AHC - Britain and Germany in personal union under one ruler

I was thinking about this idea in terms of my current TL, but dismissed it as too far fetched. However, in a sort of 'Kind Hearts and Coronets' way, how might this be achieved? Who has to die, or be killed, in either country to put Germany and the UK under the same monarch by 1914?

...or should this be in ASB?
 
It's pretty ASB, at least if by "Germany" you mean the post-1871 state.

Sure, if all Queen Victoria's sons and their descendants are killed off in an improbably convenient series of deaths or prevented from being born in the first place, Kaiser Wilhelm II will be first in line to the British throne. But the British succession law is a pretty malleable thing and not considered particularly sacred - Parliament has changed it before and in this case, it will certainly do so again. A personal union would be far too problematic politically to be allowed.
 
I was thinking about this idea in terms of my current TL, but dismissed it as too far fetched. However, in a sort of 'Kind Hearts and Coronets' way, how might this be achieved? Who has to die, or be killed, in either country to put Germany and the UK under the same monarch by 1914?

...or should this be in ASB?

You could go for a very early point of departure which sees Matilda have a child with Emperor Heinrich V. Assuming that Matilda can win the succession for her son as she did OTL for Henry II against Stephen, and this son also succeeds to the throne of Germany, you would have achieved your goal. It would be incredibly hard to maintain this union for nearly 800 years, to the extent that I would say it was practically impossible. And I guess that it wouldn't be Britain/UK, just England, and this hypothetical king would also be king of Burgundy and Italy, and Holy Roman Emperor.
 
If Sophia (or one of her elder sisters) marries the Elector of Brandenburg instead of Hanover, then we've got at least an Anglo-Prussian union. Ditto if some plague carries off the future George II and his baby son, after his sister Sophia has married Frederick William I. Likewise again if GII's marriage is childless, like Charles II's, in which case Frederick the Great is next in line. Of course, all the above require Prussia to still become the dominant German power at some point.

Another one overlaps with the current thread about Princess Charlotte. If she gets to marry her Hohenzollern, that dynasty reigns in both Britain and Prussia. It's not a union yet, but if the marriage produces only a daughter, dear Papa may persuade Charlotte to marry her to Albrecht, youngest of FW3's four sons. That would seem safe enough at the time, as no one yet knows that FW4 will be childless, while his brothers Wilhelm and Karl will (OTL) have only one son each. Butterfly matters so that those two sons aren't born, or die unexpectedly, and you could be in business, esp if there's again only one child, so that if he's passed over Britain gets the unpopular Ernest of Cumberland. Finally, of course, if Wilhelm I lives as long as OTL, it will almost certainly be a case of the British King inheriting Prussia, rather than vice versa, which may, however illogically, be seen as less of a threat.
 
You could go for a very early point of departure which sees Matilda have a child with Emperor Heinrich V. Assuming that Matilda can win the succession for her son as she did OTL for Henry II against Stephen, and this son also succeeds to the throne of Germany, you would have achieved your goal. It would be incredibly hard to maintain this union for nearly 800 years, to the extent that I would say it was practically impossible. And I guess that it wouldn't be Britain/UK, just England, and this hypothetical king would also be king of Burgundy and Italy, and Holy Roman Emperor.


Another Medieval possibility is in 1203.

If King John dies suddenly just after murdering Arthur, the nearest male heirs are the sons of his sister Matilda, who had married Duke Henry the Lion of Saxony and Bavaria. The likeliest one is Otto of Brunswick, the youngest of three, but the only one who was brought up in England. He may strengthen his claim by marrying Arthur's sister, Eleanor of Brittany. That gives us the House of Hanover 500 years early.

If Otto still pursues his claim to the Imperial crown, and is more successful than OTL, you could get your union then. A long shot, but no crazier than many other combinations of that era.
 
My personal idea would be some Hapsburg wackiness involving Philip II and Mary. If there is a way for Philip II to bypass Ferdinand and become HRE, of course; I don't know.
 
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