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wonder-worker · 24 days

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"In total, Leonor governed Navarre as lieutenant, with some minor hiatuses, from 1455 to 1479, making her the effective ruler of the realm for nearly twenty five years. Out of her female predecessors, only Juana I served a longer period; however, Juana I was detached from the governance of the realm and physically distant from Navarre. Leonor however, remained in the kingdom throughout her lieutenancy, making her the female sovereign with the highest record of residency in Navarre.

One of the enabling factors for Leonor’s constant presence in the realm was the “Divide and Conquer” power-sharing mechanism that she employed with her husband, Gaston of Foix. Blanca and Juan had a similar division of duties, but unlike her parents’ often contrary objectives, all of Leonor and Gaston’s actions can be seen to be working toward their joint goals of obtaining the Navarrese crown and politically dominating the Pyrenean region. In order to achieve their ambitions, the couple were adept at working as a team even when physically seperated or carrying out divergent duties.

Politically, it appears that they took on different areas of negotiatiion. Gaston was the designated emissary to the French court, which was entirely appropriate as one of the French king’s leading magnates. One important example of his involvement in negotiations of this type include Gaston’s visit to the French court in the winter of 1461–62 to negotiate the marriage between their heir and the French princess, Magdalena, which ensured Louis XI’s backing for Leonor’s promotion to primogenita. Gaston also conducted negotiations on behalf of his father-in-law, Juan of Aragon, with the King of France, with a successful outcome in the case of the Treaty of Olite in April 1462, which was intimately connected to the marriage that Gaston was orchestrating for his son and Magdalena of France.

Even though Gaston normally took on the role of intermediary with the French crown, there are two letters issued by Leonor during her marriage in December 1466 as lieutenant of Navarre that show her involvement in French affairs. These letters were written during a period of extreme crisis, when Juan II’s difficulties in Catalonia were matched with Leonor’s continuing struggle with the Peralta clan in Navarre. In these letters, Leonor was playing on her familial connection to Louis XI, in hopes of his aid and backing, asking him to “commend this poor kingdom and the said princess to him [Louis XI] as one who is of his house.” Moreover, these letters show Leonor’s independent interaction in crucial diplomatic negotiations with France, both in receiving embassies directly from Louis and in sending her own personal ambassador, Fernando de Baquedano, with detailed instructions on how to proceed.

Gaston appears to have been more engaged with marital negotiations for their numerous offspring than Leonor. However, this may be due to the fact that the couple overwhelmingly chose French marriages for their children. Only three of Leonor’s children did not contract a French betrothal: Pierre who became a cardinal, a daughter who died young, and Leonor’s youngest son, Jacques (or Jaime), who married into the Navarrese nobility. Given the fact that Gaston was more intimately connected to the French court and the nobility of the Midi, it seems reasonable that he would take on the role of chief negotiator for these matches. All of the marital arrangements for their children were made in order for Gaston and Leonor to achieve their joint goals, the acquisition of the throne of Navarre and the consolidation of their power and influence in the Pyrenean region.

Another area where Gaston necessarily played a more central role was militarily. Robin Harris acknowledges Gaston’s successful military career and notes that after his useful military service to the French crown, “the comte was permitted by the [French] king in the last years of his life to employ his military resources in order to further his family’s interests in Navarre.” Gaston also performed many military services for his father-in-law; the agreement of 1455 that promoted Leonor and Gaston to the successors of the realm required Gaston to go to Navarre on Juan’s behalf and retake those areas that had fallen to the rebels “for the honor of the King of Navarre as well as for his own interests and those of the princess his wife."

However, there is some evidence for Leonor’s involvement in one military foray. In the winter of 1471, Leonor took part in a daring attempt to seize the capital, Pamplona, from her opponents, the Beaumonts. Leonor participated in an attempt to storm one of the city gates with a group of armed supporters. Moret notes that “this surprise was reckless; for it exposed the person of the princess to obvious risk and was somewhat rash.” Moreover, the element of surprise was ruined by the cries of her supporters shouting “ Viva la Princesa !” which alerted the Beaumont troops to the threat, and Leonor and her supporters were swiftly ejected from the city.

Like her mother, the noted peacemaker, Leonor was also involved in moves to reduce the civil discord in the realm. Zurita credited Leonor with “making a great effort to resolve the differences of the parties and subdue the kingdom into union and calm.” Leonor represented her father in negotiations for a truce with the supporters of the Principe de Viana on March 27, 1458, at Sang ü esa. Zurita notes, “The princess Lady Leonor was there at that time in Sangüesa and signed the treaty with the power of the king her father.” Leonor was instrumental in the forging of another truce that was contracted in Sangüesa, in January 1473, and she was also present at a conference with her father and her half-brother Ferdinand in Vitoria in 1476 “accompanied by the nobility of Navarre to renew the treatties . . . and attempt to arrive at a stable peace.

Although both spouses were named to the lieutenancy of Navarre, the documentary evidence clearly demonstrates that Leonor appears to have taken on the bulk of the administration of the realm. This was entirely appropriate as it was Leonor, not Gaston, who had the hereditary right to the crown. Moreover, it was logical for Leonor to remain in Navarre so that her husband could look after his own patrimonial holdings and continue to serve as a military commander for the King of France.

Leonor was an active lieutenant but she struggled to implement her rule fully across the kingdom, as many areas were dominated by the Beaumont faction who were opposed to her and her father Juan of Aragon. This meant that at times, she had no control or access to certain key cities in the realm, including the capital, as mentioned previously. Her grandfather’s impressive seat at Olite was the center of her sister’s court, but Leonor eventually regained her hold on the castle and used it as one of her primary residences between 1467 and 1475. Sangüesa remained an important base for Leonor, and she was also associated with Tudela on the southern edge of the kingdom.

Leonor’s difficulty in implementing her rule across the whole of the kingdom is illustrated by a prolonged struggle between the lieutenant and the town of Tafalla, which consistently refused to send representatives when she called together meetings of the Cortes. Tafalla was a center of Beaumont strength, which had supported her brother Carlos in his struggle with Juan of Aragon and was thus bitterly opposed to her appointment to the lieutenancy. Between 1465 and 1475 there is a series of missives from Leonor both summoning representatives from the town and then expressing disappointment when they failed to arrive. During this period, Leonor appears to have called a meeting of the Cortes at least six times, but the town consistently refused to send envoys to the assembly. There is a sense of increasing exasperation and anger in these documents at the repeated failure to participate in these important events. At one point, in late 1471, Leonor personally came to the town to give advance notice of her intent to call another Cortes the following summer, perhaps to circumvent any excuse that the town did not have sufficient time to send representatives, but Tafalla still did not participate in the assembly.

As her authority was contested, Leonor was keen to stress her agency and her position in the documents that she issued. However, at times she even struggled with the chancery; between 1472–73, Juan de Beaumont retained the seals of the kingdom and refused to let Leonor have access to them. In 1475, she granted a reduction in taxes to the important city of Estella acknowledging the reduced capacity of the city to pay after the population had shrunk from the effects of war and flooding. In this document she stressed her efforts to assist all of the urban centers of the realm, to help them recover from the years of civil conflict and devastation, “the other good towns of the said realm have been refurbished by our certain knowledge, special grace, our own change and royal authority.

Leonor’s address clause drew on all of her family and marital ties as a means of establishing her authority:

“Lady Leonor, by the grace of God princess primogenita , heiress of Navarre, princess of Aragon and Sicily, Countess of Foix and Bigorre, Lady of Bearn, Lieutenant general for the most serene king, my most redoubtable lord and father in this his kingdom of Navarre.”

The signet that Leonor used for the majority of her lieutenancy as well as her sello secreto had heraldic devises that mirror her address clause, bearing the arms Navarre, her family dynasty of Evreux, her husband’s counties of Foix, Béarn, and Bigorre, and finally the Trast á mara connections to Aragon, Castile, and Léon.

To sum up, Gaston and Leonor’s ability to divide up roles and responsibilities demonstrates the couple’s effective partnership, using each partner in the most appropriate arena. Moreover, this division was entirely necessary as the couple’s widespread territorial holdings and the demands of balancing the complicated and difficult political situation both within Navarre and the Midi and between France, Castile, and Aragon meant that both partners needed to be fully engaged and active in order to achieve their mutual goals and further their dynastic interests.

Even though Leonor and Gaston generally employed this mode of “Divide and Conquer” that left Leonor primarily responsible for the administration of Navarre while Gaston oversaw his own sizable patrimony, the couple did work together as a unit whenever possible. Documentary evidence shows that Gaston came to stay with Leonor in Navarre for short periods, particularly during the autumn of 1469 and 1470. There is also some additional evidence to indicate an earlier reunion in 1464, which appears to indicate a desire on the part of the couple to be together. Gaston and his party were stuck in the mountain passes between Foix and Navarre on his way to visit Leonor. The princess issued a series of orders to dispatch men and pay for additional recruits and mules in the mountains in order to clear the passes and roads for Gaston, including one order for 300 men to be sent to help. Gaston’s death in 1472 took place on another journey to see his wife in Navarre; he died en route of natural causes in the Pyrenean town of Roncesvalles.

Overall, Gaston and Leonor worked together with the mutual goal of obtaining the crown of Navarre, throwing the weight of Gaston’s power, wealth, connection, and military forces behind Leonor’s hereditary rights and were willing to fight off opposition from their own family in order to succeed. They worked in partnership, with each partner taking on the most appropriate role; Leonor was responsible for the governance of Navarre, and Gaston supported her militarily and financially. They both worked on diplomatic efforts to achieve their ambitions; Gaston used his position as a powerful French vassal and general to gain support while Leonor negotiated with her Iberian relatives to maintain their rights.

[...] Tragically perhaps, Leonor hardly had a chance to enjoy the position of queen regnant when it finally came her way. Leonor’s death, only a few weeks after her father’s in February 1479, meant that her rule as queen lasted less than a month. Leonor changed her address clause to reflect her altered position as “Queen of Navarre, Princess of Aragon and Sicily, Duchess of Nemours, of Gandia, of Montblanc and Peñafiel, Countess of Bigorre and Ribagorza and Lady of Balaguer.” Ram í rez Vaquero points out that most of these titles were disputed; several were titles that should have come to her as part of her paternal inheritance from her father but in reality would have gone to her half-brother Ferdinand de Aragon. In addition, the French titles that Leonor had held as Gaston’s wife had already been passed to her grandson. It appears that Leonor had enough time to mount a formal coronation, on January 28, 1479, at Tudela, firmly establishing herself as Queen of Navarre, even if only for a brief moment. Moret remarked that “out of all the kings and queens of Navarre she was the one who reigned the shortest, although she may have been the one who desired [the crown] most.”

-Elena Woodacre, "Leonor: Civil War and Sibling Strife", "The Queens Regnant of Navarre: Succession, Politics and Partnership, 1274-1512" (Queenship and Power)

#gotta love ruthless ambitious mutually devoted power couples 💅#(they can have a little fratricide. as a treat)#historicwomendaily #Leonor of Navarre #Gaston of Foix #aka the self-declared malewife #Navarre history #Leonor fighting and scheming and waiting for the throne for decades only to finally succeed and then die less than a month later #biggest of Ls honestly #I do wonder what she would have thought about that twist of fate #Was she bitter about the hollow victory of it all?#Or was there nothing but satisfaction that she died as the Queen of Navarre #a position she had fought for for so long #or...both?#(also let's get one loud 'BOO' for Juan the Faithless aka one of the worst historical fathers I have ever read about)#(this is the guy who raised Ferdinand 'I'm going to lock up my own daughter' of Aragon btw. This is where he learned it from)

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razzle-zazzle · 1 year

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Dion x Adam Hc's?

This got longer than expected so I'm putting it under a cut whoops

It'd take them a while to even become friends, I think. Adam's perfectly amicable when interacting with the Aquatos, but he doesn't really go out of his way to interact with Raz' family—he's busy with his history project and the new responsibilities that come with being a junior agent. And Dion's still working through his own issues, so he's not going out of his way to interact with the junior agents, either.

It's not a single moment that brings them together; it's a bunch of small things. Dion bringing Raz food he cooked as an apology, and Raz sharing it with the other junior agents. Adam going to interview Lucrecia and the other Psychic Seven for the sake of his history project, and finding her and Dion hanging out. Maybe they're cooking together, maybe they're just talking, great aunt and nephew. Dion hanging out with the junior agents more often due to his connections with Raz and Gisu (and later Morris, as Queepie's "boss"). The junior agents being invited to a show the Aquatos put together in the Questionable Area.

Dion and Gisu continue to hang out and make googoo eyes at each other. Dion and Frazie get sucked into the junior agents' friend group. Morris and Dion's stupid little rivalry catalyzes into a genuine (if vitriolic) friendship.

Slowly, Adam and Dion start to interact more. Maybe there's animosity between them over Adam starting to act as another big brother figure for Raz. Maybe they're starting to develop a small but genuine friendship. Maybe the potential drama ends up with them reconciling over the fact that they both care about Raz, if in slightly differing flavors.

Dion and Gisu's attraction turns into a genuine friendship; they're just happy to be in each other's company. Maybe there's drama over them not realizing that they're not actually into each other romantically at first, maybe they have a brief falling out because they're teenagers who don't fully know what they're doing and don't have the experience to really know what's going on with them. But I'd like to think that, whether there's drama or not, they manage to come out the end of it as genuine friends.

And then this is only tangentially related but I'm going to drop some of my genderfluid Dion headcanons. Trust me this will tie into the Adam/Dion ideas I have you just gotta bear with me for a moment.

So. While all of these other post-game developments are going on. Dion's grappling with feelings he's had for a while. Some days he's perfectly fine with being called a boy and he, some days it makes him want to crawl out of his own skin. He's never really known what to do with this, though, so he just kinda assumed everyone felt that way during puberty (because everyone feels uncomfortable with their body and look and face during puberty, right? it's what he keeps hearing in all of the books he reads, anyway, and every puberty pamphlet he's ever looked at when visiting a library has gone on and on about how the changes can be scary. so clearly what he's going through is Normal and Not Worth Talking About. Clearly.).

But post-game, now that Dion's developing all these friendships and not-enemyships with the junior agents, now that he's starting to close the divide between him and Frazie and actually be close with her again, now that his life's been flipped upside down for both the better and for worse—now Dion's being hit with these feelings full force, and more often. He mentions them to Frazie, once, in an offhanded way. Mentions that sometimes, he wishes he was a girl instead.

"But you've probably felt that way a thousand times, haven't you? Since it's, like, perfectly normal to want to be the other gender during puberty."

"Dion what the fuck are you talking about. I have never wanted to be a boy. Dion."

",,,What."

"Dee I think this is something you need to actually look into."

So they do. And Dion comes to the conclusion that,,, he she wants to be a girl.

Frazie is delighted at the idea of having another sister. Especially one who's her age and thus understands the trials of teenagehood. She's standing with him when he tries to explain it all to his parents, she's helping Lucrecia fix one of her old dresses so it'll fit Dion, she's helping Dion restyle her hair to fit her better.

Augustus and Donatella ask if Dion wants to change her name, but Dion says she'll keep it. It's hers, and she can't imagine herself with any other name.

And things are going great! Dion starts to feel comfortable in her own skin, and her parents are looking into transition options and trying their best to be supportive. All of her younger siblings are supportive; Mirtala paints her nails and braids her hair.

But, just as Dion had days where she wanted nothing more than to be a girl, she also had days where she was fine being a boy. And now she's experiencing the reverse; some days, being a girl is great, but others, it just. doesn't. fit.

And all of this self-exploration gets tangled up with Dion's growing friendships with Gisu and Morris and Adam and the other junior agents. With her growing crush on Adam that she didn't even realize she had.

Meanwhile, on Adam's end, he's slowly become better friends with Dion. When Dion came out as a girl, he supported her. When Dion came out as "I don't even know anymore," Adam described his own experiences with gender in an effort to convey "hey gender is weird and it's okay that you don't have it all figured out right away."

And that, plus Augustus & Donatella promising to support her regardless of what pronouns she uses, helps Dion realize that,,, maybe she's both. Maybe he's a girl and a boy and maybe sometimes she's something else entirely. It's not a fast realization, not a sudden epiphany, more just Dion experimenting with different styles trying to find the "right" one for herself and realizing slowly that he actually likes a lot of them.

And also realizing that she's really fucking gay for Adam. He wants to be Adam's girlfriend boyfriend whatever, just so long as it means being able to lean against and spend time with him. Dion starts purposefully asking Adam questions about history just so she can hear Adam ramble about a subject he's passionate about.

And Adam,,, starts to catch on. Gisu's actually the first junior agent to notice, and being the romance fan that she is, decides that she is going to be the best wingwoman. Operation Get Adam and Dion Together is a go, and she is 100% dragging Morris into this.

Shenanigans will be ensuing.

tl;dr it'd be a slow burn friendship coupled with dion doing self-exploration that turns into a crush on dion's end and potential attraction on adam's end. and then gisu notices what's going on and starts scheming ways to get them together.

#ask zaz #adam joseph gette #dion aquato #i‚‚ i don't know where all of this came from #i saw this ask and had such a strong head empty that i wasn't even sure where to start #and then i suddenly‚‚‚ had all of this???#anyway 💅 adam/dion ramblings featuring my genderfluid dion headcanons #feel free to project genderfluid or he/they or nonbinary etc headcanons onto adam in this scenario btw #this is honestly a little barebones and meandering so the gist: slow burn #slow burn + bonding over weird relationships with gender + maybe some ''we both feel responsible for those around us'' vibes

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