Things Fall Apart

No, its not dead. In fact, I am starting to work on a new update that should be up within a day or two. Sorry for the long wait, I've been planning out yet another timeline and got distracted from this one, and my historical focus of interest has shifted towards England and Aquitaine and away from Burgundy and the Low Countries.
Scipio
 
I am still working on it, will be up soon. Sorry for the continued delays, after this long break its hard to get back into writing the timeline!
Scipio
 
Update! (Finally)

Chapter 4: The Watchful Peace
Part 1: Setting the Stage

“Henry the Conqueror” by John Page London, 1933

Henry V left France from Harfleur in June of 1433, leaving behind him a war-damaged realm, racked by internal dissent and yet firmly under his control. In his absence the rule of France was left to the Earl of Salisbury [1] and a council of English and French noblemen, nominally looked after by his 11-year son Henry, Dauphin and Prince of Wales. After the grant of Champagne and other territories to the Duke of Burgundy, as well as the other lands given to various princes as a price for their support, the royal domain was much depleted. It would take years to restore the French administration to what it had been before the start of the civil wars 25 years before. Nevertheless, Henry had been able to take control of a territory far larger and wealthier than England.

In the southwest, Thomas of Lancaster was establishing himself in the Duchy of Aquitaine, attempting to bring the principality back to its status under Edward of Woodstock in the mid-14th century [2]. He forged links with the Gascon nobility, reaffirmed to privileges of the Aquitainian towns and began to assert himself throughout the region. Thus the people of Gascony were appeased from their anger at being separated from the English crown for the first time in two centuries. Ironically, even though the Wars of French Succession began over the desire for English sovereignty in Aquitaine, for the first time in over a century the Parlement of Paris began to hear appeals from the province, since the French bureaucracy and political society now under Lancastrian rule had to be placated in some way. This was only one of the ways the new regime sought continuity in Valois policies. Thomas was, however, a vain and power-hungry prince, and sought to assert his independence at every turn. Soon enough, the independence of action sought by the House of Lancaster-Aquitaine would have far-reaching and destructive consequences.

In the south, along the Pyrenees, another principality was being constructed with far less attachment, familial, political or otherwise, to the French crown. The House of Foix-Grailly, finally victorious over their ancient enemies of Armagnac, had been granted all their lands in the south. These were being knit together into a consolidated principality through the force of personality of vision of the Count of Foix, John I. He acted with greater independence of action than any other French prince except the Duke of Burgundy.

The Dukes of Orleans and Bourbon, the leading French royal princes who had accepted Lancastrian rule instead of disinheritance (such as the Dukes of Anjou and Alençon), did this with surprising grace. Two decades of civil war had made this newest change of allegiance easy, as the new king at had succeeded in bringing a measure of law and order, despite his foreign birth. The English dynasty’s long claim to the French throne, the success they had enjoyed in battle, as well as Henry V’s marriage to a French princess, gave the Lancastrian accession an air of legitimacy despite the fact that it was an out-and-out usurpation that contradicted centuries of French legal tradition on the inheritance of the throne. For years to come, strength of arms rather than law would decide who was to King of France.

The Dukes of Orleans and Bourbon were confirmed in all their extensive possessions held before the English invasion of 1415 that marked the beginning of the most recent phase of war. Their ancient privileges were confirmed and they enjoyed all the rights in their territories they had once held [3], along with the addition that the duchies of Orleans and Bourbon and their appurtenances could be inherited through the female ling [4].

To the east of these various principalities, the House of Burgundy was creating a powerful and increasingly unified state that, although theoretically still a vassal of the King of France, was becoming in independent actor on the international stage far more important than the various petty-princedoms under a slightly more strict form of suzerainty [5]. Henry, in order to win his political support, had granted Phillip the Good extensive lands and had not recognized any of his subjects appeals to the Parlement of Paris, he had even exempted to Duke of Burgundy from performing homage to the King of France for the duration of Henry and Phillip’s lifetimes. These measures outraged to French royal bureaucracy, always resistant to even a minor infraction on its rights, and even more so to such a great reduction in its jurisdiction. Such a measure is yet another example of the delicate balancing act Henry had to play between the various factions of French political society. Phillip created courts of appeals for Burgundy, Champagne and Flanders, his three principle territories in France’s borders. Other subdivisions, such as Artois and Picardy, or Loire province, appealed to the appellate courts of Flanders or Burgundy respectively. Phillip made administrative reforms to all his territories in an attempt to bind them together. The various principalities under his rule still had their estates called independently, but increasing coordination and geographic unification assured their unification into a larger state.

East of France’s nominal frontiers, the most recent wave of expansionism had ceased with the absorption of the entirety of the Low Countries. These territories would develop their own administrative structure different from the other Burgundian territories, which were all French speaking. Netherlandish culture would gain its own awareness as the century progressed, separate from the French culture of the remaining Burgundian territories yet loyal to the House of Burgundy itself. Phillip now sought to affirm his independent position using largely the same policies throughout his reign: gradual territorial expansion along with legal and political actions that made mockery of his vassalage to the Lancastrian King of France. His pursuit of a crown was the ultimate sign of his freedom of action.

1. The man who OTL died at Orleans, here of course that does not happen, and he also has male issue. Sorry, Nevilles.
2. “The Black Prince” is never used as a title for Edward ITTL, as it only came into use more than a century after his death. He is instead referred to from the place of his birth. Under Edward III, the Prince of Wales had ruled a much-enlarged principality of Aquitaine, referenced here.
3. All the various princes discussed here have extensive judicial, financial and military rights over their principalities. They are in effect autonomous states tied to the French crown by vassalage. Therefore almost nothing has changed from actually history.
4. This is a concession to win their political support and yet another break with long held legal tradition that states that appanages revert to the crown on the extinction of the male line.
5. That is to say, the Burgundian states in far more independent than these other states. The other princes subjects may still appeal to the Parliament of Paris and follow the lead (to some extent) of the Henry V.

Sorry this took so long to get up, but this timeline's hiatus is officially over. I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions on my writing.

Scipio
 
Great to have you back, Scipio.

I guess this would be a good time to link to the slightly updated map. (I noticed that I forgot to label Limburg a while ago and it's been bugging me ever since.)

As for the update itself...Are Philip's ambitions the result of the different political situation in this TL? I recently read all four of Vaughan's books on the Dukes of Burgundy, and it seemed like Philip's expansionism was mostly just harvesting the fruits of his father and grandfather's work rather than any deliberate expansionist policy from his side. He also seemed to view gaining a crown as one of many less important side projects rather than some grand ambition, unlike Charles the Bold OTL.

Maybe a different source would give me a different impression, but from Vaughan's book, it seemed Philip was more interested in his crusader dreams than being crowned King of Burgundy. :p

Anyway, keep up the good work. I already had a pretty good grasp on the political situation in France as described in the update from doing that map, but it's nice to have this TL back nonetheless.
 
Update

Chapter 4: The Watchful Peace
Part 2: The Land Across the Sea

“Lancastrian England” by Thomas Courtenay, London 1923

When Henry V returned to his native land in the summer of 1433, he was greeted by an outpouring of joy and love. He was a great conqueror, a paradigm of kingship. He had succeeded where even his most illustrious ancestors had failed by successfully taking the French crown. Yet all was not well in England. Humphrey of Gloucester, the King’s brother, had been an arrogant viceroy during Henry’s long absences on the continent. He had sowed division among the nobility through his avaricious tendencies [1] and had created a destructive rivalry with his ecclesiastical uncle, Cardinal Thomas Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester. Cardinal Beaufort opposed the Duke’s inability to confer with the rest of the royal council during his tenure as Protector. The two men’s rivalry split the council into opposing factions and nearly led to armed conflict on several occasions [2]. Henry acted in a conciliatory manner, attempting to bring the men together in order to resolve their differences. However, when this failed, he chastised them for putting petty personal animosities above the greater needs of the realm and the dynasty.

Humphrey’s marriage to Elizabeth Mowbray, daughter of the Duke of Norfolk, forged an important dynastic alliance with one of the greatest magnates in the land, but brought him a cash dowry with only a few midlands manors. Therefore, Henry decided to provide for his brother with a landed endowment out of the royal demesne, something done little since it decreased markedly the income of the English crown. Nevertheless, Henry promised his brother £2000 in landed income. Had this order been carried out, it would have satisfied Humphrey’s demands. However, the promise was never carried out due to the penury of the crown’s resources, and thus the duke was not placated.

The Parliament of 1433 met at Oxford to discuss the end of the French war and the state of the realm. The assembly was filled with complaints, especially from the Commons, about the great burden the King’s war had placed on the common people. No further subsidies would be granted, they explained, now that the French threat had been destroyed, and the king had gained his “just rights and ancient inheritance.” There were further complaints about the nature of the link between the crowns. The 1420 Treaty of Paris had clearly stated that the two realms were to remain separate. Parliament insisted that this be followed. No one yet proposed a separation of the crown into two branches of the dynasty, as they later would; yet one can find in the Oxford Parliament the first inklings of dissent. He was accompanied by his cousin Lord Richard Neville of Middleham [3]

Henry progressed north in the fall of 1433 to survey his northern dominions. Since the fall of the Percies after their great rebellion, Henry had come to rely on the Nevilles to enforce royal will north of the Trent. They were the greatest magnate in Yorkshire, and he had lavished gifts on them as a reward for their crucial support. However, Henry’s next act of largesse towards the Nevilles brought this patronage to a new level. On September 21st, 1433, he created Richard Earl of Richmond, imparting the honor of Richmond on his house in tail-mail [4]. This ensured the Neville’s undisputed hegemony in northern Yorkshire. The senior Nevilles, Earls of Westmoreland, and the rehabilitated Percy Earls of Northumberland could only look on in envy. Humphrey of Gloucester, whose hard-won landed endowment was only slowly coming in, was even more furious act this creation, and totally failed to appreciate Henry’s pragmatic motives for the promotion in building up an ally of the crown in one of England’s most lawless regions.

At Berwick, on the border between Scotland and England, Henry met with his Scottish counterpart, James I. The continued payment of ransom from the Scottish king’s long captivity in England was confirmed. Then, James formally accepted Henry as king of France as well as England. Finally, a peace treaty was signed between the two monarchs. It was the work of many years of diplomatic activity. It regularized the border between the two nations as it had stood before the century and a half of warfare begun in the 1290s, with Berwick as the only English gain. It affirmed “march days” where English and Scottish wardens of the march would meet to resolve conflicts peacefully. The treaty of Berwick marked a new era in Anglo-Scottish relations, an attempt to restore peace to the border after so many generations of depredation and warfare. Before Henry returned south, he appointed the new Earl of Richmond as Warden of the West March, and reaffirmed Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, as Warden of the East March to balance out the power interests in northern England.

England after the Third War of French succession was a land full of contrasts. The differences between rich and poor, country and city, north and south, became exacerbated as the threat of French invasion and the destruction of French naval raids came to an end. The English political community was divided between those who had benefited from the most recent French war and those who had not, between those who enjoyed the King’s favor and those left out in the cold. These tensions, although at the time incipient, would soon boil over and lead to great violence and suffering across the realm.

1. The Lancastrian princes were never well endowed territorially, instead relying on annuities from the exchequer. Therefore, ITTL as in OTL, Humphrey constantly seeks to build up his landed income.
2. This is all OTL.
3. ITTL, the Earl of Salisbury produces a male heir and thus Richard does not inherit the Montague earldom. However, as a result of some shady transactions by his father, Ralph Neville, the bulk of the Neville inheritance has been transferred to Richard, as in OTL. Richard is the first son from Ralph’s second marriage, and as his mother is a Beaufort, the legitimized bastard descendants of John of Gaunt, he is better placed in English politics and thus a better successor to the great territorial hegemony.
4. The Earldom of Richmond, one of the greatest Earldoms, was long held by the Duke of Brittany. However, the destruction of Arthur, Count of Richemont (made-up French version of Earl of Richmond) and its uncertain legal status allows Henry to grant it to Richard Neville. The honor of Richmond (lordship attached to the title) covers all of Richmondshire, thus this grant ensures Neville hegemony in their region of greatest strength.

Note: sorry this took longer than I expected to put out. My interest and research in English history has allowed me to give much more detail on England than when I started the timeline. I hope my footnotes about the Nevilles are clear, its a pretty complicated situation. However, I do love the Nevilles, they've really become my favorite English noble house. Anyway, I hope people enjoy this and I would like to encourage people to respond with questions, comments, ideas and anything else.

Scipio
 
Should this TL be considered dead? I remember reading that your historical interested shifted from Burgundy and the Low Countries to other topics, a feeling I know well myself, but it would be sad to see this TL end.
 
Yes, this TL should be considered dead. I stopped trying to write it when no one seemed to be reading or paying attention to the posts, and when many of my other favorite timelines also stopped being updated. I am still interested in alternate history but this simply didn't seem to be the venue to share my ideas.
Best,
Scipio
 
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