Hmm, her brother in law Edmund of Langley, currently Earl of Cambridge and appointed Constable of Dover Castle and Warden of the Cinque Ports in 76 is the closest elder male on his father's side.
So perhaps de jure him but de facto the 2 infantas?
WI: John of Gaunt Dies in 1377?
- Thread starter Kellan Sullivan
- Start date
So perhaps de jure him but de facto the 2 infantas?
Iirc it only became ceremonial after Gaunt died and Bolingbroke later became king.
Stupid question, but didn't Richard's favourite, de Vere start life out as a protegé of John of Gaunt? If de Vere did, would a change of "scenery" around Richard remove de Vere?
Would this mean that Henry (failing to get Mary de Bohun from the convent) is more likely to marry Arundel/Warwick's daughters, perhaps?
Yeah, we're only a month out from Edward III's OTL death at this point. Easy to imagine that the shock of the news causes his fatal stroke a bit earlier.
Gotta agree with Shadow here. The parliaments of 1376 and 1377 were major struggles between March and Lancaster over control of royal government and the succession. There is no check on March here in ATL, and so I suspect that the uncles are shut out of the ATL regency council and it comes in with March at its head.
Big Iberian butterflies in ATL. There were two major schools of thought in England as to how the war should be prosecuted -- "northern strategy" adherents who argued for war in Brittany and Normandy, and "southern strategy" partisans who argued for war in Iberia to break the Franco-Castillian alliance. Gaunt and Langley were the most prominent "southern strategy" advocates, but -- as Shadow points out above -- Langley was famously unambitious. It's hard to see him convincing anyone to actually lend aid to Navarre and Portugal in the ATL 70s and 80s.
Beatriz of Portugal was already betrothed to one of the bastard sons of Juan I of Castile at the proposed POD. That betrothal was broken in OTL when Juan finally had a legitimate son, and Beatriz was instead betrothed to Enrique. It seems to me that Juan is secure enough in ATL for this marriage goes forward. The only thing that stopped it in OTL was the ridiculous Third Fernandine War, which led directly to the Portuguese Interregnum, wherein the siege of Lisbon and the Battle of Aljubarrota were both disasters for Castile. No Gaunt probably means no Third Fernandine War, and so no Interregnum, and so a much stronger Castile.
I am gonna guess Beatriz weds either Enrique or Fernando and we end up with either a Castillo-Portuguese union or a cadet branch of the Trastámaras reigning over Portugal.
Edward III's entail was written in October 1376, when he caught some illness and was expected to die. So, if you are to believe entails have legal authority (and this is debatable), then Philippa of Clarence is out of the succession. This will probably cause problems in ATL since, as I say above, there's really nothing to stop March from taking over royal government here, and so we may see March's retainers push to recognize Philippa as Richard's heir in parliament -- direct contradicting Edward's entail.
Bolingbroke seems to have been close with John and withdrew from public life entirely for a time upon John's death in OTL. His relationship with Henry doesn't seem like it was particularly good.
Brittany seriously F-ed the English after the death of Charles V, and so I don't think there was much interest on either side for a third Anglo-Breton match. (Indeed, a Blois-Lancastrian match may have been floated specifically as a "F you" to Montfort.) A Low Countries match would have much greater value for England, but would Philippa be as desirable on the international market without her wealthy, European-focused father leading the negotiations for her?
Richard got a martial training, but refused to act on it. Considering he grew up in his own household, apart from Gaunt, I'm not sure that Gaunt's death would do much to affect Richard's character.
It could rewrite Bolingbroke, though. He was initially part of Richard's household -- along with Stafford, Mowbray, and Richard's other favorites -- but left to join his father's household seemingly because they boys didn't get along. Where would he go in ATL? To Langley's household? Or would he be forced to stick it out with Richard even though they didn't really care for one another?
Do you know if the father needed to be alive to legitimize his sons? Like, it is even possible to legitimize the Beauforts after Gaunt's death under the laws of the day?
Gaunt very nearly achieved glory in 1369-70. Burgundy had amassed a large army to destroy the city, but Gaunt had managed to lead an expedition across the Channel undetected. He led a small army out of the city and managed to take the French by surprise, scatter their larger army without actually having to give battle. Gaunt followed up on the success a year later, leading an army out of the city to attack Normandy. Gaunt managed to take a few towns and terrorize the countryside, loading up on treasure. It apparently caused Charles V great distress, but Boucicaut's defeat of Robert Knolles in the Île-de-France and an outbreak of dysentery in Gaunt's army quickly put the French back on top.
I'm sure she'd be very well off as dowager duchess of Lancaster, and she was apparently very close with her daughter and stepchildren, so she could continue to raise the girls in her household. Also, everyone has got to realize that they cannot possibly let her remarry, right? Right?!
Although, if Eleanor of Aragon dies on schedule, could Constance be wed to Juan I as a way to remove Castile from the war? If Juan and Constance have a son, he could reign in Castile while Enrique could be king of Portugal by his marriage to Beatriz (or vice versa).
Or perhaps there is a double-first cousin marriage between Catherine of Lancaster and Edward of York to unite their claims to Castile and keep the Petrist cause alive?
(My brain is breaking at how completely different alt Iberia could be.)
Edmund holding the Lancastrian lands and offices during Henry's minority makes the most sense as he is he seniormost royal (by age if not rank) and was also very close with Gaunt on a personal level, and so could be trusted to have Henry's best interest at heart. Though would the estate be run with the crown if Henry remained a part of Richard's household in ATL?
Well, if de Vere's main patron (John of Gaunt) is gone, he needs to find a new patron. Given de Vere's personality, and how poor he is (never mind he's holder of one of the oldest earldoms in England), I'd imagine most people would be "what's the point".