Part 3. French AAR (1427-1431)
Excerpt of Louis La Montagne’s « Du tems de François Ier de France. Sa Majesté Trez Chestienne, Roi de France » published in 1690
The Aragonese War had ended in the acquisition of Roussillon from Alfons of Aragon and the confiscation of the county of Provence from René de Valois and its annexation to the Royal domain. The former French vassal still had French lands under his possession so François Ier made sure to start mending the relationship which was, we will see, an uneasy affair until 1430.
The French people could now breath. War taxes, nearly continuously collected since the English wars, had taken their toll on the subjects of the King. With the planned economic reprisal, the Crown was now planning some minor reforms. The Crown sent governors to the newly acquired provinces. In Roussillon, a constable was erected with the Crown’s approval while in Provence, tensions with the Empire & a restless 3rd estate made it more difficult for the State servants to govern in a satisfactorily manner. The Crown helped the local clergy in erecting a new church in order to appease the Provençals.
On November 1427, the King of Castille, Juan II de Trastámara was excommunicated by the Pope. It was common knowledge that the Holy See had been manipulated by the Portugueses for some years and this was a by-product of the increasing tensions between the two kingdoms as Aragon now felt prey to Portuguese greed. By 1428, the Portuguese had all but annexed Catalonia from the decrepit Aragonese kingdom. The Castillans protested in vain.
A conflict was now brewing between the Emperor and the French crown. Ever since the confiscation of the county of Provence from René de Valois (a relative of the moribund Charles VI, former King of France), René had sent several emissaries to the Brandenburgian margrave to claim back his ancestral lands. The Emperor sent a formal demand to François, more for the sake of keeping up appearances than putting its feeble authority on the line. Worried by the preceding Hungarian rule that now threatened the very balance of powers in the east, the Imperial Electors had, after all, elected Friedrich II, a weak & poor Emperor. His Majesty asked his diplomat residing in Berlin to appease the Imperial court by any mean while talking the Emperor out of any direct intervention as the French Crown would never give René de Valois back his county. To impress thoroughly his words, His Majesty decided to send a formal embassy to Hungary bearing gifts for the most powerful Christian King east of the Alps. While the negotiations and Imperial resentment lasted for the next two years, the French diplomat in Berlin made a bad impression for befriending the Danish ambassador too publicly on behalf of their Masters’ shared strain with the Emperor. The Danes had just extended their domain in the Baltic on Imperial grounds to much the dismay of the German princes.
The King of Naples, with the Pope’s support, and to the amazement of the Christendom, declared war on the Turks in August in 1428. The Italians were initially successful against the Moors who had been recently weakened by numerous wars fought against other backwater Infidels in Asia.
Busy with providing his court with cultural entertainment, François Ier was barely amused when it was reported the Neapolitans had inflicted a severe defeat to the Sultan and had wrestled away the northern greek provinces from him in May 1430.
The East European situation in early 1429
The King of Portugal boldly declared war on Morocco in August of the same year with the Pope’s approval. It was, it seems, at least in those days, seen as a dutiful expression of courage to regularly sack some Moorish citadels in Northern Africa for the Iberian nations. However, he wouldn’t live to see the end of this war as the King suffered a stroke and his son, Alexandre I de Avis succeeded him on September 1st. The same day, the hero of the Aragonese war, Pierre de Siorac, was buried in Paris, following a grand religious ceremony given by the King.
Seeing the King of Portugal dead and a shaky young heir not yet able to match his tactical prowesses, Juan II of Castille tested the Portuguese/English alliance by ordering his diplomat stationed in London to try and detach the Regency Council in England from the new Portuguese king. The Anti-French cabal had the upper-hand though and the English Regent publicly stated that if Castille was to threaten Alexander’s domain in any fashion, England wouldn’t tolerate it. The Portuguese diplomat, it’s been written, was seen grinning while turning away from the scene he had just witnessed.