#the valois dynasty

[latristereina]

Elephant, circa 1576

detail: Francis, Duke of Anjou, Margaret of Valois, Henry II, Duke of Lorraine

Quintain, circa 1576, Henry III in the foreground

Polish Ambassadors, circa 1576

Tournament, circa 1576

Barriers, circa 1576

Journey, circa 1576

Fontainebleau, circa 1580, Henry III and Queen Louise of Lorraine in the foreground

Water Festival at Bayonne, circa 1580-81, depicts festivities at the summit meeting between the French and Spanish courts at Bayonne in 1565

The Valois Tapestries

“The series is composed of eight tapestries, woven with wool, silk, silver and gilt metal-wrapped thread, commissioned around 1575 by Catherine de’ Medici to an unidentified Brussels atelier, based on cartoons by Lucas de Heere from drawings by court painter Antoine Caron.” (x)

The tapestries are in the Uffizi Museum in Florence (x)

[leletha-jann]

Headcanon on absolutely no evidence: Violetta is Tarvek's half-sister on "the wrong side of the blanket".

This doesn't put her in the line of succession for the Lightning Crown, because we know Tarvek traces his line of descent through his mother, who has been otherwise mentioned ONCE, in extra dialogue in the second novel. I strongly suspect she died when Tarvek was very young, having successfully produced a male heir and an elder "spare", and that there was no love lost between her and Wilhelm. Not that I'm pointing fingers for murder here. (points fingers) Is it unlikely that Wilhelm Sturmvoraus went off after she died (or before) and had himself an illegitimate kid elsewhere? Just because he could, or because sometimes biology happens? No, it is not.

Tarvek doesn't officially know this, but then he tries very hard to not officially know this. Not even secretly officially. He doesn't know. He doesn't want to know. He isn't asking and would take steps to make sure no one else asked, either. Nobody is allowed to ask this question. If he knows, other people could know. If other people know, Violetta is in more danger than ever before, because that one Smoke Knight, an ambiguously-defined "cousin", who publicly and definitely doesn't like him, is one thing. A sister is a TARGET.

We know Tarvek has a very short list of people he genuinely cares about and can't handle losing, and we know Violetta is on it. Violetta is not allowed to be in more danger than she already is.

(Violetta does not know this, does not suspect, and would be furious if she found out.)

[francepittoresque]

29 mai 1328 : avènement de la branche de Valois à la couronne de France ➽ http://bit.ly/Avenement-Valois À la fin de l’année 1327, le roi Charles IV, que sa beauté et sa vigueur avait fait surnommer le Bel, comme son père, avait été la proie d’une maladie grave et rendu l’âme le 1er février 1328 dans le château de Vincennes, où il faisait sa résidence, « laissant veuve et enceinte la reine sa femme, plongée dans la désolation »

[henryfitzempress]

Coronation of Philippe VI, the first of the House of Valois to rule France.

[mary-tudor]

François I received a book in the presence of his mother, Louise de Savoy, and sister, Marguerite d’Angoulême.

Date: 1503.

Source: National Library of France

Description taken from here:*

“Master of Philippe de Gueldre, "Antoine Vérard presents his book to François d'Angouleme, in the presence of Louise de Savoie and Marguerite d'Angoulême, in Octavien de Saint-Gelais, Le Séjour d'honneur, Paris, Antoine Vérart

BnF, Rare Book Reserve, Venom 2239, fol. 1st

In 1506, after his engagement to Claude de France, daughter of Louis XII, François d’Angouleme is summoned to court as heir to the throne. It is no doubt on this occasion that the Parisian bookwire Antoine Vérard is preparing for him a personalized copy of his edition of the Séjour d'Honneur, allegory describing the court of Charles VIII. In the light of dedication, the young prince receives the volume of Vérard's hands, under the gaze of his mother, Louise de Savoie, and a young girl who is undoubtedly his sister, Marguerite.”

*facebook group entitled “enluminures Europe—VIe -XVIe s.”

[joanofnavarre]

[thefreelancehistorywriter]

The Formation of the Valois Burgundian Empire - Charles the Bold

The last in a four part series on the formation of the Valois Burgundian Empire

Portrait of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy by Peter Paul Rubens Charles the Bold, the fourth and last Valois Duke of Burgundy, was born to Isabel of Portugal on November 10, 1433, at Dijon, Burgundy. For political reasons, he was married to Catherine of Valois, daughter of King Charles VII of France. Once widowed, his father arranged a marriage to Isabella of Bourbon, who also died after…

[lightdancer1]

Second of the two books wrapped up today:

The Thirty Years War and the Eighty Years War were matched by both the War of the Three Kingdoms, the Time of Troubles, and ultimately these wars. In the course of the Protestant Reformation the blend of state and church power espoused in two mirrors by the Catholic Church and Catholic communities and by Protestants, especially the Calvinists who fought on the Protestant side in France, ensured a bloody couple of centuries that paved the way for de facto tolerance from exhaustion and the none too subtle horrors of the time beforehand. There were a total of eight major Wars of Religion culminating in the first case with Henry IV and the War of the Three Henries, and then in this book's case extended to the 1620s and the fighting with the Huegenots that would contribute to the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

One rather grim irony here is that the book references the ideas of Protestants as traitors fomenting discord as a stereotype and then notes repeatedly that the Protestants did exactly foment discord and ultimately the idea of kidnapping and indoctrinating the King in much the way the Kirk tried to do with Charles II and ultimately failed. It also notes that however strong the French state up to the outbreak of the wars that it was too weak to resist a scattered and deeply divided set of Huegenot movements in the towns, meaning that most of the wars saw a period of sporadic and brutal fighting across the same regions that amplified bloodshed and the tempers of both sides without actually resolving the wars.

Most pointedly this is one of the few authors covering a religious war who grants that religion in fact is the cause of religious wars instead of doing the more fashionable 'sure they said it was and it was a conflict of rival sects who openly boasted that it was a difference of religious opinion but it totally wasn't religion. Source: Dude Trust me Trust me bro it's not that we only believe in ideological motivations when it's communist peasants bro'.

8/10.

[historygoodies]

Mary Queen of Scots badge

Mary Queen of Scots, Stuart Queen

by CreativeHistory

[owlrageousjones]

Oh that is wonderful.

I was mostly entertaining the thought as an excuse to come up with OCs as well, but I kept wondering what the end result would actually look like and how it'd manifest.

Like would the kids have a merged sort of hair colour, signifying a smooth blend of genetics, or would it be very distinct actual chimerism where you'd get differing DNA profiles depending on which part of the person you sampled?

It's SCIENCE! so you could probably end up with either!

I had a silly thought.

One day in the future, once everything has settled and been dealt with (or as settled and dealt with as it ever could be in Europa), Agatha will likely have children to continue the Heterodyne line.

But in order to ensure a sense of balance and equality between her paramours, she uses SCIENCE! to influence the child's genetics, so that it's a mix of hers, Gil's and Tarvek's, possibly in a distinct form of Chimerism or just some weird mix.

And then my thoughts got derailed on what the 'appropriate' mix of genetics would be - should it be equal? Should Agatha's take precedence and be a full 50% and the remainder split between Tarvek and Gil?

Also did any other Heterodynes ever do weird shit like that to their kids? It doesn't seem like it.

[andiatas]

Royal Reads: Jan-Mar 2024

Note: Some of the following links are affiliate links, which means I earn a commission on every purchase. This does not affect the price you pay.

Kateryn Parr: Henry VIII's Sixth Queen by Laura Adkins (Mar. 15, 2024) // Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I: The Mother and Daughter Who Changed History by Tracy Borman (new paperback version published Mar. 7, 2024) // Messalina: The Life and Times of Rome’s Most Scandalous Empress by Honor Cargill-Martin (Mar. 14, 2024)

House of Lilies: The Dynasty that Made Medieval France by Justine Firnhaber-Baker (Mar. 28, 2024) // Charles III: New King. New Court. The Inside Story. by Robert Hardman (Jan. 18, 2024) // Sisters of Richard III: The Plantagenet Daughters of York by Sarah J Hodder (Mar. 15, 2024)

Power and Glory: Elizabeth II and the Rebirth of Royalty by Alexander Larman (Mar. 28, 2024) // The House of Dudley: A New History of Tudor England by Joanne Paul (new paperback version published Jan. 9, 2024)

Young Queens: The Intertwined Lives of Catherine De' Medici, Elisabeth de Valois, and Mary, Queen of Scots by Leah Redmond Chang (new paperback version published Feb. 29, 2024) // Marcus Aurelius: The Stoic Emperor by Donald J. Robertson (Mar. 26, 2024) // My Mother and I by Ingrid Seward (Feb. 15, 2024)

Queen Victoria and her Prime Ministers: A Personal History by Anne Somerset (Mar. 28, 2024) // Young Elizabeth: Princess. Prisoner. Queen. by Nicola Tallis (Feb. 29, 2024) // Edward II: His Sexuality and Relationships by Kathryn Warner (Mar. 15, 2024)

[officalroyalsofpierreland]

Leading Ladies of the Valois Dynasty

Inspired by the lovely @funkyllama here's to some of the important ladies of the past, present and future of the Valois Dynasty

Queen Eleanore I of Windensen - Coronation Portrait in 1494 Born Eleanore Marie Anne Violette. Matriarch of the Valois Dynasty and only Queen regnant of what is now Pierreland

Empress Maria-Anna of Pierreland - Wedding Day in 1719 Born Maria-Anna Theresa Carolina Devonshire. First Empress of Pierreland.

Empress Marie-Noelle of Pierreland - Coronation of Henry II in 1898 Born Noelle Claire Raoult. Common Ancestor of modern monarchs of Pierreland and the Ionian Union

Empress Katalina of Pierreland - Anniversary of Emperor David I's Coronation in 20XX Born Katalina Aisha Sepulveda. The first woman of color, Paradisian and Oderian to be Empress. Mother of 6 and Grandmother of 6.

Queen Marie-Christine of the Scots - Anniversary of King Alexander III's Coronation in 20XX Born Marie Christine Isabelle Anne Valois. She is the current Queen of the Scots. Mother of one.

Crown Princess Minerva of Lunaria - A birthday portrait in 20XX Born Minerva Winifred Valois. She is currently the Crown Princess of Lunaria & Duchess of Ancastor, married to Crown Prince Nicholas of Lunaria and is a mother of 4.

Princess Maria Aisha of Pierreland- A future birthday portrait in 20XX Born Maria Aisha Isabella Minerva. Currently in her final years of secondary education. Only biological daughter of Emperor David & Empress Katalina.

[leletha-jann]

Headcanon future scenario (either postcanon or post-the OT3 getting together) where it dawns on Europa that three of the absolutely most major political powerhouses on the continent are allied - something that would normally be a matter for a library's worth of complicated treaties - on the stated basis of "MINE".

...our cuties are figuring it out, OK, but to the long-suffering bureaucrats keeping the Empire running, this is a political disaster. They do not know what the hell is going on or what the rules are.

But Agatha and Gil and Tarvek do not have TIME to sit down and draft treaties, and they are damn well not going to let anyone else do it FOR them.

What emerges out of this is known as "the Agreement", because that's how the Triumvirate refer to it. Agatha's not supposed to do that? Oh, the Agreement says she can, actually. Does Tarvek have the authority to do that? Sure, it's in the Agreement. Going to take this all the way to Gil? Somehow, whatever it was, it was in the Agreement.

No one actually knows what the Agreement is.

The traveling Heterodyne shows drama it up into a dread document written in demon blood on human skin, dripping with oaths so powerful they scorch the eye. Great special effects, fun prop design work, zero expected accuracy.

Quite a lot of people, including the Valois dynasty, try to insist that the Agreement doesn't actually exist. Or sometimes that they know the terms and they're this-and-such (they do not know. Seffie is going to murder someone with their own teeth).

Except it does exist, because the Triumvirate is acting as if it does, and that carries a lot of weight in Europa.

Very observant people and our main cast, however, know it exists, because they've repeatedly seen Agatha and Tarvek and Gil all check a matching notebook they all seem to have, and write stuff in it. (A copy of the notebook got stolen once. The thief discovered it was in three-Sparks-invented-this-for-fun depths of code, and then did not survive.)

What no one knows is that it's the same notebook, triplicated with the same Skifandrian technology that created Zeetha's expressive headband face...

...aaaaaaaaaaand it's basically a group chat on the theme of guys I did a thing on 100% bluff, here are the details, if someone asks...and they will ask...back me up on this OK?

They'll figure out the formal treaties when Europa is not on fire, and in the meantime, whatever it is...

...it's in the Agreement.

Or it is now, at least.

[heartofstanding]

After reading your article, marriages like Eleanor and Humphrey, Katherine and John, Henry VIII and Ambeline are described as women seducing men, and men being victims... But marriages like Owen Tudor and Catherine, Richard Woodville and Jacqueta in Luxembourg, will have completely ignored the subjective initiative of women, and the description of men seducing women should be class/gender discrimination?

Hi anon, I think you're asking about what kind of narratives there were around the marriages between men and women of significantly higher status, the inverse of the type of relationships I was talking about in this blogpost I made on my sideblog that focused on Eleanor Cobham, where women married men of much higher status than themselves.

There seems to be comparatively little scholarship in this area and it would be fascinating to see what commonalities and links a study would produce. The marriage of men to women of significantly higher status than themselves does appear to have been fairly common but does not seem to have generated the same amount of commentary and infamy as the relationships between women who married men of significantly higher status. I don't mean that they didn't contract comment but that there was little sustained comment - who remembers Alice de Lacey and Eubulus le Strange? Katherine Woodville and Sir Richard Wingfield? The only high profile case I can think of is Joan of Kent and Thomas Holland.

From what I could find, there does not seem to be the equivalent narrative of the man of lesser status seducing or bewitching the high-status woman into marriage. Instead, what seems to be the common theme is, as Katherine J. Lewis says, "a standard medieval antifeminist notion: that women were naturally inclined to lust and rendered irrational to it."

Lewis was talking specifically about the case of Catherine de Valois. One contemporary chronicler remarked that she was "unable to fully control her fleshly passions" when she married Owen Tudor and even chastises her for keeping the marriage secret "so she did not claim honourable title [of marriage] during her lifetime". Tudor was described by another chronicle as "no man of birthe nother of lyflode", implying his unworthiness. But there seems to have been little rancour or blame directed at Tudor.

It's not until the 16th century where the image of Catherine as governed by her lust became the dominant narrative around her remarriage, perhaps because the rise of the Tudor dynasty and Henry VIII's marital life lent itself to it. One notable example is Edward Hall, who in 1548 described Catherine as:

beyng young and lust, folowyng more awne appetite, then frendely counsaill and regardyng more her priuate affecion then her open honour

He describes Tudor, on the other hand, as a "goodly gentilman & a beautyful person, garnished with many Godly gyftes, both of nature & of grace" - so the issue here is not that Tudor is a social-climber but that Catherine is at the mercy of her sexual desires. Probably the most extreme example of this is Nicholas Fox's claim that Catherine "bey[ed] like a very dronkyn whore" in bed with Tudor - a factoid often gleefully repeated by historians and commentators to proclaim Tudor's sexual prowess despite the fact that Fox made the claim in 1541 and is far from a reliable source. The fact that it has been almost universally used to celebrate Tudor by demeaning Catherine shows how long-lasting this type of narrative is. Polydore Vergil similarly describes Catherine dismissively as "yonge in yeres, and thereby of lesse discretion to judge what was decent for estates" and then focuses on Tudor's lineage and good qualities. Kavita Mudan Finn notes that he "succeeds in suppressing what on the surface to appears to be her agency - a second marriage of her own free will - by literally changing the subject to Owen, and by extension, Henry, Tudor". This same suppression of Catherine's agency appears again in Michael Drayton's Englands Heroicall Epistles where Catherine appears to be acting on her own initiative, wanting Tudor for herself, but Drayton has Tudor displace Catherine's agency by citing destiny as the impulse behind their union. Catherine "is reimagined as a 'a Royall Prize' for Tudor to claim", per Finn. In short, Catherine appears to be cast as oversexed and/or uncontrollable while Tudor's individual qualities and descent are celebrated and their union is seen as governed by destiny and fate.

Joan of Kent has fared similarly to Catherine in that she is primarily remembered as governed by her lust. Famously described as Froissart as "a woman more beautiful and amorous than any in the realm" and by Adam of Usk as a "woman given to slippery ways", Joan had married Thomas Holland clandestinely, then been convinced by her family to marry William Montagu (the son of the Earl of Salisbury). Around eight years later, Holland then petitioned the papacy to return Joan to him, resulting in a public scandal. When Holland died in 1360, Joan made another shocking match, this time marrying Edward of Woodstock, Edward III's eldest son and heir known to history as "the Black Prince". Joan was sometimes referred to the "Fair Maid of Kent" or "the Virgin of Kent", probably sarcastically. Thomas Austin's wife was alleged to claim that Joan's son with the Prince, Richard II, was "nevere the prynses son and ... his moder [i.e. Joan] was nevere but a strong hore". Froissart recorded a conversation between Richard and his usurper, Henry IV, where Henry alleged that a bastard gotten in adultery. W. Mark Ormrod also suggested that various narratives about Joan in the Peasants Revolt built on her carnal reputation and may have reflected even more salacious tales floating around. Thomas Walsingham emphasises Joan's other alleged, inordinate appetites around the time of her death - gluttony ("hardly able to move about because she was so fat") and a love of luxury.

It is, however, very difficult to determine how much of Joan's reputation was shaped to her marriage to a man of significantly lower status or how much it was shaped by her marriage to the man, at the time, was to be the next king of England and to whom her marriage was both scandalous and unconventional. Likely, her reputation was formed by both marriages, both feeding the other. The deposition of her son also meant that her reputation was used as a way of slandering him. Thomas Holland, on the other hand, barely seems to be mentioned, let alone criticised - even if he was in his mid-20s when he married the 12 year old Joan. In fact, Henry Knighton's chronicle positions Holland as seduced by her, crediting Holland's "desire for her" as the cause that she had been divorced from her second husband, Montagu.

Jacquetta and Richard Woodville do not seem to have drawn the same level of commentary. Lynda J. Pidgeon notes that "the marriage ... aroused no comment from English chroniclers until after the couple’s daughter, Elizabeth, married King Edward IV in 1464". though it was recorded in by continental chronicles, such as Enguerrand de Monstrelet, who recorded recorded:

In this year [1436], the duchess of Bedford, sister to the count de St. Pol, married, from inclination, an English knight called sir Richard Woodville, a young man, very handsome and well made, but, in regard to birth, inferior to her first husband, the regent, and to herself…

This has similar echoes to Hall's and Vergil's comments about the marriage of Catherine and Owen Tudor - Jacquetta marries from "inclination" a man inferior to herself but who is otherwise "very handsome and well-made". Hall includes the story of their marriage immediately after his account of Catherine and Tudor, which, as Finn says, "hints at a growing interest - and indeed, anxiety - about women's desires". Like Catherine, Jacquetta is described as marrying Woodville "rather for pleasure then for honour" and "without coū∣sayl of her frendes". Her family is said to disapprove but can do nothing - sentiments also found in Monstrelat and Jean de Wavrin. Rather than dwelling on Woodville's qualities as he does with Tudor's, Hall describes Woodville "lusty" and notes that he was made Baron Rivers, which may indicate . He does, however, mention the marriage of their daughter, Elizabeth, to the future Edward IV, a subject which he promises to return to.

The continuation of Monstrelet's chronicle links Jacquetta and Woodville's marriage to that of their daughter, Elizabeth Woodville's marriage to Edward IV, "thus linking these two unorthodox women together", per Finn. Here's what this continuation says:

After the death of the duke, his widow following her own inclinations, which were contrary to the wishes of her family, particularly to those of her uncle, the cardinal of Rouen, married the said lord Rivers, reputed the handsomest man that could be seen, who shortly after carried her to England, and never after could return to France for fear of the relatives of this lady.

It is likely that Jacquetta's unconventional second marriage helped render Jacquetta's reputation suspect and tempting to speculate that that it rendered her vulnerable to the accusations that she had used witchcraft to make Edward IV marry her daughter, Elizabeth Woodville. The unpopularity in France and Burgundy of her first marriage to John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford and Regent of France may have also played into this view. Ricardians have certainly framed her as her as a seductress and her family as scheming, power-hungry social climbers in that regard - while also treating her as driven by her lust for Woodville. However, there is no evidence that this was the view of Jacquetta at the time, either in England or in France.

Richard Woodville is unique amongst the three men I've mentioned in that he seems to have been reviled as a man "brought up from nought", along with the rest of his and Jacquetta's prodigious offspring. This view has been spurred on by Ricardian historians that have reviled Elizabeth Woodville, where the entire family is depicted as a brood of grasping social climbers. An invasive species, if you will. I think it is likely that Jacquetta and Richard Woodville's marriage has helped furnish this view, particularly for Woodville himself. However, this particular image of Woodville and his children only seems to emerge with Elizabeth's marriage to Edward IV and the tensions between Edward, Woodville, George, Duke of Clarence and Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick ('the Kingmaker'), rather than Woodville's marriage to Jacquetta.

In short: the tendency seems to be depict the high-status woman as indulging in her own sexual desires and acting on her own will, disregarding reason, counsel and sense, while the man of lesser-status is considered handsome but bears little or no responsibility for seducing the woman. He is of less interest to contemporary chroniclers. Woodville seems to be an exception, rather than the norm, in being seen as guilty of social climbing and there it is the marriage of his daughter, not his own marriage, that gave that reputation. Owen Tudor, as the patriarchal originator of the Tudor dynasty, was celebrated by Tudor-era writers for his qualities and Welsh lineage - it would be easy to conclude that had he not been the grandfather of Henry VII, he would be entirely forgotten.

There do not seem to be any contemporary claims than Tudor, Holland or Woodville seduced, bewitched or raped their wives, whatever historical fiction novelists or pop historians claim. However, it should be noted that there are many cases where other high-status women could be abducted and forced into marriage. One example is Alice de Lacey, Countess of Lancaster. For those cases, I suggest reading Caroline Dunn's Stolen Women. It is far too long and complicated subject to summarise in a tumblr post.

Sources:

Caroline Dunn, Stolen Women in Medieval England: Rape, Abduction, and Adultery, 1100–1500 (Cambridge University Press, 2017)

David Green “‘A woman given to slippery ways’? The reputation of Joan, the Fair Maid of Kent”, People, Power and Identity in the Late Middle Ages: Essays in Memory of W. Mark Ormrod (Routledge, 2021, eds. Gwilym Dodd, Helen Lacey, Anthony Musson)

Katherine J. Lewis, “Katherine of Valois: The Vicissitudes of Reputation”, Later Plantagenet and the Wars of the Roses Consorts: Power, Influence, and Dynasty (eds. J. L. Laynesmith and Elena Woodacre, Palgrave 2023)    

Kavita Mudan Finn, The Last Plantagenet Consorts: Gender, Genre, and Historiography, 1440-1627 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012)

W. Mark Ormrod, "In Bed With Joan of Kent: The King's Mother and the Peasants Revolt", Medieval Women: Texts and Contexts in Late Medieval Britain (ed. Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, Rosalynn Voaden, Arlyn Diamond, Ann Hutchison, Carol Meale, and Lesley Johnson, Brepols 2000)

Lynda J. Pigdeon, Brought Up Of Nought: A History of the Woodville Family (Fonthill 2019)

[henryfitzempress]

Edward III, King of England, paying homage to Philippe VI, King of France. 

[mary-tudor]

Excerpt of the Anglo-French treaty upon which was arranged the betrothal between Dauphin Charles of France and the lady Elizabeth of England. 

“(...) shalbe contracted and had a mariage betwene the right noble Prynce Charles the sone of the seid most xp̄en kyng of Fraunce. and the moost benyngne princesse my lady Elizabeth doughter of the seyde most victorious kyng of England, etc. [Dated: Amiens, 29 Aug. 1475.”