Thanks for all the comment everyone, I will begin working on Ch.1 Pt.2 today and post it within the next few days.
Arrix85 said:
France with the Low countries? just the economic clout looks staggering.
Yes, France will be much stronger ITTL, but other states will form to counterbalance it. This will not by any means be a wank.
I like the way things are going, but ::dons nitpicker's hat::...
Quote:
The two princes first engaged in a war of the words. Louis portrayed Phillip as tyrannical, power-hungry and driven by the sole purpose of gaining absolute power in France. Phillip, on the other hand, showed Louis to be greedy, prodigal and lustful for power at the expense of his infant nephew. In addition, Phillip was able to employ the best propagandists one could find, and was able to distribute many pamphlets decrying the Duke of Orleans.
So, they're both portraying the other as a tyrant out for their own good and screw the kingdom (or their nephew)?
Seems like this could be worded better - what does Philip mean by Louis being prodigal?
And somehow the phrase "The best propagandists one could find" seems like the wrong word, but I'm not sure how it should be phrased. This is prior to propaganda being a formal thing (as distinct from somewhat ad hoc).
Well established in practice, but usually through more indirect avenue.
Well, for prodigal I will just give you the dictionary definition:
prodigal |ˈprädigəl|
adjective
1 spending money or resources freely and recklessly; wastefully extravagant : prodigal habits die hard.
2 having or giving something on a lavish scale : the dessert was crunchy with brown sugar and prodigal with whipped cream. See note at profuse .
As for the propaganda, much of this mirrors the actual events that took place in the lead up to the OTL Armagnac-Burgundian Civil War. The Burgundians
did use propaganda and publish pamphlets decrying Louis of Orleans in OTL.
Falkenburg said:
Were it not for the fact that this France seems set upon a different course, the spectre of a Northern orientated French Navy would be worrisome.
I've always had a dislike for absolutism, in practice.
I'm holding out hope that the Estates General may prove itself more effective ITTL, as a counterpart to the Crown.
You never know, the exigencies of Burgundian accession and the subsequent (?) Civil War may even win them an 'Act of Settlement'.
Well, it is quite worrisome for the English, but lets just say they will not be at all as powerful in this timeline, though others will be (I have some interesting ideas for Germany, I won't spoil them for everyone). They will lose the HYW earlier and not keep Calais, thus France will have a larger population than OTL entering the modern era, plus all the extra land, and England simply will not be able to keep up.
As for the Estates-General, yes, I am setting the precedent here for a much, much stronger one here and never as absolutist France. One of the Burgundian reforms after the civil war will be to centralize the ES in Paris (it was not, there were usually two, one for the south and one for the north) because the lesser Estates were a major source of opposition to their rise to power, while the major institutions in Paris, the ES and the Parlement, were major sources of support. The ES actually had quite a lot of power at certain points in the HYW, and here they will not give it up.
As for the longterm political development of France, it will be much more north centered (no Italian wars here for reasons

) but will certainly have a presence in the med. The *Dutch will be willing participants in the kingdom, and France will gain territorial integrity (no major fiefs, happened mostly during Louis XI and his son in OTL) significantly earlier here, again mostly due to the reforms after the civil war.
BTW, the order of events will be civil war to gain total political dominance, then formal accession.
Inarius said:
The idea of France as a kingdom limited by the Pyrenees in the south, the alps and the Rhine, and everything between them is quite recent. It appeared in the late 17th century.
From the readings I have done about the early middle ages, French kings in fact saw their borders as the Rhine, Alps and Pyrenees before they had any power at all. Their will be an ideal here to remake the Frankish Empire ITTL, and they will actually be fairly successful. I'm not sure about Corsica and haven't settled on Navarre (by this time it was firmly within the French equivalent of a "sphere of influence") but Brittany joining the French crown in a certainty, it is almost impossible to imagine a modern French state without it.
And certainly no HRE-style France ITTL, in fact no HRE at all within a century or two. The Burgundian dynasty will be nothing less than total BAMFs ITTL, on the scale of Samuel L. Jackson in "Pulp Fiction," which is really saying something! Their dynasty will be a great one, and no elections will be held for kingship (that died out in France about the time of Phillip Augustus, although not at an formal date, it simply became that way).
I will continue to try to respond to every substantive comment since I know from experience how disappointing it is to have your comments ignored!
Scipio