Paris ne vaut pas une messe! - A Huguenot IN AAR

Chapter XXV – Heirs of Kings


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The Stuart Succession
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After the successful conclusion of the Papal-French War, Sully began to concentrate on the internal power of the reformed union. The other member-states had willingly assumed the Triumvirate’s control over the alliance thanks to on one hand the power of France and on the other, the support of the Anglo-Scottish monarch James I. The British king had been a personal friend of Henri IV and enjoyed his full support in the civil war that had been concluded years ago. He had thus always been a strong supporter of the French monarchy. Yet the health of James had been worsened over the last few years even though he no longer had a parliament annoying him at every turn. Henri and James had been much alike. Both represented a new royal house, the Bourbon and Stuart houses, and both had been great admires of absolutism. So when James died of a harsh fever in early 1621 both France and England were shaken. One could have feared that the death of James would have led to a new civil war between the royalists and the empowered Irish-based parliamentarians. Luckily this never came to pass, as the son of James, Charles, quickly ascended the throne of both England and Scotland.


When Charles took over the English throne he also became vice-king of Scotland. The Scottish situation was peculiar as James had forced the Scottish nobles into accepting him, as king of England, as their superior lord. This meant that Charles was his own liege and vassal at the same time. Of course this praxis would lead to numerous problems if allowed to continue, so Charles issued a royal decree from London in which he effectively made Scotland a province of England with a status much like that of Wales, although the Scots were allowed to retain their reformed faith out of respect of France. Opposition was meagre at best as James had virtually destroyed the Scottish nobles during the civil war and expropriated their lands to loyal nobles. One could with some justice draw a parallel between the Decree of London of Charles with the charter made by Danish king Christian when he merged Norway into the Danish kingdom in the second half of the 16th century. With the inheritance of Charles, the British Isles had been assembled in two consolidated and protestant kingdoms; the absolute kingdom of England-Scotland and the by parliament dominated kingdom of Ireland.



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Sully and the Stadtholder
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When Sully had extended his condolences to the new British monarch and after Rohan had attended the splendid funeral of James in Westminster Abbey, the regency began its work to turn Charles into such a firm supporter of France as his father had been. It wasn’t a hard job; Charles had spent much of his youth in France together with the dauphin Louis and the duc d’Orleans [1] and had formed a strong bond between him and the French royal family. With support from the Isles Sully now demanded the end of the independent government of Breda. The government of the small Dutch town reluctantly agreed on the first demand and surrendered the city to the French delegation. Sully had no interest in having a French enclave between Flanders and the United Provinces; it would only further animosity within the alliance so he proposed to hand over the city to the Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic. The Dutch agreed with joy, so after almost 30 years after the first Bourbon-Habsburg War Breda returned to the United Provinces. The prestige of Sully and his government rose quickly throughout protestant Europe.


It all seemed to go extremely well for Sully. He had enlarged France on the Papacy’s account, secured a swift succession in England and guaranteed the Reformed faith in Scotland. Nothing could go wrong in the last few years of his regency. Or so he seemed.



For then the unthinkable happened. The one thing that would pose a serious threat to Sully’s power.



The Dauphin died.







[1]In original timeline he died at a young age, but in this timeline he survived.


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Chapter XXVI – A New Heir?



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Nicolas
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At first the death of Louis, dauphin and heir to the French throne, was kept a secret only known by very few. Sully only ruled France through his position as guardian and head of the regency and as such the loss of the heir would compromise him greatly. If the news spread, the Holy League might see a chance and strike against France with Austrian support. Discretion was required; that and a quick investigation of the circumstances of the dauphin’s death. At first it seemed to have been a quiet, painless and natural death, but when trusted physicians had examined the body, it became terrible clear that poison had been involved. Without hesitation Sully ordered the borders closed. No ship was allowed to leave port and all foreigners in Paris were detained. Working feverishly, the marshals brought the younger (and legitimate) brother of Louis to court and quickly had him acknowledged as the rightful successor to the French throne. Only then did the government announce that the dauphin had passed away and that his brother had succeeded him. In order to avoid popular unrest the details of the passing of the late heir were not disclosed.


The new heir was the former duke of Orleans and fourth child of Henri IV, Nicolas Henri. Although he was only 14 years of age he had already had a troubled youth, suffering from series of epileptic attacks that nearly killed him. However the young Nicolas proved to be tougher than expected and lived to be a strong and healthy young man. He had been raised firmly by his mother and had spent much time with de Bonne practicing sword fighting and military tactics. It was already clear by then that he was much alike to his father. He also proved to be strong willed young man who, although his tutors had done their best force it out of him, would gladly take a whipping in order to speak his mind. Sully was equally surprised, enraged and delighted when the new dauphin, while accepting the regency’s nomination, outright demanded that he be taken in on the council. Rohan was confused; Sully irritated and de Bonne simply gave his full support to the dauphin’s idea. He quickly convinced Rohan that being part of the governing process and learning statesmanship and warfare would help shape the dauphin into a worthy successor to their beloved Henri. Being in minority, Sully reluctantly agreed.


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Responsibility?
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The public mourned the loss of their coming monarch, but rejoiced that there had been no possibility for a great revolt given the quick reactions of the triumvirate.
Yet one question still lurked in the minds of the enlarged triumvirate: who was responsible? No evidence had been found other than a few empty bottles of poison in the royal castle’s garden. The French government wouldn’t be left in doubt for long however. When Louis was buried in Saint Denis Basilica next to his father no condolences arrived from the Habsburgs and more worryingly none came from the duke of Lorraine. Said duke had been an avid supporter of the previous Holy League so it wasn’t unthinkable that he had had something to do with the dauphin’s death. Nicolas wanted to go to war at once, but was in minority against the old marshals. When Habsburg and Imperial diplomats later announced that French citizens and especially French merchants weren’t wanted in the Imperial realms, it became painfully clear that the Habsburgs sought confrontation with, what they believed to be a weakened France.


Following the Habsburg attempt at an isolation of France, the tension between the two blocs grew enormously. Troops were gathered on both banks of the Rhine, Spanish soldiers occupied the passes of the Pyrenees and Sully prepared to muster his allies. War seemed eminent.

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The League Strikes Back
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On New Years Eve 1623 the Spaniards cleared their positions in the Pyrenees and withdrew to Barcelona under the cover of the frosty night. In the opposite direction a force of 12,000 Catholic émigrés crossed the border posts. When the early hours of January 1st 1624 turned into day, the amassed forces of French Catholicism fell upon the Huguenot Army of the North stationed in Girona. Without warning the invaders fell upon the still sleeping Protestants and slaughtered a great number of them. The city’s upland was burned to the ground and many Huguenot converts executed or re-converted at sword-point. The remnants of the Royalist Army fled north in confusion while the Holy League began its siege of the city. The area under League control quickly faced the wrath of the “counter-reformation”. Many Catalans who had kept their Catholic faith were murdered on the simple ground that they were French subjects.




Thinking it to be the perceived Spaniard invasion, de Bonne immediately dispatched the Royal Army under Guillaume d’Ornano to the Spanish border. He arrived outside the city with more than double the size of the invaders and quickly routed them from their positions outside the ramparts. The Catholics sought to make a stand a few miles from the provincial capital, but d’Ornano’s crushing superiority in numbers and firepower swept them from their positions once again, and the battered force fled the province.



Guillaume then proceeded to mop up the remaining Catholics that put up scattered resistance both in Girona and Roussillon. In the end it was futile as the Protestant army successfully cracked down on any opposition that showed itself. Without popular support the League had to face the Royal Army in open battles instead of fighting a guerrilla campaign.



France had once again proved that the émigrés couldn’t possible hope to topple the Bourbon monarchy alone, yet the most valuable victory gained in the short conflict was the bond the young Nicolas Henri formed with the Royal officer corps when he observed the action in Southern France and French Catalonia. More over, captured Catholics could report numerous interesting things about the relationship between the Holy League, the Habsburgs and the duke of Lorraine. It would seem that war had only just been avoided.






[1]Gain Casus Belli on Lorraine
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