[Artemisia] "Your" significant events

[Catriona A. Morganosa]

Hey, I've been that guy up at 2 AM because a thought has popped into my head
and refuses to be silent. Usually, it's because an exploded view of a new
outfit has just materialized in my dream and is now demanding I create it,
but on occasion, it has been stuff for my books. This is the Tangl-line of
things, May 15, 1576, bout 3 in the afternoon.

#1- The Death of Francois II in 1560, leaving his 10 year old brother
Charles King of France, with the legendary Catherine de Medici as regent.

#2- The Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre: In 1572, while the royal family
was in Paris for the wedding of the royal sister Margot to Henry of Navarre,
a rather nasty thing happened. Cate, being VERY disinterested in anyone
having influence over her son Chuck, the king, had his buddy General Coligny
shot while on the way to the wedding. Unfortunately for Cate, the assassin
wasn't very good and Coligny didn’t die. He was rushed to Paris and Chuck
made sure he was taken care of and mended. Cate and Chuck's brother and heir
Alexander talk with him all night until, after harrowing him for hours,
Chuck finally shouts out, "Then I shall have him killed, but let all
Huguenots likewise be slain so there are none to abrade me" or something to
that effect. Thus, did Alexander go to the chief of police in Paris, Marcel,
a man known to be ruthless, and he sent Marcel to carry out the King's
orders. Chuck and Cate, at the last minute, felt remorse over the command,
and Chuck ran out onto his balcony to stop the assassination but the shot
that killed Coligny rang out, letting Marcel know he could begin his killing
spree. As a direct result if this nightmare, Huguenots were killed all
across France from October 28 through December until it came to light these
were the facts and not the lie the Pope was told, by Cate herself, that
Coligny had attempted to assassinate the King. After that, the
"church-sanctioned" murders ended, but the damage was already done. 

#3-The birth of the Princess Marie-Elizabeth, Chuck's only legitimate heir,
he named her first after his mistress Marie Touchet and only secondly after
his wife, the Queen. What a phallic symbol.

#4- The death of Chuck, putting Alex on the throne of France in 1574. Chuck
never fully recovered from the disgrace of the Massacre and died, uselessly
and without fanfare. Alex changes his name to Henry III and as Hank the
Three, he deals with religious wars his entire reign, despite Cate's
repeated treaties to make peace with the various religions.


Now, in Hungary, it's a whole 'nother dog, but with one, significant common
thread: Alexander. Here's things from Catriona's PoV.

1: The eastern section of Hungary, Transylvania, was proclaimed an
independent principality during the Turkish occupation of central Hungary.
Until then, since the earliest Árpád kings, Transylvania was an integral
part of Hungary. While Hungary's cultural and social development was stifled
by the occupying forces, the Hungarian princes of Transylvania established
and maintained a powerful independent state where culture and the arts
flourished, education was promoted and religion freely exercised. In fact,
during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, at the time when religious
wars were raging throughout Europe, Transylvania was a utopia of sorts. In
1557 the Diet of Torda officially proclaimed full religious freedoms.

2: Alexander Angouleme, soon to be crowned Hank the Three, is King of Poland
at the time of his brother's death. Alex takes his own sweet time leaving
Poland and meandering through Hungary before going home to be crowned. Rumor
has it he was chasing a lover he had who refused to return to France with
him because they could not abhor that lifestyle. In period, this lover was
allegedly a man.

3: István Báthory was the first of the powerful Transylvanian princes; he
became King of Poland in 1576. István Bocskay, renowned defender of
religious freedoms, was elected King of Hungary. Bocskay's statue is part of
the Reformation Monument in Geneva, his words "freedom is more precious than
gold," have been immortalized.

Stâpanâ Catriona Morganosa, OP
 
Sheldon, holding a laptop: "Tell me what you see here."
Leonard, still sleepy: "The blunt instrument that will be the focus for my
murder trial?"
 
 

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