My Life so far: November 2010

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Pride

When pride and presumption walk before, shame and loss follow very closely.

Royalty

I am the State.

Royalty

He who knows not how to dissimulate, can not reign.

-Louis XI

Monday, November 8, 2010

I lived with two horrible people, my father, Charles VII, and my brother, Charles de Valois. I have betrayed them both and each of them have betrayed me. We have a mutual hatred for each other and have spent so long plotting against each other. My hostility started during childhood. My father was cold and made me marry against my will to Margaret of Scotland, who I had absolutely no chemistry with. He also made me flee and tried to beat me in war, forcing me to live with Phillip the Good. My brother promoted the Mad War with Charles the Bold against me, enraging me as a whole. They spent half their lives plotting against me, but like Charles the Bold, failed miserably. Because of my hatred for my family, I went against them and stole the throne. After my dad was dead, I became king. Like my father had made me flee, I made my brother leave. He fled to Brittany where I finally compensated with him in a treaty. After I married again, I was finally happy with family, three kids, and a love for science. My brother died with no wife and no kids making me once again on top of my family.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Life Aside From the Kingship

I had two wives and eight children. My first wife, who I had married by the force of my dad, was Margaret Stewart. She was beautiful but she always sided with my father and wrote poetry day after day. She died at the age of 20 from a fever and I burned all of her writings as a symbol of my hate. A few years later, I married Charlotte of Savoy at the age of 27. She was only 9 years old and my father gave us no consent, but we married anyways. I guess you can say that my love or hate of the women in my life were all based on my father's feelings towards them. Shortly after I married Charlotte, I returned to Burgundy without her to receive the throne. We had eight children together, but only three survived childhood and infancy. The remaining children I had were great as I bred one son and two daughters. Still I had my royal duties to do and as I was superstitious, I had an obsession with astrology to see what my fate would be. Whenever I received news, I would honor bow down on my knees to honor the news. This is my family, and science and superstition, my past times.

picture from http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRfS_GyOuaZ4Uo0FZPmpBgS04LYhByBm7djNo2O8HfIrhYlbbI&t=1&usg=__aMV9VLVk5UQx1a15_tLSvWKojgI=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQPFoDkGFrU

Prosperity of France

When I was younger, I was trained to rule by my father and was even made the lieutenant general of Languedoc for his military campaigns. After many things happened, I had been banished to a province far away and then was chased by my own dad to Phillip the Good. There I learned adversity and many other things that resulted in my greatness as king. When I was finally crowned king, I took my time to restore my country to what it had been before. The prosperity of France and the authority of the Crown were of major concern to me. During my kingship, I helped France recover from the foreign and civil disasters of the Hundred Years War and its economic decline of the early 15th century. By having my authority present in every area of public life, I weakened the French aristocracy, which was always a threat to my reign, and destroyed the power of the dukes' house in Burgundy. I even encouraged the development of new industries and after a century of war and attack, had France on the path to economic recovery. To think that many people thought of me as incompetent and detestable. I achieved greatness for France and I and could think of no higher achievement than that. Even James Cleugh said that I was, " Like other strong minded boys, he had found at last he could not carry all before him by mere bluster. Neither as prince nor as king did he ever forget his lesson. He never acted on pure impulse, without reflection, though to his life’s end he was constantly tempted to take such a risk.” from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XI

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Charles the Bold or should I say Charles the Weak.

Charles the Bold started our feud when his father, Philip the Good wanted to start a crusade. Philip gave me some territories like Picardie and Charles, Philip's son, teamed up with some others and my brother, Charles, to start a rebellion. They called it the League of the Public Weal and failed horribly yet I still had to make peace with them for a political advantage. Charles got crowned duke and wanted his own independent kingdom of his own, but couldn't even control his own territories. His problems included the uprisings of the people Liege against him where as they, were my allies. After all, “He who knows not how to dissimulate, can not reign.” (from http://thinkexist.com/quotes/louis_xi/)A few years later, I met up with Charles in Peronne to draw up some negotiations but he heard that Liegois had killed his Burgundian governor. He, being furious, made the contract void and then forced me into a depressing treaty where I had to give up much of my land. I didn't want to have to follow to his rules, so I denied the treaty and set about to building my forces. I wanted to demolish Burgundy and end the feud of three generations. War broke but Charles once again failed and had to sue for peace. Commines rallied his father's side and he was granted his peace. A few years later, around 1469, I founded the Order of St. Michael to duplicate that of Philip and to increase his prestige and loyalty to the king. Later on, I hired the Swiss to take care of the Duke of Burgundy who was killed at the Battle of Nancy after war broke out between him and the Swiss. I had finally destroyed Charles the Bold after another unsuccessful battle on his part. My long time enemy was finally gone.