Dude, I think you're on the wrong TL. I have no protestant propaganda here, we're just considering different outcomes in Flanders after 1517. And we have never spoken as far as I can remember @Nuraghe
The Grand Duchy of the West - A Valois-Burgundian TL
- Thread starter BlueFlowwer
- Start date
no sorry, I didn't have it with you in particular but only with the idea that reform will always happen anyway, it's that basically it was a good thing for all of Europe (I've read the last comments in which was discussing Erasmus, Adrian and a possible reform in and around the Netherlands/ Burgundy, between you and other commentators on your story, eh that of course I had considered that you are probing the possible branches in the various countries, but always seeing the same ideas that northern Europe becomes Protestant because it's naturally almost predisposed or something always makes me turn up my nose) nothing personal means huh 😅
oh yes it's true that we never spoke (forgive me for this bad presentation then please , my name is Alessio or better to say here I'm known as " Nuraghe " from the name of the famous monuments of my native land)
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The chill it with the tone would you please. The protestant reformation will happen at otl and we are just discussing how the dukes of brabant would handle possible scenarious and pros and cons of what to adapt. I never said that the reformation was a wholly good thing either, I personally think so many priceless functions was lost in the turmoil. I'm just saying that several rulers before the reformation was making changes to the churches in their native land and taking a look in clerical abuse. Margaret of York did, so it might be interesting to develop this.
Its just that we need to talk about it so that I know how to continue to build the story onwards from 1517. Nothing has been decided.
Its just that we need to talk about it so that I know how to continue to build the story onwards from 1517. Nothing has been decided.
sorry again i didn't want to pass for an apologist of the catholic church, but too many times i've seen in well made stories this ploy used because yes (without any valid explanation, just because the church is thought to be a superstitious and anti science organization that hinders the progress ) there are two of us, I also hated reading in school books how much art was destroyed or lost in the moments of iconoclastic fury of the period
then rightly you have to consider the possible developments so you're right
That is fine, I just wanted to make sense of the gigantic block of text that dropped down from a clear blue sky. And I agree with you that far to often the church gets reduced to a parody of itself and its not interesting or fair. Its nice to finally meet you, Alessio. Welcome to this TL and the show that never ends. Hope you stick around for more!
sorry again for the longer papyrus earlier 😅 (forgive me if I sounded threatening, I wasn't, I was just fed up that a good story like yours could end up falling into such a cheesy trope like so many others ) I'm normally the good guy so I hardly you'll see comments except on occasions when something has piqued my curiosity in an absurd way 😁 (I don't even think I've ever seen you in a discussion or story in which I commented, at least I think so 🤨 so I'm happy to meet you )
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Then I hope that you shall enjoy the next chapters when they arrive and we'll see what happens to the reformation and not.
I take it as a challenge eh 😂, go without leaving me amazed with the next developments 😉
I did not read any pro-Protestant propaganda in this TL....
You are very correct
How ever the reason the Low Countries went up in flames was not so much because of the Protestants. Although this is the mainstream consensus in popolar or elementaryschool level history, especial in the Netherlands.
It was a bit more complicated
Essential the, civil war of the LowCountries whicherupted in 1566 had a very large socio-economic base.
As early mentioned the economic power house of Flanders was heavily urbanised with a very high literacy rate.
The economy was largely monetary based, thus, workers were depending on income, currency, in order to buy food, pay rent etc. It was not a autarctic society with peasants producing their own food and sell their surplus.
Many people in Flanders worked in industry and trade related jobs. Since several years the economy was in crises, where many people lost their jobs or had a reduced payment for their work. At the same time due to climate events several harvest failed causing a sharp increase in food prices, which in turn were increased by speculation by grain traders.
At the same time the Church was a major land owner and did not enough to help the needed or reduced their rent on their land.
Further the Church had the order from Rome to collect as much as possible monney by all means, since Rome was heavily in debt due to their Italian politics, spanding spree of several Popes and their megalomanic basilica thery were building.
Now imagine the proletariat in the Flemish cities,. They lost their jobs or had to work for reduced wages, tenant farmers on Church estates had to endure larger rents despite the rise of the cost of living.
At the same time they see High ranking Church officials living as princess and even monks and sisters living not according to their vows or what they read in the bible.
Further the lands of the Holy Roman empire, including the cities of Flanders were roamed by groups of monks who demanded that people where buying indulgences. The groups of monks were dispances by Rome in order to extract as much as possible monney in order to pay for the large debt Rome had
These indulgences became more and more expesive and were not seldom obtained via some sort of public extorion. However the people could not find any thing like indulgences in the bible.
Now in OTL the Low countries were ruled by Aristocrats and Church Princess who were not native to the Low Countries, even worse, the decision makers came from Itlay or had strong ties with Italy and Spain. They did not had any feeling with the Flemish and Brabant society, did not understand them and even openly dispised them. There arrogance and hard repression towards the socio-economic reality only gave more room to Protestant extremist and resulting in a spiral of violence and ultimate civil war.
Now in this TL the ruling class does have strong ties with the relam they govern, and, more important, princess of the Church had there roots in the Low Countries. All this can contribute in a much more ballanced reaction to the socio-economic chalanges a head in stead of arrognace and terror as in OTL.
I'll stop you immediately the same things you describe happened for Flanders there were too in Italy (very high urbanization, rich trades (maritime and otherwise) a very advanced wool sector in Lombardy, highly educated merchant class and more ect.
but I do not cause the same results as in the low countries even with the church which held a power and a territory without equal in Europe ( it should be noted that for the Italians it was more of immediate interest to help the papacy in a period of devastating wars in the peninsula, and that what other countries and peoples saw as the blackmail of a distant, foreign and corrupt church was not perceived in Italy at the same time way (it must be said that we have had only one true ecclesiastical prince, in the HRE there were at least only one 10 most important ones (electors excluded)
moreover, the basilica of San Pietro was not megalomaniac (the previous one was destroyed in an earthquake that also affected the nearby neighborhood) so the popes of the time decided to build a larger one (not only to accommodate the entire city population and the papal court) but because it was a construction site that would have given work to many Romans and non-Romans (the Rome from the end of the 1400s was the Capital of the Renaissance, the city was in full ferment of monumental building)
yes that the church was corrupt is a fact (see Leo X who was more interested in retracing his father's glories as a prince than in taking action against Luther) the indulgences were mainly the work of Leo, but a good part of these never really quite reached Rome ( and that these went not only to pay for the new basilica but also for aid for those displaced by the wars in the region and for the other monuments of the city ) many were kept by the local clergy to help build their princely palaces.
heh yes Netherlands Otl were under non local governors who most of the time didn't fully understand their society, contrary to this TL
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Understand. So the Italians rallied around the Church in order to defeat foreign influence.
While in the Low countires the foreign influence partly the Church, in the person of Granville ( please note that this is decades later than where this TL now is)
I agree I was a bit too hard in this, since many churches who were started at the second half of the 15th century were as well very large if not too large in design and there for never completed. ( or the people believed in a too bright future)
Never the less the cost to build the Basilica was a very large burden on the Church and the loans provided by the Fuggers needed to be paid. Whihc in the end were met by the selling of indulgences.
The average bible reading worker in Flanders started to having doubts of the justification for indulgences or at least the price of them.
Yes, but there was also a century old fight between the cities and the nobility. The cities of Flanders, Brabant and other provinces of the Low countries never succeded in full independence as the Itallian cities, who become city states.
Now with a local born and bred ruling nobility this stife is not gone, far from it, but it could be a bit less hard, compared to OTL.
it looks we are on the same page?
yes technically we agree but with a two small clarification (on the huge cost of the basilica, or to explain myself precisely: it was a mammoth work I admit this given that it was completed only 130 years later, but as a price it was not so extremely high in a normal situation (ie pre 1494) but increased absurdly with the Italian wars that devastated the peninsula (including papal territories)
and on the particular conflict between cities and sovereigns/rulers (this also happened in Italy only two centuries earlier, given that the pre-unification states were born from the expansion of determining cities at the expense of the countryside and neighboring municipalities) why this did not happen in Flanders I do not know,
only after the states were been ossified that spawned the Renaissance dynasties
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Chapter 20 - England from 1490 to 95
Chapter 20 – England from 1490 to 95
It was a windy day on the 9th of July when a strong cry filled the Queen’s chamber. England’s newest prince showcased the capacity of his lungs. Beatrice heard it, but it seemed to come from a distance, like a hunting horn in a faraway fog. Her throat felt like a dry sandbank and her entire body ached like it had been turned inside out. Attendants fluttered around her like white clothed butterflies, putting damp cloths on her forehead, neck, and chest, trying to get her to drink watered down wine, pulling away bloody rags. Eventually her personal physician managed to shoo everyone out, and her moorish servants took care of the Queen.
It took over a day before Beatrice fully came back to herself. The wet nurse had taken the baby to another room to nurse. The physician had opened the window, letting the pleasant summer breeze in for a while. A maid offered her a cup to drink from and Beatrice drowned it eagerly. Her throat felt less parched now and the ache had dulled to a more manageable level of exhaustion. Now the headache had lessened thanks to the massages from before. “Is the baby well?” she asked her, voice coming out like a hoarse croak. “Yes, your grace, the little lord is strong and healthy. Voice like a lion.” The maid answered, offering Beatrice a damp towel. She took the cloth, placing it on her neck. “It’s a son? I have given the king a son?” Beatrice asked, taking in the words slowly. The maid nodded. “It is a new prince for England, your grace. Another blessing for everyone. If I may be as bold as to tell your grace this, all the prayers of England have been answered since you came to this kingdom. In the cities they toast your majesties. They call your grace Queen Beatrix, a blessed queen.” Beatrice nodded to her, and the maid curtsied and left.
The Queen reclined back against the fluffed-up pillows on the bed. It had been just over five years since she arrived on these shores. Taking the steps from a Portuguese noblewoman to an english queen had not been an easy task; learning a new language, customs, politics, all while doing her hardest to fulfil her primary duty with a husband twice her age. The mangled legacy of her scandalous predecessor, a tarnished queenship to repair and polish, two stepdaughters to raise as their new mother and all the estates, richest and responsibilities of her new position to manage as well. All while being sixteen. Her sister had been given an easier start. But Leonor had grown up in court with Joao, and she had become queen in her own country. All her life Beatice had belived that her future would be a marriage to a duke or other nobleman like her sister Isabella. The baby of Duke Ferdinand and Duchess Beatrice’s brood of nine children. Becoming a queen had never been something she had considered. Her mother had been both delighed in her new position, but also angered. The man who killed her son Diego himself had taken her family’s land and titles and then made her youngest daughter a queen of England. With a dowry fit for a proper Infanta, a match worth any christian king. The king must have laughted himself sick when he got both a alliance, lands and titles to the crown and rid of potential trouble from her family in one stroke. But Beatrice had wanted this herself. Perhaps the desire for grandness ran in her blood too.
“They call me Queen Beatrix in the cities.” She closed her eyes. “I have been victorious.” Sleep found the Queen of England a few minutes later.
King Richard came to see her the day after. Her husband had been to see her after the birth, but she had been in and out of consciousness for hours and he ordered the moorish doctors to attend her closely, opting to not crowd the room further. Her ladies had told him she was up and eating on the morning after, the colors coming back to her face. Beatrice smiled tiredly at him when he entered. Her long and thick auburn hair had been gathered in a large braid down her back and she had changed into a clean shift with a comfortable robe. Her husband was two years away from his 40th birthday, while Beatrice had just turned twenty one a month ago. Richard looked at her face for a moment, studying her features before crossing the room in three quick steps. He sat down on the bed next to her, took her hands in his and brought them to his lips. For several moments he said nothing, just tracing her fingers with his own, kissing her knuckles and palms. Beatrice felt a surge of affection crossing her body like a warm drink on a cold day.
“I am all right, my lord. I am all right. The doctors took excellent care of me. Both of us are doing so well.” She assured him in a low voice. She knew him well enough to know he had spent days worrying about her. It had taken a while before Beatrice had come to love her husband as Richard had been guarded in private for several months after their first meeting and marriage. Always courteous to her, supplying her needs and answering questions. But he had not begun to let her see his soul until the birth of their son in 1486. Not only had she seen the good, warm heart beneath Richard’s solemn face, but she had been begun to get political influence with him. He had listened to her advice when seeking a husband for his second daughter Eleanor and she had been trusted to entertain the Scottish ambassadors during negotiations for his eldest, Joan.
Beatrice of Portugal, Queen of England in 1495
She had also been determined to get an Iberian Infanta for little Richard, called “Dickon” by her husband and “Ricardo” by her in private. Her efforts had been half-successful in that matter. Her initial efforts to secure Infanta Isabella of Portugal had failed after a while, as King John decided to look elsewhere for his sole daughter. But when Dickon was one year old, the courts of Ferdinand and Isabel of Castile and Aragon had become receptive for an alliance with England. Their daughter, Infanta Catalina, was only three months older. Since their oldest son had become King of Navarre in 1486 and he already had two sons, their youngest was an excellent choice for England, in order to guard against France. And the two powerful catholic sovereigns winning the war against the moorish heretics in Granada held a strong appeal for Beatrice. A splendid match between Iberian and Lancastrian blood coming back to England to secure the white rose of York. And the people who grumbled in secret about their queen’s non royal birth would be permanently shut up as well.
She had also managed to acquire a rich heiress to her second son. John la Zouche, 7th Baron Zouche and 8th Baron St Maur was one of her husband’s most loyal men since back when he had been Duke of Gloucester and had been the subject of a most fortunate marriage owning to him and the clumsy attempts at avarice by Queen Margaret Stewart. The rich heiress Cecily Bonville, 7t Baroness Harington and 2nd Baroness Bonville had become his wife in 1475, making him one of the wealthiest men in England. Shortly before that she had been the subject of a prospective marriage with Sir Richard Grey, the younger son of the late Queen Elizabeth Woodville’s first marriage. As his elder brother Thomas had died fighting in Tewkesbury on the Lancastrian side. The combination of his mother’s death and the scorn from Queen Margaret had persuaded him to change sides before the battle. The duke of Gloucester had killed him personally in battle, while John la Zouche had proven himself to be a very valiant twelve-year-old squire to his liege. And Cecily had courage to match her husband as Richard Grey had attempted to abduct her a mere month before her marriage to John. Frustrated by his lack of fortune and deprived of his desired bride, Grey had attempted to force himself on her in order to force the match, resulting in Cecily stabbing him to death to protect her honour. For the past fifteen years she and John has been the happiest of married couple. Unfortunately, they did not have good fortune with their children. Of Cecily’s seven children, only two had survived the cradle. Her only living ones was a robust daughter, Lady Ursula, and a very frail baby, named George for the patron saint. The birth had zapped lot of Cecily’s strength and in order to secure Ursula’s future and inheritance she and John had agreed to betroth her to Prince Edmund. As the future Duchess of York, she would be the second lady in the land.
King Richard III of England in 1490
“I thought I would lose you.” Richard whispered into her hands. He looked up at her, eyes somewhat bloodshot from lack of sleep. He looked almost as tired she did.
“I thought I would lose you like I lost Anne. It’s a decade now since she died. Childbirth killed her in the end. She wanted a son after our girls. A son to replace her firstborn with the Lancastrian Prince. He died in infancy. Almost a decade after his death she died trying to give me a son. Ten years later, I nearly lose you to the same fate. Five years of marriage, four living children. You have given me three sons now and a princess in five years. I’ve been so selfish. I have pushed you so hard. I could have lost you too.”
Richard sounds almost close to tears. Beatrice shifted in bed, wrapping her arms around him, and letting him rest his head against her shoulder. She says nothing, just carding her fingers trough his dark strands of hair and presses a kiss to his temple. After a while he raised his head and sat back. “We will take a break from the marriage bed for a whole year. Our children are thriving and your body need to rest. I will not endanger your health for a long while. We will have more children later if God wills it.”
Beatrice opens her mouth to protest but closes it a moment later. He’s right about her body. “A year will be good in order to regain my strength.” Richard doesn’t say that he loves her at the moment, but the way he looks at her says more than words do.
“They call me Queen Beatrix in the cities. Your Blessed Beatrix.” Beatrice thinks and holds her husbands’ hands in hers. “Yours”.
The queen’s influence increased gradually from 1486, as the question of sending the Earl of Cornwall to Wales came up after his birth. She managed to postpone his departure when he was a few months old, something that became crucial a two weeks later, when a fire broke out in the castle of Ludlow. If the baby had been there, he could have perished. The horrors of the court were matched by the king and queen. King Richard ordered extensive renovations and expansions carried out and better fire safety plans in case it happened again. He also reinforced Caernarfon Castle in the north-west of Wales. The fortress was scourged clean and refurbished from cellar to tower. Beatrice persuaded her husband to add Iberian comforts like bathhouses, new glazed windows, and plenty of new tapestries and carpets. Orders to keep the buildings and grounds clean were issued with livestock not being able to wander around the place amongst other things. The king’s intention with Caernarfon was that the two castles would serve as dual headquarter of the Prince of Wales as well as Ludlow. Like the king and queen who traveled regularly across the country, so would the heir.
It would not be until autumn of 1490 when little Richard was invested as the Prince of Wales in the castle of Winchester, and he left a few days afterwards. Thomas of York stayed in the nursery in Westminster Palace. His investiture as Duke of Bedford would come at a later date. Before the investiture, Dickon traveled to the north of England with his eldest half-sister Joan and little Edmund, the three-year-old soon to be Duke of York. Joan was due to marry King James IV of Scotland and a family progress to the north was timed to introduce the heir to the throne to the region his father used to govern before becoming king. Both Richard and Beatrice had visited the north several times before, much to public’s cheer and the arrival of Joan, the daughter of the late and still loved Anne Neville, was greeted with ferocious joy.
Edmund was placed in the castle of Middleham to be educated by John of Gloucester, his illegitimate half-brother who served as the king’s Stewart in the region. John’s wife had taken well care of the northern estates, as she had grown up in the North of England and in the most prominent noble families in the region.
The scandalous marriage between Eleanor Percy and the king’s bastard son had taken place shortly after her father’s death in 1489. The execution of the man who hoped to marry her, Edward Stafford in 1484 had left her hand free. When the news of their secret marriage had broken, the king had been forced to placate her furious brother, Henry Algernon Percy, with several of Buckingham’s estates. While Percy most likely would have preferred to rebel over the insult, the king’s offer was a good one. The estates were rich in income and would alleviate his economic woes and debts. The queen had managed to smooth things over further by taking responsibility for Eleanor’s dowry. Thus Percy got richer while he did not have to pay a single coin for his sister’s marriage. King Richard had also legitimatised the marriage and any future children from John and Eleanor, while passing a bill in parliament to bar them from the succession. It was similar to what Henry IV had done with his Beaufort half-siblings after John of Gaunt married Katherine Swynford in 1396, almost a century earlier. John and Eleanor had been tactful enough to stay away from court to avoid the prying eyes.
The king had given them several castles and fortresses to hold as stewards until Edmund came of age, including Middleham, Barnard Castle and Scarborough. Edmund was also given several of his father’s former lands and lordships, Skipton, Marton, and the castle of Richmond in 1490. His investiture took place in York Cathedral before his parents and siblings left for Berwick-upon-Tweed where the Scottish king and his entourage was to meet them. The first meeting of James IV and Princess Joan was a successful one. Joan had grown into a tall and sturdy young woman at the age of sixteen. She had long dark hair, brown eyes, and a round face. Joan was fond of dancing and enjoyed outdoors activities like hunting, falconry, and ice skating. She had developed a regal and assertive personality, with a commanding presence. James had delighted in the reports from his ambassadors, allegedly saying; “A bonny queen for a bonny realm”.
Joan of Gloucester, Queen of Scotland
James himself would be remembered as one of the most successful monarchs of the Stewart kings. His long reign would be remembered as a golden age. The court of Edinburgh would be filled with arts, literature, and science. The printing press arrived to Scotland, and James would establish various colleges and universities for both surgeons and doctors, as well as other scholars. Both he and Joan sponsored large architectural works, as Holyroodhouse and the Falkland Palaces was built. Joan and their children benefited from the refurbishments at Linlithgow, Edinburgh, and Stirling castles.
The marriage between James and Joan would be a long and successful one.
James IV, King of Scotland
In 1493, Queen Beatrice began to gather another trousseau. Princess Eleanor of Gloucester would leave for the Duchy of Brittany the next year. She and Jean VI had already been married by proxy in the chapel of Westminster. The splendid collection consisted of jewellery, tapestries and plates of gold and silver. Her wardrobe had been made up with gowns in silks and velvets of various colour; sea green, ruby red, purples. Squares of cloth of gold and silver had been drawn up, as well as rich brocades in dark blue and green. Eleanor had been supplied with shoes, cloaks, and gloves for protection against the cold weather. Little princess Beatrice, or Bea as she was called in the family to distinguish her from her mother was trying to help, as much as a five-year-old could. Like her sisters, she too would leave for a foreign marriage when she came of age, so the queen included her for practise’s sake.
A few months after Eleanor arrived in Nantes, Beatrice found herself pregnant again after more then four years. The next York princess, Cecily, arrived on the third of April in 1995, after a short and easy labour. The easter celebrations that followed would be splendid for the whole court in welcome for the new royal baby. She had been named for her ailing grandmother, Cecily Neville who had been able to attend the christening. The dowager duchess of York would die close to two months after Cecily’s birth.
Author's Note: So the York family in England is thriving. I bet no one could see the John of Gloucester and Eleanor Percy match coming!
It was a windy day on the 9th of July when a strong cry filled the Queen’s chamber. England’s newest prince showcased the capacity of his lungs. Beatrice heard it, but it seemed to come from a distance, like a hunting horn in a faraway fog. Her throat felt like a dry sandbank and her entire body ached like it had been turned inside out. Attendants fluttered around her like white clothed butterflies, putting damp cloths on her forehead, neck, and chest, trying to get her to drink watered down wine, pulling away bloody rags. Eventually her personal physician managed to shoo everyone out, and her moorish servants took care of the Queen.
It took over a day before Beatrice fully came back to herself. The wet nurse had taken the baby to another room to nurse. The physician had opened the window, letting the pleasant summer breeze in for a while. A maid offered her a cup to drink from and Beatrice drowned it eagerly. Her throat felt less parched now and the ache had dulled to a more manageable level of exhaustion. Now the headache had lessened thanks to the massages from before. “Is the baby well?” she asked her, voice coming out like a hoarse croak. “Yes, your grace, the little lord is strong and healthy. Voice like a lion.” The maid answered, offering Beatrice a damp towel. She took the cloth, placing it on her neck. “It’s a son? I have given the king a son?” Beatrice asked, taking in the words slowly. The maid nodded. “It is a new prince for England, your grace. Another blessing for everyone. If I may be as bold as to tell your grace this, all the prayers of England have been answered since you came to this kingdom. In the cities they toast your majesties. They call your grace Queen Beatrix, a blessed queen.” Beatrice nodded to her, and the maid curtsied and left.
The Queen reclined back against the fluffed-up pillows on the bed. It had been just over five years since she arrived on these shores. Taking the steps from a Portuguese noblewoman to an english queen had not been an easy task; learning a new language, customs, politics, all while doing her hardest to fulfil her primary duty with a husband twice her age. The mangled legacy of her scandalous predecessor, a tarnished queenship to repair and polish, two stepdaughters to raise as their new mother and all the estates, richest and responsibilities of her new position to manage as well. All while being sixteen. Her sister had been given an easier start. But Leonor had grown up in court with Joao, and she had become queen in her own country. All her life Beatice had belived that her future would be a marriage to a duke or other nobleman like her sister Isabella. The baby of Duke Ferdinand and Duchess Beatrice’s brood of nine children. Becoming a queen had never been something she had considered. Her mother had been both delighed in her new position, but also angered. The man who killed her son Diego himself had taken her family’s land and titles and then made her youngest daughter a queen of England. With a dowry fit for a proper Infanta, a match worth any christian king. The king must have laughted himself sick when he got both a alliance, lands and titles to the crown and rid of potential trouble from her family in one stroke. But Beatrice had wanted this herself. Perhaps the desire for grandness ran in her blood too.
“They call me Queen Beatrix in the cities.” She closed her eyes. “I have been victorious.” Sleep found the Queen of England a few minutes later.
King Richard came to see her the day after. Her husband had been to see her after the birth, but she had been in and out of consciousness for hours and he ordered the moorish doctors to attend her closely, opting to not crowd the room further. Her ladies had told him she was up and eating on the morning after, the colors coming back to her face. Beatrice smiled tiredly at him when he entered. Her long and thick auburn hair had been gathered in a large braid down her back and she had changed into a clean shift with a comfortable robe. Her husband was two years away from his 40th birthday, while Beatrice had just turned twenty one a month ago. Richard looked at her face for a moment, studying her features before crossing the room in three quick steps. He sat down on the bed next to her, took her hands in his and brought them to his lips. For several moments he said nothing, just tracing her fingers with his own, kissing her knuckles and palms. Beatrice felt a surge of affection crossing her body like a warm drink on a cold day.
“I am all right, my lord. I am all right. The doctors took excellent care of me. Both of us are doing so well.” She assured him in a low voice. She knew him well enough to know he had spent days worrying about her. It had taken a while before Beatrice had come to love her husband as Richard had been guarded in private for several months after their first meeting and marriage. Always courteous to her, supplying her needs and answering questions. But he had not begun to let her see his soul until the birth of their son in 1486. Not only had she seen the good, warm heart beneath Richard’s solemn face, but she had been begun to get political influence with him. He had listened to her advice when seeking a husband for his second daughter Eleanor and she had been trusted to entertain the Scottish ambassadors during negotiations for his eldest, Joan.
Beatrice of Portugal, Queen of England in 1495
She had also been determined to get an Iberian Infanta for little Richard, called “Dickon” by her husband and “Ricardo” by her in private. Her efforts had been half-successful in that matter. Her initial efforts to secure Infanta Isabella of Portugal had failed after a while, as King John decided to look elsewhere for his sole daughter. But when Dickon was one year old, the courts of Ferdinand and Isabel of Castile and Aragon had become receptive for an alliance with England. Their daughter, Infanta Catalina, was only three months older. Since their oldest son had become King of Navarre in 1486 and he already had two sons, their youngest was an excellent choice for England, in order to guard against France. And the two powerful catholic sovereigns winning the war against the moorish heretics in Granada held a strong appeal for Beatrice. A splendid match between Iberian and Lancastrian blood coming back to England to secure the white rose of York. And the people who grumbled in secret about their queen’s non royal birth would be permanently shut up as well.
She had also managed to acquire a rich heiress to her second son. John la Zouche, 7th Baron Zouche and 8th Baron St Maur was one of her husband’s most loyal men since back when he had been Duke of Gloucester and had been the subject of a most fortunate marriage owning to him and the clumsy attempts at avarice by Queen Margaret Stewart. The rich heiress Cecily Bonville, 7t Baroness Harington and 2nd Baroness Bonville had become his wife in 1475, making him one of the wealthiest men in England. Shortly before that she had been the subject of a prospective marriage with Sir Richard Grey, the younger son of the late Queen Elizabeth Woodville’s first marriage. As his elder brother Thomas had died fighting in Tewkesbury on the Lancastrian side. The combination of his mother’s death and the scorn from Queen Margaret had persuaded him to change sides before the battle. The duke of Gloucester had killed him personally in battle, while John la Zouche had proven himself to be a very valiant twelve-year-old squire to his liege. And Cecily had courage to match her husband as Richard Grey had attempted to abduct her a mere month before her marriage to John. Frustrated by his lack of fortune and deprived of his desired bride, Grey had attempted to force himself on her in order to force the match, resulting in Cecily stabbing him to death to protect her honour. For the past fifteen years she and John has been the happiest of married couple. Unfortunately, they did not have good fortune with their children. Of Cecily’s seven children, only two had survived the cradle. Her only living ones was a robust daughter, Lady Ursula, and a very frail baby, named George for the patron saint. The birth had zapped lot of Cecily’s strength and in order to secure Ursula’s future and inheritance she and John had agreed to betroth her to Prince Edmund. As the future Duchess of York, she would be the second lady in the land.
King Richard III of England in 1490
“I thought I would lose you.” Richard whispered into her hands. He looked up at her, eyes somewhat bloodshot from lack of sleep. He looked almost as tired she did.
“I thought I would lose you like I lost Anne. It’s a decade now since she died. Childbirth killed her in the end. She wanted a son after our girls. A son to replace her firstborn with the Lancastrian Prince. He died in infancy. Almost a decade after his death she died trying to give me a son. Ten years later, I nearly lose you to the same fate. Five years of marriage, four living children. You have given me three sons now and a princess in five years. I’ve been so selfish. I have pushed you so hard. I could have lost you too.”
Richard sounds almost close to tears. Beatrice shifted in bed, wrapping her arms around him, and letting him rest his head against her shoulder. She says nothing, just carding her fingers trough his dark strands of hair and presses a kiss to his temple. After a while he raised his head and sat back. “We will take a break from the marriage bed for a whole year. Our children are thriving and your body need to rest. I will not endanger your health for a long while. We will have more children later if God wills it.”
Beatrice opens her mouth to protest but closes it a moment later. He’s right about her body. “A year will be good in order to regain my strength.” Richard doesn’t say that he loves her at the moment, but the way he looks at her says more than words do.
“They call me Queen Beatrix in the cities. Your Blessed Beatrix.” Beatrice thinks and holds her husbands’ hands in hers. “Yours”.
The queen’s influence increased gradually from 1486, as the question of sending the Earl of Cornwall to Wales came up after his birth. She managed to postpone his departure when he was a few months old, something that became crucial a two weeks later, when a fire broke out in the castle of Ludlow. If the baby had been there, he could have perished. The horrors of the court were matched by the king and queen. King Richard ordered extensive renovations and expansions carried out and better fire safety plans in case it happened again. He also reinforced Caernarfon Castle in the north-west of Wales. The fortress was scourged clean and refurbished from cellar to tower. Beatrice persuaded her husband to add Iberian comforts like bathhouses, new glazed windows, and plenty of new tapestries and carpets. Orders to keep the buildings and grounds clean were issued with livestock not being able to wander around the place amongst other things. The king’s intention with Caernarfon was that the two castles would serve as dual headquarter of the Prince of Wales as well as Ludlow. Like the king and queen who traveled regularly across the country, so would the heir.
It would not be until autumn of 1490 when little Richard was invested as the Prince of Wales in the castle of Winchester, and he left a few days afterwards. Thomas of York stayed in the nursery in Westminster Palace. His investiture as Duke of Bedford would come at a later date. Before the investiture, Dickon traveled to the north of England with his eldest half-sister Joan and little Edmund, the three-year-old soon to be Duke of York. Joan was due to marry King James IV of Scotland and a family progress to the north was timed to introduce the heir to the throne to the region his father used to govern before becoming king. Both Richard and Beatrice had visited the north several times before, much to public’s cheer and the arrival of Joan, the daughter of the late and still loved Anne Neville, was greeted with ferocious joy.
Edmund was placed in the castle of Middleham to be educated by John of Gloucester, his illegitimate half-brother who served as the king’s Stewart in the region. John’s wife had taken well care of the northern estates, as she had grown up in the North of England and in the most prominent noble families in the region.
The scandalous marriage between Eleanor Percy and the king’s bastard son had taken place shortly after her father’s death in 1489. The execution of the man who hoped to marry her, Edward Stafford in 1484 had left her hand free. When the news of their secret marriage had broken, the king had been forced to placate her furious brother, Henry Algernon Percy, with several of Buckingham’s estates. While Percy most likely would have preferred to rebel over the insult, the king’s offer was a good one. The estates were rich in income and would alleviate his economic woes and debts. The queen had managed to smooth things over further by taking responsibility for Eleanor’s dowry. Thus Percy got richer while he did not have to pay a single coin for his sister’s marriage. King Richard had also legitimatised the marriage and any future children from John and Eleanor, while passing a bill in parliament to bar them from the succession. It was similar to what Henry IV had done with his Beaufort half-siblings after John of Gaunt married Katherine Swynford in 1396, almost a century earlier. John and Eleanor had been tactful enough to stay away from court to avoid the prying eyes.
The king had given them several castles and fortresses to hold as stewards until Edmund came of age, including Middleham, Barnard Castle and Scarborough. Edmund was also given several of his father’s former lands and lordships, Skipton, Marton, and the castle of Richmond in 1490. His investiture took place in York Cathedral before his parents and siblings left for Berwick-upon-Tweed where the Scottish king and his entourage was to meet them. The first meeting of James IV and Princess Joan was a successful one. Joan had grown into a tall and sturdy young woman at the age of sixteen. She had long dark hair, brown eyes, and a round face. Joan was fond of dancing and enjoyed outdoors activities like hunting, falconry, and ice skating. She had developed a regal and assertive personality, with a commanding presence. James had delighted in the reports from his ambassadors, allegedly saying; “A bonny queen for a bonny realm”.
Joan of Gloucester, Queen of Scotland
James himself would be remembered as one of the most successful monarchs of the Stewart kings. His long reign would be remembered as a golden age. The court of Edinburgh would be filled with arts, literature, and science. The printing press arrived to Scotland, and James would establish various colleges and universities for both surgeons and doctors, as well as other scholars. Both he and Joan sponsored large architectural works, as Holyroodhouse and the Falkland Palaces was built. Joan and their children benefited from the refurbishments at Linlithgow, Edinburgh, and Stirling castles.
The marriage between James and Joan would be a long and successful one.
James IV, King of Scotland
In 1493, Queen Beatrice began to gather another trousseau. Princess Eleanor of Gloucester would leave for the Duchy of Brittany the next year. She and Jean VI had already been married by proxy in the chapel of Westminster. The splendid collection consisted of jewellery, tapestries and plates of gold and silver. Her wardrobe had been made up with gowns in silks and velvets of various colour; sea green, ruby red, purples. Squares of cloth of gold and silver had been drawn up, as well as rich brocades in dark blue and green. Eleanor had been supplied with shoes, cloaks, and gloves for protection against the cold weather. Little princess Beatrice, or Bea as she was called in the family to distinguish her from her mother was trying to help, as much as a five-year-old could. Like her sisters, she too would leave for a foreign marriage when she came of age, so the queen included her for practise’s sake.
A few months after Eleanor arrived in Nantes, Beatrice found herself pregnant again after more then four years. The next York princess, Cecily, arrived on the third of April in 1995, after a short and easy labour. The easter celebrations that followed would be splendid for the whole court in welcome for the new royal baby. She had been named for her ailing grandmother, Cecily Neville who had been able to attend the christening. The dowager duchess of York would die close to two months after Cecily’s birth.
Author's Note: So the York family in England is thriving. I bet no one could see the John of Gloucester and Eleanor Percy match coming!
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Oh, Richard and Beatrice are quite the power couple! And of course, they’re ensuring all their kids have grand futures ahead of them.
They are proving to be quite a good combination together. And their children will be settled with good marriages.
