A Crown of Butterflies: A Holy Roman Empire Timeline *ROUGH*

Hello everyone! Here, without further ado, is the rough beginning of my new timeline regarding the HRE. In it, the HRE Consolidates in Europe much more effectively than OTL, take a look at the first Chunk of Timeline below to see how!

Timeline Part One:
September 25, 1473-January 3, 1559

· September 25, 1473: After a string of successes in their wars against France, the Duchy of Burgundy is admitted by Friedrich I into the Holy Roman Empire.
· October 3, 1473: The Spider King Louis XI of France, deterred from inciting action against Burgundy because of his opponent’s new Imperial status and concerned about the English threat to the north, hesitates.
· October 4, 1473: Charles the Bold bears a healthy son, Phillip the Second.
· October 10, 1473: The Lois and his son Charles are poisoned by Burgundian agents. Lois son dies immediately, but he lives on.
· October 17, 1473: The Spider King Louis XI dies heirless in his palace.
· October 23, 1473: An Imperial initiative of Emperor Friedrich results in the invasion of France by Imperial forces in the hopes of placing an Imperial Prince upon the throne.
· August 12, 1477: After four years of conflict, Imperial forces successfully integrate France with the (Formerly Duchy) of Burgundy. Friedrich crowns Charles the Bold King of Burgundy, but Charles’ son Phillip dies in the struggle.
· August 14, 1477: The Valois and Hapsburg dynasties are united by the marriage of Maximillian I Habsburg and Mary the Rich of Valois.
· August 25, 1477-August 25, 1500: Maximillian and his Valois allies work with the Emperor Friedrich I to consolidate power in the Roman Throne. Several ‘brushfire wars’ erupt, and the territory of the empire is slowly dominated by the Hapsburg and Valois families. Several child marriages occur between the Imperial Hapsburg and Valois dynasties and the Ruling Elite of the Republic of Florence, the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, and the Duchy of Montferrat, consolidating Imperial Power in the region, and creating Neapolitan and Florentine Electorates. Cristobel Colon 'discovers' America with Spanish support, and colonization of the New World begins.
· August 26, 1500: Carlos V Hapsburg of Spain is elected Holy Roman Emperor, and directly Inherits nearly all of the empire due to his Valois/Hapsburg heritage. This includes the Hispano-Portuguese Colonies in the New World.
· September 5, 1500: Emperor Charles V, supported by the throng of familiar electors planted by his predecessors Charles the Bold and Maximillian I, enacts sweeping reforms in the Empire, with his family members and several other Princes being paid in land and wealth from the New World in exchange for their power in Europe.
· September 13, 1500: Several Princes of the Empire, already exhausted from the Empire’s control grab, and devoted to the new Protestant Churches, wage a desperate war against Charles. This, however, moves the final straggling Catholic Factions in the Empire to devote their powers to Charles.
· September 14, 1500-June 21, 1504: Imperial Catholic Forces, funded by the Roman Church and by wealth from the New World, successfully lay low the Rebellion in the legendary Wars of Unification.
· June 23, 1504: Emperor Charles, having successfully united the Empire, works towards the ends of rebuilding his damaged country, ruined by the exploits of spastic mercenary armies on both sides. In order to ‘avoid such tragedies’ in the future, Charles presents several speeches to the masses and Princes on the merit of total personal union, with one Regular Imperial Army in the fashion of the True Roman Army. The motion passes easily, and the control of the Imperial Army is vested in the Holy Roman Emperor.
· June 30, 1504: The ambitious Charles V now declares that the lands of Spain and Portugal are Imperial Lands, and will remain Imperial in the future. The Principalities of New Spain and Brazil are declared.
· July 10, 1506: The Emperor inspects the completed Imperial Army. With a forced agreement from the Pope, Charles tests his new Army in Italy, uniting all of the Peninsula save the Republic of Venice and Papal States.
· July 11, 1506: The Swiss negotiate a writ of secession with Charles in exchange for a large sum of Swiss money. Charles is largely unconcerned, and accepts.
· July 12, 1506-August 2, 1520: During an era of Imperial Peace, the HRE begins to enact Latin as an Imperial language, to be spoken across the Empire in imitation of the Original Rome. The government is also organized to allow the people of the Empire some local power, but the Empire is never truly democratic. A new elective process is created: If neither the heirs of Hapsburg or Valois are chosen, one of them must always be elected to the now distinct position of King of the Romans, a subsidiary executive role.
· July 13, 1506-December 25, 1558: Money from the New World colonies of the Empire go towards the creation of a new capital on the Rhine river of the name ‘Roma Domina’ literally, The Supreme Rome.
  • January 3, 1559: Charles V dies. A New Imperial Election is organzed.
 
I would love to hear the opinions of anyone who reads the timeline!
Suggestions, criticism, praise, it's all golden to me ;)
 
I don't know to much about HRE politics or this time period. I think you just created a monster empire with the HRE being part of Hapsburg Spain this creates a European powerhouse with no French Powerhouse to do anything about it, in short, what besides inbreeding can stop the Spainards? Otherwise very neat. I always liked the Hapsburgs more than the Bourbons. :)
To show my ignorance what is the POD?
 
October 23, 1473: An Imperial initiative of Emperor Friedrich results in the invasion of France by Imperial forces in the hopes of placing an Imperial Prince upon the throne.

I think you ought to be a bit more explicit at this point (and similar ones), as this is quite an unusual procedure for the HRE.

At first: On which terms did the Emperor gather the Imperial Army?
The Imperial Army was not a standing army, and each principality and city had to contribute. This hardly ever worked well, as it was hard to enforce recruiting of sufficient troups in time.
But apart from that, the Emperor needed the consent and decision of an Imperail Diet, also not a permanent institution, but a slow and cumbersome conference which first had to be invited. Moreover, it frequently turned out inable of compromise and decision.

Relative agreement could be reached e.g. IOTL in later centuries due to an extremely close Ottoman menace, but this was an exception. An agressive war out of the blue would hardly be easy to agree upon; in particular, there would nothing be in it for the cities, imperial counts, all lesser and most more powerful princes. So what would be their motivation to agree to the war and then send troups on a long and laborious campaign?
Note that the Empire was rather a lose union of individual principalities with divergent interests. There _was_ potential in the institutions of the Empire, but a common action is not going to appear from scratch. I am not exactly sure about the time of your PoD, but in general note that some princes might be allied with the King of France and would rather take the opposite side in a conflict.

Moreover, all members of the Imperial Diet would would want to know, what family this "Imperial Prince" would come from. Again, the dynasties of the Empire were rivals, and the Empire functioned as a set of rules to find peaceful conflict solutions inside. You might want to draft some partition of France, or a "common territory of the Empire". The latter certainly would lead to interesting developments, but as it would be a completely novel idea, so there is some need to motivate its advent.

Furthermore, there would also be potential allies of France outside the Empire (the Pope, the King of England, the King of Naples). A conflict always offers opportunities to many.

Finally, I am not an expert on military history, but I doubt that it would be possible to conquer all of France even with efficient troups from the entire Empire in the 16th century - just as vice versa, due to overstretch of supply lines. Again, if the Imperial Diet is involved, this is never going to be a suprise attack ...
 
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