History of Arleat/Burgundy Part 1: Peace enforced by internal strife.

Burgundy much like every other country in Western Europe was completely sewn due to internal strife, the Croy Family, a power noble family that held positions in court was trying desperately to gain even more power to supplant the house of Valois-Bourgogne, evidently seen in the forceful marriage of Jacqueline of Luxembourg, eldest daughter of the powerful, Louis of Saint Pol. This marriage would secure the Croy Family in terms of strength within the house of Valois-Bourgogne but it would set a rivalry between this house and the Count of Charolais, Charles the Absolute of Burgundy. Charles, only Count of Charolais was quite angry at his father Philip the Good of Burgundy. He was removed from government as he had no say in running Charolais but instead stuck around Artois with his forced French wife Isabel of Bourbon. Only his mother, Isabella of Portugal supported him, but god would give Charles luck. He would give birth to a son, Philip named after his father in hopes of reconciling the bond between father and son. This would undoubtedly work although it would be incredibly tough, Philip now seeing a grandson began introducing Charles into government sacking Jean II de Lennoy from his position of stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland and giving it to Charles. This would not go down well with the Croy family but due to the birth of Philip and the return of Isabella the self exiled Duchess of Burgundy and the exiled chancellor Nicholas Rolin. Charles began to exert a far greater influence over Burgundy and continued this power struggle between himself and the Croy Family.

The dauphin of France, Louis was considered the wild card and living up to his name as the universal spider, was playing off of two things. The first was the spellbound foolishness of Philip the Good and his belief in a reconciliatory attitude to France. Under this foolishness that the French king was not outright hostile to Burgundy played this weird back and forth, using the Dauphin to promote better relations while refusing the king’s order. Swearing up and down that he, Philip the Good was a servant of the King of France while at every turn he would do his best to refuse crown authority. The second was his alliance and network of contacts in Burgundy that Charles, count of Charolais was actively dismantling with his shadow war against the Croy family, only through Philip’s good will was he still in a dominant position in Burgundy. Charles watched in anger and shock as his father continued this flip-flopping and absolutely despised the Dauphin and France in general. He watched as Charles VII formed what can only be described as a return to Orleanist encirclement. His alliance with Denmark, the purchasing of the claims of Luxembourg from the Saxons, the Lancastrian support, conference at Savoy, and the alliance of the Swiss the subsequent alliance with Bohemia who at this point was under Ladislaus the Posthumous and would soon turn the empire against the powerful Burgundian state. He constantly argued with his father that Charles VII could not be trusted as he was forming an encirclement against the Burgundian state. Philip finally acquiesced seeing the impassionated speeches made by Charles invoking his grandfather John the Fearless, arguing that the Dauphin now King Charles VII was directly responsible or negligent in his death, he listed out these infractions that Philip himself witnessed and resolved, declaring to the estates general at Bruges. “We can not be free under the King, for the king sees us not as a subject but as a rival that seeks to dismantle our state, strip us of our privileges, burn our cities, and loot our lands until the coffers of the French are satisfied.” Charles declared to the estates general. This declaration would finally cause Philip to abandon his indecisiveness and returned to an anti-French attitude in the year 1460, interestingly he would not give up on the dauphin as Charles conceded that he would see if Louis would act like his father towards Burgundy. It would be a costly mistake for the Burgundian dukes although not a complete one.

Philip the Good, believed that in Reims his greatest achievement was made as he shattered Charles VII’s great plans of encirclement with the exiled Dauphin. Louis XI of France was crowned surrounded by Burgundian arms, and his new ally Edward of York assumed the throne as Edward IV of England. He would still find enemies in the Holy Roman Empire as Frederick III, cousin of the late Ladislaus would see Burgundy as a threat once more. For now, Burgundy and France continued in an uneasy peace as Charles continued to dismantle what he saw as “French partisans and spies working for the spider king” but in reality he was merely removing advisors and consolidating power for himself. The Croy family became a practical vassal and with the arrival of one William Hugonet, Charles was establishing internal peace through an authoritarian hand. This anti-French attitude would seemingly pay off as the appointment of one David of Burgundy as bishop of Utrecht would prove to be another piece added to the Burgundian State. This internal peace was only because of the changes happening in the other nations at the time most importantly France.

It isn’t a dauphinst France that came out of the Hundred Years’ War. It was an Armagnac France that came out of the Hundred Years War. When the mad King Charles VI disinherited and threw out the Dauphin. It was not because the dauphin was too ambitious or too competent to the point of jealousy but instead of political intrigue that saw England and Burgundy align themselves after the death of John the Fearless. This throwing of the dauphin would lead him directly into the arms of the Armagnacs, and raising him under the armagnac banner would be the death nail for Charles VII or Charles the Victorious. He saw his mother in law as his actual mother, the powerful Yolande of Aragon, who with Angevin interests in mind would seek him to decentralize his realm to help her family, the house of Valois-Anjou. Charles VII was not a man of great will or of great action, the only reason he had his epithet was the holy maiden’s arrival. Joan of Arc, who led the charge to have Charles VII crowned king. Just because a crown was given, didn’t change the man. His inaction cost the holy maiden her life, and throughout the various years, this lack of action would spur the new dauphin to action. Louis XI of France considered his father weak and feeble, while this portrayal is widely rejected, it held some merit in the eyes of the dauphin. Louis did not see his father’s reforms of the army and his brilliant Burgundian diplomacy in breaking the long powerful Anglo-Burgundian Alliance. He only saw the inaction of his father and the playing of favourites such as Agnes Sorel, and Charles, Count of Maine.

The Praguerie, named after what the French saw as civil unrest in Prague was the humbling of the dauphin. Charles VII in a spur of action crushed the rebellion in a matter of months against the rebellious Duke of Bourbon and Duke of Alencon. This event would humble Louis in terms of attitude but not ambition. Rumours whispered that Charles was only spurred to ruin his heir and not against the English. We would not hear the last of this ambitious and rebellious dauphin as he would be the centre of attention after demolishing the Swiss and ransacking Austrian Alsatian lands. Even the emperor was shaken after this decisive victory and the threat of the loss of the homelands of the Habsburgs. Once again, Charles VII, king of France reined his son in and this moment of glory however brief was lost immediately. That moment was seared in the Dauphin’s head. He would return once again, humbled and resentful. The death of Margaret of Scotland, his first wife would be a blessing in disguise, long had the dauphin been jealous of his wife, as she had the court and the crown’s attention and joy, but her death caused even more resentment between the dauphin and the crown. Dauphin Louis who assumed he would inherit at the very least the wealth from Margaret was even more isolated from court. An ambitious and embittered dauphin was never good for a king, and he would drive the mistress of the king to near death, this courtly war of intrigue and manipulation was ended with the birth of Charles, Duke of Berry. The dauphin would be exiled to dauphine, finally granting him a semblance of power.

As the king grew ever stronger, using the new professional army to drive the English back into the sea, the dauphin was consolidating his power in Dauphiné. His taste for power and for ruling was well served throughout as Dauphiné was now the centre of attention in Burgundy, France and Northern Italy. Dauphiné was a power that began to enter the diplomatic stage, seeking a full coalition against Milan over Sforza’s seizure of power, the marriage between the Dauphin and Charlotte of Savoy. Dauphiné would be a warning to France, this centralized state would be the absolutist dream of its next king. The king and the nobility, would not allow this to happen. After all, when a king is crowned by nobles, they are a puppet are they not? Or at least that is what the Dauphin thought, ironically he also tried to be crowned by the nobility but hypocrisy in politics is a small sin. The invasion and seizure of Dauphin drove him into exile with only a handful of advisors, not even his new wife joined him. Where else would he go but into the hands of France’s most powerful vassal. The Duke of Burgundy welcomed him with open arms not realizing he invited a fox into his henhouse.

A king weakened by nobles, tempted by women. The kingdom that only drove out the English because they believed Henry V was too powerful and forceful of will to align with their interests, by using such powerful nobility, the crown is as weak as ever. The king is old and is dying, but still believes in his youth due to his multiple affairs. Its saving grace lies in Burgundy where an absolutist dauphin, tempered by defeat, scholarly in politics, and ambitious in rulership waits for even the slightest chance to seize what he sees as his rightful throne. When this absolutist dauphin came to power that is exactly what he did, immediately by throwing a small carrot and appointing his now 15 year old younger brother as Duke of Berry, immediately breaking the backbone of any resistance against his coronation. The removing of Charles’ many mistresses including Agnes Sorel and the expansion of the parlament of Paris which served him well breathing absolutist power into France again. The reforms were very similar to the reforms conducted at Dauphiné and while the nobility was dissatisfied with it, Louis would play the game quite well as he began to place incredible pressure on Savoy and Aragon seeking to incorporate portions of it into France. His efforts would be most successful in Aragon as he extracted a couple of counties from the Aragonese in the succession of John II of Aragon and Louis turned France’s eye on Burgundy in the aftermath of the famous Feast of the Pheasant.

On the other side of the channel in England, the glory days of Henry V were over with the ascension of his son Henry VI. England started a Hundred Years War for the full conquest of France and has lost completely. Charles VII no matter how ineffective he was at governing saw to the victories and the driving out of English continental power. The betrayal of Burgundy, the cowardice of Somerset and the destruction of the English treasury has cost the king, his prestige, legitimacy and sanity. However, unlike France England had two saving graces, Richard, Duke of York and Margaret of Anjou. England after the death of John, Duke of Bedford. The Lancastrian position in France crumbled, with defeat after defeat by the hands of the holy maiden, Joan of Arc who lead the dauphin Charles VII to be King of France. Henry VI was rushed into the crown at the age of two but that did not benefit the position. The betrayal of the Burgundians at Arras, allowed Charles to sweep the Ile de France, but the marriage of Henry VI to Margaret of Anjou sent England’s fortunes in a downward spiral, originally the marriage was supposed to be with Henry and Marie of Armagnac but these negotiations proved indecisive as a combination of Charles forces, and Louis the dauphin’s brilliant political manoeuvring brought down these negotiations. Instead Henry was married to Margaret of Anjou, a brilliant diplomatic victory for Charles VII of France but spearheaded by the ambitious dauphin. The loss of Maine back to Charles count of Maine, was proven to be unpopular amongst the English as Henry and Margaret were attacked indirectly by the blame being shifted onto the Earl of Suffolk.

When you were borne from a powerful duchess, and you are married to a weak king, would you not claim to be a strong queen? Margaret of Anjou began to strong-arm her way through government in order to stabilize the realm immediately after her marriage, but her appointment of Somerset allowed the rise of the heir presumptive to the throne, and the most powerful noble of the realm. Richard Duke of York, was a cousin of Henry VI and as he considered himself, the saviour of England. He held back the French until Somerset’s appointment in which he was sent to Ireland to govern it. Somerset’s defeat and the loss of the entirety of Northern France gave him the edge needed to strike back against Margaret. The alliance with between himself and Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick lead to a civil war between the York and Lancaster.

Margaret was the saviour of England, or as so she dreamed, by creating a faction, driving out Richard of York, from his position as Lord Protector and bearing a son, she was completely in charge of the realm. It would be her faction and advisors that would drag her down. Somerset’s incompetence in France drove York into action. York outraged at being shoved out of the crown by the queen would lead a practical rebellion when the king was incapacitated and killed Somerset, but this murder would put parliament into a resentment and King Henry’s return to sanity would isolate him from any further intrigue. Another failure at parliament and York resigned, bitter and vengeful. Margaret now holds the cards through indirect control of the king. This fragile peace would not last, a saviour from the shadows against the noble killing saviour. A crucial mistake in letting the noble killing saviour, Richard Duke of York escape from royal arrest would unleash a chain of events that would drive the Lancastrians out and establish Richard as de facto king, only to make a mistake and die before not being crowned and letting Margaret of Anjou and Edward of Westminster escape to Scotland but now Edward IV son of the late Richard was king and he saw his father win the crown by blood and iron and he would not do the same in his reign.

The Holy Roman Empire was in utter chaos in these trying times, Albert II of Germany, the heir of the Luxembourgs and Sigismund of Bohemia is long dead, his cousin Frederick III was acclaimed Holy Roman Emperor but he only ruled Inner Austria. (Styria, Carniola, and Carinthia) This weakened emperor was only elected because he was indeed weak but he was ambitious marrying Eleanor of Portugal and trying to establish the Habsburgs as a dynasty to last. This was seen through the rise of Ladisalus as King of Bohemia, Hungary and Archduke of Austria restoring Albert II’s great union but it has collapsed with his death. Frederick could only claim upper Austria while his brother Albert VI fought him tooth and nail for that inheritance. All-out war would spark over the archduchy as the energetic archduke would fight against the emperor. To the north, a Hussite regent is proclaimed King, George of Podebrady is now king of Bohemia, and his rule is unstable trying to keep an internal peace. He is ever so slightly successful but as always he is ambitious as well, he sold his claims to Luxembourg to France and dreams of Imperial Ambition. The trend of anti-burgundian imperial ambition would continue under the Saxons led by Frederick II, along with the Margrave of Brandenburg, Frederick II Hohenzollern were relatively new into the imperial electoral politics but one thing is for sure. The empire would not allow Burgundian influence to grow even more, but the Empire has long fractured and is weak, anyone can see when David of Burgundy was appointed bishop of Utrecht and the empire did nothing.

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