Chapter Text
From a very early age, Alain could see that his parents were not happily married.
Primarily because his parents lived in separate castles, but also because they both had their love affairs.
The young Dauphin had a troubled childhood, being born in the middle of France’s Religious War and being raised by his fanatic Catholic maternal grandmother Catherine de’ Medici and taught by her that his Huguenot father was an evil man. He would not see his father until the man officially converted to Catholicism on the 25th of July 1593, when he was 19 years old.
And 22 days after his 20th birthday, his father was crowned King of France at the Cathedral of Chartres.
In all fairness, the Prince was glad he could actually get to know his father now without the interference of his mother and grandmother, and was incredibly happy to see that none of the stories he’d been told as a young child were actually true.
Henry IV of France was a good man, but simply not as fanatically Catholic as the previous Kings of France.
On his 22nd birthday, Antoine Alain Louis Henri de Bourbon-Valois was officially recognized and confirmed as his father’s heir to the thrones of Navarre and France. He knew that soon he would have to marry, and that his marriage would most certainly be an alliance with another Kingdom.
The Bourbon dynasty had to continue considering there were few male-line descendants left of past French monarchs due to infant deaths, disease, and so on.
Alain didn’t quite know what to think when his father put him on a carriage to the capital of his aunt’s Principality in Navarre: Pau. Without much of an explanation.
The situation freaked him out, and he was worried that his father was about to be assassinated.
There weren’t many other reasons why you would send your heir away.
The Dauphin arrived in Pau about a week later, and was welcomed by his aunt Catherine at her residence. His aunt didn’t explain what was going on, but simply rushed him into a room where a Lady with long dark brown hair was sitting at a table in one of their best dresses.
“Uh… greetings, My Lady.” the Frenchman addressed the noble.
“Are you Prince Alain, Crown Prince of France?” the male Omega asked in French with a foreign accent.
“I am, My Lady.”
The foreigner smiled. “I thank you for coming here. I have been awaiting your presence for some time.”
The only son of Henry IV frowned. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, my Lady, but… I have no clue what’s going on as neither my father or my aunt has said anything.”
“Which is as I requested.” the noble Lady stated. “I am Maria Antonia, Queen of Portugal. It was my wish to meet you in secrecy as my first cousin once removed, the King of Spain, wishes to take over my Kingdom to make his own bigger. I don’t want him to know that I am meeting eligible Princes.”
“You are in a hurry to marry?” Alain asked.
“Not quite. But the quicker I have children, the more chance I have to produce an heir for my husband’s lands and one more for my own.” the Portuguese Queen replied.
The 22-year-old nodded. “Our relations with Spain are not the best either.”
“That is one reason that I am here, the other one is the fact that you are not yet married.”
“I am indeed still an eligible bachelor.” the Frenchman stated before he himself seated. “What would you expect from your future husband, if I may ask?”
Ayrton had been born 4 months before his father died in battle in Morocco, buried there as well. He was the first in line to the throne, no matter what the King of Spain believed about his rights to the Portuguese throne simply because his mother was Infanta Isabella of Portugal.
But he was the last King’s only child, making him the Hereditary Princess of Portugal.
His mother, Archduchess Joanna of Austria, had reigned since the death of his father until he turned 16.
He had been reigning Portugal for just over 3 years, and the Spanish King had been hounding him to marry the Spanish heir to the throne: also named Philip, another first cousin once removed. But he was simply not attracted to the Prince of Spain born in the same year as he was.
No. The Queen of Portugal would make his own decision on whom he would marry.
And the French heir to the throne was a very strong candidate. He was, reportedly, a lenient Catholic who was sympathetic to Protestants despite being raised by his grandmother Catherine de’ Medici (a strictly devout Catholic) and his mother Margaret of Valois (also a very devout Catholic).
The Omega himself was not on the extreme side of faith either, preferring dialogue within his Kingdom.
The times had changed, and it was necessary for monarchies to move with those tides to remain in power for generations to come. Adaptability was required.
So, the Portuguese would adapt.
To prevent the Portuguese throne entering the hands of the Habsburgs, the 19-year-old Queen would marry the French Dauphin and have as many surviving children as possible. His husband would need a son, perhaps even 2, while the Portuguese throne could be handed down through a female line.
“Would you please never send me away again like that? You gave me a heart-attack!”
The King of Navarre looked up at his son. “You’ve met with the Portuguese Queen, I assume.”
“Course I did, aunt Catherine was adamant that I would go into that room when I arrived.” the 22-year-old Dauphin said. “Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“Because I suspect some of my staff might be sympathetic to Spain’s cause, especially the more strictly religious bunch. I refrained from saying it out loud and leaving a paper trail.” Henry replied. “How was your meeting? Did you get on?”
“Our first meeting was very pleasant, and we seem to have several things in common.”
The King hummed and smiled. “That is very good to hear, especially since you will wed the Queen.”
The heir to the throne blinked. “Father?”
“Your meeting with the Queen of Portugal was merely a formality. The Queen needed a husband who was not a Habsburg, and I need you to marry and have heirs.” the older man replied as he stood up.
“I can’t believe you’d do this behind my back.” Alain stated.
“I don’t believe you would have agreed to the marriage had I informed you.” the Navarrese King of France told. “You and I are the only male descendants left of previous French Kings. Though I have made the decision to annul my marriage to your mother and remarry, I don’t want the future succession to depend on whether I have sons with the woman I will choose to become my second wife.”
It was all a political game for Royal Houses to sit upon as many thrones as they could, hence all the intermarriage that took place among those Houses who wanted to gain as much power as they could.
“Who will you marry?” the Dauphin questioned, raising an eyebrow.
“Marie de’ Medici, sister of the current Grand Duke of Tuscany.” Henry replied. “She is your age, but she could give me another son in case your lineage dies out.”
“And all other options are out of the question, I guess?”
“Many younger Catholic Princesses have already been betrothed for some time. I would not have remarried if I did not deem it necessary for future continuation. But as was the case with me inheriting the French throne, lineages can very well die out unexpectedly.”
The Crown Prince nodded. “Which I understand. I guess I’m just not looking forward to having a stepmother who could be my sister.”
“An understandable feeling, but it has happened before in Royal houses. Kings go to many lengths to continue their line of succession.”
The 22-year-old then averted his gaze. “Any wedding plans?”
“For now, only yours will be planned. I’m thinking about an October wedding for you. It would give us enough time to arrange transport and the Pope’s blessing.” the head of the Bourbon family replied. “And you can write your fiancé a few times, get to know each other better.”
“I suppose I should start now, then.”
The Dauphin of France and the Queen of Portugal tied the knot in Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral on 31 October (1597), witnessed by many members of France’s clergy and nobility.
The groom’s mother, Margaret of Valois, was still in exile as her only child was wed. But she did send him a letter from her castle in Usson, in Auvergne.
After the wedding, the reigning King of France began to actively pursue divorce negotiations to enable himself to marry Marie de’ Medici, a distant cousin of his ex-wife. Though he did have an heir, he also needed a spare as the Bourbon lineage was one of the few male-only lineages descending directly from Louis IX of France. And Salic law determined that only men of the direct line could inherit the throne.
Considering the age of Marie de’ Medici, there was a strong likelihood that a few Princes and Princesses of France could make their appearance in the next couple years if the Church allowed the divorce.
Alain would actually be a father before his younger brother Louis was born.
By the point of Louis’s birth, 27 September 1601, the Queen of Portugal had already given birth to a daughter (Christine Clementine) and two sons (Louis Alain & João Manuel).
Though a bunch of spares could never quite hurt, preventive measures would have to be put in place so none of the male heirs would attempt to murder off another lineage simply to gain the throne.
It would be soon after the birth of his second son that the Dauphin would start inquiring among other Royal dynasties about arranging potential marriages in the future as he had to ensure that potential future Queens of France and Portugal would eventually be presented to him.
He had two Kingdoms whose dynasties he had to secure.
As his father and stepmother would have 4 more surviving children (Elisabeth, Christine, Gaston, & Henrietta Maria) the future King of France himself would have 8 more to rack the total up to 11 children.
Two more sons would be among those 8, as well as 6 beautiful daughters.