Challenge: Hapsburg France
- Thread starter Thande
- Start date
I can't see a plausible PoD unless it was VERY early on in the history of the Habsburgs' rise to power. I mean, if the Habsburgs gained control of France at the same time they had their sprawling empire in Europe (with or without Spain), that would shift the balance of power so much that there could only be a war.
David S Poepoe
Banned
That would be the best and most direct way. Its historically proven to be the easiest. This is going to take a while, but I think it would be possible to do at some time circ 1400.
Didn't Charles V actually capture the King of France at one point? Perhaps a POD relating to that episode?
If I remember correctly the Spanish attacked Paris and Rouen by 1590 in support of the Catholic faction and tried to install a daughter of Philip II in the throne of France. Suppose that 1) the Spanish are more successfull and capture northern France during the war and 2) Henry IV never returns to Catholicism, so the French Catholics support the Spanish during the war. I think that something like this was implied in Turtledove's Ruled Britannia, by the way.
This was after the defeat of the French at Pavia in 1525. As part of the following peace the French king, Francis I, gave up all his claims to Italy and also promising to return Burgundy, Artois and Flanders to the Hapsburgs. They made the mistake of releasing him before getting some control of the territory and he repudiated the treaty.
If they had been more cautious and insisted on occupying at least some of the ground it would have weakened France, possibly crucially, in the wars which would no doubt have followed. You might have seen most of France and hence probably most of the rest of Europe falling under the dynasty. [Although the forces behind the historical balance of power were already in effect to a degree so you would have seen growing opposition from other powers against Hapsburg dominance. [Not least from France's traditional allies in Constantinople].
Steve