Chapter 54 - Brabant and France in 1528
Chapter 54 – Brabant and France in 1528
“We appeal to thee, as king of France and our rightful lord, to see to it that our cities remain under this kingdom. In our coronation city the Maid herself crowned your ancestral king in our darkest hour and we remain French. The Burgundians will see themselves as our lords, much in defiance of our long history.”
Letter to Louis XII from the city of Reims
The year of 1528 began with a demand from France towards the Grand Duchy of Brabant: To immediately renounce the County of Champagne that had been given as Jeanne’s dowry for her marriage in the year before. The Estates General had declared that it had been an unlawful grant from an insane king and it would remain part of the French crown lands. Grand Duke Philippe viewed it otherwise. Champagne had been given to his son as his daughter-in law’s dowry rightfully with proper documentation. His ambassador to the Valois court told the Prince-Regent Louis that Champagne would not be given back to France and that breaking the treaty that had brought upon the marriage of Jean of Burgundy and Jeanne of France would result in warfare, as the duchy would defend their newfound territories with all their might. This answer was exactly what Louis had hoped for. Less than a fortnight later, he begun the invasion of Champagne at the helm of a force of 16,000 men, a surprising attack in the middle of January that took Brabant by surprise. A winter campaign was a risky one, but Louis decided to strike with speed to gain an advantage against his opponent. To ensure that his men would stay loyal and firm in the cold he had taken a massive wagon train of grains, wine and livestock with him, wools and furs aplenty, as well ordering the felling of several massive trees that would be piled into large bonfires for the army. Louis had taken a lesson from the warfare against the Ottomans in Spain and ensured that a small army of doctors and surgeons accompanied the forces as well. The Dauphine remained in the city of Orléans in the hôtel de la Vieille Intendance, that had become a smaller royal castle. Isabel had been trusted with the regency of the kingdom while her husband went to war, and the royal children remained under guard at Amboise. Champagne fell quickly back to their old masters, as the discontent over becoming part of the Burgundian circle was high and Louis quickly retook control of Reims, Soissons, Vertus and Senlis. The French army advanced quickly up towards Picardy and Hainault in February, where they would meet the Brabantians in battle near St Quentin. It would be a rather one-sided slaughter. Grand Duke Philippe had not been prepared for an invasion at this time, and had focused much of his effort of securing the administration of Champagne, something that had prove difficult. The winter had been hard, with icy rains and heavy winds as well and that had caused hardship in securing the border against the tidal wave of soldiers that now came. The small force that stood up against France at St Quentin was a brave one, determined and fearless. But that had no effect in the battle, as French gunfire rained down hell on them and the rest got wrecked by the sheer number of men that came upon them. The cities of Ham and Guise became the next targets, as the campaign continued. In late February the duchy began to muster men in huge amounts, as the estates of Hainault and Vermandois rallied the rest of the duchy to defend the provinces that now found themselves under heavy pressure. Guise fell in the beginning of March, and Ham a week later. An initial force met the French near the border of Chimay, but it was defeated as well. Louis did not hold back on his army’s ruthlessness during the campaigns, the only condition was that no french city or village would be violated or badly treated, everything else was fair game. The result was a spectacular campaign of destruction across the Somme region. Guise was almost raised to the ground, and Ham was plundered down to the bare stones. Homes, churches, cathedrals and orchards were sacked and set on fire, men slaughtered in masses and women raped in masses, while Louis oversaw it with clinical dispassion. The soldiers would get to keep all their spoils that they took, a great incentive.
The French meet a tougher defence near Amiens as a Burgundian army of 14,600 men clashed with them in the late March. They were commanded by the Count of Rethel, the brother of Philippe, whom had been furious over the sack of Guise, the city that belonged to himself. Jean of Brabant was furious over the French invasion, as he had been one of the strongest voices for a marriage between their kingdoms. The outcome of the battle was one where neither side prevailed truly, as both armies took heavy losses, and Jean was injured, but not captured. France did not advance further into Picardy at this time, but instead they took the County of Eu, Aumale and Guise itself. This was another humiliation for Jean, as Eu had been his second fief. Eu, Guise and Aumale was truly paltry prizes for France, but the main goal had been to retake Champagne and in that, they had been successful. The destruction of the Somme towns had also been profitable, as the border defence of Brabant had been greatly weakened. No doubt France aimed to take Vermandois later as well, but right now it was time to strengthen their hold on their own dominions.
The Prince-Regent entered the city of Reims at the head of a great cavalcade in late May, where he was received with splendour by the whole city. During the spring, Louis ensured that Champagne would once more remain under French control as a great purging of Brabantian officials begun in the region: the ducal administrators and lords were dealt with in various different ways, as the higher ones were taken hostages for ransom or given the option of entering the service of the crown, while the lowest ones found themselves facing the executioner’s axe without further preamble.
Grand Duke Philippe had been horrified by the destruction the French had wrought upon the border and the loss of Champagne, and he swiftly begun to make plans for a counterattack, both to take back the region and to strengthen Vermandois and Picardy. He reached out to his allies in Lorraine, the Holy Roman Empire, Savoy, Brittany and England to gather a coalition that would attack France in the summer. Philippe was unaware at this point that the emperor had joined the French side, and pressed the betrothal of his youngest daughter Beatrice to archduke Charles once more. The negotiations went about at a snail’s pace and Maximilian II hampered the effort, as he himself planned to throw the Burgundians out of the cities along the western Rhine with French support.
The conflict between Maximilian and Philippe begun when the Bishop of Munster died in November of 1527 and the duke began a campaign of manipulations and bribery to see his own candidate become the next bishop, much to the rising fury of many in Germany, as the bishopric was a vital one. In the spring, a frenzied mob broke into the bishop’s residence, dragged him out to the street and beat him to death in broad daylight. Riots spread quickly along the Rhine cities, as anti-Burgundian sentiment rose high, leading to rebellions in Trier, Neuss and Cologne as ducal officials and merchants found themselves targeted during the summer. The richest merchants homes endured lootings, thefts and burnings, while those viewed as agents of the duchy often wound up being murdered. This diverted Philippe’s attention, as he had to direct troops toward the cities near the border to quell the areas, something Louis used for his advantage, as he struck quickly at Vermandois and Picardy with renewed forces 22,000 men gathered in Champagne, Normandy and supplemented with soldiers levied in Alencon and Perche. Philippe quickly sent a messenger to his brother-in law in Lorraine, requesting aid as swiftly as possible, as well as one to England, Brittany and Anjou. John III of Lorraine begun to muster troops, but it was a slow one, as Lorraine was plagued by various internal problems after the death of Charles III two years ago. The Scourge of France had been a terrifying enemy on the battlefield, but his reign in Lorraine had not been an easy one either; Charles had inherited his namesake grandfather’s harshness in many ways, something that had not been made easier by the Anjou-Valois inheritance he had gotten from his father. Nicholas I had wisely split his realms between his two sons, leaving Charles with Lorraine, Bar and Provence, while Nicholas the Younger had gotten Anjou and Maine in the western France near Brittany. The County of Nevers that Charles had acquired through dubious rights had also caused an endless number of troubles, while the Valois-Anjou inheritance of Provence down in south-eastern France had been harder to control, due to the long distance and the sense of many in Provence of belonging more to France than their absent Count. Many soldiers had also been lost against the Ottomans in Belgrade, and the mustering of more men raised the hackles of many. John III was not his cast-iron father either, and while he was a capable ruler, his miliary skills fell shorter. But Lorraine was not the only player on the stage, as the Duke of Anjou proved to be a bigger problem. Nicholas II was not his nephew in Lorraine and he took the opportunity to extend his already considerable mini-kingdom and invaded the neighbouring Duchy of Alencon and the Counties of Perche, Dunois and Vendome, as he had done in 1509 without great sucess. Since the death of Charles IV over a decade ago, the Alencon lands had been contested, as his sister had wed the Duke of Angouleme, but Nicholas II had since long set his eyes on them. The Prince-Regent could not divert his forces as he had his hands full with the Brabantians, but the Dauphine sent the Duke of Bourbon to prevent Anjou from carving out a kingdom in the west of France. Anjou would have to be dealt with after the conquest of Picardy was done.
The Dauphine kept a hawk-eye on the surrounding duchies. While Bourbon marched against Anjou, she left Orléans to deal with Lorraine herself. Isabel announced her arrival to her cousin with a roar of cannon-fire to the meagre force that had barely reached Joinville near the Duchy of Bar, scattering most of them. Days later she laid siege to the Nancy, the capital of Lorraine itself, much to the shock of many. But Isabel, being the grand-daughter of the greatest king in Christendom, were not one to be indecisive in times of crisis and she ruthlessly pressed onwards, cutting of all routes of supplies swiftly and relentlessly bombarded the city walls. The atmosphere in the city turned turbulent, as strong voices argued for surrendering to France rather than becoming entangled in more warfare. Three weeks later, John sent a message of surrender to the Dauphine and days afterwards he formally opened the city gates to her forces.
Family of Darius before Alexander
Isabel received John outside of the city, surrounded by several thousand of soldiers, and she greeted him with the might of a conqueror. The Dauphine laid very strict terms for the conditions of the surrender; as John was forced to had over his two sons to her immediately, until he had raised the sum of 900,000 florins as their ransom, to yield the County of Nevers back to the crown and to become shift his alliance with Brabant toward that of France. Knowing that the sum of money would be incredible difficult to raise for Lorraine, Isabel offered one solution that would benefit France more. The ransom would be lowered to 500,000 if John sold the County of Provence to France and agreed to a marriage between his heir, Rene and Isabelle, the Dauphine’s second daughter. In the meanwhile, Rene would be raised in the court of France alongside his younger brother, Philip. Should Rene not survive to adulthood, Philip would wed Isabelle in his steed. France would provide for their upbringing and education and Isabelle would bring a proper dowry and trousseau to the marriage when she came of age. Knowing that his situation was hanging by a thread, John agreed to Isabel’s conditions and prepared for the surrendering of Provence, a region that had been troublesome for decades now to him and his father and grandfather. Rene and Philip were swiftly sent to safekeeping in Amboise, where they joined Isabel’s daughters in the nursery. The Prince-Regent found out about his wife’s endeavour, much to his shock, but he was greatly pleased with her actions, especially as it had given France a secure border to the east. But the fighting in the west was not done, especially as Bourbon and Anjou clashed together at a few miles outside of Chartres. Bourbon was an excellent commander, but so were Anjou and while Dunois and Vendome would not be lost, Alencon and Perche was. This infuriated Francis I of Angouleme, as those had come to him by his marriage to Francoise of Alencon and now the Anjou bastard had taken it. But his rage did not last long, as he perished in Picardy in the service of the Prince-Regent. The campaign stopped in the late autumn for a brief respite, as French and Brabantian blood had been heavily spilled in the region, and while the ducal forces had fought immensely hard against the invaders, Vermandois and half of Picardy had been successfully taken by Louis. The betrayal of Lorraine and Emperor Maximilian had forced Philippe into a defensive position as his allies dwindled. Worse was to come in November when the Duke of Brittany died of kidney failure. Jean VI had been a very popular ruler and a steadfast ally to Brabant for several decades. The new Duke, Richard I had married Philippe’s sister Katherine twenty years ago, a match that had been intended to unite the two duchies against French encroachment, but that was now on shaky ground. Jean’s two sons had not inherited their father’s stable temperament, as Richard proved to be a cruel man both as ruler and husband. Katherine’s bad luck in childbearing was no doubt caused by her abusive spouse, as only one son remained alive aside from their two daughters. His brother, Francis, Count of Étampes loathed him as well and many in the duchy wished for him to become their duke instead. Francis had wedded Marie of Anjou, the second daughter of Nicholas II and Anne of Foix-Candale to bind the duchies closer to each other and their marriage was far more fruitful, with five living children, much to Richard’s resentment.
Philippe decided to once more reach out to England in this time of crisis. If his youngest daughter Beatrice would not become a future empress, the she could become queen of England instead. Because the curse of Prince Richard’s marriages would once more strike early in December to disastrous results.
Author's Note: So here we see the first year of the War of the Wrath between France and Brabant. And I'm taking the opportunity to present some new players as well. And Francis I of France died without ever getting the crown.
“We appeal to thee, as king of France and our rightful lord, to see to it that our cities remain under this kingdom. In our coronation city the Maid herself crowned your ancestral king in our darkest hour and we remain French. The Burgundians will see themselves as our lords, much in defiance of our long history.”
Letter to Louis XII from the city of Reims
The year of 1528 began with a demand from France towards the Grand Duchy of Brabant: To immediately renounce the County of Champagne that had been given as Jeanne’s dowry for her marriage in the year before. The Estates General had declared that it had been an unlawful grant from an insane king and it would remain part of the French crown lands. Grand Duke Philippe viewed it otherwise. Champagne had been given to his son as his daughter-in law’s dowry rightfully with proper documentation. His ambassador to the Valois court told the Prince-Regent Louis that Champagne would not be given back to France and that breaking the treaty that had brought upon the marriage of Jean of Burgundy and Jeanne of France would result in warfare, as the duchy would defend their newfound territories with all their might. This answer was exactly what Louis had hoped for. Less than a fortnight later, he begun the invasion of Champagne at the helm of a force of 16,000 men, a surprising attack in the middle of January that took Brabant by surprise. A winter campaign was a risky one, but Louis decided to strike with speed to gain an advantage against his opponent. To ensure that his men would stay loyal and firm in the cold he had taken a massive wagon train of grains, wine and livestock with him, wools and furs aplenty, as well ordering the felling of several massive trees that would be piled into large bonfires for the army. Louis had taken a lesson from the warfare against the Ottomans in Spain and ensured that a small army of doctors and surgeons accompanied the forces as well. The Dauphine remained in the city of Orléans in the hôtel de la Vieille Intendance, that had become a smaller royal castle. Isabel had been trusted with the regency of the kingdom while her husband went to war, and the royal children remained under guard at Amboise. Champagne fell quickly back to their old masters, as the discontent over becoming part of the Burgundian circle was high and Louis quickly retook control of Reims, Soissons, Vertus and Senlis. The French army advanced quickly up towards Picardy and Hainault in February, where they would meet the Brabantians in battle near St Quentin. It would be a rather one-sided slaughter. Grand Duke Philippe had not been prepared for an invasion at this time, and had focused much of his effort of securing the administration of Champagne, something that had prove difficult. The winter had been hard, with icy rains and heavy winds as well and that had caused hardship in securing the border against the tidal wave of soldiers that now came. The small force that stood up against France at St Quentin was a brave one, determined and fearless. But that had no effect in the battle, as French gunfire rained down hell on them and the rest got wrecked by the sheer number of men that came upon them. The cities of Ham and Guise became the next targets, as the campaign continued. In late February the duchy began to muster men in huge amounts, as the estates of Hainault and Vermandois rallied the rest of the duchy to defend the provinces that now found themselves under heavy pressure. Guise fell in the beginning of March, and Ham a week later. An initial force met the French near the border of Chimay, but it was defeated as well. Louis did not hold back on his army’s ruthlessness during the campaigns, the only condition was that no french city or village would be violated or badly treated, everything else was fair game. The result was a spectacular campaign of destruction across the Somme region. Guise was almost raised to the ground, and Ham was plundered down to the bare stones. Homes, churches, cathedrals and orchards were sacked and set on fire, men slaughtered in masses and women raped in masses, while Louis oversaw it with clinical dispassion. The soldiers would get to keep all their spoils that they took, a great incentive.
The French meet a tougher defence near Amiens as a Burgundian army of 14,600 men clashed with them in the late March. They were commanded by the Count of Rethel, the brother of Philippe, whom had been furious over the sack of Guise, the city that belonged to himself. Jean of Brabant was furious over the French invasion, as he had been one of the strongest voices for a marriage between their kingdoms. The outcome of the battle was one where neither side prevailed truly, as both armies took heavy losses, and Jean was injured, but not captured. France did not advance further into Picardy at this time, but instead they took the County of Eu, Aumale and Guise itself. This was another humiliation for Jean, as Eu had been his second fief. Eu, Guise and Aumale was truly paltry prizes for France, but the main goal had been to retake Champagne and in that, they had been successful. The destruction of the Somme towns had also been profitable, as the border defence of Brabant had been greatly weakened. No doubt France aimed to take Vermandois later as well, but right now it was time to strengthen their hold on their own dominions.
The Prince-Regent entered the city of Reims at the head of a great cavalcade in late May, where he was received with splendour by the whole city. During the spring, Louis ensured that Champagne would once more remain under French control as a great purging of Brabantian officials begun in the region: the ducal administrators and lords were dealt with in various different ways, as the higher ones were taken hostages for ransom or given the option of entering the service of the crown, while the lowest ones found themselves facing the executioner’s axe without further preamble.
Grand Duke Philippe had been horrified by the destruction the French had wrought upon the border and the loss of Champagne, and he swiftly begun to make plans for a counterattack, both to take back the region and to strengthen Vermandois and Picardy. He reached out to his allies in Lorraine, the Holy Roman Empire, Savoy, Brittany and England to gather a coalition that would attack France in the summer. Philippe was unaware at this point that the emperor had joined the French side, and pressed the betrothal of his youngest daughter Beatrice to archduke Charles once more. The negotiations went about at a snail’s pace and Maximilian II hampered the effort, as he himself planned to throw the Burgundians out of the cities along the western Rhine with French support.
The conflict between Maximilian and Philippe begun when the Bishop of Munster died in November of 1527 and the duke began a campaign of manipulations and bribery to see his own candidate become the next bishop, much to the rising fury of many in Germany, as the bishopric was a vital one. In the spring, a frenzied mob broke into the bishop’s residence, dragged him out to the street and beat him to death in broad daylight. Riots spread quickly along the Rhine cities, as anti-Burgundian sentiment rose high, leading to rebellions in Trier, Neuss and Cologne as ducal officials and merchants found themselves targeted during the summer. The richest merchants homes endured lootings, thefts and burnings, while those viewed as agents of the duchy often wound up being murdered. This diverted Philippe’s attention, as he had to direct troops toward the cities near the border to quell the areas, something Louis used for his advantage, as he struck quickly at Vermandois and Picardy with renewed forces 22,000 men gathered in Champagne, Normandy and supplemented with soldiers levied in Alencon and Perche. Philippe quickly sent a messenger to his brother-in law in Lorraine, requesting aid as swiftly as possible, as well as one to England, Brittany and Anjou. John III of Lorraine begun to muster troops, but it was a slow one, as Lorraine was plagued by various internal problems after the death of Charles III two years ago. The Scourge of France had been a terrifying enemy on the battlefield, but his reign in Lorraine had not been an easy one either; Charles had inherited his namesake grandfather’s harshness in many ways, something that had not been made easier by the Anjou-Valois inheritance he had gotten from his father. Nicholas I had wisely split his realms between his two sons, leaving Charles with Lorraine, Bar and Provence, while Nicholas the Younger had gotten Anjou and Maine in the western France near Brittany. The County of Nevers that Charles had acquired through dubious rights had also caused an endless number of troubles, while the Valois-Anjou inheritance of Provence down in south-eastern France had been harder to control, due to the long distance and the sense of many in Provence of belonging more to France than their absent Count. Many soldiers had also been lost against the Ottomans in Belgrade, and the mustering of more men raised the hackles of many. John III was not his cast-iron father either, and while he was a capable ruler, his miliary skills fell shorter. But Lorraine was not the only player on the stage, as the Duke of Anjou proved to be a bigger problem. Nicholas II was not his nephew in Lorraine and he took the opportunity to extend his already considerable mini-kingdom and invaded the neighbouring Duchy of Alencon and the Counties of Perche, Dunois and Vendome, as he had done in 1509 without great sucess. Since the death of Charles IV over a decade ago, the Alencon lands had been contested, as his sister had wed the Duke of Angouleme, but Nicholas II had since long set his eyes on them. The Prince-Regent could not divert his forces as he had his hands full with the Brabantians, but the Dauphine sent the Duke of Bourbon to prevent Anjou from carving out a kingdom in the west of France. Anjou would have to be dealt with after the conquest of Picardy was done.
The Dauphine kept a hawk-eye on the surrounding duchies. While Bourbon marched against Anjou, she left Orléans to deal with Lorraine herself. Isabel announced her arrival to her cousin with a roar of cannon-fire to the meagre force that had barely reached Joinville near the Duchy of Bar, scattering most of them. Days later she laid siege to the Nancy, the capital of Lorraine itself, much to the shock of many. But Isabel, being the grand-daughter of the greatest king in Christendom, were not one to be indecisive in times of crisis and she ruthlessly pressed onwards, cutting of all routes of supplies swiftly and relentlessly bombarded the city walls. The atmosphere in the city turned turbulent, as strong voices argued for surrendering to France rather than becoming entangled in more warfare. Three weeks later, John sent a message of surrender to the Dauphine and days afterwards he formally opened the city gates to her forces.
Family of Darius before Alexander
Isabel received John outside of the city, surrounded by several thousand of soldiers, and she greeted him with the might of a conqueror. The Dauphine laid very strict terms for the conditions of the surrender; as John was forced to had over his two sons to her immediately, until he had raised the sum of 900,000 florins as their ransom, to yield the County of Nevers back to the crown and to become shift his alliance with Brabant toward that of France. Knowing that the sum of money would be incredible difficult to raise for Lorraine, Isabel offered one solution that would benefit France more. The ransom would be lowered to 500,000 if John sold the County of Provence to France and agreed to a marriage between his heir, Rene and Isabelle, the Dauphine’s second daughter. In the meanwhile, Rene would be raised in the court of France alongside his younger brother, Philip. Should Rene not survive to adulthood, Philip would wed Isabelle in his steed. France would provide for their upbringing and education and Isabelle would bring a proper dowry and trousseau to the marriage when she came of age. Knowing that his situation was hanging by a thread, John agreed to Isabel’s conditions and prepared for the surrendering of Provence, a region that had been troublesome for decades now to him and his father and grandfather. Rene and Philip were swiftly sent to safekeeping in Amboise, where they joined Isabel’s daughters in the nursery. The Prince-Regent found out about his wife’s endeavour, much to his shock, but he was greatly pleased with her actions, especially as it had given France a secure border to the east. But the fighting in the west was not done, especially as Bourbon and Anjou clashed together at a few miles outside of Chartres. Bourbon was an excellent commander, but so were Anjou and while Dunois and Vendome would not be lost, Alencon and Perche was. This infuriated Francis I of Angouleme, as those had come to him by his marriage to Francoise of Alencon and now the Anjou bastard had taken it. But his rage did not last long, as he perished in Picardy in the service of the Prince-Regent. The campaign stopped in the late autumn for a brief respite, as French and Brabantian blood had been heavily spilled in the region, and while the ducal forces had fought immensely hard against the invaders, Vermandois and half of Picardy had been successfully taken by Louis. The betrayal of Lorraine and Emperor Maximilian had forced Philippe into a defensive position as his allies dwindled. Worse was to come in November when the Duke of Brittany died of kidney failure. Jean VI had been a very popular ruler and a steadfast ally to Brabant for several decades. The new Duke, Richard I had married Philippe’s sister Katherine twenty years ago, a match that had been intended to unite the two duchies against French encroachment, but that was now on shaky ground. Jean’s two sons had not inherited their father’s stable temperament, as Richard proved to be a cruel man both as ruler and husband. Katherine’s bad luck in childbearing was no doubt caused by her abusive spouse, as only one son remained alive aside from their two daughters. His brother, Francis, Count of Étampes loathed him as well and many in the duchy wished for him to become their duke instead. Francis had wedded Marie of Anjou, the second daughter of Nicholas II and Anne of Foix-Candale to bind the duchies closer to each other and their marriage was far more fruitful, with five living children, much to Richard’s resentment.
Philippe decided to once more reach out to England in this time of crisis. If his youngest daughter Beatrice would not become a future empress, the she could become queen of England instead. Because the curse of Prince Richard’s marriages would once more strike early in December to disastrous results.
Author's Note: So here we see the first year of the War of the Wrath between France and Brabant. And I'm taking the opportunity to present some new players as well. And Francis I of France died without ever getting the crown.
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And France is not done raging either. 