AHC: Make Napoleon marry a British bride
- Thread starter Ganishka
- Start date
Grey Wolf
Donor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Sophia_of_Gloucester Early 30s, no barrier to having kids
I like this idea. The problem I'm running into is that there doesn't seem to be any women for Napoleon to marry. To sketch it out, Henry Stuart is the Jacobite claimant during the French Revolution after Charles III's death in 1788. Henry, was a cardinal and (it is speculated) a homosexual; he died in 1807 without issue. The Jacobite claim then passed to Charles Emmanuel IV, former King of Sardinia (he abdicated in favor of his brother in 1802). When he dies in 1819 his brother Victor Emmanuel I takes on the mantle. Finally we come to a woman; he has a daughter Maria Beatrice of Savoy, born 6 December 1792 (while Napoleon is fighting as a revolutionary in Corsica, if you're curious). When Maria Beatrice turns 18 in 1810, Napoleon is 41 years old.
To pull this off I think we need to keep Napoleon in power in France past 1819. Let's say he sees the political advantage c. 1820 in divorcing Marie Louise in order to marry the daughter of the Jacobite claimant to the English throne, as part of a preparation for a wild campaign across the English channel. Napoleon is in his early fifties (and Maria Beatrice is nearing 30) so this could work both with their ages and with Napoleon potentially still having the ambition to try and conquer the UK.
EDIT: One complication to this is that Maria Beatrice married her uncle (Francis, Arch-duke of Austria-este) in 1812; by 1819 they already had two kids. So Napoleon would have to flex some muscle to have them split up so he could marry her. I'm sure he could if he wanted to, but I don't know if it would be worth the trouble to establish a cassus belli. Unless I guess he just got tired of Maria Louise and entrance by Maria Beatrice and figured he could kill two birds with one stone by ruining her marriage.
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Considering who Marie Louise is just one year older than her Savoy cousin I can not see any obstacle in having Napoleon marrying the princess of Savoy instead of the Austrian Archduchess once he divorced Josephine, at least on the age point... The fact who the Savoy were deprived by Napoleon and France by most of their lands and forced to refuge in Sardinia is instead a pretty big obstacle for this wedding (but I guess Napoleon can be persuasive if he want the girl or Savoy can be desperate enough to offer her)
IIRC there WAS a plan originally to marry Maria Luise of Austria to the duke of Modena who married Maria Beatrice. Problem with this idea is that a) Savoy REALLY isn't important enough to supply a bride (she has nothing Napoléon wants or needs - à la an Austrian archduchess or Russian grand duchess) and b) Maria Beatrice's DAD is brother-in-law to BOTH the comte d'Artois AND Louis XVIII. His sister-in-law, the previous queen of Sardinia, was Louis XVI's sister.
As to an ACTUAL British princess, the whole "not marrying Catholics" thing is a problem, to say nothing of Queen Charlotte's proto-Victoria unwillingness to let her daughters marry. Elizabeth of Britain (OTL landgravine of Hesse-Homburg) was courted by Louis Philippe in the early 1800s and Charlotte refused to allow it, even though George IV saw no problem with it. Not to mention that the Bourbons are in exile IN ENGLAND.
Best bet for a "British" princess would be to do something like Napoléon III tried in going for a niece/cousin of the British monarch. Sophia of Gloucester would be too old by 1810 (37yo) to be a plausible candidate.
Well if Napoleon after failing to get the Grand Duchess decided to not marry a direct Bourbon or Habsburg then Maria Beatrice has good chances to be chosen as Napoleon’s German allies have no princess available...