A Italian candidate for HRE crown

[Fulano]

The Habsburgs were planning to recreate the Kingdom of Arles via Clementia of Habsburg and Charles Martel of Naples, the claimants of Hungary IOTL.

Yeah, I think this is a good start. Having a Kingdom in the Italian region would make wonders for its cause, considering all the influence it could get over time. Having a unified, inheritable, royal title would drastically change the outlook and dynamics of the Empire and would surely be considered to be a permanent Electorate once an alternate Golden Bull writes down who could vote and who couldn't. Basically, what happened to Bohemia, which was not even part of the "German Lands" to begin with.

Also, and in a totally unrelated way, there was a chance for Francis I of France to inherit Savoy. Francis was very close to the Duchy via his mother (Louise of Savoy) and a few deaths in the Savoyard royal family would make him heir to the Duchy even before he became King of France. And yes, it sounds a bit convoluted, but weirder things have happened in OTL.
Then, keep everything else more or less as OTL, and he would make a bid for the Emperorship, but now he could argue that he is, legally, a member of the Empire, but of the "Italian side".

 

[Nuraghe]

Yeah, I think this is a good start. Having a Kingdom in the Italian region would make wonders for its cause, considering all the influence it could get over time. Having a unified, inheritable, royal title would drastically change the outlook and dynamics of the Empire and would surely be considered to be a permanent Electorate once an alternate Golden Bull writes down who could vote and who couldn't. Basically, what happened to Bohemia, which was not even part of the "German Lands" to begin with.

Also, and in a totally unrelated way, there was a chance for Francis I of France to inherit Savoy. Francis was very close to the Duchy via his mother (Louise of Savoy) and a few deaths in the Savoyard royal family would make him heir to the Duchy even before he became King of France. And yes, it sounds a bit convoluted, but weirder things have happened in OTL.
Then, keep everything else more or less as OTL, and he would make a bid for the Emperorship, but now he could argue that he is, legally, a member of the Empire, but of the "Italian side".

I'm sorry to say it but there are two big obstacles that prevent the occurrence of these two scenarios, the first concerning a kingdom of Arelate formed for Charles the Hammer of Naples, concerns two things, the first is with what authority the Habsburgs decide to give a constituent kingdom of the HRE to a rival of the imperial power in Italy ( given that the Anjou are extremely pro-Guelph and already hold very large possessions ( such as Naples, minor fiefdoms in Piedmont and Lombardy and finally Provence and above all also the kingdom of Hungary ) because only an emperor legitimately crowned by the Pope can do a vaguely similar thing ( but at the cost of quickly losing the support of the electors and the rest of the German princes, and seeing his royal prerogatives weakened, given that he is technically himself, the legitimate King of Arles / Burgundy, so he lame himself voluntarily ?, not really the best political choice ) finally regarding Francis I who inherits Savoy, it is certainly something that can happen, but it certainly does not benefit him as regards the imperial elections ( which were now firmly linked to the question of "Germanness", so being """ Italian """ will have almost no influence ) , indeed the Pope will probably give even more support to the candidacy of Frederick of Saxony or Charles V himself, because he will be terrified by a Francis that controls the entire Po Valley more firmly than Otl ( if we exclude Venice ) given that Savoy certainly in the long run it will be definitively annexed to France ( not exactly the situation that anyone in Italy will like ) therefore they do not seem to me to be the best solution to concretely obtain a local representative (alias Italian) in the electoral college, but rather a way to further complicate the management of the HRE, I remain of the idea that we should work in the period of time between Henry III and Charles IV, to achieve something similar in a natural way ( but I don't exclude that there could be other scenarios, in fact there was an idea of including Savoy in the reform projects conceived by Francis / Franz II, but I don't know how seriously they were taken into consideration )

@Kellan Sullivan