The Valois-Orleans : founders of greater France

Charles V, in his last days, was aware of it. "Unfortunately, the child is not intelligent", did he say about the dolphin Charles, who would succeed him Az Charles VI.

Charles V, called the wise, had not realized how the regency of his brothers would be disastrous. The three men ousted the king's devoted and competent advisors, and literally crushed the Country with taxes to fill their own pockets.

The fact that Charles VI waited untill being almost 20 years old to end the Regency take power got on his brother Louis' nerves. But Louis already had realized his brother's psychological and mental weakness.

But nobody could have foreseen what would happen on the 5th day of october 1392.

This day, the king became crazy, like possessed, and killed several men. He tried to kill his brother. He killed the 2 more men that tried to disarm him and broke his head on a tree after running his horse into the woods.

It was an unprecedented drama that shocked everybody. The new king was Charles VI's only son : young baby Charles born a few weeks earlier, now Charles VII.

His uncle Louis duke of Orleans, made sure to be the regent, securing a deal with his own uncle John of Berry to get his support against the other too ambitious and too powerful uncle, Philip of Burgundy.
 
To strengthen his position and popularity, duke Louis of Orleans summoned the Estates General of the kingdom and had them endorse the act of good government that lowered taxes and diminished subsidies paid by the royal treasury to the apanagist princes.

And on the model set by Duguesclin and Clisson who had shown the superiority of their troops on the battlefield, he created for the first time a permanent army of the crown with close to 10,000 men.

The tax cut measure was enforced cleverly. Louis in fact favoured his uncle Berry, and made most of the cuts at Burgundy's expense. Having the support of Berry, and with Clisson at the head of the royal army, he was able to check the powerful duke of Burgundy.

He was forced to compromise and to postpone his plan for a war against the Lancastrian usurper who had murdered Richard II, because Flanders depended too much on english wool. But he stroke a mastercoup buying the duchy of Luxembourg on his account, so preventing the Burgundian principalities to block royal expansion eastwards.

The infant king Charles VII was growing under the care of his mother Isabelle, but his health was fragile. The child did not survive the disease that struck him in 1401.

Charles VI having left no other son, it was his uncle and regent Louis duke of Orleans that was to become king by Salic law, under the name of Louis XI.
 
Interesting political moves, though this basically forces the duke of Burgundy on the pro-English side.

Another remark, is the fact that the house of Luxembourg, at this point also king of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor, won't sell off their ancestral duchy as long as there are still members of the house of Luxembourg around.

IOTL it only passed into the hands of the house of Valois-Burgundy in 1467.
 
Actually I plan to have an alliance between the House of Burgundy and the House of Lancaster as one of the axis of the reignition of the Hundred years war.

The duchy of Luxemburg was actually bought by Louis of Orleans in 1402. The point is that the murder of Louis, before the death of holder Jobst of Moravia, juste caused the extinction of the rights Louis had bought.
 
I think, that to use a modern term, it was more like leasing. However it seems that Louis was indeed in control of Luxembourg. However Jobst only was given Luxembourg in pawn by his cousin king Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia, how kept the title of duke of Luxembourg.
 
The coronotion of king Louis XI did not contribute to improve the relationship between Louis and his uncle and cousin Philip the bold of Burgundy and his son John Fearless.

Philip advised his son John to wait and see. But John had rumors run that accused king Louis having had his nephew Charles VII murdered in order to get on the throne and asked for a reformation of the government of the kingdom.

Philip and John began secret talks with Henry IV of England in order to promote mutual interests and determine ways to check the king of France

The death of Philip the bold in 1404 did not ease relations. On the contrary, the 2 cousins Louis XI and John Fearless hated one another.

The 2 men were on a collision course.
Louis XI used the usual tools of the french monarchy to weaken his vassals. He used the royal judiciary system to undermine the duke of Burgundy's authority and he cut royal subsidies to his burgundian cousin.
John Fearless developed a demagogic campaign on lowering taxes and instituting a controlled monarchy).

Louis XI used to say to his advisors that his father had made a terrible mistake in giving his younger brother of Burgundy the opportunity of becoming too powerful in the north. He thought he some way needed to break up that Burgundian principality that counted the 2 Burgundies and the very rich northern counties of Flanders and Artois.

The Valois of Burgundy had become too independant-minded. They were not loyal cousins but rivals that threatened the unity of the kingdom.

John Fearless felt pushed in a corner. He thought he had either to find a way to get rid of his royal cousin, or to rebel against him and ally with England, as previous counts of Flanders had long done.

The fastest and less costly way was the first one.

He decided that Louis XI had to die ...
 
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