"You'd have me marry some Saxon barbarian?!" Maria pressed, looking towards her brother, the Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans, with a hazel-brown gaze that spoke of indignance.
He had, after all, been the one to dissuade their noble father from organising for her a marriage of 'convenience'--at her begging; now he did this? Put her aside, for a similar 'convenience'?
John's own blue-eyed gaze met hers, and in it she saw the twisting of a brother at war with the spider that was the Emperor.
The Emperor eased himself from his seat so they both stood there, in the Boukoleon courtyard; he had come here for peace, but in truth it had been in part an attempt to avoid her.
He was tall, taking inherently after their mother more than their father; copper-red hair, fairer skin, and blue eyes were his--Maria had inherited their father's darker complexions in eyes, hair and skin.
She was the Roman, he the Latin.
"Father is dead Maria," John pressed, cutting clean through the issue, and striking her silent, "Here isn't safe, not with the tides coming, and I'd rather you be safe, and away, in the arms of a man of merit than be forced later to marry you off here," the Emperor explained, before letting a sigh leave him.
Maria noticed then, as he traced a hand through his beard, that he was older than her now--not just as he had been, by a scant few years, but by rule; he had changed.
"You are not a piece to move around on some lesser board; this isn't a 'convenience'--it is a powerplay, and one which puts you as a Queen-to-be in your own right as you deserve,"
A silence held, and Maria looked away with a sigh of her own, before finally speaking, "Is he a good man?" was all she asked, and in that John eased back, and away--towards a small side table, covered in letters, and writing materials.
Even here--this place of peace, he had the tools of rule glued to him--never truly at 'peace'.
A beat later, and he handed her a letter, "See for yourself,"
1356 to 1357
The early year of 1356 had been encapsulated by much in the way of preparations; his sister deserved the best was the mindset of the Emperor, and with her, when she finally departed from the shores of Constantinople for Montferrat, went a hand-picked guard, her favourite priest, several gifts, and money for herself.
Maria Palaiologina had left Rome in March of 1356, never to return.
Her journey took her to Montferrat, where John II Palaeologus-Montferrat welcomed her with appropriate pomp and familial care; John V having ensured as such via letter, and accompanying 'donation'. Her time there while brief, would serve as an introduction to a more closely 'Latin' way of life than she had experienced, even with the influences her mother had left her.
It was thus that when she departed from the lands of her kin by ship once more, thereafter landing in the Gascony-oriented port-city of Narbonne wherein she would meet, for the first time, Edward of Woodstock; the Black Prince, in April of 1356.
Her husband-to-be.
Edward cut a dashing figure--one which, in its own way, reminded her of her brother.
Thereafter, with Edward leading the way, the two would make for the river Garonne; taking travel by river-ships directly from Edward's fief city of Bordeaux, to Bordeaux. It was a pleasant enough journey, and one in which the two would get to know each other well; his character in his own letters to her brother showed to be truthful, as did his reputation as a whole.
Of course, upon their arrival in Bordeaux late that April there was pomp; enough so that for the first time it finally clicked for her what it meant to be a future Queen, alongside how prized she was as the daughter and sister of Emperors.
By June, after months of journeying, and spending time together, the two would be married in England--within the Chapel of St. Nicholas of Windsor Castle, and therefrom would bonds of dynastic kinship be formed that still exist into the modern age.
Even as this went on, so did other changes in Europe.
In Germany, as Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, rallied the princes of the realm in a diet at Nuremberg, the merchants of the north would begin to meet in droves first the first time; establishing what would evolve into the Hanseatic League.
By August the newly-wed Edward the Black Prince, and his bride would return to Bordeaux, and from there, in September, the Black Prince would lead a stunning victory, outnumbered, against the French at Poitiers; shattering the French army, and capturing as hostages the King of France himself, John II, alongside his youngest son Philip.
Thereafter the two would be afforded chivalric honour, and sent to treat with Edward III in England in what would evolve into an ongoing issue... as John II's heir, the Dauphin Charles, would continue to resist the English as 'Regent of France' thereafter.
The fact that the effects of the Death still clung on, with regular wage-riots, and banditry, across the Known World, but especially in France, made things all the harder for the English, who had to contend with both Charles' armies and the duties of subduing these 'effects' in the land they administered on the continent.
That December 1356, the diet of Charles IV would end in the Golden Bull of 1356--effectively the constitution of the Holy Roman Empire; defining several key notions around the Electors, and in equal measure bringing stability and strife in confirming the privileges of some, alienating others [1], and consolidating the Imperial Power around Germany and it's Princes.
Italy had, in all but name, been cut loose.
In Cairo, around this time, Bahri Sultan An-Nasir Hasan would die suddenly of a stroke following orders given to deface the Great Pyramid of Giza; his orders would not be completed.
Come February of 1357 the Estates General of France would convene; attempting to capitalise on the loss of John II to the English, and the Dauphin Charles' hamstringing as 'Regent', to lessen the powers of the King at their own gain--angling to achieve similar Baronial Powers over fiscal & monetary matters as plagued the English.
Of course, this would go nowhere, but it did in its way cause further strife and disunity within the remaining lands of the Kingdom of France itself.
In 1357 too would the Shroud of Turin first be exhibited by the clergy of France, although it was quickly denounced as a fraud; with Maria Palaiologina in particular incensed at this, as the Shroud itself had been stolen from Constantinople in the 4th Crusade.
1357 would end with the Treaty of Berwick, which put an end to Scotland's own wars with the English for now.
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[1] The Golden Bull of 1356 notably refused an Electorate to the Habsburgs, snubbing them, and in turn starting their path to Emperorship themselves with the forging of the Privilegium Maius in retaliation; giving to themselves the status of Archdukes, and the right of primogeniture.