• Hi Guest!

    The costs of running this forum are covered by Sea Lion Press. If you'd like to help support the company and the forum, visit patreon.com/sealionpress

The King's Birthday

Really enjoyed rereading this.
Is the reference to the King's uncle meant to imply that Duke John II wasn't poisoned in Barcelona TTL?
 
Very interesting; a reminder of how Prince Edward of Westminster could have turned out if he had survived the battle of Tewkesbury and ended up in exile, as yet another no-hoper pretender taking to drink and reassuring himself that restoration was only a matter of time. An element of comparison with the probable state of 'Bonnie Prince Charlie' in exile in his later years, at least as regards his self-delusion and self-pity? Edward of Westminster seems to have been an unpleasant character, if a bit brutalised by his experiences as a boy in 1460-1; there is a story of him being asked what should be done to captive Yorkists and asking to be allowed to watch them being executed.


I assume that in this TL, Anne Neville either did not marry Edward or left him - possibly after being captured by the Yorkists after Tewkesbury as in real life - and Edward IV had her marriage to him annulled by the Church on account of her and E being related (though Anne would not have been as close a cousin to Edward of W as she was to her real life 2nd husband Richard III). Anne has presumably been married off to Richard - and we see Henry Tudor deciding to set up his own claim rather than hanging on to the hopeless cause of his cousin , which is a nice touch. Oxford is in real life the man who wins at Bosworth for Henry T, and does so again over Simnel's Yorkist rebels at Stoke in 1487.
 
Really enjoyed rereading this.
Is the reference to the King's uncle meant to imply that Duke John II wasn't poisoned in Barcelona TTL?
Yes, although I'll admit that's because I forgot his date of death in OTL!
 
Very interesting; a reminder of how Prince Edward of Westminster could have turned out if he had survived the battle of Tewkesbury and ended up in exile, as yet another no-hoper pretender taking to drink and reassuring himself that restoration was only a matter of time. An element of comparison with the probable state of 'Bonnie Prince Charlie' in exile in his later years, at least as regards his self-delusion and self-pity? Edward of Westminster seems to have been an unpleasant character, if a bit brutalised by his experiences as a boy in 1460-1; there is a story of him being asked what should be done to captive Yorkists and asking to be allowed to watch them being executed.
I did have some of the tales of Bonnie Prince Charlie and other exile courts in mind when I was writing this. The other real inspiration for Edward was Downfall. I agree that the (very) limited evidence we have of Edward suggests that he was something of a nasty piece of work. However, I also discovered that there is a small but incredibly dedicated group of people on the internet who consider this all baseless lies. They will tell you that Morton and Mancini were engaging in scurrilous rumour mongering, and he would have been the perfect king. Their evidence for this is rather limited, but their fervour puts even the very hardcore Ricardians to shame.

I assume that in this TL, Anne Neville either did not marry Edward or left him - possibly after being captured by the Yorkists after Tewkesbury as in real life - and Edward IV had her marriage to him annulled by the Church on account of her and E being related (though Anne would not have been as close a cousin to Edward of W as she was to her real life 2nd husband Richard III). Anne has presumably been married off to Richard - and we see Henry Tudor deciding to set up his own claim rather than hanging on to the hopeless cause of his cousin , which is a nice touch. Oxford is in real life the man who wins at Bosworth for Henry T, and does so again over Simnel's Yorkist rebels at Stoke in 1487.
In my mind, Richard marries Anne. Just what, if anything, happened in 1469-71 was rather left up in the air by me on this one. It might be that the PoD was far enough back that the readeption didn't happen at all. It could be that it happened as OTL, except Edward escaped. It could be that something happened that wasn't quite the same, but had many similarities. Either way, the Lancastrian cause is dead, and remains dead as long as Edward of Koeur lives.

Tudor and Oxford are going back to England. On their clandestine trips home to see just how loyal the populace are to the Lancastrian Edward (not at all), they have been intercepted by agents of the Yorkist Edward. He has offered to see them restored to their lands (minus some boundary adjustments, fines, and benevolences to the king, of course). Oxford was making one last trip before heading to England, and returning home to Hedingham. Tudor is making the same trip, in order to be granted the (albeit reduced) Honour of Richmond. I remember reading that Tudor almost did the same in 1483 in OTL, but Edward IV died before it could occur. In this TL, the Lancastrian cause is weaker, despite - or in fact because of - the survival of Edward of Westminster.

I'm glad you enjoyed this. I am (slowly) researching in order to start a Wars of the Roses TL. Whether Edward meets the same fate or not, only time will tell.
 
Back
Top