What if Edmund, Earl of Rutland survived? - A Second White Rose
- Thread starter Zestinobambino
- Start date
Yes, I can see him taking an interesting position to Protestantism, since we're getting towards the Reformation now...
Hoyahoo9
Donor
What do you (and others reading this thread) think of the possibility that the reformation in Britannia under Edmund II will be a more constrained, focused attempt to address issues and abuses within the Church, while still ultimately remaining loyal to Rome?
I think that’s likely. I was thinking along the lines that Edmund II would stay Catholic, but at the very least not persecute Protestants as viciously as his peers. Although, I can’t speak for what his nobles will do towards Protestants.
The Philosopher’s Rule Begins
As soon as the twenty-seven year old King Edmund II took the English throne on 2nd February 1520, it was clear he had a long reign ahead of him. His father and successor, King Edmund I, had by conquest brought Scotland and Ireland fully under English control, although there was still unrest in both - and despite his reputation as Edmund I the Unifier, the British Isles were still very much not unified. There was deep-seated resentment in both Scotland and Ireland against English control, and it would be the new king’s job to create peace.
To begin with this peace project, Edmund II turned to Ireland. Having recently been made Lord-Lieutenant by Edmund I, King Edmund II was now forced to appoint a different Lord-Lieutenant. He chose to appoint his brother John, Duke of Salisbury in this position and sent him to Dublin, although Edmund II would often intervene in Ireland personally to ensure that his reforms would go through over the years. Firstly, in June 1520, he reformed the Council of Ireland to ensure that at least one third of the seats on the Council were filled by Irish noblemen. Then in February 1521, he banned the creation of any more plantations on Irish soil, but those that had already been created - such as the town of Monteagle in Leinster, now numbering 632 people led by Sir Edward Stanley - would remain under the protection of the crown. There were by now seventeen of these plantations, adding up to a grand total of just over 9,000 settlers in population, and these settlers were glad to have crown protection. Then the king embarked on an ambitious project to reintroduce Brehon laws to Irish society. The tanistry system was reintroduced in June 1521, which allowed the clans to elect their leaders, instead of having leadership passed onto the eldest son as in the primogeniture system. The Gaelic way of dividing lands up was also reintroduced in December 1523, in which all sons received an equal share. By 1532, Brehon law was essentially reintroduced to Ireland, with a few modifications to keep Ireland linked to England. Edmund II was still the great arbiter and their feudal overlord, and Gaelic laws in respect to the legal system were modified to reflect this.
As for Scotland, King Edmund II still had to contend with plenty of nobles who were still yet unwilling to co-operate with the English regime. To begin with, he created three more duchies in Scotland and paired these with the most pro-English nobles - Alexander Gordon was made Duke of Huntly, Colin Campbell was made Duke of Argyll and Archibald Douglas was made Duke of Angus. The dukes were also rewarded with positions of power in the Scottish government - Huntly was made Lord Treasurer, for example, and Argyll and Douglas were made Wardens of the West and East Marches (although, now that England and Scotland were unified, these positions were mostly ceremonial, apart from the salaries that came with them). Edmund II also had to contend with the two potential claimants to the Scottish throne - John, Earl of Mar (the youngest son of James III) and Alexander Stewart (the son of Alexander, Duke of Albany). Mar was technically the larger threat, but he was married to Eleanor of Middleham, the sister of the Duke of Glouster and Albany. As for Alexander Stewart, Edmund II granted him the title of Lord of the Isles, which had been absorbed into the crown, and arranged a marriage between Alexander and Gloucester’s eldest sister Beatrice of Carlisle, who had previously been married to James IV, Scotland’s last Stewart king.
In 1517, a new movement began on the European continent. On 31st October 1517, the priest Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to a church door, in which he describes the malpractices of the Catholic Church and invited people to debate him over the points he raised. In this work, he protested against the sale of indulgences, argued for justification by faith alone, and challenged the papacy’s position by saying that the Bible was the only source of divine knowledge. Luther was summoned to Augsburg in October 1518 to be cross-examined for heresy, in which he stated that the Pope is not above scripture, leading to an ever-growing rift between the Pope and Luther. On 3rd January 1521, Luther was officially excommunicated. However, it was too late to stop the spread of his ideas. His Theses, giving birth to a new form of Christianity known as Protestantism, had spread in Germany very quickly, being translated from Latin into German in around a month. In April 1519, the Theses arrived in England, where King Edmund I initially made loose and unenforced threats against reading them. However, the advent of King Edmund II’s reign marked a change - the king himself read the Theses as the Philosopher King, and so did his wife Margaret of Angoulême and Edmund’s inner circle of educated gentry and clergy (by now, Edmund was beginning to phase out nobility from central government and use other officials where he could instead). Some issues of the Theses reached the nobility, and they found a champion in Sir Henry Tudor, born 1484 to Henry Tudor, Duke of Somerset and Maud Herbert [1]. He began petitioning the king for reforms to the church.
[1] - to be honest, I just liked the irony of still having a Protestant Henry Tudor leading the Reformation.
To begin with this peace project, Edmund II turned to Ireland. Having recently been made Lord-Lieutenant by Edmund I, King Edmund II was now forced to appoint a different Lord-Lieutenant. He chose to appoint his brother John, Duke of Salisbury in this position and sent him to Dublin, although Edmund II would often intervene in Ireland personally to ensure that his reforms would go through over the years. Firstly, in June 1520, he reformed the Council of Ireland to ensure that at least one third of the seats on the Council were filled by Irish noblemen. Then in February 1521, he banned the creation of any more plantations on Irish soil, but those that had already been created - such as the town of Monteagle in Leinster, now numbering 632 people led by Sir Edward Stanley - would remain under the protection of the crown. There were by now seventeen of these plantations, adding up to a grand total of just over 9,000 settlers in population, and these settlers were glad to have crown protection. Then the king embarked on an ambitious project to reintroduce Brehon laws to Irish society. The tanistry system was reintroduced in June 1521, which allowed the clans to elect their leaders, instead of having leadership passed onto the eldest son as in the primogeniture system. The Gaelic way of dividing lands up was also reintroduced in December 1523, in which all sons received an equal share. By 1532, Brehon law was essentially reintroduced to Ireland, with a few modifications to keep Ireland linked to England. Edmund II was still the great arbiter and their feudal overlord, and Gaelic laws in respect to the legal system were modified to reflect this.
As for Scotland, King Edmund II still had to contend with plenty of nobles who were still yet unwilling to co-operate with the English regime. To begin with, he created three more duchies in Scotland and paired these with the most pro-English nobles - Alexander Gordon was made Duke of Huntly, Colin Campbell was made Duke of Argyll and Archibald Douglas was made Duke of Angus. The dukes were also rewarded with positions of power in the Scottish government - Huntly was made Lord Treasurer, for example, and Argyll and Douglas were made Wardens of the West and East Marches (although, now that England and Scotland were unified, these positions were mostly ceremonial, apart from the salaries that came with them). Edmund II also had to contend with the two potential claimants to the Scottish throne - John, Earl of Mar (the youngest son of James III) and Alexander Stewart (the son of Alexander, Duke of Albany). Mar was technically the larger threat, but he was married to Eleanor of Middleham, the sister of the Duke of Glouster and Albany. As for Alexander Stewart, Edmund II granted him the title of Lord of the Isles, which had been absorbed into the crown, and arranged a marriage between Alexander and Gloucester’s eldest sister Beatrice of Carlisle, who had previously been married to James IV, Scotland’s last Stewart king.
In 1517, a new movement began on the European continent. On 31st October 1517, the priest Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to a church door, in which he describes the malpractices of the Catholic Church and invited people to debate him over the points he raised. In this work, he protested against the sale of indulgences, argued for justification by faith alone, and challenged the papacy’s position by saying that the Bible was the only source of divine knowledge. Luther was summoned to Augsburg in October 1518 to be cross-examined for heresy, in which he stated that the Pope is not above scripture, leading to an ever-growing rift between the Pope and Luther. On 3rd January 1521, Luther was officially excommunicated. However, it was too late to stop the spread of his ideas. His Theses, giving birth to a new form of Christianity known as Protestantism, had spread in Germany very quickly, being translated from Latin into German in around a month. In April 1519, the Theses arrived in England, where King Edmund I initially made loose and unenforced threats against reading them. However, the advent of King Edmund II’s reign marked a change - the king himself read the Theses as the Philosopher King, and so did his wife Margaret of Angoulême and Edmund’s inner circle of educated gentry and clergy (by now, Edmund was beginning to phase out nobility from central government and use other officials where he could instead). Some issues of the Theses reached the nobility, and they found a champion in Sir Henry Tudor, born 1484 to Henry Tudor, Duke of Somerset and Maud Herbert [1]. He began petitioning the king for reforms to the church.
[1] - to be honest, I just liked the irony of still having a Protestant Henry Tudor leading the Reformation.
Nice chapter, I like the reforms that Edmund II is doing for governance of the British Isles, less noble power and more royal authority. Interesting that a Tudor still becomes supportive of the Protestant cause 🤣🤣.
Maybe Britain oversees reforms of it's church but still professes religious loyalty to Rome? Maybe we could split between Catholics/Catholic Reformers/Protestants/etc.?
How is Spain doing? Any plans for Morocco and the rest of North Africa?
Keep up the good work 💪💪
Maybe Britain oversees reforms of it's church but still professes religious loyalty to Rome? Maybe we could split between Catholics/Catholic Reformers/Protestants/etc.?
How is Spain doing? Any plans for Morocco and the rest of North Africa?
Keep up the good work 💪💪
That's probably how it goes, we might even get some kind of religious freedom!
I still need to plan what we've got in North Africa. But as you've said before, Spain and Portugal have to be full of crusading fever what with Lionel's victories and the Miguel-Annabelle marriage
Iberian Developments
Ferdinand, Duke of Calabria continued to agitate for a war against the Habsburgs in order to retake the kingdom of Naples. After the death of Ferdinand II of Aragon, his main supporter, Calabria had taken on a new patron in King Lionel II of Burgundy, who was, thanks to his reconquest of the Holy Land and Alexandria, one of Europe’s most influential kings. Since April 1517, Calabria had stayed in the Burgundian court, trying to persuade Lionel to commit his army to retaking Naples. Lionel was initially reluctant to go to war against Maximilian Habsburg, but the king eventually found himself bored of the tedium of court life and diplomacy, and in July 1518 he agreed to help Calabria retake his throne. The two men began plotting a campaign against the Habsburg controlled Naples. Their campaign, which would begin in March 1520, would start by launching a fleet of ships from Nice to Palermo, a port on the northern coastline. Once Palermo was captured, they would conquer the rest of Sicily, then invade mainland Italy by crossing the Straits of Messina, coupled with a naval siege of Naples. They also came to agreements on how Lionel could expect to be rewarded for his work - they agreed that Lionel’s nephew Conrad of Burgundy would marry Catalina de Sicilia (as Lionel was also working on an English match for his own son Alexander). Burgundy would also receive yearly tribute payments for twenty years from Naples in order to compensate Burgundy for its efforts, and Ferdinand would recognise Burgundian suzerainty over Naples. This would transform Naples and Sicily into a vassal of Burgundy, essentially establishing a protectorate. This agreement was accepted by both Lionel and Calabria, and Lionel also announced Calabria’s claim to the Neapolitan throne in the Estates of Burgundy in July 1519, while he began to secretly organise a transport of men into Savoy to launch on Sicily in the following spring.
Meanwhile, Miguel da Paz grew ever closer to fulfilling his destiny as the unifier of the Iberian kingdoms (apart from Navarre). Since the deaths of Isabella of Castile in 1504 and Ferdinand II of Aragon in 1516, Miguel had inherited the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, and his father Afonso VI was still the King of Portugal. When Ferdinand II died, Miguel was still only fifteen, and was therefore unable to take over in Aragon immediately - instead, a regency council was established consisting of the Spanish nobles, which governed both Aragon and Castile until 1522, when Miguel turned twenty-one. Miguel was crowned King of Castile in 1506 and King of Aragon in 1519. Upon taking to his majority rule, inspired by his father-in-law Lionel II of Burgundy, he began to plan a military campaign against Morocco. He claimed Morocco as his own as a continuation of the Reconquista, which had technically ended in 1492, thirty years ago, with the reconquest of Granada from the Moors. He prepared a fleet off the Portuguese coast and gathered an army of 33,000 soldiers, including a Navarrese contingent of 5,000 led by King Gaston I of Navarre (previously Gaston, Count of Foix). Once prepared, this fleet was moved to southern Spain, around Gibraltar. On 22nd April 1524, the Iberian fleet sailed from Algeciras to Ceuta, a small colony held by the Portuguese, which made it a good starting point for Miguel’s war. At Ceuta, only one third of the Iberian ships disembarked, while the remaining two thirds sailed further west to the port of Tangier - however, they were repelled from Tangier by heavy cannonfire and were forced to return to Ceuta. From Ceuta, the determined Iberian army marched on Tangier, arriving there on 28th April 1524, beginning the Siege of Tangier. With its position on the Pillars of Hercules, it was easy for Miguel’s army to cut Tangier completely off from the rest of the world - in the middle of the night, the Iberian fleet moved to have contingents on the east and west of Tangier, giving the Iberians full control of maritime passage into the port. Meanwhile, the combined forces of Portugal, Castile, Aragon and Navarre cut the city off from the land. Within two weeks, the city surrendered and Miguel rode in victoriously.
Meanwhile, Miguel da Paz grew ever closer to fulfilling his destiny as the unifier of the Iberian kingdoms (apart from Navarre). Since the deaths of Isabella of Castile in 1504 and Ferdinand II of Aragon in 1516, Miguel had inherited the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, and his father Afonso VI was still the King of Portugal. When Ferdinand II died, Miguel was still only fifteen, and was therefore unable to take over in Aragon immediately - instead, a regency council was established consisting of the Spanish nobles, which governed both Aragon and Castile until 1522, when Miguel turned twenty-one. Miguel was crowned King of Castile in 1506 and King of Aragon in 1519. Upon taking to his majority rule, inspired by his father-in-law Lionel II of Burgundy, he began to plan a military campaign against Morocco. He claimed Morocco as his own as a continuation of the Reconquista, which had technically ended in 1492, thirty years ago, with the reconquest of Granada from the Moors. He prepared a fleet off the Portuguese coast and gathered an army of 33,000 soldiers, including a Navarrese contingent of 5,000 led by King Gaston I of Navarre (previously Gaston, Count of Foix). Once prepared, this fleet was moved to southern Spain, around Gibraltar. On 22nd April 1524, the Iberian fleet sailed from Algeciras to Ceuta, a small colony held by the Portuguese, which made it a good starting point for Miguel’s war. At Ceuta, only one third of the Iberian ships disembarked, while the remaining two thirds sailed further west to the port of Tangier - however, they were repelled from Tangier by heavy cannonfire and were forced to return to Ceuta. From Ceuta, the determined Iberian army marched on Tangier, arriving there on 28th April 1524, beginning the Siege of Tangier. With its position on the Pillars of Hercules, it was easy for Miguel’s army to cut Tangier completely off from the rest of the world - in the middle of the night, the Iberian fleet moved to have contingents on the east and west of Tangier, giving the Iberians full control of maritime passage into the port. Meanwhile, the combined forces of Portugal, Castile, Aragon and Navarre cut the city off from the land. Within two weeks, the city surrendered and Miguel rode in victoriously.
Thank you! I finally got round to the beginning of a North Africa story!
Hi guys, so clearly I haven't been particularly active on this thread over the last couple of weeks. I haven't given up - I just started this thread as a summertime project, but now I'm back at university and I'm on a pretty intense course, so I don't have an awful lot of free time for this thread. I will still be posting updates on here when I can, but it's definitely not going to be as regular as it has been. Anyway, hopefully I'll be back on this thread soon with some more juicy chapters for you all to get yourselves into!
The Austro-Burgundian War
On 4th March 1520, Lionel II and Ferdinand, Duke of Calabria were preparing to set sail from Nice to Palermo. Lionel had pulled together another 38,000 soldiers from the Burgundian royal army, joined by 8,000 men led by Charles III, Duke of Savoy, who was feudally bound to support Lionel’s invasion. Just over a month into King Edmund II’s rule over the nominal kingdom of Britannia, Lionel soon pursued a renewal of strong relations between Burgundy and the united British Isles by offering his son and heir Alexander to Edmund II’s two-year-old daughter Margaret, Princess of England. Edmund II didn’t instantly accept the proposal, as he was already fielding a slew of offers of marriage, including an offer made on behalf of the six-year-old grandson of Emperor Maximilian named Francis, after his maternal grandfather King Francis I of Brittany, and from the fifteen-year-old King Edward I of Brittany. Edmund, preferring to focus on the internal issues he faced, chose to leave the marriage of his daughter alone for now, and pointedly refused to take a side in the coming Austro-Burgundian War. This way, Edmund could see who won in the coming war, and accept the corresponding marriage offer while he worked on being recognised as the King of Britannia.
By 7th March 1520, no more preparations could possibly be made for the invasion of Sicily, and the Burgundian fleet set sail in the early hours of the morning, when the sun was still rising over the east. By early on the 8th, the fleet arrived at Palermo, and Ferdinand of Calabria disembarked his ship on a rowing boat to make an emotional appeal to the people of Sicily to support him, but this initial plan failed. The people of Palermo had done well out of the Habsburg trade, benefitting from the increase in trade between Sicily and the rest of the Habsburg lands. After realising this was the case, Ferdinand told the people that if they supported his bid for the throne, Sicily and Naples would have full access to trade with Burgundy, including its possessions in Egypt and the Middle East. This offer was enough to secure at the very least the co-operation of Palermo, who overpowered the imperial garrison in the town and opened the harbour for the Burgundian fleet to dock and disembark. However, even though the people of Palermo had of course heard of Lionel II’s military might, they weren’t willing to throw any more support behind Calabria, and he had to be content with just having the port functional. Lionel then sent out assault parties from his base in Palermo to capture the surrounding towns and villages, at each one spreading the news of Calabria’s return to Sicily and his alliance with Burgundy. However, initial progress was slow. Maximilian had anticipated an invasion of Sicily and had reinforced several key towns across the island. This war was to see two of Europe’s most powerful armies doing battle with each other. At first, the Burgundian front was stuck around Palermo, but then came shocking news from the heart of the Holy Roman Empire – on 26th March 1520, Emperor Maximilian died.
The death of Maximilian Habsburg left the imperial throne in the hands of his oldest son Friedrich Habsburg. Due to the Pope’s support of the Burgundian invasion of Sicily and Naples, Friedrich was not to be crowned as Emperor in Rome, but Maximilian himself had broken the tradition of the emperor requiring coronation by the Pope in 1508 when he declared himself emperor in Trent. Therefore, Friedrich travelled down to Trent, where he organised for himself a ‘triple coronation’ – in one day, he was crowned Emperor Friedrich IV, King Friedrich I of France, and (in a move that made it abundantly clear that he intended to fight Lionel and Calabria) King Friedrich II of Naples. Friedrich was married to Anne of Brittany, the daughter of King Francis I of Brittany and Elizabeth of York [1], and thus this marked the beginning of a crack between the nations of Burgundy and Brittany, who had until now been allies. Anne convinced King Edward I of Brittany to support her husband, and for a few years, he agreed to do so. Eventually, though, the Breton role in the Austro-Burgundian War would lead to the Breton Civil War [2]. Edward I was present at Friedrich’s triple coronation at Trent on 5th May 1520, thus making clear the alliance between the Empire and Brittany. Shortly after Friedrich’s coronation, the emperor – who was the same age as Lionel II, both of them having been born in 1483 – travelled south to Naples and over to Sicily, where he intended to repel the Burgundian invasion and kill Calabria.
Once Friedrich was back in Naples, he had an army of 40,000 with him. Well aware that he might have to contend with the papal armies if Pope Leo X decided to involve himself more heavily with the campaign, Friedrich also hired a contingent of Swiss mercenaries to patrol the border between Naples and the papal states. Meanwhile, his army moved further south through Naples, and he arrived on the island of Sicily on 29th May. By now, the Burgundian army had secured most of western Sicily, roughly forming a line between Termini Imerese on the northern coast and Licata on the southern coast. Lionel and Friedrich had their first battle on 4th June at the Battle of Caltanissetta, in central Sicily. This battle was one of Friedrich’s few tactical blunders – he underestimated the amount of men marching on Caltanissetta and thus went with far too few men to successfully defeat Lionel. It was an important lesson to the Emperor – never underestimate the enemy. Suffering heavy losses, Friedrich was forced to retreat from Caltanissetta, but not before ordering an artillery bombardment against the Burgundians. Lionel was wounded in the bombardment, but he managed to survive, although this couldn’t be said for many of his men. This taught Lionel an equally valuable enemy – his previous victories had been against an army with very little in the way of artillery or modern weaponry, as the Mamluks had been using outdated tactics against the Burgundians. The Habsburg army had no such disadvantage, and this war would be a far more equal war than the Burgundian Crusade had been.
[1] – Edward IV’s sister, in case you’ve forgotten.
[2] – essentially, I’m imagining a civil war between the descendants of King Francis I and Elizabeth, and the descendants of Edward, Duke of Normandy and Margaret of Brittany.
By 7th March 1520, no more preparations could possibly be made for the invasion of Sicily, and the Burgundian fleet set sail in the early hours of the morning, when the sun was still rising over the east. By early on the 8th, the fleet arrived at Palermo, and Ferdinand of Calabria disembarked his ship on a rowing boat to make an emotional appeal to the people of Sicily to support him, but this initial plan failed. The people of Palermo had done well out of the Habsburg trade, benefitting from the increase in trade between Sicily and the rest of the Habsburg lands. After realising this was the case, Ferdinand told the people that if they supported his bid for the throne, Sicily and Naples would have full access to trade with Burgundy, including its possessions in Egypt and the Middle East. This offer was enough to secure at the very least the co-operation of Palermo, who overpowered the imperial garrison in the town and opened the harbour for the Burgundian fleet to dock and disembark. However, even though the people of Palermo had of course heard of Lionel II’s military might, they weren’t willing to throw any more support behind Calabria, and he had to be content with just having the port functional. Lionel then sent out assault parties from his base in Palermo to capture the surrounding towns and villages, at each one spreading the news of Calabria’s return to Sicily and his alliance with Burgundy. However, initial progress was slow. Maximilian had anticipated an invasion of Sicily and had reinforced several key towns across the island. This war was to see two of Europe’s most powerful armies doing battle with each other. At first, the Burgundian front was stuck around Palermo, but then came shocking news from the heart of the Holy Roman Empire – on 26th March 1520, Emperor Maximilian died.
The death of Maximilian Habsburg left the imperial throne in the hands of his oldest son Friedrich Habsburg. Due to the Pope’s support of the Burgundian invasion of Sicily and Naples, Friedrich was not to be crowned as Emperor in Rome, but Maximilian himself had broken the tradition of the emperor requiring coronation by the Pope in 1508 when he declared himself emperor in Trent. Therefore, Friedrich travelled down to Trent, where he organised for himself a ‘triple coronation’ – in one day, he was crowned Emperor Friedrich IV, King Friedrich I of France, and (in a move that made it abundantly clear that he intended to fight Lionel and Calabria) King Friedrich II of Naples. Friedrich was married to Anne of Brittany, the daughter of King Francis I of Brittany and Elizabeth of York [1], and thus this marked the beginning of a crack between the nations of Burgundy and Brittany, who had until now been allies. Anne convinced King Edward I of Brittany to support her husband, and for a few years, he agreed to do so. Eventually, though, the Breton role in the Austro-Burgundian War would lead to the Breton Civil War [2]. Edward I was present at Friedrich’s triple coronation at Trent on 5th May 1520, thus making clear the alliance between the Empire and Brittany. Shortly after Friedrich’s coronation, the emperor – who was the same age as Lionel II, both of them having been born in 1483 – travelled south to Naples and over to Sicily, where he intended to repel the Burgundian invasion and kill Calabria.
Once Friedrich was back in Naples, he had an army of 40,000 with him. Well aware that he might have to contend with the papal armies if Pope Leo X decided to involve himself more heavily with the campaign, Friedrich also hired a contingent of Swiss mercenaries to patrol the border between Naples and the papal states. Meanwhile, his army moved further south through Naples, and he arrived on the island of Sicily on 29th May. By now, the Burgundian army had secured most of western Sicily, roughly forming a line between Termini Imerese on the northern coast and Licata on the southern coast. Lionel and Friedrich had their first battle on 4th June at the Battle of Caltanissetta, in central Sicily. This battle was one of Friedrich’s few tactical blunders – he underestimated the amount of men marching on Caltanissetta and thus went with far too few men to successfully defeat Lionel. It was an important lesson to the Emperor – never underestimate the enemy. Suffering heavy losses, Friedrich was forced to retreat from Caltanissetta, but not before ordering an artillery bombardment against the Burgundians. Lionel was wounded in the bombardment, but he managed to survive, although this couldn’t be said for many of his men. This taught Lionel an equally valuable enemy – his previous victories had been against an army with very little in the way of artillery or modern weaponry, as the Mamluks had been using outdated tactics against the Burgundians. The Habsburg army had no such disadvantage, and this war would be a far more equal war than the Burgundian Crusade had been.
[1] – Edward IV’s sister, in case you’ve forgotten.
[2] – essentially, I’m imagining a civil war between the descendants of King Francis I and Elizabeth, and the descendants of Edward, Duke of Normandy and Margaret of Brittany.