it.
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