AHC/WI: Capetian Holy Roman Emperor

[M. Adolphe Thiers]

Exactly what the title says. Bonus points if the Holy Roman Emperor is also simultaneously King of France. Extra credit if it is someone other than Francis I.

 

[Tonifranz]

Would Charles I the Great, Charles II the Bald, and Charles (III) the Fat count?

But they were not Capetians, rather Carolingians.

How about Charles the Bold of Burgundy having male heirs? They could intermarry with the Habsburgs, then have the Habsburg die out, then they become emperor.

Then the King of France dies, and they happen to be next in line according to Salic Law.

 

[Tonifranz]

How about this one.

Mary of Burgundy is a boy. Let's call him Philip. Philip marries Kunigunde, Frederick III's daughter, instead of her marrying Albert of Bavaria.


Maximilian then suddenly falls off his horse before he could marry anyone else.

That leaves Frederick III with no male heir. So like Sigismund before him, he names his son in law as successor. He also had him crowned King of the Romans (which there wasn't much opposition since at the time, he was pretty far in line with the French succession).

When Frederick III dies, Philip by right of his wife becomes Archduke of Austria, and of course, became Emperor-elect.

Philip of course, already holds Burgundy and the Netherlands.

Let's say Charles of Angouleme only had daughters.

Now Charles VIII's son Charles Orland survives and becomes Charles IX of France. He also has a younger brother Louis. But later, the younger brother Louis died.

Then in 1513, Charles IX dies of illness before he could get married. Louis Duke of Orleans becomes king Louis XII. He has a son named Philip, who becomes dauphin.

Then suddenly, the dauphin dies, and Louis XII marries, but he dies before his child was born. When it was born, it was a daughter.

Who is next in line? Well, it's Emperor Philip II (Philip I was Philip of Swabia), son of Charles of Bold, Archduke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy, Holy Roman Emperor.

So there you have it. Philip II and VII, king of France, and Holy Roman Emperor.

 

[Matteo]

That's a good tricky way to have it happen. And in fact you need tricky ways for an important reason : from the early 13th century on to 1815 and the decisive defeat it suffered at the hands of a coalition of all the res of Europe, France was by far the most powerful and richer kingdom of all Europe, and its king enjoyed more power inside his kingdom than any other king in Europe (Russia maybe excepted on this second point).

This was due to the work of a few genious and lucky Statesmen, the figurehead of whom was Philip Augustus.

But this superior power of the french king and the french kingdom had its disadvantages and concerning acces to the imperial crown of the HRE It was a huge disadvantage.

The princes of the HRE, and especially the german princes and among them those who were Electors of the emperor, prefered a week emperor to a strong one. And then certainly did not want to begin a process comparable to the one Philip Augustus had triggered in the kingdom of France.

So you have 2 kings of tricks to have a Capetian become emperor of the HRE :

- have a member of a junior Capetian line become HRE and then, by a series of lucky opportune death that make the senior Capetian lines extinct, have him legally become king of France.
That's what ToniFranz proposed with the Valois-Burgundy.

- or have the senior Capetian line benefit from a series of inheritances inside the HRE (through a series of lucky marriages/opportune deaths), for example inheriting the Hohenstaufen Estates in the second half of the 13th century (favor peaceful rather than violent extinction of male legitimate Hohenstaufen and a marriage between Saint Louis and a daughter of Frederick II who becomes the heiress of the century), then have Saint Louis's son marry with a Wittelsbach princess that, through opportune childless death of her brothers or cousins, becomes on her turn the heiress of all or lost of the Wittelsbach possessions inside the HRE, and then the Capetian king has a powerful enough base inside the HRE to force a majority of the Electors to elect him as emperor.
In the following decades, you'll see the french king/HRE take direct control of larguer parts of the HRE (Austria/Styria, then Low Lorraine and High Lorraine, ...etc) and he'll be an unexpellable HRE.