Sebastien de Charolais is a male line descendant of Charles, Duke of Burgundy, who, instead of dying in battle in 1477 as he did in real history, is said to have escaped and settled in Pimlico. At the time of Charles' disappearance in 1477 his only child was a daughter, whose descendants were the Austro-Hungarian Habsburg royal family. If Sebastien is descended from a son born to Charles after the latter relocated to London, why is Sebastien a resident of Dijon, Burgundy, and not a Londoner?
- The film leaves it vague, but my impression is that Charles eventually returned to Burgundy and sired some new heirs. Sebastien specifically introduces himself as a descendant of Maurice de Charolais rather than the Duke Charles, and seems to have been unaware that his ancestor was in truth a Duke of Burgundy, only making the connection when the Pimlico affair revealed Charles the Rash and Maurice de Charolais to be one and the same.
- From this, we can infer Charles maintained his false identity as Maurice even after returning to France, and likely with good reason: his historical wife/Duchess, Margaret of York (sister of Edward IV, Charles' English host) was alive and politically active in Burgundy long after his presumed death, thus unlikely to be the mother of any de Charolais heirs. Thus Charles/Maurice presumably took a new wife, and maintained the identity of Maurice de Charolais to conceal that said marriage was bigamous.
- A further question is why Charles left his treasure in Pimlico when he returned to continental Europe. We know his London estate was destroyed by a fire in 1490, so potentially Charles thought the treasure lost, and with no house to reside in, chose to return to Burgundy. Another possibility is that he had already fled England in a hurry in 1483, the year in which Edward IV died, and the throne was seized by his brother Richard of Gloucester, aka Richard III. Despite being brother-in-law to both Edward and Richard (through the above-mentioned marriage to their sister Margaret), Charles potentially feared falling victim to the political turmoil that attended Richard's rise to the throne, and thus made a hasty exit with whatever portion of the treasure could be most easily transported.
- From this, we can infer Charles maintained his false identity as Maurice even after returning to France, and likely with good reason: his historical wife/Duchess, Margaret of York (sister of Edward IV, Charles' English host) was alive and politically active in Burgundy long after his presumed death, thus unlikely to be the mother of any de Charolais heirs. Thus Charles/Maurice presumably took a new wife, and maintained the identity of Maurice de Charolais to conceal that said marriage was bigamous.
