Make France a protestant Kingdom before 1648. Preferably Huguenott. No foreign invasions allowed.
Where would things go from there?Henry of Navarre decides that Paris in fact is not worth a mass.
He wins the War of the Three Henrys and then defeats the pretender Charles X. If he can survive the numerous assassination attempts, he could become Elizabeth I's French protege.
What is interesting is I instantly liked the second option not the first. I mean open civil war totally messing up a country that dominated europe until 1789 seems to open up the most interesting options.
Make France a protestant Kingdom before 1648. Preferably Huguenott. No foreign invasions allowed.
A History of Western Society (9th ed.) said:In 1438 Charles [VII] published the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, asserting the superiority of a general council over the papacy, giving the French crown major control over the appointment of bishops, and depriving the pope of French ecclesiastical revenues. The Pragmatic Sanction established Gallican (or French) liberties because it affirmed the special rights of the French crown over the French church. Greater control over the church...helped consolidate the authority of the French crown...
...the French king Francis I and Pope Leo X reached a mutually satisfactory agreement in 1516. The new treaty, the Concordat of Bologna, rescinded the Pragmatic Sanction's assertion of the superiority of a general council over the papacy and approved the pope's right to receive the first year's income of new bishops and abbots. In return, Leo X recognized the French ruler's right to select French bishops and abbots. French kings thereafter effectively controlled the appointment and thus the policies of church officials in the kingdom...
...This understanding gave the monarchy a rich supplement of money and offices and a power over the church that lasted until the Revolution of 1789. The Concordat of Bologna helps explain why France did not later become Protestant: in effect, it established Catholicism as the state religion. Because French rulers possessed control over appointments and had a vested financial interest in Catholicism, they had no need to revolt against Rome.
I was thinking the same thing. The first option might be a nice start to a Frankowank, but the possibilities of the second are too intriguing to pass up.
Some questions:
- Does France survive as a single state, or does it split along religious lines?
- Is there increased French migration to the New World?
- Who replaces France as the dominant Continental power? Austrian Habsburgs?
- Does one of the German states gain unexpected prestige through its actions in the war?
Why would the fact that their protestants make France do better?
Well I know for one that a lot of Huguenots ended up in Prussia, and helped fuel the rise of the Prussian Empire.