Chapter 28 - Brabant from 1506 to 1507
Chapter 28 – Brabant from 1506 to 1507
The first week of the King of France had started on an especially black note. The death of Charles VIII at the hands of Charles of Lorraine and the capture of Charles IX had been one brutal blow to France after another. To the rest of Christendom, it had been nothing short of a divine strike against the House of Valois and a sign of God’s favour for the Brabantians and English. France had also lost its Marshal, Charles d’Amboise and several of the king’s most trusted war commanders in Boulogne and Burgundy, many nobles amongst others, Odet de Foix, Viscount of Lautrec, Jacques de La Palice and Artus Gouffier de Boissy. The Count of Nevers had been captured by Charles of Lorraine as well. Engelbert fought alongside of Charles VIII in the Palatinate of Burgundy and he were now a badly injured prisoner in Nancy.
Hostages had been taken along with the new king. Robert Stewart, 5th Lord of Aubigny and Jean d’Albret had been defeated and arrested. They along with Charles IX had been swiftly transported to Flanders away from the French border. Charles had been unhorsed by Philippe, Count of Namur, while King Richard and Duke Philip cut through the king’s forces. Charles d’Amboise had been slain by Duke Philip himself at the end, while trying to reach the king’s side. The news had led to a complete breakdown in morale and the remaining French forces abandoning their posts, fleeing the battle sites.
The Grand Duke, King Richard and Philippe could not believe their fortune in this battle. Nor could Charles of Lorraine. An immense service was held in the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Boulogne, otherwise known as the Basilica of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. The service honoured the Count of Saint Pol and the others who had fallen in the war. Philip ordered masses sung for his brother-in law as a fellow christian king. He also sent words down to his second son, Jean that the body would be treated with dignity “as benefiting an anointed sovereign” and returned to France with a respectable entourage. After all, his sister Isabelle had just lost both a husband, while her only son found himself a prisoner of his uncle.
While bonfires were lit in the England and Lorraine, they burned the brightest in Philip’s duchy. Boulogne, Artois, Vermandois and Hainault especially celebrated fiercely as they had been the centre of the French aggression. The burning of Amiens and other cities and towns in Picardy had cause the people, normally pro-French to loath the king and dauphin.
While bonfires burned in the Low Countries, Lorraine and England in celebrations and masses read for the dead on all sides, the victors started to plan for the future. England saw a golden opportunity to retake some of the lands that had been lost before the War of the Roses, and to strengthen Calais, the only continental possession that remained. Philip saw a free hand to increase his own standing and to maybe retake the Duchy of Burgundy that had been lost in 1478. Charles of Lorraine however had plans of his own and allied with his half-uncle. Charles IX would remain an unwilling guest in Ghent for the next years before he returned to France.
Richard and Philip came to an agreement while in Boulogne. The County of Boulogne itself would be given to England as spoil of war and as the sole heiress to Boulogne was the young daughter of the late Jean, Count of Auvergne and Boulogne and his second wife, Jeanne de Bourbon, Anne would become a crucial part of the agreement. Anne would turn nine years old in 1507 and she was betrothed to the Earl of Chester, Richard’s oldest son and heir. Her dowry would be the whole county of Boulogne. The English would not seek to claim her inheritance of Auvergne, in return for a payment of 500,000 livres. France could add Auvergne to the royal lands as neither England or the Brabantians had any ability or even interest in taking it. If Anne died without heirs, then Boulogne would return to the Grand Duke’s realms. The age difference of five years did not bother the king in the least. To further safeguard the area, the king’s younger brother, Thomas, Duke of Bedford was to marry Marguerite of Saint-Pol, the eldest daughter of the late John and Marie of Luxembourg.
Anne, Countess of Boulogne
The following morning the entire family heard a mass in the cathedral, praising the duke and Philippe for defending the duchy and praying for peace. King Charles and his two fellow captives had been invited (or showed off as hostages) to the people of Ghent. After the mass, Philip and Charles enjoyed a day of horse-riding outside of the city, mostly so that the onlookers could bear witness to the fact that the king of France was treated with all due respect and dignity of a crowned sovereign. Their relationship was fine. Nothing harsh or hateful between uncle and nephew.
Privately, Charles would have loved nothing more then to throttle his uncle.
A few days later the Estates General gathered in Ghent where Philip met them prepared to make his case. During the thirty years that had passed since the death of Charles the Bold, Philip had steadily strengthened the ducal power and his own authority, not to mention building up both financial and political capital. The decades of internal peace, with the exception of the conflicts with the Prince-Bishopric of Utrecht in the first years of 1480, had been beneficial to both Estates and Philip, as it had done a immense job of healing the divide between all fractions. While Philip still abided by many of the terms set fort in the Great Privilege by his mother during her regency and had confirmed it more then once, the duke were in a very strong position in 1507. The addition of Guelders, Zutphen, Veluwe and the prince-bishopric of Utrecht, and Saint-Pol, Rethel, Guise and Eu had been handled with a deft hand and marriages that benefited the duchy. While a handful of voices had protested that their duke seemed to follow in his overambitious father’s steps and was becoming a tyrant like him, those were far and few between, scattered and without real force.
Now Philip gathered all of his reserves in order to retake his rightful inheritance as the last Duke of Burgundy and these thirty years showed that he had played his cards very well indeed.
Charles IX of France or Charles the Unfortunate as he would be known.
Author's Note: So the aftermath of the French defeat in 1506. Its not going very well for them right now. Being Marshal of France while invading the Low Countries has proven to be a health hazard it seems. And now we know who's sharing the king's prison bunk in Ghent. And meet the next prospective Princess of Wales! And the County of Never has a new lord to be!
The first week of the King of France had started on an especially black note. The death of Charles VIII at the hands of Charles of Lorraine and the capture of Charles IX had been one brutal blow to France after another. To the rest of Christendom, it had been nothing short of a divine strike against the House of Valois and a sign of God’s favour for the Brabantians and English. France had also lost its Marshal, Charles d’Amboise and several of the king’s most trusted war commanders in Boulogne and Burgundy, many nobles amongst others, Odet de Foix, Viscount of Lautrec, Jacques de La Palice and Artus Gouffier de Boissy. The Count of Nevers had been captured by Charles of Lorraine as well. Engelbert fought alongside of Charles VIII in the Palatinate of Burgundy and he were now a badly injured prisoner in Nancy.
Hostages had been taken along with the new king. Robert Stewart, 5th Lord of Aubigny and Jean d’Albret had been defeated and arrested. They along with Charles IX had been swiftly transported to Flanders away from the French border. Charles had been unhorsed by Philippe, Count of Namur, while King Richard and Duke Philip cut through the king’s forces. Charles d’Amboise had been slain by Duke Philip himself at the end, while trying to reach the king’s side. The news had led to a complete breakdown in morale and the remaining French forces abandoning their posts, fleeing the battle sites.
The Grand Duke, King Richard and Philippe could not believe their fortune in this battle. Nor could Charles of Lorraine. An immense service was held in the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Boulogne, otherwise known as the Basilica of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. The service honoured the Count of Saint Pol and the others who had fallen in the war. Philip ordered masses sung for his brother-in law as a fellow christian king. He also sent words down to his second son, Jean that the body would be treated with dignity “as benefiting an anointed sovereign” and returned to France with a respectable entourage. After all, his sister Isabelle had just lost both a husband, while her only son found himself a prisoner of his uncle.
While bonfires were lit in the England and Lorraine, they burned the brightest in Philip’s duchy. Boulogne, Artois, Vermandois and Hainault especially celebrated fiercely as they had been the centre of the French aggression. The burning of Amiens and other cities and towns in Picardy had cause the people, normally pro-French to loath the king and dauphin.
While bonfires burned in the Low Countries, Lorraine and England in celebrations and masses read for the dead on all sides, the victors started to plan for the future. England saw a golden opportunity to retake some of the lands that had been lost before the War of the Roses, and to strengthen Calais, the only continental possession that remained. Philip saw a free hand to increase his own standing and to maybe retake the Duchy of Burgundy that had been lost in 1478. Charles of Lorraine however had plans of his own and allied with his half-uncle. Charles IX would remain an unwilling guest in Ghent for the next years before he returned to France.
Richard and Philip came to an agreement while in Boulogne. The County of Boulogne itself would be given to England as spoil of war and as the sole heiress to Boulogne was the young daughter of the late Jean, Count of Auvergne and Boulogne and his second wife, Jeanne de Bourbon, Anne would become a crucial part of the agreement. Anne would turn nine years old in 1507 and she was betrothed to the Earl of Chester, Richard’s oldest son and heir. Her dowry would be the whole county of Boulogne. The English would not seek to claim her inheritance of Auvergne, in return for a payment of 500,000 livres. France could add Auvergne to the royal lands as neither England or the Brabantians had any ability or even interest in taking it. If Anne died without heirs, then Boulogne would return to the Grand Duke’s realms. The age difference of five years did not bother the king in the least. To further safeguard the area, the king’s younger brother, Thomas, Duke of Bedford was to marry Marguerite of Saint-Pol, the eldest daughter of the late John and Marie of Luxembourg.
Anne, Countess of Boulogne
Philip offered to free the King as soon as France paid 500,000 livres to the Flemish, an enormous sum or returned the Duchy of Burgundy that he had been forced to surrender. In the meantime, Charles remained comfortable imprisoned in the Gravensteen castle along with Jean d’Albret and Robert Stewart. After his dealings with Richard had been finished, Philip turned to plotting with Charles of Lorraine. The warlike Duke and his cunning uncle had a common goal in taking back the Burgundian parts and Charles himself sought to add Nevers to the Anjou patrimony. While a captive in Nancy, Engelbert, having been badly injured and left a cripple had been forced to designate the duke of Lorraine as his heir and successor. To make it official it had taken place in the Saint-Epvre Basilica of Nancy before a papal legate and several of the most prominent bishops and statesmen in Lorraine. Shortly after that, Charles sent a entourage to Nevers, claiming his legal right as their heir. Naturally, the estates in Nevers were not overly keen on accepting Charles as their new Count, so by sword it would be. The estates in the Duchy of Burgundy sent a entourage that they would welcome their rightful Duke back. Now that the king of France had died and Charles IX had been taken prisoner, the movement in Burgundy had increased tenfold, especially as the fleeing French soldiers had turned to robberies and banditry in the region. In order to take back his inheritance, Philip first had to settle the situation at home, but he told Charles to go ahead with their plans. In order to embark on this great enterprise, he needed the full backing of the Estates General and his fellow nobles and it was to Flanders the estates had been summoned for this purpose.
Philip and his son Philippe returned to Ghent in great triumph, escorted by 1000 knights in splendid armour, riding richly caparisoned horses. The duke had dressed up for the occasion, leaving his usually sombre attire for crimson velvet, cloth of gold, the crown of Burgundy and an ermine mantle that fell to his white horse’s hocks. The Count of Namur wore an equally as splendid outfit, and rode his dappled horse behind him. The procession proceeded all the way into Ghent up to the steps of Saint Bavo’s Cathedral where the ducal family awaited. The duke would not be the only one providing the city with glamourous sights, the duchess had dressing up to dazzle spectators. Her silver and damask gown cut a magnificent figure with an overrobe of purple velvet and a long Flemish hood of fluted cloth of gold and pearl-embroidered black silk. Besides Philippa stood the ducal family. The Countess of Namur, Beatrijs, held little Marguerite’s hand, with baby Pippa on her hip. Katelijne and her siblings, Cecilia and Antoine stood on the steps below them. The glorious sight of the ducal family, basking in victory from the battle accompanied by shining knights and finely attired burgers and merchants delighted the people, along with the spectacle of flowing wine and bread being distributed to the populace and dancing entertainers in Ghent.The following morning the entire family heard a mass in the cathedral, praising the duke and Philippe for defending the duchy and praying for peace. King Charles and his two fellow captives had been invited (or showed off as hostages) to the people of Ghent. After the mass, Philip and Charles enjoyed a day of horse-riding outside of the city, mostly so that the onlookers could bear witness to the fact that the king of France was treated with all due respect and dignity of a crowned sovereign. Their relationship was fine. Nothing harsh or hateful between uncle and nephew.
Privately, Charles would have loved nothing more then to throttle his uncle.
A few days later the Estates General gathered in Ghent where Philip met them prepared to make his case. During the thirty years that had passed since the death of Charles the Bold, Philip had steadily strengthened the ducal power and his own authority, not to mention building up both financial and political capital. The decades of internal peace, with the exception of the conflicts with the Prince-Bishopric of Utrecht in the first years of 1480, had been beneficial to both Estates and Philip, as it had done a immense job of healing the divide between all fractions. While Philip still abided by many of the terms set fort in the Great Privilege by his mother during her regency and had confirmed it more then once, the duke were in a very strong position in 1507. The addition of Guelders, Zutphen, Veluwe and the prince-bishopric of Utrecht, and Saint-Pol, Rethel, Guise and Eu had been handled with a deft hand and marriages that benefited the duchy. While a handful of voices had protested that their duke seemed to follow in his overambitious father’s steps and was becoming a tyrant like him, those were far and few between, scattered and without real force.
Now Philip gathered all of his reserves in order to retake his rightful inheritance as the last Duke of Burgundy and these thirty years showed that he had played his cards very well indeed.
Charles IX of France or Charles the Unfortunate as he would be known.
Author's Note: So the aftermath of the French defeat in 1506. Its not going very well for them right now. Being Marshal of France while invading the Low Countries has proven to be a health hazard it seems. And now we know who's sharing the king's prison bunk in Ghent. And meet the next prospective Princess of Wales! And the County of Never has a new lord to be!
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