AHC: British Habsburgs, and none in Austria

hey, all. this possibility occurred to me the other day. simply put, the idea is that at some point the Habsburgs marry into the British throne and, at a later time, they are removed from power/wiped out in Austria (and everywhere else in Europe for that matter)

your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to have the Habsburgs marry into the British throne and, before the 20th century, have them disappear from Austria by a method of your choosing. bonus points if they marry into the House of Hanover.
 
Mary Tudor gives birth to male heir by the future Philip II (1554). Mary's position is secured with regards to Parliament and is able to return England to the true faith, albeit bloodily. England also becomes more involved as a supporter of Mary, Queen of Scots against Protestant Scots (1561 onward). This only exacerbates tensions which eventually come to a head and are only suppressed with English support. Mary, Queen of Scots marries Archduke Charles of Austria under the influence of Mary of England and Philip (1562), the union however results in only one living heir, a daughter. Fast forward a little, Charles I of England/II of Spain (Don Carlos still dies, much to everyone's relief) marries Antoinette, Queen of Scots, as his second wife, after his first wife Margaret of Valois dies in child birth. Charles eventually splits his realms between his and Antoinette's issue, with England, Scotland, and the Low Countries going to Philip of England, and Spain, her Empire, and the Italian domains going to Charles.

As an unforeseen consequence of Archduke Charles marrying Mary, Queen of Scots, he doesn't marry Maria Anne of Bavaria. Thus when Emperor Matthias dies, there is no German/Austrian Habsburg to succeed him (1618). Wilhelm V of Bavaria is elected first King of Bohemia and then Holy Roman Emperor, and presses hereditary claim to Austria through his mother. Although the Anglo-Spanish Habsburgs technically contest this election, they have little actual interest and reach an agreement with Wilhelm of Bavaria.
 
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Not necessarily, HRE Matthias had brothers, which ITTL are likely to be wed to different spouses.
Albrecht for instance might not be able to marry Isabella ITTL; Matthias IOTL had 8 brothers (granted 3 die at a quite young age).

So IMHO a later POD seems a bit more likely.

Not to mention that Spanish Habsburgs are the heirs of the Austrian Habsburgs and vice versa. Leaving their ancestral lands to rivals IMHO seems a bit uncharacteristic; so if needed, Matthias might just adopt a Spanish cousin (when available), though that wouldn't help the OP.
 
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As mentioned earlier, Having Mary successfully have a son with Philip will meet the British criterion.

For the HRE criterion, no Pragmatic Sanction which let Maria Teresa succeed her father. The electors pick a Caesar from another house, and there you go.

But for the Austria proper itself...pretty tough if Austria follows Salic Law (which is the reason for losing the Imperial Throne) and there are other Habsburg cadet branches all over the empire and beyond.
 
As mentioned earlier, Having Mary successfully have a son with Philip will meet the British criterion.

For the HRE criterion, no Pragmatic Sanction which let Maria Teresa succeed her father. The electors pick a Caesar from another house, and there you go.

But for the Austria proper itself...pretty tough if Austria follows Salic Law (which is the reason for losing the Imperial Throne) and there are other Habsburg cadet branches all over the empire and beyond.

my thoughts concerning that had been that maybe Austria goes through a revolution similar to France such that the Habsburgs are either executed, flee the country (possibly to Britain since they would have relatives in there ITTL), or a combination of the two
 
Wilhelm V of Bavaria is elected first King of Bohemia and then Holy Roman Emperor, and presses hereditary claim to Austria through his mother. Although the Anglo-Spanish Habsburgs technically contest this election, they have little actual interest and reach an agreement with Wilhelm of Bavaria.

There will be war on the continent to prevent the Wittelsbachs from acquiring that much territory. The Anglo-Spanish Habsburgs would undoubtedly contest it just as the Austrians contested the lose of Spain in OTL. Not to mention the French won't allow Bavaria to swell to such a massive size. The French were allies with Bavaria historically because they acted as a check to Habsburg power. If Wilhelm acquires Austria, Bohemia, and becomes emperor of the HRE, the French will oppose this and fight to prevent Bavaria from becoming a hegemonic power. Several of the other German states will look at Bavaria's massive territorial growth with suspicion and will more than likely ally with the French to break up the Bavarian Empire, especially the Protestant princes of Northern Germany. Frederick V might be butterflied away by the PoD, but you could certainly get a different Winter King ruling in Prague. You'll see a war of succession that might rival the 30 years war only religion will play a slightly less significant role in the conflict as the Catholic Anglo-Spanish Habsburgs will be fighting the Catholic Wittelbachs and the Catholic French from the very beginning of the conflict.
 
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I'm actually pretty sure the French would support the Wittelsbachs, at least partially. With England also going to the Habsburgs they'll be desperate to weaken them in any way they can.

That said I could see them try to push for an Independent Bohemia, hence the "partially".
 
Not necessarily, HRE Matthias had brothers, which ITTL are likely to be wed to different spouses.
Albrecht for instance might not be able to marry Isabella ITTL; Matthias IOTL had 8 brothers (granted 3 die at a quite young age).

So IMHO a later POD seems a bit more likely.

Not to mention that Spanish Habsburgs are the heirs of the Austrian Habsburgs and vice versa. Leaving their ancestral lands to rivals IMHO seems a bit uncharacteristic; so if needed, Matthias might just adopt a Spanish cousin (when available), though that wouldn't help the OP.
Fair enough. Admittedly, I wrote much of that relying solely on my own memory, and thought I had accounted for everyone, though I clearly had forgotten about Albrecht and more importantly, that without Philip's later marriages Isabella doesn't exist so he would have to marry someone else. Still I was going for minimal handwavium, so let's say that Albrecht does marry someone else, but is infertile and thus never produces heirs. As far as I know, the rest of Matthias's brothers predeceased him and did not sire heirs either.

I'm not sure of where a later PoD would arise, largely because when dealing with both the Habsburgs and the British Monarchy, the Protestant-Catholic divide just becomes too great. Honestly, my next suggestion would be to have a Habsburg converting and marrying EIIR in place of Prince Philip, but then I remembered the 20th century limitation.

There will be war on the continent to prevent the Wittelsbachs from acquiring that much territory. The Anglo-Spanish Habsburgs would undoubtedly contest it just as the Austrians contested the lose of Spain in OTL. Not to mention the French won't allow Bavaria to swell to such a massive size. The French were allies with Bavaria historically because they acted as a check to Habsburg power. If Wilhelm acquires Austria, Bohemia, and becomes emperor of the HRE, the French will oppose this and fight to prevent Bavaria from becoming a hegemonic power. Several of the other German states will look at Bavaria's massive territorial growth with suspicion and will more than likely ally with the French to break up the Bavarian Empire, especially the Protestant princes of Northern Germany. Frederick V might be butterflied away by the PoD, but you could certainly get a different Winter King ruling in Prague. You'll see a war of succession that might rival the 30 years war only religion will play a slightly less significant role in the conflict as the Catholic Anglo-Spanish Habsburgs will be fighting the Catholic Wittelsbachs and the Catholic French from the very beginning of the conflict.
I know. The honest reason I didn't flesh that out more was a time crunch, I had to get to class, so I said fuck it, give Bavaria everything and don't have a massive contestation. Otherwise, I kind of envisioned it, as you alluded, as a succession crisis which is TTL's 30 Years War. Wilhelm of Bavaria manages to secure Austria, but the Protestants in Bohemia elect, let's say the Elector of Saxony (?), an election which Wilhelm contests. The Anglo-Spanish Habsburgs also contest the succession, effectively creating a three sided war (at least in the beginning) Habsburgs vs. Wittelsbachs vs. Protestants and France just gleefully watches as everything goes to pot. Ultimately, if the war is too prolonged, the British Habsburgs drop out when Parliament stops funding it, and the Spanish Habsburgs probably wouldn't be able to go on much longer without them, while trying to maintain the empire.

Things I feel like I've glossed over which need some kind of addressing:
Why didn't Matthias decide succession? I have a thought of his brother Maximilian waging a more open policy dispute with him, triggered by the lack of Charles's sons, which focuses Matthias's attention elsewhere, and then basically never getting around to it after Maximilian's death/dying too shortly thereafter to have dealt with it.

I think that's it?
 
Here, I even made a little map, although, doing so reminded me that I hadn't dealt with Royal Hungary. So I gave it to Spain, because I found the thought of Hungarian loyalists amusing. In actuality, it probably would have been occupied by the Turks, or...?

AngloHabs.png
 
Elizabeth Woodville and her daughters escape Sanctuary in 1483 and flee to the Netherlands. Archduke Maximilian, conveniently widowed at the time, commits himself to marry Elizabeth of York (maybe he keeps the promise, maybe not), invades England and overthrows Richard III. He goes on to see off Henry Tudor's bid for the throne.

So now we've got an English House of Hapsburg. Somewhere downtime, the male line expires, and they lose Austria, but keep England.
 
I can't recall the exact source, but shortly after Elizabeth of York was dropped by the French dauphin Edward IV toyed with the idea of marrying Liz to the widowed Maximilian, plus there was the other plan to marry her younger sister Anne to Philip the Fair. The house of York dies out in the male line, and Max was rather high up on the Lancastrian roll after the kings of Portugal, so it could be an alt union of Lancaster and York.
 
I started a timeline with that result once upon a time.

Edward IV lives beyond 1483. Given the real politik of the time - he will push for the future Edward V to marry Anne of Brittany -
Elizabeth of York dumped by the Dauphin marries Maximillian (her sister Anne marries Philip as already agreed) - all facilitated by Margaret of York
Easy enough to manufacture some future marriage amongst the descendants of all three.
England is evan more estranged from France, no Burgundian-Spanish alliance.
 
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