Chapter Twenty-Three: The "Usurper"
Chapter Twenty-Three: The “Usurper”
The situation for King Charles IX was a fragile one. Although he had supporters, namely the Exile court faction, he also had plenty of enemies who suspected him of poisoning Charles VIII. But there was a strong argument to be made that Charles hadn’t killed his predecessor. He was no idiot - he had realised that he would be held at fault for his death, and aside from that, the boy was his nephew, and he would not commit such a blood crime. [1] Even so, he now found himself in a position where he had to convince the courts of Europe of his innocence, whether true or not, especially with Maximilian and Anne beginning on a war path against him. With his neighbours to the east preparing for war, Charles turned to his southern neighbours for assistance - the kingdom of Navarre, which was ruled by Catherine of Navarre and her husband John d’Albret. Charles IX began by offering an alliance to the Navarrese monarchs, and his offer was based on the feudal possessions of the House of Foix, Catherine’s family, and the House of Albret, John’s family. Charles offered to permanently transfer the Foix territories of the Viscounty of Béarn and County of Bigorre to Navarre, as well as granting the monarch of Navarre the right to collect feudal dues from the Viscounty of Soule, effectively doubling Navarre’s land. He also pledged to help Catherine and John against Catherine’s uncle, John of Foix, who was attempting to claim the Navarrese throne through the French Salic Law, which had never held legality in Navarre. The Navarrese monarchs agreed to Charles’s terms, and also provisionally agreed that when they had children of their own, at least one would be betrothed to one of Charles IX’s children. The agreement was ratified in the Treaty of Dax, signed in Dax on 9th October 1485. Then Charles moved from France to Italy, leaving John II, Count of Rethel in charge of France, and travelled to Rome to attempt to convince the Pope that he was innocent.
A map showing the kingdom of Navarre after the Treaty of Dax. Also shown on the map are the Navarrese monarchs' feudal holdings in France, from the Houses of Foix (Foix and Narbonne) and Albret (Albret, Turenne, Perigord and Limoges). The base map is the same map of France I've used in other chapters.
Vienna, 19th January 1486
Maximilian banged his closed fist on his father’s desk. “Coward!” He shouted.
“Son, please settle down.” Emperor Frederick III sighed in exasperation.
“No! Why do you refuse me this war?” Maximilian demanded. “Are you truly willing to let a usurper and a blood criminal sit on the throne of France?”
“For the sake of peace for the empire, yes.” Frederick stated, and Maximilian groaned. “Besides, Maximilian, there is no hard evidence against Charles IX. A circumstance, a coincidence and a motive is not sufficient grounds to go to war with the man.”
“Circumstance and coincidence,” Maximilian repeated, and laughed derisively. “He has truly tricked you, hasn’t he? He is guilty. If not of killing Charles VIII, then certainly of killing Louis XI. He has deprived my children of their grandfather [2].”
“King Louis XI, may God rest his soul, was killed in a popular rebellion. Charles is no more at fault in that than any other man who joined that rising.” Frederick said. “And you are intending on war, which will deprive even more children of their grandfathers. And their fathers, and brothers, uncles, nephews, husbands. You are willing to kill so many to avenge a man you met once and his son whom you never met.”
“Those men being, my wife’s father and brother.” Maximilian said.
Frederick shook his head. “You will not use the Empire’s resources to satisfy your wife’s lust for revenge, Maximilian. I shall not allow it.”
Maximilian stormed out of his father’s office, furious. Frederick had become a coward ever since that incident with King Matthias of Hungary, when he had besieged Vienna. Ever since then, he had been hard-pressed to have any opinion on any matter of foreign policy, and detested the risk of war.
Anne saw from the look on his face what the verdict was as he returned to their quarters. “Damn it.” Anne murmured quietly. “He really won’t allow it?”
“No.” Maximilian shook his head. “He doesn’t want the Empire’s resources going into what he called your lust for revenge.”
Anne laughed bitterly and shook her head. She didn’t speak for a minute, then said, “We don’t need the whole empire.”
Maximilian looked at her and frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, we get in touch with your brother-in-law. I’m sure we could convince Philip IV of the need for another war in France, to secure Burgundy’s independence.”
Maximilian grinned. “My, Anne, you truly are a genius.”
“Believe me, I am aware.” Anne said and stood up. “Now, get your quill. I will tell you what to write...”
Vatican City, 11th February 1486
“Is he still there?” Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, a Spaniard from Valencia, said as he stopped next to Giuliano della Rovere, one of the many della Rovere men who had enjoyed having a relative of theirs wearing the papal tiara.
“It appears so,” Giuliano answered slowly. The man in question was the King of France, Charles IX, who had come to the Vatican a few days ago to convince Pope Innocent VIII that he had played no role in the death of his nephew and kingly predecessor. The Pope had not believed him - it was shockingly easy to see how one could blame Charles, given the circumstances of his nephew’s death - and so Charles IX had made it his mission to prove his innocence by way of whip, chained to a pillar in the centre of Piazza San Pietro.
One could see the corporal punishment he had volunteered for as proof of his innocence, but it could just as easily be seen as his way of absolving himself of his sins. To Giuliano, this gesture only confirmed that the King of France had no fear of pain.
On the other side of Piazza San Pietro from him and Rodrigo, Giuliano could see the pope watching closely. Although Giuliano was no fan of the man, he and Rodrigo had worked hard to get the papal tiara on Innocent’s head. Now they watched as Innocent walked out from the tree he was standing under towards the king. “Stop!” He called out as the man holding the whip raised his arm once again. “I cannot bear to watch this any more. Untie his Highness, for the love of God!” Innocent demanded.
“Of course, Your Holiness.” The man said and rushed to the king’s side, undoing the bindings holding him to the post. Giuliano could no longer hear what the Pope was saying to King Charles.
Next to Giuliano, Rodrigo Borgia tutted. “Punishing himself for a crime he claims not to have committed,” he said, his voice dripping with an oily layer of sarcasm. “He certainly looks innocent now.”
“Do you believe he did kill the king?” Giuliano asked.
“I do not know.” Rodrigo admitted. “The case against him rests on happenstance and public opinion, rather than facts. But this display of his proves nothing to me other than that he has an Athenian flair for drama.”
Whether Cardinal Borgia was convinced by Charles IX’s display or not, Pope Innocent VIII was. Having been raised in the Neapolitan court, Innocent sent Charles IX to Naples alongside Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia to act as a papal emissary to convey to King Ferrante that the pope trusted Charles. With that said, King Ferrante was open to negotiating an alliance between France and Naples, to provide Charles IX with more of the international backing he needed. They concluded the following alliance in the Treaty of Barleta, signed on 5th March 1486:
- King Charles IX renounced all claims to the Neapolitan throne, which he inherited from Charles, Count of Maine who had willed his claims on Naples to Louis XI before his death at the Battle of Reims.
- Ferrante I’s grandson, also called Ferrante (born in 1467), would marry Charles IX’s daughter Elizabeth (born in 1474) once both were of age.
- Ferrante promised to help Charles against imperial aggression, and vowed to send soldiers to France in case Maximilian did indeed invade France.
- Ferrante would also provide Charles with an opportunity to travel to the kingdom of Aragon, where he would negotiate an alliance with Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, assisted by Ferrante’s heir Alfonso, Duke of Calabria.
Since being repatriated into the Burgundian regime, Nicholas, Duke of Lorraine had grown to be a valued member of Philip IV’s court, despite Anthony, Bastard of Burgundy never fully trusting him again. Nicholas and Marie had three children - a son, René (born in 1482), and two daughters, Marie (born in 1481) and Isabelle (born in 1485). The alliance between Burgundy and the Holy Roman Empire, solidified by the marriage of Philip IV and Kunigunde of Austria, meant that Nicholas found himself against Charles IX, the suspected murderer of the Princess of Burgundy’s sister-in-law’s brother, and was thus expected to act accordingly. While Maximilian struggled with his father Emperor Frederick III about invading France, Maximilian ordered Nicholas to begin a rebellion against Charles IX. He did so, raising 6,000 men in the Duchy of Anjou and County of Maine and wrote to Francis II, hoping to gain Breton support. However, Francis II was not willing to risk war with France again, afraid that if he did so he would end up losing his newfound independence. Lorraine’s rebellion started in February 1487, and declared Charles IX unfit to rule and proclaimed Louis, Duke of Orleans as his replacement. Charles IX came north from Guyenne and Poitou, raising an army as he went, until he had an army of over 10,000 men. Lorraine was defeated at the Battle of Le Mans on 17th March 1487, and Lorraine himself was killed in the battle. Charles IX declared his French estates forfeit and proclaimed Lorraine a traitor, but the consequences of his rebellion were much more severe. Lorraine had nominated Louis, Duke of Orleans, brother-in-law of Anne de Valois, as the rightful king of France. Orleans was currently hiding within Brittany, directly to the west of Anjou and Maine, where Charles IX was now in position of an army. Clearly, there was only one thing Charles could do - demand that Francis II hand Orleans over to him, or invade Brittany.
[1] - to make things more interesting, I’m not going to say whether Charles IX killed Charles VIII or not. Make your own opinion on it. This way, what happened to Charles VIII can just be this TL's version of the Princes of the Tower.
[2] - by 1487, Maximilian and Anne have three children, whose births are recorded in Chapter Five: Family Trees. These children are Katharina (born in 1479), Ludwig (born in 1483) and Eleonore (born in 1484).
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