Great chapter, nice marriages for the Yorkists, their power and influence is firmly set. George being married to Margaret Beaufort is a disaster waiting, especially since she can't have any more children. The humiliation George will feel is going to be immense, he'll be complaining about his wife's barrenness constantly 🤣🤣🤣. Warwick is gonna strike by making him his Ally against Edward IV. I hope King Edward has children soon. Keep up the good work 👍👍👍.
A Second White Rose - Edmund, Earl of Rutland Survives
- Thread starter Zestinobambino
- Start date
probably a bit unlikely that he gets a double dukedom. But he’ll likely be dead soon, so in the long run it won’t matter
May he die soon before he messes his family's position too much
I guess it could be technically combined into one mega-dukedom, so he would be the Duke of Somerset-Clarence.
Ooh, that has a nice ring to it, actually...
I think he would just be known as Duke of Clarence. No need to recreate Somerset for him since he already has a dukedom. But the Clarence duchy would be wast. Sorta like John of Gaunt’s size
Or his oldest son would get the Somerset Earldom as a title, like the heir to Norfolk gets Surrey
That also works! But oh, the irony of George being married to Margaret and that being the way Somerset is passed on...Or his oldest son would get the Somerset Earldom as a title, like the heir to Norfolk gets Surrey
Or his oldest son would get the Somerset Earldom as a title, like the heir to Norfolk gets Surrey
The problem here is that Maggie B’s body was likely too borked to become pregnant again after giving birth at 12/13. So heirs aren’t likely. But yeah, the Earldom of Somerset could be a subsidiary title for the heir they won’t have
Yeah... it's not really a spoiler to say Margaret and George aren't gonna be having any kids. Even so, I think we've now worked out how their non-existent family can hold Somerset.
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Chapter Six: France
Chapter Six: France
A map of France in 1477. Although this TL will not exactly follow on to make this map exactly accurate (as in, which house controls where may be different), it’s still pretty useful.
A map of France in 1477. Although this TL will not exactly follow on to make this map exactly accurate (as in, which house controls where may be different), it’s still pretty useful.
News that Edward IV had decided to marry Catherine of Bourbon, and thus favour Burgundy, reached Louis XI only a week after Edward announced the decision to his advisors. The French king was enraged, and decided to commit fully to supporting the Lancastrian cause. In the aftermath of the Yorkist ascendancy, Margaret of Anjou had retreated to Lorraine, where her elder brother ruled as Duke John II, bringing her son Edward of Westminster with her. A Lancastrian court in exile had begun to gather in Lorraine, including Henry Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, his younger brothers Edmund and John, and Edmund, Duke of Rutland’s new brothers-in-law Henry and John Courtenay. Henry, as the elder brother, lay claim to the Earldom of Devon, although Edward IV of course did not recognise this.
By the time she reached France, Margaret of Anjou and her brother John II, Duke of Lorraine both had sons of similar age - Margaret’s son Edward of Westminster, the Lancastrian claimant to the English throne, was born in 1453, while John II’s son Nicholas was five years older, having been born in 1448. The two boys bonded well while their parents plotted against King Edward IV, and now Louis XI approached Lorraine to meet with Margaret and the Lancastrian court-in-exile. He offered her the resources of the French throne to invade England, with the aim of freeing Henry VI from his imprisonment in the Tower of London. Once the traitorous Yorkists had been dealt with, Edward of Westminster would be reinstated as the Prince of Wales, and would be free to marry any European princess he desired. The alliance agreed on a plan for the invasion of England to take place in the early summer of 1464. Henry, Duke of Somerset and his brothers Edmund and John volunteered to lead the invasion, and Somerset suggested invading the Isle of Wight first, which was typically held by the Beaufort family. Louis XI and John II provided enough funds for 7,500 men to invade, and on 12th June 1464 the fleet set sail from Cherbourg and landed on the Isle of Wight the day after. The island fell quickly, and Somerset used his fleet to besiege and bombard the town of Southampton. Southampton fell to the Lancastrians on 18th June, where Somerset whipped up a fury of anti-Yorkist propaganda that called Edward IV illegitimate (these claims were based on the theory that he was conceived by his mother’s affair with a French archer), but these claims were not readily believed by the people. Even so, another 2,500 men from across the south joined Somerset’s rebellion, bringing the total up to 10,000 men. From Southampton, Somerset marched northeast and took Winchester without a fight on 25th June, and kept moving northeast towards London. William Hastings, Lord Hastings and John, Duke of Suffolk were put in charge of raising a royal army to fight the invaders while Edward IV stayed in London and prepared the city’s defences. He also quietly moved Henry VI out of the Tower of London and sent him north under the supervision of Henry, Earl of Essex. Henry VI was then imprisoned in Nottingham and put under Essex’s custody for the duration of the invasion.
Somerset’s army continued to move northeast with, initially, little resistance. But on 6th July 1464, Somerset’s rebels ran into the royal army raised by Hastings and Suffolk, which now numbered around 13,000, near Blackwater. The Battle of Blackwater was a tight-run thing, but came out as a victory for the Yorkists. Somerset was killed in action and the Lancastrian army scattered, but Edmund and John Beaufort continued pushing towards London with 4,000 men, in a last-ditch attempt to take the city by force. However, the brothers were sorely mistaken. London remained staunchly Yorkist, as it had been for years, and the city refused to open its gates. Edward IV led an armed band of London militia out against the Beaufort army. The two armies could not have been more different in morale - Edward’s army was fresh and ready to fight, whereas the rebel army was fresh from defeat at Blackwater. The Lancastrian invaders were repelled from London with ease at the Battle of Ludgate on 11th July, and both Edmund and John Beaufort were captured by the Yorkist army. They were both executed just over two months later, on 16th August 1464. Finally, the male heirs of the Beaufort family - one of the House of Lancaster's most ardent supporters - had been brought to an end.
Louis XI’s scheme to invade England and overthrow Edward IV had failed, but this was the least of his problems. In March 1465, a major rebellion broke out against Louis, organised by the troublesome Duke of Bourbon and Count of Charolais, consisting of a whole league of French nobles resistant to Louis’s centralisation policies. The numerous rebels included Francis II, Duke of Brittany; John II, Duke of Lorraine; Jacques d’Armagnac, Duke of Nemours; Jean V, Count of Armagnac; Louis, Count of St Pol; Francis, Count of Dunois; Antoine, Count of Dammartin; and Charles II, Lord of Albret. This league also gained support from John I, Duke of Cleves, André de Lohéac and Frederick I, Elector Palatine. Edward IV also announced his support for the rebels. This impressive who’s-who of the French nobility found a figurehead in Louis XI’s brother Charles, Duke of Berry, who joined the rebellion too. Despite being brothers, there was no love between Louis XI and Berry, and they were effectively completely different people. There was more than 20 years between them, too - Louis XI had been born in 1423, whereas Berry was born in 1446, making Berry much closer in age to Louis’s English enemy Edward IV.
In comparison, a handful of nobles did stay loyal to Louis XI. These were Gaston IV, Count of Foix; René, Duke of Anjou; Charles IV, Count of Maine; John, Count of Nevers; John, Count of Vendome; and Charles, Count of Eu. Louis also came to an alliance with Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, to protect himself. Louis gathered an army of 30,000, which was mostly led by the Count of Foix, a capable commander. Throughout May and June 1465, Louis and his army attacked the lands held by the Duke of Bourbon, in the centre of France, then rushed northwards towards Paris. He met Charolais’s army at Montlhéry, south of Paris, on 16th July 1465. Charles of Charolais remained in control of the battlefield at the Battle of Montlhéry, but Louis strategically retreated, and on 18th July he entered Paris with his so-called “victorious” army. A day after that, the Breton and Burgundian armies finally united and began to besiege Paris. A truce was signed on 3rd September 1465, and the fighting petered out. Louis signed individual peaces with the rebellious nobles, granting them various concessions, but to secure his throne against future threats, he made two separate diplomatic moves that would forever alter the future of France.
First of all, Louis XI granted his brother Charles the Duchy of Normandy, adding to his already-wealthy estates as the Duke of Berry. He also arranged for Berry to be provided with a wife, chosen from among the ranks of Louis XI’s allies. Berry’s wife was to be Elisabetta Maria Sforza (born in 1456), the second daughter of Francesco, Duke of Milan and his wife Bianca Maria Visconti. Louis also sent an ambassador to Aachen, the capital of the Holy Roman Empire, where he offered his eldest daughter Anne’s hand in marriage to Maximilian Habsburg, son and probable successor of Emperor Frederick III. Although Frederick was not initially warm to the idea of this alliance, since he wished to have Maximilian marry one of the two daughters of Casimir IV of Poland, he did not immediately dismiss the proposal. Louis continued to press the proposal through his imperial envoy, offering more and more favourable terms. In 1467, Louis offered to make Maximilian the hereditary Duke of Languedoc, a province in southern France traditionally ruled by appointed governors, with the duchy passing to Maximilian’s heirs, if he married Anne. Frederick, who was trying to consolidate the Habsburg lands in Austria to create a single unified state for Maximilian, saw the financial advantages of securing a large chunk of French land for his son, and accepted the marriage proposal. The Treaty of Trier ratified the agreement and was signed by Louis XI and Frederick III on 16th September 1468 in Trier, with John II of Baden mediating. Maximilian was immediately made Duke of Languedoc, and the marriage was scheduled to take place in 1472, when Maximilian would be thirteen and Anne would be eleven. The alliances with the Holy Roman Empire and the Duchy of Milan would help Louis guarantee support against any future rebellions from within his lands. Little did he know it, but the marriages of Charles and Elisabetta, and Maximilian and Anne would radically alter France’s path.
As a part of his plan to commit fully to supporting the Lancastrians, Louis XI decided to provide Edward of Westminster with a French bride. In 1466, Edward was betrothed to Bona of Savoy, one of the French proxy-brides Warwick had originally proposed as a bride for Edward IV. The two were married only a year later, and they had their first child eighteen months after that. On 11th August 1469, Bona of Savoy gave birth to a healthy baby girl, whom they named Charlotte, in honour of Bona’s sister and Louis XI of France’s wife Charlotte of Savoy. Edward and Bona's daughter would soon become known across Europe as Charlotte of Lancaster. Meanwhile, news from Burgundy travelled to England that cemented the position of the House of York as an important force. Philip III, Duke of Burgundy had died in 1467, leaving his son Charles, Count of Charolais to succeed him as Charles I, Duke of Burgundy. This made Anne of York the Duchess of Burgundy, giving her a position of great wealth. But not only was Anne now a rich woman with plenty of estates and an incredibly powerful husband - she was pregnant, too! On 6th March 1468, Anne went into labour and delivered a healthy baby boy. The boy was named Philip immediately, after his grandfather who hadn’t lived long enough to see the boy.
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@Zestinobambino ! YAY! Somerset and the Beuforts are dead! GO YORKISTS!
And Max gained an impressive bride and dowry, good for him.
Very happy for Anne and little philip.
And damn the lancastrians, hope that charlotte is the only child that survives (gonna need that lancastrian blood for edward iv heir)
And Max gained an impressive bride and dowry, good for him.
Very happy for Anne and little philip.
And damn the lancastrians, hope that charlotte is the only child that survives (gonna need that lancastrian blood for edward iv heir)
There's a lot going on in this chapter, with all these Lancastrian and Burgundian heirs, marriage alliances and rebellions... I'm glad you liked it!
Yessir! Can't wait for Catherine and Edward to marry and staring siring little lions!
Great chapter, nice political machinations with the Lancasters and Yorks. The Habsburg marriage between Maximilian and Anne will definitely change Europe. Keep up the great work 👍👍👍👍