Coronation Waiting
While the regency will carry on for a while yet and years will pass before Louis begins his personal rule and while a monarch of France theoretically accedes upon his predecessor's death (in fact, just before the death of his father, Louis's future vassals took an oath of fealty to him, while in the previous generations of Capetians the eldest son was generally crowned during the father's lifetime, so feeble was the primogeniture and actually the entire dynastic right of the early Capetians, some of the Carolingian-related reasons for which I showed you above), none commands the same respect as an annointed king (which, in France, frequently saves to patch up dynastic shortcomings). It has only been three years and some months since Queen Blanche herself was crowned at Rheims together with her husband, Louis VIII, the father of Louis, the now king.
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[Coronation of Louis VIII of France and his wife, Blanche of Castille]
According to an English hagiographer:
William of Puy-Laurens, a contemporary historian, assures us, that Archambauld of Bourbon, this king’s great confidant, told him, that he died a martyr to chastity; for when physicians proposed to him a remedy which is forbidden by the laws of God, he rejected it with horror, saying, 'It is better to die than to save my life by a mortal sin.'
And so Louis the Lion died before he reached the age of 40, three years into his reign, leaving in his last will his wife Queen Blanche as the regent for young Louis.
Perhaps Eleanor of Aquitaine was right in her decision that Blanche we would be better for a Queen of France due to her personality (as actually a different sister, Urraca, who would become Queen of Portugal, had been betrothed to Louis), as she was not far from her husband in this regard. According to Joinville, the King's friend and trusty follower, who wrote down the story of his life:
Great need had he in childhood that God should guard him; as by the good teachings of his mother, who taught him to love and believe in God, and set men of religion about him. Child as he was, she used to make him repeat his Hours and hear the lessons on Feast-days, and often told him as he recorded later, that she were rather he were dead than that he should commit a deadly sin.
Or, in a finer and more memorable rendition:
'I love you my dear son, with all the tenderness a mother is capable of; but I would infinitely rather see you fall down dead at my feet, than that you should ever commit a mortal sin.'
Joinville knew the story from the King himself. If we once again turn to him:
He called me once, and said to me: 'You are of such subtile perception in all matters touching religion, that I am afraid to talk to you, and for that reason I have called in these friars here, for I wish to ask you a question.' The question was, 'Seneschal, what sort of thing is God?' I answered: 'Such a good thing, sir, that there is none better.' 'Well answered indeed,' said he 'for the very same answer is written in this book that I hold. Next I ask you,' said he, 'Which would you rather: Be a leper, or have committed a deadly sin?' And I, who never lied to him, replied: That I would rather have committed thirty deadly sins than be a leper. And when the friars were gone, he called me all alone, and made me sit at his feet, and said to me: 'What was that you said to me yesterday?' And I replied: That I still said the same. 'You talk like a hasty rattlepate,' said he, 'For there is no leprosy so foul as deadly sin, seeing that a soul in deadly sin is in the image of the Devil. And truly when a man dies, he is healed of the leprosy of the body, but when a man dies that has committed deadly sin, great fear must he needs have lest such leprosy should endure so long as God shall be in Heaven.'
And Joinville was no light-weight himself. On one occasion he talked down the founder of Sorbonne, and even Louis, who came to the latter's defence, couldn't succeed... and afterwards apologised for trying. But more on this at a different time. Right now Louis is in his early teens. Speaking of which, let's get back to him:
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It seems our Louis is Brave, Ambitious... and Chaste. I was actually surprised when I looked at his character sheet (one of the many I saw before I thought I could keep one, and this was not an easy decision: there will actually be another, alternative account of Louis's life). Brave goes without saying but but the other two? ('Whose views in war were exempt from the usual passions of ambition, avarice, and revenge'.) Chastity actually was a strong feature in the life of the historical Saint Louis, for which he had a particular love (according to the Englishman), except he simply is not as known for that as for his other achievements or traits. So in a way this was fitting, especially for a 12 years old Louis still awaiting his coronation. As for ambition, you will see later why I decided to keep it.
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And here are the other major direct vassals (skipping the barons, majors and smallest bishops, other than the Abbot of St. Denis and the Mayor of Paris). These are the folks we will have to stick with for the rest of the tale, or their offspring in some cases, so a list is much in order:
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[Apparently, some of the titles have been adjusted up or down for the needs of the game. This is not a problem as many of the titles were a matter of convention (
more on French titles of the period). Theoretically, a count was someone in charge of a city, a duke ruled a province. This did not actually reflect their true power, nor did they actually care that much, and it was entirely feasible for a more powerful count to hold a less powerful titular co-equal as a vassal (if not even actually somebody of a nominally higher rank). The Count of Toulouse, apart from being a mighty peer of France, was actually a real duke, except of Narbonne, reviving an old Roman title. Even so, he was easily the equal of the dukes of Aquitaine (now the King of England and that'd be
Henry III, son of John Lackland and equally troubled about legitimacy). Champagne were actually counts but they were some of the most powerful lords in the realm. Eventually, the current
Theobald IV (the Troubadour) actually became the King of Navarre.
As you can see, there's already Charles of Anjou as duke and Robert of Artois as count, both brothers of Louis. In reality, both were counts and both were made by Louis in the 1230-ies, not by his father or otherwise at the time of Louis's accession. I guess the game wants to keep them as eminent historical figures, hence they got different dynastic names and their titles from the get go. But I'd much rather this were left up to the player until the historical dates of appointment. Especially given that there's no particular reason to put Charles in as the duke of the entire Duchy of Anjou, while he was only a count in name, just like his other brothers, and Anjou wasn't in fact in the royal domain in 1226. Peter of Brittany had to give it up in order to be forgiven for his rebellion against the crown. Initially, it was the landless (in the game) Jean who was the count of Anjou and also of Maine, before dying in 1232, when Charles (the later d'Anjou) was 6 years of age. And Alphonse was the count of Poitou and Auvergne (in foreign hands as of 1226). Also, Louis's demesne is already higher than his effective limit at the start of the game, so this is not an issue. This does need fixing but the only fixing I did was to correct the birth date (and order!) of Louis and Robert. For some reason, apart from certain minor discrepancies, Robert actually was shown as the elder brother (which he was not). I simply didn't want to go far from the vanilla, as this is supposed to be a gameplay AAR.]
Evidently, while many are not filled with particular enthusiasm for new rule, by far, however, Johanna of Flanders outclasses them all in her lack of appreciation. Let us inquire into her reasons, of which she has many:
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Short reign is the usual, as is 'foreigner', of which there is no wonder, for she is Dutch. Her dynastic name is simply Van Vlaanderen. Can one get any more Flemish that that? Also, quite a lot of her de iure has passed into the royal domain. It did during the reign of Johanna's father, Baldwin IX of Flanders (VI of Hainaut), in which case 'reign' takes an entirely different meaning than in the case of a count, as it is the same Baldwin who became the first Latin Emperor (as Baldwin I) and parted this world in uncertain circumstances in a Bulgarian prison, named Baldwin's Tower after him. He reigned only one year, which ended in his capture following the (second, or who knows how many) Battle of Adrianople in 1205. Ironically, in the first Battle of Adrianople a true Roman Emperor, Valens, perished fighting the Goths in 378. And in early 9th century (811 to be exact), a Byzantine emperor, Nikephoros, whose name translates as, 'the Bringer of Victory,' died also fighting Bulgarians like Baldwin, except at Pliska, which was the Bulgarian capital at the time. The other similarity is that according to the legend, both Nikephoros's and Baldwin's skull were made into a drinking cup by the respective Bulgarian ruler. Bulgarians also claim that Baldwin sealed his fate by trying to secude Kaloyan's wife while in captivity, while the other version is that Kaloyan simply entered a fit of rage upon hearing of the revolt of Philippopolis, a little west of Constantinople, with Adrianopolis along the way.
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[Baldwin's prison in modern times, source:
wiki]
While Johanna is sometimes termed the 'Princess of the Latin Empire', which is an exaggeration, as acceding to a royal or even imperial crown (as evidenced by the history of the Holy Roman Empire) does not automatically make your offspring royal or imperial princes, except perhaps after many generations of rule by your dynasty, (we can't really deny her to be called, 'Johanna of the Latin Empire' anyway), the 'empire' itself has passed out of the hands of the Flemish dynasty. Right now it is ruled by the Courtenays, who are... Capetian cadets. While their name is older, they proceed agnatically from Peter of Courtenay, a younger son of King Louis VI of France:
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[Historically, the Courtenays didn't fare well and they experienced a lot of humbling at the hands of the Bourbons. They were denied the status of the 'Princes of the Blood' (
Les Princes du Sang), even though the Bourbons themselves descended from a son of King Louis IX (yes, this one) and were 9 generations and 300 years away from the throne (
as you can read at the French nobility site or
at wikipedia). They were even rather officially treated as not having a right to the throne, even though the difference between them and the Bourbons themselves was about 3 generations and somewhat about 100 years.]
Motivated in part by somewhat of a consciousness of her injured de iure rights, we decide to give her a loan of confidence. While she is not getting Artois back...:
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Besides, she would go to war over them anyway and the counts would be defenceless. As we do not want Robert to stop being the count of Artois:
We decide to bestow Robert, the eldest after Louis (who himself was a second son, as Philip, his older brother, died in his teenage years), with the entire duchy of Normandy, which makes the Countess of Eu and the last of the House de Normandie, his vassal, as well as Philippe 'Hurepel' Capet, Count of Mortain, his uncle. Incidentally, the husband of the Countess of Boulogne. With Normandy's vast resources behind Robert, Johanna should be discouraged enough from waging de iure war over Artois (or so we think).
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We also provide for the future of the other two royal brothers (who receive no land so far). We marry Jean to Maria de Bourgogne, the daughter and heir of Johanna of Flanders by her husband Ferdinand, Prince of Portugal, as Portugal is another country currently ruled by Capetian cadets, same that still hold the Duchy of Burgundy through a different member of the house. This makes the young couple-to-be very remote cousins.
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And Alphonse we marry (historically!) to the daughter of the Count of Toulouse and Duke of Narbonne, abbreviated to Duke of Toulouse for convenience (historically, she inherited her father and Toulouse reverted to the crown as per treaty with Duke Raymond).
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In recognition of his high rank as a major vassal of this crown, we make her father the Seneschal of the Kingdom:
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Apart from the more titular and honorific great officers of the crown, here are the men who will help Queen Blanche keep the realm together (you can see Marshal Archambaut's County of Périgord in the picture above; he is one of the second echelon of direct royal vassals):
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We certainly have a job for the chaplain right away. In fact more than enough for one man.
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We are ready to proceed with the coronation.