A Second White Rose - Edmund, Earl of Rutland Survives

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Dragonboy

YAY! Anne and charlotte are in england! The red bastard can't produce a son!

RIP charles the bold. May Philip IV live up to your legacy and your widow make an excellent regent!

And yay! the Alliance stomped the spider! Not so universal now huh?
 

Dragonboy

Zestinobambino said:
Louis will be taking some SERIOUS blows in the next chapter. I've got the terms of the peace treaty written out... and it is meaty.
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Great! And please include a bethrotal between edmund, prince of wales and little charlotte of lancaster. Ned needs that lancastrian blood for his heir to appear more legitimate, plus keep the girl close.
 
Zestinobambino

Zestinobambino

Also, can people see the map of Reims in Chapter Eleven okay? I could see it when I posted it, but now it seems to have disappeared so I’m not sure...
 

Bobby!

Zestinobambino said:
Chapter Eleven: War, Part Two​

After the Battle of Compiegne, the Alliance was in a notably weaker position. With few options, Edward sent a letter to his brother Edmund, Duke of Rutland in Ireland, and asked him to come to France with an Irish army to help turn the tides. Edmund, of course, complied, and on 6th August 1474, a force of 8,000 Irish soldiers - 3,000 drawn from Edmund’s own estates in Cork and Ulster and 5,000 led by Conn O’Neill, King of Ulster and John Dempsey, Earl of Maliere - landed at Cherbourg, still held by a group of Breton soldiers. This proved a turning point in the war as the Gaelic soldiers of O’Neill and Maliere did not practice the chivalric form of warfare that most French soldiers were used to, but instead used guerrilla warfare against their enemies - burning farms, raiding convoys, and setting up ambushes, all the while avoiding pitched battles. The 5,000 Gaelic soldiers soon gained the epithet of the Banshees, after the terrifying creatures of Irish folklore. Louis, Duke of Orleans got his own first taste of guerrilla warfare at the hands of the Banshees at the Battle of Cergy, on 2nd September 1474, which resulted in 153 French soldiers being forced into a lake and drowning, as well as over two hundred more slain in combat. Orleans was captured by Rutland and taken back to Cherbourg as a prisoner. As the campaigning season ended, the Banshees took on another, more crucial role - stealing supplies from the French soldiers to give to the allies.

Once campaigning began again in 1475, the war was now on a new path. Edward IV and Edmund, Duke of Rutland led a combined army of 20,000 Englishmen against Rouen and began a siege on 1st June 1475. Rouen was chosen as a key target for two reasons - it was a symbolic place to the Yorkists, since Edward and Edmund had both been born there, and many of the French nobility were using the city as a headquarters to lead the war from. One of those nobles was the Red Prince, whose wife Bona of Savoy and Charlotte of Lancaster were within the city walls while the Red Prince waged war against Edward IV. However, midway through the siege, reports that the Red Prince had attacked Amiens reached the York brothers. Edward IV chose to leave Rouen to his brother while he travelled to Amiens to restore order, and potentially kill the Red Prince. The city surrendered soon enough on 14th June, and Edmund, Duke of Rutland strolled confidently into his birth town. He quickly took Charles, Duke of Berry prisoner, as well as Bona of Savoy and Charlotte of Lancaster. Both Bona and Charlotte were then sent towards the ports held by the English, where they were shipped to England - out of the way of the Red Prince, depriving him of the opportunity to make more heirs.

Unfortunately, while the English marched on Rouen, this weakened Amiens and allowed for Edward the Red Prince to attack the Burgundian force there. The Battle of Amiens (3rd June 1475) saw 4,000 Frenchmen fight 3,000 Burgundians, resulting in the tragic death of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, one of the alliance’s principal leaders. Control of Burgundy now nominally passed to Charles’s son Philip, who succeeded him as Philip IV of Burgundy - but since Philip IV was only seven years old, his mother Anne of York was able to make herself regent, at least for the time being. Edward IV reached Amiens three days too late, and William Blount - who decided later to write an account of the events of the war [1] - recorded that Edward “wept at the destruction wrought upon the town, and shed many a tear for the death of the bold Duke of Burgundy.”

The uncertainty caused by Charles the Bold’s death gave the French leadership a renewed vigour in the war, just at the point at which Louis was contemplating surrender. Edward the Red Prince was given more control, and under him, French scored another victory at the Battle of Beauvais (24th March 1476) which ended the allied occupation of Picardy entirely – or at least, for now. But Edward IV, Francis II and their commanders met in Rouen in July 1476 and laid out a plan of attack to turn the war back in their favour. Shortly after the meeting, the Irish contingent under Conn O’Neill and the Duke of Rutland was sent south to disrupt supply lines by burning farms and stealing food, and the failed harvest of 1476 led to an economic slump in France. Meanwhile, as the French army suffered from such a terrible famine thanks to the Banshees, the Alliance’s main body of forces re-initiated an attempt to take Picardy. Louis XI ordered a fleet to attack the English port at Calais in order to cut off a major supply route, but the French fleet under Louis I de la Trémoille was intercepted by an English fleet commanded by Thomas Neville, Bastard of Fauconberg just near Boulogne. The Boulonnaise witnessed the naval Battle of Boulogne on 10th August 1476. In a stunning move of bravery, Thomas Neville boarded La Trémoille’s ship and challenged him to a duel. Thomas claimed that if La Trémoille won the duel, then he would order his fleet to let the French pass. In return, La Trémoille promised that if Thomas won, then La Trémoille would surrender his fleet to the Englishman. The duel began, and after six minutes, Thomas disarmed La Trémoille, thus claiming victory. As per their terms, the French fleet surrendered to Thomas Neville, and La Trémoille was taken as a prisoner.

Back on land, the war progressed well for the Alliance. The Battle of Ponthieu (25th August 1476) was yet another success for the Alliance, led by Richard, Earl of Warwick against an army led by Charles, Count of Angoulême. While Ponthieu fell to the invaders, Angoulême escaped with his life. The Battle of Saint-Quentin (3rd September 1476) consolidated their control of Picardy, and it proved easy to take Vermandois afterwards with most of the French force already annihilated. With Normandy and Picardy now in the alliance’s hands, they turned their attention to Champagne, one of the major goals of the campaign as set out by Charles the Bold in the Treaty of Bruges. Even though Charles had now fallen, Edward and Francis agreed to try and take the territory over anyway in honour of their fallen comrade and grant the land to Burgundy when successful.

The alliance continued to score victories in Champagne, pushing in through the region, culminating in the Battle of Reims on 3rd April 1477 – the last battle in the war. The English force here consisted of Edward IV, Warwick, Howard, Suffolk, Hastings, Norfolk and Ferrers, with altogether around 16,000 soldiers, coupled with a Breton force of around 6,000, against around 12,000 French soldiers under the command of Nicholas of Lorraine, who had been the Duke of Lorraine since his father John II’s death in 1470, and Charles V, Count of Maine. The two French commanders had been left to defend Reims since the Battle of Ponthieu and disagreed on tactics early on - Lorraine believed it would be better to force the attackers into a siege, whereas Maine planned on using the gates to the city as a chokepoint. Maine overruled Lorraine and chose to use the most southwestern gate. He picked this gate as it was the furthest gate from the allies' direction of approach, giving the defenders maximum time to pick off at the allies with ranged weapons from Reims's walls. Maine's defensive scheme - now known to history as Maine's Gamble, due to the risk he took in allowing any invaders into the city - was put to the test on 3rd April 1477.

Maine opened the southwestern gate to lure the English and Breton invaders in, and his strategy seemed initially to work. The first invaders through the gate were slaughtered by Maine’s defences, including Thomas Grey, son of John Grey, Baron Ferrers. However, eventually, the sheer numerical advantages held by the attackers won out, and Maine’s defence collapsed. Reims was sacked by the invaders, and Maine was killed in the battle while Lorraine was taken prisoner. With Reims now under allied control, Champagne was effectively secured and there was only one target left on the Alliance’s list of aims - Paris. The march to Paris began on 6th April 1477. With alliance troops in sight of Paris, Louis XI realised he had no choice but to surrender, which he did on 16th April 1477, ending the Franco-Alliance War.

View attachment 905661
A Medieval map of Reims, with a compass in the bottom right corner for alignment. The blue circle highlights the gate that Maine opened as a chokepoint to the invaders in his gamble. This map can be found on this website.
​
[1] - we met William Blount in Chapter Ten, as a knight in Edward IV's camp. He was there when Bourbon defected to Edward. I have my plans for him...
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Love this! i really like the descriptions of the battles at boulogne and reims, very fun to read.

and i can see the map btw
 
Chapter Twelve: Peace?
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    • Zestinobambino

    Zestinobambino

    Chapter Twelve: Peace?​

    After surrendering, Louis invited Edward IV and Francis II to Meaux, a town about 55km east of Paris, to negotiate peace terms. Here, they were joined by Anthony, Bastard of Burgundy, half-brother of the late Duke Charles, who negotiated on behalf of Burgundy. Emperor Frederick III also sent his son Maximilian - Louis XI’s son-in-law through his marriage to Anne de Valois - to act as a mediator. On 28th July 1477, just over three months since the end of fighting, the Treaty of Meaux was concluded. It included several terms, most beneficial to the Alliance:
    • Louis XI was forced to recognise the independence of Brittany, not as an independent duchy but as its own kingdom. Duke Francis II now became King Francis II of Brittany, with regnal number carrying on from ducal number.
    • However, any lands within the rest of France held by Breton nobles remained a part of France, and the King would have to pay feudal dues for these lands [1].
    • Louis XI was also forced to recognise the English claim to the Duchy of Normandy, since Edward IV was the eventual successor of William the Conqueror.
    • Louis also granted to England permanent control over the Counties of Longueville, Eu, Clermont and Aumale.
    • The parts of the Burgundian state that were grants from the Kingdom of France - that is, the Duchy of Burgundy proper, and the Counties of Flanders, Artois and Picardy - were granted independence [2].
    • Burgundy was also granted control over the Counties of Nevers and Tonnerre, and feudal control over the Duchy of Champagne was given to Burgundy as a possession from the French crown.
    • The parts of Burgundy within the Holy Roman Empire remained a part of the Empire. To reflect the semi-independence of the Burgundian state, both Louis XI and Maximilian agreed to recognise the rulers of Burgundy as the Princes of Burgundy, starting with Philip IV.
    • Edward IV’s eldest daughter Cecily of York and Louis XI’s only son Charles were set to marry when both were of age.
    • In return for the marriage of Cecily and Dauphin Charles, and the formal transfer of Normandy to England, Edward IV formally resigned all English claims to the throne of France.
    • For a sum of approximately £5000 split between the three allies, all French prisoners of war were released. However, Edward IV refused to release Bona of Savoy and Charlotte of Lancaster, seeing as they were valuable prisoners of the House of Lancaster.
    • It was agreed that Prince Philip IV’s half-sisters, Marie and Emma, should marry a French and English nobleman, with the French taking seniority. Louis picked Nicholas, Duke of Lorraine as Marie’s husband, and Emma would marry Lionel, Earl of Northampton, eldest son of Edmund, Duke of Rutland.
    • Louis XI was finally forced to pay a pension of approximately £5,000 to each of the three allies for ten years.
    • As a favour to his rebellious brother, Edward IV managed to get Louis XI to agree to hand Catherine d’Armagnac and her young son Jacques over to him, so they could rejoin George, Duke of Clarence.
    • Finally, Louis agreed to hand over all Lancastrian nobles still in France to the new English administration in Normandy. However, given her French roots, Louis refused to hand Margaret of Anjou over to Edward IV.

    Post-war France.jpeg

    The same map of France as shown in Chapter Six, only this time annotated to show the lands lost by France in the Franco-Alliance War. Unfortunately, I had to crop France south of Bordeaux out so that the image didn't exceed AH's file size limit.​

    In all respects, the Franco-Alliance War turned out to be a wonderful success for England. They regained Normandy as well as several other French territories, re-establishing their control over northern France, and while Edward failed to take the French throne himself, Edward’s daughter was set to become Queen of France one day. Edward IV also invested his younger son Richard (born in 1471, Edward’s son by Isabel Neville) the Duke of Normandy, and he made his friends William Hastings the Count of Clermont and Henry Bourchier the Count of Eu. Edward appointed Clermont as Lord Lieutenant in France, a position he would hold until Duke Richard turned 21 in 1492. The Treaty of Meaux also brought with it huge strategic success - with the independence of Brittany and French Burgundy and England’s new Norman possessions, French access to the English Channel had been completely revoked. For the time being, Edward IV knew he would be safe from the threat of a French invasion. Upon their return to England, the Yorkist commanders were lauded as heroes and mighty warriors. Edward IV endorsed a celebratory feast in London, inviting almost all of the nobility, and gave grants to some of the captains that had fought so hard to win the war for the alliance. He granted his knight and loyal servant William Blount a wife in Margaret Beaufort, who had been without a husband since Clarence divorced her, and later made William the Earl of Dorset in consideration of his marriage. He also gave a promotion to John Grey, Baron Ferrers, who was now made Earl of Derby and given extra estates in the Midlands.

    Meanwhile, the war had similarly been a success for England’s allies, especially Brittany. Francis II left Brittany in 1473 as a duke off to war and returned as Brittany’s first king, with formal recognition of his independence from France. He had achieved essentially all his aims, apart from gaining control of Maine and Anjou. But full independence from France was more than enough. Francis II’s reunion with his wife Margaret of Foix was a passionate one and resulted in a child being born on 19th May 1478, ten months after the Treaty of Meaux was signed. However, Margaret’s pregnancy came as a shock to all - she gave birth to twins, one girl and one boy! The girl, who was twelve minutes older than her brother, was named Margaret after her mother, and the boy was named Richard, after Francis II’s father. Yet another victory for Francis II - not only was he now the undisputed King of Brittany, but he also had an heir. He made Richard the Count of Étampes, and from then on the Count of Étampes became the title of the heir apparent to the Breton throne.

    As much as the Treaty of Meaux had been a success for the Bruges Alliance, that only meant it was a failure for France. Louis XI had handed over a vast swathe of northern France without question and completely gave up on his quest to take control of Burgundy and Brittany by recognising them as independent. As well as that, he had promised to pay a sum of £153,000 to France’s invaders overall. All Louis could truly say he had gained was a bride for his son, a promise from Edward not to pursue his claim to the French throne any more, and the release of the French nobles that had been captured during the war. As well as that, the Banshees had ruined many farms and single-handedly pushed France close to an economic recession. France was ripe for uprising, and Louis was determined to ensure that didn’t happen. To begin with, Louis had John, Duke of Bourbon arrested and executed for his treasonous acts. John’s brother and heir Peter now sensed that France was no longer safe for him and his family, so he fled to England with his wife Louise of Albret and their infant son John [2] where he took shelter with Edward IV, praying that Edward would help him as the brother of his first wife. Edward did indeed help Peter and provided him with a manor in Yorkshire.

    Although the Red Prince escaped, other Lancastrians were still handed over to William Hastings in Normandy, such as Jasper Tudor and John Courtenay, Rutland’s brother-in-law and the Lancastrian claimant to the Earldom of Devon (John’s elder brother Henry died of disease in 1467). John was scheduled to be executed, but Joanna Courtenay intervened and convinced Rutland to convince Edward to spare his life. Edward and John then struck a bargain. In return for John’s surrendering of the Earl of Devon to Edmund, Duke of Rutland, Edward IV agreed to let John live. John then travelled to Ireland, where he entered into Rutland’s service. The two men - now on the same side of the dynastic divide - got on well, and Rutland organised for John to marry Margaret Butler, eldest daughter of Thomas, Earl of Ormonde and Anne Hankford.

    The war had also dealt a serious blow to the Red Prince, since his wife and daughter had been captured in the Siege of Rouen. By the Treaty of Meaux, he was meant to be given to the English in Normandy, but escaped before that could happen. First he fled to Portugal, attempting to raise support from Afonso V and his son João, who were fellow descendants of John of Gaunt - but both were thoroughly uninterested in involving themselves with such a conspiracy. Meanwhile, Edward IV ensured that Bona of Savoy and Charlotte of Lancaster were well looked after. He even granted Bona ownership of Belleau Manor, a small country manor in Lincolnshire which had been owned by the Lancastrian Welles family and confiscated from them after the Battle of Towton (although she was kept under armed guard, with John, Lord Howard responsible for ensuring she didn’t escape). Edward also took a major move to secure his dynasty. Since the Red Prince’s legal wife was now in England, he had no way of having another legitimate child, which meant that Charlotte of Lancaster was the rightful heir to the House of Lancaster. With that in mind, Edward betrothed Charlotte to his eldest son Edmund, Prince of Wales, and made her Duchess of Lancaster in her own right. Their union was meant to unite the Houses of York and Lancaster and bring an end to the civil war. Both Edmund and Charlotte were still young when they were betrothed - Edmund was eleven, and Charlotte was eight. Edward planned on having the two marry when Charlotte was sixteen - that would be, some time after August 1485.

    [1] - I put this term in because as far as I can tell, the County of Étampes held by the Breton prince Richard corresponds to an area near-ish Paris.
    [2] - just an aside, that means that now, Louis, Count of Saint-Pol is a Burgundian nobleman, not a French one, since his lands lie within the French portion of the Low Countries.
    [3] - minor butterfly. IOTL, Louise was a mistress to John II, Duke of Bourbon, but ITTL, Louise married John’s brother Peter II in 1469.
     
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