The lucky marriage - Alternate history of the Capetian Dynasty

[aegis03florin]

A dead man walking​

The year of the Lord 1296, Wednesday 21 March, Chateau Gaillard, Normandy

He did not see the sunlight since… How long it passed… two weeks? Three? He has lost the count of the days… and of the time too. Was it a night? Was it a day? He felt that he start to lose his minds. For a while, it could figure it after the time the jailer brought him food. Once in the morning, once in the evening. But… the jailer didn’t show anymore since… it should have to be two days… three? More? The second day was the worse… the hunger… the thirst… His already weakened body was on the brink of collapse. Was he left there to die? Why? Why not the sword… or at least an ax… Even the gallows would have been more preferable than this… the death by starvation… After all… his half-brother… was a coward… The door opened… The eyes hurt him… the torchlight was too bright…

“Did you brought food? Water at least?” babbled him rubbing his eyes.​

“Why?” said the voice. “You are a dead man!”​

It was the voice of the captain of the guards. Peter… he didn’t remember his full name… how could he don't remember? Was he there to dispatch him?

“Strike then!” He tried to raise in his feet but he was too weakened. “Why should we bother to go outside? To see the sun for the last time? Why? To be sorry after my life? I’m not sorry. If my bastard half-brother had no courage to do it by himself, at least he trusted it to a man whose hand will not tremble.”​

His eyes had already accustomed to the light and he could see the smile on the captain face when heard his compliment. Many tend to be rude to their executioner… yet they should do exactly the opposite! The last thing you need is for him to miss a clean cut.

“To strike you? Here? You dirty my cell.”​

“Look around. It’s filthy. The rats will be grateful... Alright, then help me raise. I’ll come with you outside.”​

“Why should I bother? You are already dead. You was already hung, then decapitated some… two or three days ago. So… I’m speaking now with a ghost.” He didn’t understand… so he continued. “Your… brother, the King had passed away. You were sentenced to death in the name of the new King, Louis.”​

“Philip is dead?” grimed Edouard. “How?”​

“A lance in his neck... or eye.... or something like that… at his wedding’s tourney.”​

“The idiot! So, who calls himself the King now? Louis of Arles?”

“Arles!?” The guardsman spat on the floor. “Indeed, some might consider him the true King… No, your other brother. The younger one!”

“He’s not my brother! He’s not my father’s son! Everybody knows he’s Champagne’s son! So, are you gone follow the orders of a bastard impostor chit?”

“No. I’ve told you, you have been already executed! You are a dead man.”
​

Edouard was still in confused. What was he talked about? How was he executed? Was he already lost his minds? Was his imagination playing with him?

“I’ve heard you are a bright man,” said the captain, "but.... you disapoint me... You still don’t understand? They killed another man! Nobody knew you were here. They feared that your woman will rescue you!”

“My... my woman? She’s not dead?”

“No, genius! She’s not! Neither your brat! They have an army somewhere outside the borders.”

“That bastard! He lied to me!” Powers from God’s knows where, rushed to his veins. He raises to his feet. “Free me!”

“To free you? Why? Why should I?”

“Because I’m your rightful King!”

“My rightful King? Ha! No, you’re not! You’re nobody now. Nobody knows you are here. Why on earth should I risk my neck to free you? The Queen Regent will flay me… Alive! I can kill you and nobody will know. It will be easier... It will be safer.”

“Yes you could, but you didn’t!”

“Not without hearing what you have to say.”

“What I can offer you, you mean.”

“You can’t offer me nothing! Nothing good. Yet… if you'll become the King… you might have something to offer. But how could I trust you? How could I know that the moment you step on the throne, you’ll forget me. Or even worse, you'll might even take my head!”

“You don’t know. So, you shall trust me. Do you think that I’m the man who does such a thing? Do you think that the men who followed me and, if you speak the truth, still follow my newborn son, would have done it if I was such a kind of man?” Edouard wasn’t the broken unfed prisoner anymore. He spoke with the dignity of a true King. The hope of seeing his son was what kept him standing. “You have the choice: Let me free and I will reward you. Fight for me and I will make you grand. Or kill me and you will live with that all the rest of your life. A life, being it short or long, yet full of regrets.”

“Come with me. Someone wants to meet you.”

“Who?”

“The only other person on this world that knows you are still alive.”

“Who? The jailer who forget to bring me food?”

“Nah... He’s dead.” ​

The two walked through the door, crossed the small hall and start climbing the stairs. Edouard was holding onto the captain shoulder. Once on the ground floor, the fresh air hit his chest. A small window was opened. It was night, not day. They continued to climb one store than another one until they entered in a bigger room. A man was waiting there, with dirty clothes as he had just arrived from far away.

“Sire Montigny,” said the captain to the stranger, “I beg your pardon to make you waiting.” ​

Jacques de Montigny pulled his hood and unveil his face. Edouard stopped. He was the man that had him thrown here. He couldn’t forget his face.

“Sire!” Montigny kneeled. “If you still want to sit on the throne, you have my sword.”

“You have two swords,” said the captain.

“Two swords are even better,” smiled Edouard. “And what about your men?”

“Nah…” said the captain, “No other swords. You should count them as spears and bows… A hundred each.”

“Great, my Lords! It’s perfect to start reclaiming my crown! Now, I need some bread, meat, a cup of wine, a feather and a paper. If my wife and son are alive, they should find that I am too.”​

 

[aegis03florin]

Quo Vadis Franciae?​

The year of the Lord 1296

Why? Why couldn’t it be simple? With the crown passing from father to son, as centuries previously it did it? Without contest, without concurrent claims, without challenges, without clashes of swords to decide who’s worthy to carry it? All these were appanages of other houses, in Germania and Hispania and Anglia, not of the house of Francia! Was the House Capet now cursed? Was it failing? And why? Why now? Who brought the curse in the family, that brother will fight brother, that cousin will slay his cousin? Was it the marriage between King Louis the Lion Conqueror and Eleanor of Brittany the one that brought the devil’s brood curse into the Capetian line? Everyone thought that the curse was broken when the young prince Arthur died… But was it? King Philip the Great, the illustrious son of the two, has foreseen these and tried to regulate the succession, yet, despite his provisions, his successors plunged the country in war again and again. The Capetian century was approaching its end… was the House of Capet too?

The news that the most royal of the all royal bastards that were ever bred, Edouard the Bastard, was alive and free, spread like a wildfire through both sides of the channel. The Queen Regent Cristina of Norway tried firstly to contain the news, later to discredit it as being false. That the true Edouard was dead. The head of the prisoner executed at Gisors was carried in a spike down to Paris and displayed at the gates. But people didn’t care. They want to believe in anything but the official propaganda with a sort of suicidal, masochistic and sadistic pleasure to witness and be partaker to the destruction of a new civil war.

Both France and England slowly descend in chaos, but Queen Christina didn’t lose time – she acted quickly. Firstly, she had her son Louis married to Philippa of Constantinople, Flanders’ daughter and widow of King Philip IV, after receiving the Pope’s dispense. The marriage with Philip was considered unconsummated and therefore void. Marring her secured the support of the powerful count of Flanders-Hainaut, her single true friend, and ally. Count Thierry, which called himself as titular Emperor of Constantinople, earned Queen Cristina the signing of the treaty of Damme in the previous year which split the world between Bretons and Norwegians spheres of influence, with only Flanders having the right to trade with both sides directly. Grace of this treaty, Christina was also seen with good eyes in the Brittany, as putting an end of the commercial and granting the Bretton merchants many privileges, yet, the Bretons were tired of war and more focused on trade, so they didn’t commit on either side.

Then she took Louis to Reims and anointed him without a great fast. He was crowned as King of France and England, while the Parliament of London was requested to confirm the crowning. Yet, the Parliament response was one that a King of England must be crowned in Westminster, otherwise is not a king of England. Louis and his mother sent words that the ceremony shall be organized for the beginning of June, yet the ceremony was forced to be postponed as Louis couldn’t make it to England in time.

Despite the crowning at Reims, many denounced its validity. Nobles, Clergy, and Commoners argued that the peers were not presents and that Louis had no right to the throne as he was a bastard and his brother had disinherited him. Yet, apart publically denounced him as a bastard and send him to the monastery, King Philip IV didn’t officially disinherit him. He didn’t pass a law or act sanctioned by the Parliament, and this was what the Queen and her supporters exploited, claiming that Louis wasn’t a bastard and his brother was only temporarily in rage… mistakenly guided and counseled, perhaps even bewitched.

But, for the most people, Louis was a bastard without any doubts! Still, there were many that will prefer a bastard on the throne rather than other Louis, the “stable King” of Arles. But, if Louis was a bastard, it wasn't the baster of the right person. It was Champagne's bastard not King's one. To make thing worse, Arles itself didn’t have a son… so, the inheritance issue will only be rolled into another generation, with the danger of having France and England split once again. Who’s gone follow him on the throne? His sickly daughter? King Philip the Great statutes that only men will sit on the throne of France. The laws of England were more confuse and interpretable. So, would be his brother? That sneaky man called Philip the Shrewd or Philip the Spider who was Prince Elector, Palatine count of Burgundy and Duke of Merania? Every Price, Duke, Count, Baron, and Knight of the Empire will freak out to see him on the thrones of France and England and maybe Arles too. The Pope will rather burn one of his hands rather than accept such thing. No, the Spider on the throne will mean war against the entire world. Some pointed out that will be better to fight the Empire, united behind a true and undisputed King, that to fight each other….

King Louis of Arles was taken by surprise by the death of his nephew and the evolution of the facts. He was slow to react… very slow… like being rather pushed to claim the crown rather than willing to. His brother forced his hand practically, by declaring him as true King. Of course, why shouldn’t he? Those days he hates everybody and didn’t speak with anyone, hardly a behavior of one who wants to win a war. Other things bother his mind. His sickly and, as per doctors’ words, his barren daughter, had fallen in love in secret with a monk. A monk!!! And she was pregnant. The barren girl was pregnant, the princess of Arles was pregnant with a monk! A greater disgrace couldn’t happen to him and his house. What his father would say if he would be alive? At least, there was a good news too, his daughter was no barren. There could be hope that his line will continue… He tried to conceal the fact and hide her until she will deliver the child, so he will find a good suitor for her. But someone spoke… He blamed his brother, Philip…But Philip denied and they two exchanged heavy words… and not in private. The monk was never to be seen. His daughter curses him for this. She vowed to not have any other man than the man she loved. Poor girl… In a world sorrowed by doctors and monks who everyone told her that she will be childless, she had fallen for the prettiest one who listens to her. And now she was terrified for her unborn children. She was afraid to not have the baby taken away to never see him again, as the proof of her sin and disgrace.

All in all, excepting claiming the throne and securing the Languedoc, Louis didn’t do too much. He didn’t raise his armies to march on Paris or Rheims to be crowned. He didn’t search for allies either. Most of the French nobility didn’t want him and he didn’t want them either.

But what about Edouard? He was another good and valid option. After his defeat, the Pope was quick to denounce his legitimation as obtained by force. Yet, nobody really cared these days about the Pope’s stance. If the power balance will change, the Pope might be happy to denounce his denunciation! But… Edouard too had a problem… or two… or three. Firstly, he was a stranger, with strange habits and strange ideas. They experienced them first hands on the field of battle when he used poudre a tonnerre with fire-crackers, explosive fling arrows, and bombards to slay the flower of French Chivalry. Secondly, he had a son with and was married to the daughter of a… savage, barbarous, half pagan warlord. King Philip the Great, who stopped the Mongol scourge outside the walls of Rome and saved the Christendom will spin in his ground to see the offspring of those infernal dogs being anointed with the holy oil in Saint-Denis. Thirdly, there was a quite big concern among the nobles that Edouard lack’s goodwill towards traditions, faith, and social stability, which translated in privileges for nobility and clergy. Fourthly, the Emperor seems to favor him and the French honor didn’t stomach it well. Fifthly, the band of savage mercenaries under the command of his wife that ravaged Flanders should be get read off as soon as possible.

The French nobility gathered around their champion – the count of Champagne. They soon forgive him for the lance’ stroke that ended the short reign of King Philip IV and looks at him for leadership. If there will be war, better to be united than disunited. If they should choose a King over another, united they will get a better deal!

England descended into chaos too. The lack of Royal control and authority transformed the Earls and Counts in petty-kings in all but names. The Barons, especially the Nordic ones, ruled over their subjects and sort out their disputes without the sightless concerns from London or Paris. They didn’t pay any tax, they didn’t pay any custom, they didn’t provide levy, they didn’t care about anything. They had their private armies and big castles and they were true masters and lords of their domains! True King, false King, boy King, foreign King or no King at all, they didn’t care less!

Constable Jean le Maigre, commander of the Great Companies, was courted by all sides, yet he stays away. He ordered his troops to stay down and traveled to his domains in Angouleme. He resented the nobles for stealing his victory, he resented Arles for… well, he didn’t really hate him but didn’t like him either, and he resented Queen Regent Christina for being unfaithful to her husband, the deceased King Charles, while her son was a bastard with no rights. So whom shall he support? Edouard or Arles? Who was worthier? Who was better for the Kingdom?

In the meantime, in Paris and other cities, a dangerous idea appeared, in a form of a poem:

“When Adam delve and Eve span,
Who was then the gentleman?[1]”
​

What if Edouard was the one that will get rid of all those gentlemen?


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[1] William Langland in his poem Piers Plowman, from “The Worlds of Medieval Europe” by Clifford R. Backman, OXFORD UNIVERSITY