Oh - posts, posts, posts! Yum!
Stroph1, coz1: Here's a mysterious coincidence - every one of the Muslim nations I know of have relations with me at
-200! I think there's a conspiracy afoot... And here's something even spookier - the only other Provence AAR I've found (written in French) was by someone calling himself "mosquito"...
stnylan: Ditching the French - hmmm. Unfortunately I need the French as my staunch allies, so I can continue to keep my army at a mega-paltry level and have the French fight all my wars for me
. Other potential allies of any size are kind of thin on the ground in my neighbourhood. My plan is to stick with France while gradually getting bigger and bigger, then, when they're struggling with the Reformation or something - WHAM! I take them on. I could even let them have Maine early on, and take it from them last so I have a CB on them as long as I want
.
Another reason for sticking with the French is that I can keep the story closer to actual history, thus weaving in more wacky fact with the wacky fiction...
Troggle: Tell me about it! I even have people accusing me of being legendary
right here in my own AAR! To subscribe - er... I forget. I think once you've posted a reply in a thread you're automatically subscribed anyway. That's been my experience anyway, and the reason I don't know how to subscribe otherwise. Can someone confirm that?
jwolf: Thanks!
Danny S: I hope by now you've taken jwolf's excellent advice and found out lots of information elsewhere in the forum. I'd only add that I thought 20 out of 10 was a bit stingy.
IIRC I bought my copy of EU2 from Amazon UK for the laughable price of £7.49.
Nalivayko: Thanks - and happy birthday!
Chapter 3: 1434 - 1437
How Provence got Suddenly Bigger
At the end of the last chapter Louis III d’Anjou had just died, victim of a ruthless six-legged assassin. In 1432 he had finally got around to marrying Margaret of Savoy, youngest daughter of Amédée VIII le Paisible, but in their two years of wedded bliss she had borne him no children. Despite his arduous duties as army commander, his brother René, along with his wife Isabelle of Lorraine, had certainly found time to make up for this shortcoming, and the House of Anjou was literally crawling with their numerous offspring.
It will be recalled that Joanna II of Naples had adopted René as her heir, but only after she had first adopted Alfonse V of Aragon as her heir, then renegued on this. Of course, René had been the rightful King of Naples all along, even without being adopted by Joanna II. It was thus a mystery to the Angevins how Alfonse V had managed to stick his arrogant Aragonese nose into this particular royal succession at all, but stuck there it was, and it spelled trouble.
René decide that charm and diplomacy was the best approach, and he persuaded the Aragonese to accept a royal marriage with the House of Anjou in November 1434. Shortly after this he went to Paris to check up on another Angevin royal marriage, that of his sister Marie and her husband, Charles VII of France. Unfortunately, he caught Charles at an awkward moment:
His Most Christian Majesty Charles VII of France, disentangling himself from the arms of a ravishing blonde maid-in-waiting: Err, oh - um, hello René! It’s, er... great to see you. What an... er - pleasant surprise!
René duc d’Anjou, comte de Provence, peering closely at the ravishing blonde: Er... that’s not my sister...
Charles VII: Well, er, no technically it isn’t... Let me introduce you - this is, er... Sophie. Sophie, this is René d’Anjou, my - er - brother-in-law.
Sophie, fluttering her eyelashes: Enchantée, monsieur...
René: But... but.. this is adultery!
Charles VII, with a charming smile: Monsieur le comte - this is France...
René: Does Marie know about this?
Charles VII, shocked: But of course not, mon vieux! That would cause a scandale!
René: Well, where is she now? Because she’s going to know soon...
Charles VII: René, calm down! I’m sure we can come to some arrangement here...
René, looking shrewd: Arrangement? What sort of arrangement?
Charles VII: Well, it just so happens I was about to declare war on those treacherous Auvergnats - you may have heard that they just made an alliance with the witless Portuguese instead of with us. Such impudence!
René: Yes, quite. But what has this got to do with Marie and - madame, here?
Charles VII: Well, my dear René, I just thought that if you decided not to trouble Marie with any - er - distressing news, you might find yourself with an extra province under the old Angevin belt...
René: You mean the Cévennes...?
Charles VII: ...could soon be yours, mon ami!
René: Ahem, well, as you say, this is France, and all that. Perhaps it’s really best for Marie if we don’t mention anything to her...
Charles VII: Wonderful! Now, Sophie, I think we will have see to our unfinished business another time. Come, René - let us go and find your charming sister...
Charles VII, pictured here in one of his more Christian moments
In February 1435 news reached René that Joanna II of Naples had died at the age of 64, after a dissolute life of scandal and incompetent rule. René was of course deeply saddened by this news, but found comfort when he suddenly remembered that she had named him her successor. Suddenly Provence owned the Kingdom of Naples, minus the island of Sicily, which was currently occupied by the arrogant Aragonese. It was of course a tricky moment, as René could not really leave the siege of Aurillac to attend his coronation, but luckily the people of Naples were very understanding about this.
A view of Naples, with Mount Vesuvius in the distance
The people of Aurillac finally surrendered to René in October 1435, but when they found themselves annexed into the growing Provençal nation, they immediately rose in revolt the following month. René’s small army, now without French support, were ignominiously driven out of the province and retreated to Lyon. By the following June, however, reinforcements had arrived from Marseille and René had no trouble in dealing with the rebels. And still the looming threat of Aragon remained nothing more than that...
Territories of the House of Anjou in 1436
The six provinces: Maine, Cévennes, Provence, Piemonte, Napoli and Apulia
