Titulus Princeps: Bessie Blount Has A Girl
- Thread starter FalconHonour
- Start date
He *can* be a good father, you know! 😁
She's got Mary's protection, it's fine. She'll accompany her darling charge to Portugal and all will be fine!
Well, yes! I decided to make him a bit of an idiot so he could be my mouthpiece for explaining some of Henry's off-screen machinations. 😜
Young and stupid… but still he is a royal Prince (his father is first cousin of King Louis and had been for some time the heir presumptive of his uncle Manuel I) so he will get diplomatic jobs and will be well received…
Something tells me H-VIII will be changing the title to Prince of Wales soon enough. But I suppose only our author knows.
I could probably get away with Duke of Cornwall, given the Richard II precedent...Something tells me H-VIII will be changing the title to Prince of Wales soon enough. But I suppose only our author knows.
Help! I'm not very good at Scottish nobles of the 1530s. Any ideas for envoys James V could send to Rome in December 1530 to seek Catherine de Medici's hand in marriage?
Could he send old Albany down there? Catherine would be his niece too so family connection? I think he even did that otl
XVII: Christmas 1530 a
I had intended this to be the first part of a longer chapter, but it has been such a mad few weeks that I haven't got any writing done. So I am posting this now so as to show you all that I am indeed still alive and that this is not abandoned. More to come later in the summer when things calm down, I hope!
His Holiness Clement VII leaned back in the papal throne, steepling his fingers.
The English legate, Cardinal Wolsey, had just left, leaving him with much to think about.
Wolsey, and through him, King Henry, was pushing hard for Lord Pembroke to be legitimised and named heir to the English throne.
Clement sympathised with their position, he really did. No man, except perhaps a cleric, who, strictly speaking, chose the path for himself, wanted to know that he would never father another child, and it was only ten times worse for Kings, who carried the hopes of an entire nation on their shoulders. And it must be worse again for King Henry. After all, everyone knew England had scarcely recovered from the dreadful depredations of the Cousins’ War. It was hardly surprising King Henry was clutching at every straw that would prevent his country from slipping back into that nightmare, even petitioning for the legitimatisation of a child who had not even the fig leaf of an excuse for such a promotion.
Clement understood. Really, he did. But there was no getting around the fact that Lord Pembroke’s elevation to princely status would displace his half-sisters, Princess Mary and Lady Elizabeth, in the Succession.
This wasn’t so much of a problem where the little Lady Elizabeth was concerned. After all, her mother was no more than an English subject. A high-ranking one, admittedly, but a subject nonetheless. But the Princess Mary, now… she was a different story. No one could deny her lineage was impeccable, not when she was a granddaughter of the Catholic Monarchs and a first cousin to the Emperor himself.
Four or five years ago, this wouldn’t have been so much of an issue. Clement would have been able to honour King Henry’s request to legitimise Lord Pembroke without fearing Imperial repercussions, but, since the Sack of Rome three years ago, things were very different. In allowing his troops to ransack the Holy City without reprimand, Charles had made it all too clear that he, not Clement, was the de facto head of Christendom. And the prideful Emperor would never stand aside and allow his beloved cousin to be displaced as heiress. By a legitimate half-brother, yes, but, not by a child that all knew to be a bastard.
So, given all of that, Clement couldn’t possibly accede to the suggestion that he legitimise Lord Pembroke.
Although… Clement’s astute political mind began to whirl. He might not have to. King Richard II of England hadn’t had a son either, had he? The English Parliament had passed an Act that gave him permission to name his own heir presumptive, or at least, had been making moves to do so when Henry Bolingbroke seized power. Perhaps that could be the compromise. Yes. That would do nicely. Clement would intimate to Wolsey that Rome would raise no objections, were his master to emulate the late King Richard’s precedent and urge Parliament to allow him to name his own heir.
A cough recalled Clement to himself and he looked up. His secretary stood discreetly in the shadows of the doorway.
“Yes?”
“The Scottish Envoys Lord Albany and Sir Richard Maitland are here, Holy Father. They have come to pay Your Holiness King James’s compliments of the season.”
“And, if I know Lord Albany, to press me to allow his nephew to wed our mutual niece,” Clement muttered acerbically, before chuckling. Why shouldn’t his little Duchess marry King James? They weren’t that far apart in age, after all, Catherine being eleven to King James’s sixteen, and no one would be able to say he hadn’t done his avuncular duty to Catherine, if he made her Queen of Scotland.
Moreover, it would be a match that no one could really refuse. The Emperor would be delighted, as it would deny his sworn enemy Catherine’s plum French and Italian inheritance. Yet that very same inheritance meant that there was at least some argument for considering Catherine a French proxy, meaning that, in wedding her, King James would still be honouring his obligation to wed a French Princess, as stated in the 1517 Treaty of Rouen.
“Yes,” Clement mused, “Wedding our little Duchess to James of Scotland may slay several birds with the one stone.”
Nodding to himself, he wiped his fingers on a corner of his silk robe and laid aside the orange he was eating.
“Very well, Lorenzo,” he waved agreement to his secretary, “Show Their Excellencies in.”
Castello di Angelo, Christmas 1530
His Holiness Clement VII leaned back in the papal throne, steepling his fingers.
The English legate, Cardinal Wolsey, had just left, leaving him with much to think about.
Wolsey, and through him, King Henry, was pushing hard for Lord Pembroke to be legitimised and named heir to the English throne.
Clement sympathised with their position, he really did. No man, except perhaps a cleric, who, strictly speaking, chose the path for himself, wanted to know that he would never father another child, and it was only ten times worse for Kings, who carried the hopes of an entire nation on their shoulders. And it must be worse again for King Henry. After all, everyone knew England had scarcely recovered from the dreadful depredations of the Cousins’ War. It was hardly surprising King Henry was clutching at every straw that would prevent his country from slipping back into that nightmare, even petitioning for the legitimatisation of a child who had not even the fig leaf of an excuse for such a promotion.
Clement understood. Really, he did. But there was no getting around the fact that Lord Pembroke’s elevation to princely status would displace his half-sisters, Princess Mary and Lady Elizabeth, in the Succession.
This wasn’t so much of a problem where the little Lady Elizabeth was concerned. After all, her mother was no more than an English subject. A high-ranking one, admittedly, but a subject nonetheless. But the Princess Mary, now… she was a different story. No one could deny her lineage was impeccable, not when she was a granddaughter of the Catholic Monarchs and a first cousin to the Emperor himself.
Four or five years ago, this wouldn’t have been so much of an issue. Clement would have been able to honour King Henry’s request to legitimise Lord Pembroke without fearing Imperial repercussions, but, since the Sack of Rome three years ago, things were very different. In allowing his troops to ransack the Holy City without reprimand, Charles had made it all too clear that he, not Clement, was the de facto head of Christendom. And the prideful Emperor would never stand aside and allow his beloved cousin to be displaced as heiress. By a legitimate half-brother, yes, but, not by a child that all knew to be a bastard.
So, given all of that, Clement couldn’t possibly accede to the suggestion that he legitimise Lord Pembroke.
Although… Clement’s astute political mind began to whirl. He might not have to. King Richard II of England hadn’t had a son either, had he? The English Parliament had passed an Act that gave him permission to name his own heir presumptive, or at least, had been making moves to do so when Henry Bolingbroke seized power. Perhaps that could be the compromise. Yes. That would do nicely. Clement would intimate to Wolsey that Rome would raise no objections, were his master to emulate the late King Richard’s precedent and urge Parliament to allow him to name his own heir.
A cough recalled Clement to himself and he looked up. His secretary stood discreetly in the shadows of the doorway.
“Yes?”
“The Scottish Envoys Lord Albany and Sir Richard Maitland are here, Holy Father. They have come to pay Your Holiness King James’s compliments of the season.”
“And, if I know Lord Albany, to press me to allow his nephew to wed our mutual niece,” Clement muttered acerbically, before chuckling. Why shouldn’t his little Duchess marry King James? They weren’t that far apart in age, after all, Catherine being eleven to King James’s sixteen, and no one would be able to say he hadn’t done his avuncular duty to Catherine, if he made her Queen of Scotland.
Moreover, it would be a match that no one could really refuse. The Emperor would be delighted, as it would deny his sworn enemy Catherine’s plum French and Italian inheritance. Yet that very same inheritance meant that there was at least some argument for considering Catherine a French proxy, meaning that, in wedding her, King James would still be honouring his obligation to wed a French Princess, as stated in the 1517 Treaty of Rouen.
“Yes,” Clement mused, “Wedding our little Duchess to James of Scotland may slay several birds with the one stone.”
Nodding to himself, he wiped his fingers on a corner of his silk robe and laid aside the orange he was eating.
“Very well, Lorenzo,” he waved agreement to his secretary, “Show Their Excellencies in.”
There is going to be a war of succession, I can just feel it. Also James/Catherine, I am eager to see how that pairing will work out.
Probably better than Henri/Catherine, although if she really did have a particularly thick hymen that was difficult to pierce - I've read that as one possible explanation for why it took her over ten years to conceive Francis II - they might still have fertility issues.
You could create an early reason for https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Fernel to attend her , thus letting her go to Scotland with all her fertility issues fixed………
I thought it was Henri who had issues? Apparently the slit on his glans (the urethra?) was on top of it, and his penis curved in a weird angle, which prevented proper ejaculation in Catherine, until they managed to find a solution to it (how they did that I have no clue tho)
