Records: 1378 Angevin Empire

## **A Plantagenet Homecoming**

It was a moment where the vibration seemed to echo beyond the confines of modern time. The House of Plantagenet was coming home, reclaiming the lands of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou.

Two and a half centuries, roughly, and an unceremonious loss, were now corrected.

### **The Assumption of Anjou**

Louis I, Duke of Anjou, was one of the few who had died in Poitiers. After leading the attempt to deny the rightful Plantagenet possession of Poitou, the House of Valois-Anjou was informed of the Plantagenet intent of reciprocity on Anjou (Angers).

Possession was, of course, 9/10ths of the law, so it would take physically seizing the land and the nobility within it to enforce those claims. That is exactly what Richard arranged.

### **The Infiltration**

It was a convergence of SA platoons. The core three for this operation were the Palatine Platoon – the usual group assigned to Prince Rick; with arrival preparations by the Anjou locals, and the Aquitaine group taking control of the Anjou military connections. Beyond those three, all eight other French platoons (who had mostly been intelligence operations up to this point).

When Prince Rick arrived, the Anjou team had already laid the groundwork with psychological operations on the local House Valois, as well as mapping out the regional barons and lords that were under the purview of Louis.

That information guided the eight more distant incoming platoons, who met up, confirmed plans, then scattered again toward their individual targets. The Aquitaine platoon had met many of Louis' martial leaders, mostly knights and a few barons, and quietly brought them to announce the hopefully-bloodless plan.

When Prince Rick arrived, it was as a gentle breeze: he wasn't there, then silently and suddenly, *he was*.

## **Processing the Disinherited**

Louis II, wasn't quite 2 years old at this point. Along with his mother, Marie of Blois, the noble family were officially registered as captured and debriefed. With a heartfelt (and SNS-enhanced) discussion, Mother and child agreed to forsake political pretensions, effectively ending the House of Valois-Anjou before it really began. The process was quick, painless and permanent, with two perfectly healthy, productive members of French society that no longer had any desire to be a part of meatgrinder politics in any way, shape or form.

*Given history, their treatment was extraordinarily merciful.*

## Marie of Blois

As daughter of Joanna, Duchess of Brittany and Charles, Duke of Brittany, Marie had no shortage of political history. With the War of the Breton Succession behind her, including neighboring Crowns supporting claims that ran counter to their arguments for the home countries, she already had an inside view of the hypocrisy when making convenient claims of blood and gender. In another world, maybe she would've supported her son towards Naples, but in this world, her eyes were opened and she was done with the game.

The pair were sent, along with a few of their retainers and a small fortune, to Paris via carriage. There, they checked in with the Valois Royal Court, confirming their unharmed condition for all to witness before taking private counsel with King Charles.

There, the fleeing pair notified him of the Plantagenet assumption of Anjou and Maine. It was, to their knowledge, bloodless. Finally, Marie informed Charles of her decision to withdraw from public life and to take Louis with her, away from the Sword of Damocles.

It was difficult to argue.

With their money, they set out for nice, quiet Blois and eventually opened a quiet little *fromage* boutique.

### **Counting on Maine**

Louis I had also been Count of Maine, bringing Maine (Le Mans) into Plantagenet possession. Just north of Anjou, east of Brittany, and south of Normandy, it was contiguous land.

Unlike Anjou, Prince Rick officially incorporated Maine into Aquitaine lands.

## **The Valois Crown**

France was in crisis mode: in the space of three months, House Valois had lost Poitou, Anjou and Maine. That meant people and tax money were gone: the lifeblood that ensured the survival of the kingdom itself. In that same space of time, Charles V lost two brothers and a brother-in-law, and that piled on the loss of his wife in February.

The loss itself was too much for his son Charles, Dauphin of France, to bear, who suffered a massive breakdown. Charles would've suffered the same thing in the alternate timeline, but a little later in life (after his father had died and he'd already become king... and at the time, still under a regency of four uncles). As for the original timeline, three of four uncles who would've shared his oversight were now dead.

Philip II, Duke of Burgundy, had only narrowly avoided death when he'd accompanied Charles back to France after the Bastille had been destroyed by naval bombardment. His own Burgundy army had stayed behind and was now thoroughly demoralized in any potential fight against Aquitaine. Charles V leaned on Philip for support, and Philip gave what he could, but the overall situation was dire.

### **Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures**

Now a month into their call against magic, the French Crown was finding some success. It wasn't overwhelming, but there was a steady stream of those dead-set against magic making their way to France. Somewhere between pilgrims and mercenaries, they brought steel and gold to the fight.

Suddenly, memories of a corrupted Avignon Curia seemed to fade to "better times" they represented. A time before ghosts

## **Favors Remembered**

A major portion of the French Poitiers force had been provided by Louis – and they'd come from his backyard: Poitou and Maine. Many had families that went back generations, farther than the local house of Valois-Anjou. Many went back to the time of Plantagenet.

Many more remembered the surgical destruction that had rained down upon Louis and the command council. They'd avoided certain death that day – and they remembered that grace now.

When the offer came in to instead organize for Prince Richard as Arms of Plantagenet (if they were Anjou), or Arms of Aquitaine (if they were Maine), they leapt at the chance. That wasn't to say they wouldn't be deployed, but it did say that wouldn't factionalized in some drama of choosing sides.

Just like that, from those two provinces, the Arms available to Richard suddenly doubled.

### **Now Under New Organization**

The Aquitaine SA platoon had performed amazing training and education for the region from Bayonne to La Rochelle to Poitiers. The Plantagenet SA platoon was going to do for the Anjou/Maine provinces.

They were on guard, prepared for any incursions from the east...