It's possible because I can't read my own notes... I have been a donkey, so now I have to fix it...
The Queen is Dead!: Katherine of Aragon dies in 1518
- Thread starter FalconHonour
- Start date
It's possible because I can't read my own notes... I have been a donkey, so now I have to fix it...
Section LXXIV - June 1521
Fontainebleu, June 1521
The palace was swathed in black. Black for sorrow, black for the death of hope, black for the boy who would now never be France’s King.
The bells tolled heavily, three times in every quarter-hour. Three times for the three years Francois, Dauphin of France and future Duke of Brittany, had been on this Earth.
High in the palace, the King stood gazing absently out of a window, scarcely hearing the bells. Indeed, he was barely aware of anything around him.
He had spent the morning with his Queen, comforting her. The news had hit her hard, much harder than the death of their daughter Louise had done four years earlier. But then, Francois could understand that. Louise, bless her soul, had always been frail. She’d been sweet as well, almost too sweet for it to be true. In some ways, it hadn’t been a surprise that God had chosen to take her earlier than her parents had wanted Him to. Francois, on the other hand, well, he’d been mischievous and clever and strong. Everything anyone could ever have wanted in a future King of France, even though he was barely past his third birthday. King Francois had already begun to plan to put his dreams into practice, to find the boy a pony and teach him to ride, to hunt, to shoot.
And now the boy was gone, the life snuffed out of him like a candle burned at both ends. He was gone and his parents were left with nothing but the memories. Memories and three other young children, two of whom were too young to understand what had happened to their big brother.
Francois gulped at the thought, pressing his hand to his heart as though he could somehow squeeze the aching grief out of himself if he tried hard enough.
The door creaked quietly behind him and he half-moved to dismiss whoever it was. He’d spent the whole morning with Claude and the children. He wanted to be alone now.
Before he could say anything, however, his mother had come up behind him and wrapped her arms around him without a word.
Pregnant silence hovered between them.
“Am I cursed, Maman?”
Francois hadn’t meant to speak aloud, but once he had, the words poured from him like a torrent from behind a dam that has been breached.
“Am I cursed? This past year… I’ve lost so much. Normandy. Marguerite. And now Francois. This time last year, I was triumphant, I was a father four times over, I was the beloved of all France. And now…” Francois trailed off, his words falling like stones into the air.
Breaking protocol in favour of providing comfort, Louise of Savoy reached up to push her son’s hair out of his eyes, “You’re not cursed, my son,” she murmured, “You’re not. I promise you that.”
“But Francois… Who would take my boy, my beautiful boy, if I weren’t cursed? He was the healthiest boy in France, the hope of the nation. Why would anyone take him?”
“It was a bad cough, nothing more. No one could have foreseen it, Francois, no one. These things are simply the will of God and ours is not to reason why. But you are not cursed. This is simply the turn of Fortune’s wheel. This time last year you were riding high upon it. Just now you have been thrown down. But you will rise again. Like a phoenix from the ashes, you will rise again, for you are not cursed. If my prayers and those of your wife, daughters and sister can prevent it, you will never be cursed.”
“Marguerite?” Francois scoffed, “Pray for me? I doubt it. She scarcely speaks to me these days.”
“And yet, she will pray for you, and for the soul of your little Francois, for you are her brother. Whatever has passed between you since your failure to defend her betrothal, you are her brother and she loves you. She would defend you before the Almighty Himself, I swear it. I swear it.”
Louise tightened her arms around her son, feeling, more than seeing, that he was reaching the end of his endurance. She braced herself as he slumped against her, his shoulders down and shaking with grief as he let himself cease being a King and became, for the briefest of interludes, a man mourning the death of his son in his mother’s arms.
No, I've killed the poor boy off fifteen years early. Using butterflies to my own advantage, I'm afraid - I accidentally betrothed little Maria to both French Princes, so one of them had to go...
She is going to be betrothed to him, yes. But it's a long way from bended knee to the altar, of course...
Oh, if that was the problem changing the name of Henry in Francois would have been enough
I'm sure. But Francis losing his heir now, when he's already lost a whole host more will have a whole host of ramifications for Anglo-French relations down the line...
So more fun for you as you enjoy torturing Francis? I am fine with that
Definitely not in Normandy, but Henry himself will not be as open to using Reform as he was OTL. As I said upthread, Religion becomes more of an issue in the later 1520s.
In all honesty, I don't think I can write Henry II of France without Diane in his life... Also I have just looked her up, she seems to have been in a trusted position at the French court by 1525, so my guess is they'd still meet..
Without Diane he’d pretty much be an OC, which I think you could pull of if you wanted. But it’s also fun to keep somethings the same
Without Diane he’d pretty much be an OC, which I think you could pull of if you wanted. But it’s also fun to keep somethings the same
Exactly. Fixed points in time and all that.
I think he'll be just as dependent (if not moreso) on Diane in this TL just like RL, France is already in a weakened position, Henry II has been thrusted into the position of heir earlier than RL, his father's a mess and isn't known for being 'hands on' in raising his children. I could see the neglected heir latching onto Diane since she has a talent for playing the role of both nurturing mother and seductive lover.
I wonder if future Henry II will be spending time in any Spanish prisons like in RL...
As for England, at the moment Henry VIII is on a high note, he's got his son, he's taken back most of Normandy, his Queen is a perfect angel, now with his eyes on the North he might decide that with France down for the count that he can 'settle accounts' with Scotland and his little nephew...
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What would become of Catherine de Medici here?
Her OTL marriage is off the table with the Henri/Mary betrothal (and even if that match doesn't go through Catherine is too humble a bride for a Henri who is already Dauphin), but she is still an advantageous catch who comes with a fair bit of French property (her mother's La Tour d'Auvergne properties).
Is it as simple as shunting her along to the next brother (IOTL this would be Charles of Orleans, who famously died after going into a plague-infected house on a dare, making him the second French royal named Charles in 50 years to die a profoundly stupid death)?
Her OTL marriage is off the table with the Henri/Mary betrothal (and even if that match doesn't go through Catherine is too humble a bride for a Henri who is already Dauphin), but she is still an advantageous catch who comes with a fair bit of French property (her mother's La Tour d'Auvergne properties).
Is it as simple as shunting her along to the next brother (IOTL this would be Charles of Orleans, who famously died after going into a plague-infected house on a dare, making him the second French royal named Charles in 50 years to die a profoundly stupid death)?
You’re kidding me, that’s worse than waking straight into machine gun fire. (Charles’ death I mean)