@BlueFlowwer hope you like your boy Giuliano putting in an appearance:
Soundtrack:
Jacob Obrecht - Missa Grecorum - Credo
January 1472
*interior* *Prague* *the new king of Bohemia, Charles de Berri, is pacing a darkened room* *clearly agitated, he's biting his nails* *a servant comes in*
Servant: Your Majesty is to be congratulated on the birth of another daughter.
Charles: *seems to relax slightly* and Colette [1]?
*cut to Charles kneeling at the bedside of his beloved mistress, tears staining his face* *she's wan and pale, clearly not long for the world* *she beckons a teenager called "Catherine" over*
Catherine: oui, grandmère [2]?
Colette: *harshly* *rasping* *grabs Catherine's hand* I am sorry that I was unable to do more for you and Anne [2] *she looks at a slightly older girl holding a baby who looks about a year* *takes Charles' hand* *looks at him* Charles?
Charles: oui...?
Colette: *weakly* look after them
*while we don't see the actual moment of her demise, we see it as Anne buries her face in the hair of the child in her arms* *Catherine falls to her knees sobbing*
*cut to a black clad funeral procession snaking it's way from the Royal Castle in Prague to the church of
Notre Dame des Neiges* *a title card tells us that Charles made a vow to finish the church begun by Emperor Karl IV*
*exterior* *Rome* *there is another, far more colourful procession underway* *it's equally solemn but far more "joyous"* *we see a litter stopping in Saint Peter's Square while the procession continues up the church steps* *then, from behind, a man climbing down from a horse alongside* *we see a woman's hand emerging from the curtains of the litter* *the man takes it* *and the woman steps down*
Woman: *to the man who's head is as if on a swivel*
try to behave yourself, Giuliano.
Man [aka Giuliano]: *grinning at her* is that why Lorenzo sent you? To act as my jailer, sister?
Woman: *as they join the procession entering the basilica* Lorenzo sent me because he is a touch busy dealing with the problem in Volterra at the moment.
Giuliano: and if he doesn't send a representative to Rome, people will talk.
Woman: people are always going to talk, brother.
You might as well give them something to talk about.
Beadle: her Excellency, the Lady Clarice, Lady of Florence, and the ambassador of the Most Noble Florentine Republic, Giuliano di Piero de Medici.
Giuliano: and how would you like me to make them talk, sister? *walking up aisle to their places*
Clarice: *off-handedly as she acknowledges a relative* oh...Lorenzo mentioned that if you
were to find a bride-
Giuliano: *looks at her like a deer in the headlights*
Clarice: that I should investigate as to her suitability.
Giuliano: that's why he sent me here?
Clarice: you should know by now, *taking seat* Lorenzo seldom does thing randomly, Giuliano. Everything serves a purpose. Even his relationship with Donna Lucrezia [3].
*few moments later, we see the bride, Zoë Palaiologina, being escorted past them to the altar* *on the arm of her brother, Prince Andreas Palaiologos*
Giuliano: *to Clarice* to speak of mistresses, I heard the king of Bohemia's mistress recently died in childbirth.
Clarice: *straight faced* it may be for the best.
Giuliano: *looks at Cardinal Bessarion [4] speaking* this marriage or her death.
Clarice: Rinaldo [5] told me that while travelling through Italy, the king of Bohemia was making inquiries of his Holiness as to whether it would be possible to marry Madame d'Amboise rather than the late king of Bohemia's daughter. With subsequent legitimation of any child born prior to the marriage-
Giuliano: *looks at the bride* and now that that obstacle is removed, the marriage can go ahead with no impediments. Everyone is content.
Clarice: although one can only wonder at the future of a marriage sealed over a funeral bier.
Giuliano: that is life, Clarice: marriages are like death. The hour and the season are marked. None escapes.
*fade to black*
[1] Colette de Chambes, Dame d'Amboise. As
@Zygmunt Stary pointed out, she's not really "high ranked" enough for Louis XI to bother with preventing her from going to Prague
[2] step-grandmother, actually. Anne and Catherine are the daughters of Colette's stepdaughter, Marguerite d'Amboise, and her de la Trémoïlle husband. Depending on the sources consulted, Anne de la Trémoïlle is anything between 15 and 22yo. Catherine is the last listed of her siblings, with some sources listing her as having died in infancy, others give no dates for her. For the purposes of this TL, she survived.
Why are the girls in Prague and not Paris? The OTL de la Trémoïlles were a bunch of greedy (one could almost say rapacious) courtiers who went from "cupbearer to the duke of Burgundy" to rivalling the Albrets' for power/influence inside a generation (English equivalents would be the Howards and the Seymours). They're going to seize on the opportunity that they have a king's mistress (even if it's not the king of France's) in the family, and try to wring all they can out of the position. Sending two teenage girls into the household of their (step)grandmother in the hopes that she can arrange good matches for them was standard practice of the day. And, knowing the de la Trémoïlles, they wouldn't be above exploiting Charles' travel to Bohemia in the hopes of securing a match there. They would also (à la duke of Norfolk) not be above pushing Anne/Catherine at a grief-stricken Charles in an attempt to maintain their influence.
[3] Lucrezia Donati
[4] I don't know who the actual priest was to perform the marriage, but I don't see why Bessarion couldn't
[5] Clarice's brother and archbishop of Florence