"Grief is the price we pay for love."
Magdalena of Valois-Burgundy was young, beautiful, and a noblewoman. But only intelligence and a sharp wit could save her in the court of greedy vipers.
1458 was the year Henry VI tried to bring peace to the wa...
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~THE BETROTHAL~
~May 1458, Court of Burgundy~
MAGDALENA OF VALOIS-BURGUNDY was eavesdropping.
That was a very rude thing to do, she had been taught, but the conversation ongoing in the other room was going to determine her future.
How so?
Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick was the chief advisor of the second-in-line to the English throne, Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York. Lord Warwick had been trusted by King Henry to secure a betrothal with the Burgundians. Edward of Lancaster, Prince of Wales, was the man who could be her future husband. Although he was not yet a man, he was only a boy of 6 years. But a betrothal wasn't the sole reason Warwick was at her grandfather's and uncle Charles' feet.
Lord Warwick was a cousin and staunch ally of the York family. They were cousins to the king and had more or less tried to usurp him in the last decade, declaring that he was incompetent. Magdalena had heard of how the king had fallen into a deep sleep in the summer of 1453, and of how, maybe, Queen Margaret had had a child with a lover and not her rightful husband. The Yorks were not fully wrong.
After the king awoke he had gone mad. The kingdom had fallen into chaos, many lords were slighted and the Queen had been running the country.
In the past few years, England had not only emptied her coffers, she had also lost the land she claimed in France. And since the whole country was currently desperate, and Burgundy was the most lavish court in all of Europe, Warwick had come begging for Magdalena's hand and her homeland's gold.
Now Warwick could have also gone to France as it was the motherland of Margaret of Anjou. He had gone there at first, but the only candidates for marriage there were Queen Charlotte's sisters. Queen Charlotte de Savoy was sure that England was going to become the worst kingdom in all of Europe soon, but had still grudgingly offered her sister Bona. Young Bona was only 10 and was not the strongest contender, and Queen Charlotte and Warwick both knew that.
All of the French Court had waited with baited breath to watch Warwick reject the queen's sister, but he had bit his tongue and graciously accepted. However, King Louis had mercy on young Bona's future and decided to give the unsteady, possibly-fatal, definitely-brutal role as Edward's wife to Magdalena, his niece.
That had made Lord Warwick the happiest man on Earth. Magdalena was the daughter of the Duke of Burgundy Philip the Good's deceased son: William, Count of Charolais. Her mother was the French Princess Marie of Valois, sister to the current king. This combination, for England, meant a double alliance; Burgundy's gold and France's men.
