Ok, so here is something I was wondering for a long time - what's the best moment in history for Kingdom of France (we are talking mostly about medieval period) to have completly different laws of succesion than OTL?
1)What's the best POD for France to use Semi-salic primogeniture instead (Note: We are talking about full time Queen Ragnant here!)
2) Is there any chance for any chance for any illegimiate son of french king to ascend to the throne and found new dynasty?
For the first question; the optimal period is that of the very end of the reign of Philip IV the Fair. His sons, Louis I of Navarre, Philip of Poitiers (future Philip V) third son, Charles (future Charles IV) were married respectively to Margaret, Joan and Blanche of Burgundy. In 1314, a crisis of importance broke out that of the Tour de Nesle affair, the three daughters-in-law of Philip IV were accused of adultery, if Joan is finally found innocent their two others will be imprisoned but remained the wives of the two princes . The same year, Philip IV dies and Louis becomes king under the name of Louis X, seeking to wash himself of this affront he sought a divorce and sought another woman. Margaret dies imprisoned, some say strangled and Louis X marries Clementia of Hungary who becomes pregnant, however the king dies prematurely after a year of reign during the queen pregnancy. For the first time since ascending to the throne of House Capet, a king dies without a living heir son.
After a bitter conflict over who was to ensure the regency between Philip of Poitiers, Charles of Valois, brother of Philip IV and the Duke Odo of Burgundy. Philip, outgoing victor, takes the opportunity to modify the laws of succession of the French crown, indeed at this time nothing clearly said that a princess could not become queen of France, only the principle of direct agnatic primogeniture prevailed but never the case of Louis X has not been observed before. Thus, if Clementia gives birth to a daughter, the crown should pass to the eldest who was Joan of France, daughter of Louis and Margueret. However, this young 4-year-old princess was recognized by Louis as a bastard (without ever being able to prove it) and therefore excluded the line of succession during her lifetime. Death, speculations were still in order, despite the support of his uncle the Duke of Burgundy. Philip of Poitiers used this to his advantage, further advancing the highly unstable character of a woman's reign, thus securing his own accession to the throne, Philip resumed and applied the traditions of the Salian Franks of a total agnatic primogeniture rejecting the possibility to a woman to ascend the throne, known as "Salic Laws". Clementia finally gave birth to a boy; John I the Posthumous who reigns and dies five days after being born and according to the new laws, the crown passed to Philip.
It is in this period which extends from November 1314 to November 1316 that France missed an opportunity to know the ascension of a Queen of France. We can imagine several scenarios:
- Even before the Tour de Nesle affair; Louis was destined for Joan of Burgundy - the only one faithful to her husband - but ended up marrying Margaret. If Louis marries Joan, there can still be an affair, but she remains innocent with a daughter recognized as legitimate and on the death of her father ascends the throne;
- No Tour de Nesle affair; Margaret remains faithful or is not caught, she becomes full queen, Louis dies and Joan of France becomes queen;
- No Tour de Nesle affair and regency of Odo; the same as the previous scenario but in addition Margaret's brother becomes regent ensuring Joan of France's ascension without "hang-ups";
- The last Capet; after the death of Philip V and Charles IV without son the more serious question of who will succeed the Capetians direct arose. Four candidates; Joan I of Navarre (daughter of Louis X), Philip of Valois and Philip of Evreux cousins of the deceased kings and Edward III of England, grandson of Philip IV. Philip of Valois as the closest relative was appointed king (Philip VI) by the French barons, and applied the Salic laws to Joan but also to Edward III, if a woman cannot become queen she cant also transmit rights to the crown. However this was only possible by the fact that Philip was regent and therefore controlled the power but if in his place there was a man in favor of Joan she had her chance to become queen.
For the second question; There was only one moment in the history of France when such an eventuality could occur. The end of the reign of Louis XIV. On the successive death in 1711-1712 of his son, Dauphin Louis, of his grandson, Louis of Burgundy then his great-grandson Louis of Brittany, the succession passed to his last great-grandson, Louis of Anjou, 3 years old and frail. If the latter were to disappear, the succession would therefore have to pass to its closest relative, the second grandson of Louis XIV, Philip of Anjou who had become king of Spain under the name of Philip V. However, if this The last one was to succeed Louis XIV, he would cumulate the titles of king of France and Spain creating an empire unbalancing the whole of Europe - Europe already at war since 1701 against Louis and Philip to prevent this from happening.
Despite this threat, Louis of Anjou seemed to live and peace was signed in 1713-1714. Philip renounced for himself and his descendants to become the crown of France but in 1714, Charles of Berry, the last grandson of Louis XIV died without a descendant, making the young Dauphin Louis the sole representative of the Bourbons in France and causing a dynastic crisis. To remedy this Louis XIV decided to legitimize his bastard sons, because if the Sun King had a legitimate living son, he had seven children from his mistresses, including two prominent boys in 1714; Louis-Auguste, Duke of Maine and Louis-Alexandre, Count of Toulouse. In order to prevent any union with Spain but also to avoid the ascension of Philip of Orléans, nephew of the king and therefore disappearance of the eldest house of the Bourbons. Louis XIV legitimized the two bastards and made them suitable to succeed him in total violation of the laws of succession. Nevertheless, on the death of the Sun King, the regency came under the control of Orleans which broke, the day after the death of Louis XIV, the king's will and the possibility for the bastards to accede to the throne. Philip subsequently retained power, dismissing the Duke of Maine as his main rival, and the regency ended with the coming of age of Louis XV.
Here it is more complex and fuzzy to find a scenario that would lead to the editing of one of the bastards but I have two ideas:
- Regency of Maine and death of Louis XV; the Regency had been organized in a precise manner by Louis XIV before his death. If Orleans does not take power when the Parliament of Paris opens and Maine is more active, he can obtain the power that was guaranteed to him, see more and thus keep his right of succession. On the death of the young Louis XV he will become king;
- Death of the Dauphin and succession of Louis XIV; here the young Louis dies between the end of the War of the Succession and the death of his great-grandfather. Louis XIV designating the Duke of Maine as Dauphinand prepare him to be king;
