AHC: Franchify the Low countries

Make the low countries French in terms of language, culture and religion. It does not matter if it is not a part of France but the Low Countries must become French. Bonus if the entirety of France is calvinist.

PoD: Not before 1384.
 
Louis XI wins his war for the Burgundian heritage and takes the whole lot, possibly arranging a marriage between, say, Dauphin Charles and Margaret of Burgundy. Poor Max should marry someone else (Anne of Brittany maybe?). I haven't checked the dynastic situation at the time.
Butterfly genocide, I know, but the place should be very much French in some centuries, IF France manages to keep it (England won't like the deal, the HRE even less).
That would probably exclude Friesland, though.
 
Louis XI wins his war for the Burgundian heritage and takes the whole lot, possibly arranging a marriage between, say, Dauphin Charles and Margaret of Burgundy. Poor Max should marry someone else (Anne of Brittany maybe?). I haven't checked the dynastic situation at the time.
Butterfly genocide, I know, but the place should be very much French in some centuries, IF France manages to keep it (England won't like the deal, the HRE even less).
That would probably exclude Friesland, though.

You could have France gain all of it in the War of Spanish Succession.
 
Given how much French creeped up the low countries IOTL I don't think this is really too much of a challenge. Have the low countries end up being inherited into France and the prestige language of French steadily continues its forward advance, replacing the silly peasantish German dialect in most cities.
Messing with Burgundy would seem to be the way to go to me. That early and you can stop the reformation and a possible source of friction too.
 
I takes a lot to cause this kind of language replacement...

I imagine it will be something close to OTL Alsace. Alsatians may speak their germanic langauge at home, but they feel being French and use French in public life.
France has been quite good historically at uprooting local cultures, especially dialects.
Probably some Neerlandish will survive.
 
I takes a lot to cause this kind of language replacement...

Not really.
Ireland flipped from mainly Gaelic to mainly English pretty quickly in the 18th/19th centuries. Only through a big effort by the educated elites did it not totally die out.
Just have one language be seen as the language of rural hicks which offers no opportunity in the world and the other being the language of culture, business, learning, everything, and speakers of the lesser langauge will even begin to grow ashamed of themselves and actively work to ensure their kids don't have the same disadvantages.
 
Not really.
Ireland flipped from mainly Gaelic to mainly English pretty quickly in the 18th/19th centuries. Only through a big effort by the educated elites did it not totally die out.
Just have one language be seen as the language of rural hicks which offers no opportunity in the world and the other being the language of culture, business, learning, everything, and speakers of the lesser langauge will even begin to grow ashamed of themselves and actively work to ensure their kids don't have the same disadvantages.

Your forgetting national and emancipation movements. IOTL in Belgium the elite, even those from a Flemish background (who did know Dutch BTW), spoke French. Starting from the Great War, from which there are annecdotes of communication problems between Flemish soldiers and their Francophone officers; the language struggle really fired up in the sixties. Furthermore the Walloon industry went into decline and the Flemish region became the most important economic region.

Naturally with this background Franchifying the Low Countries is especially a sensitive topic in the Flemish region, since (upto a certain degree) this was how they felt the Francophone Belgian elite behaved.
And in previous centuries from the Burgundian Netherlands and the Northern and Southern Netherlands, there were some conflicts with a most powerful (and thus dangerous) neighbor France, especially with ambitious French rulers dreaming from natural borders...

The Revolutionary France and Napoleonic France made the greatest acquisations, Revolutionary France annexed the Southern (Austrian) Netherlands in 1794 and in 1810 Napoleon ended the kingdom of Hollland (Northern Netherlands) and made that a part of his empire too.
Having Napoleon succeed could be pod.

However 'la Grande Nation' has more means and the Low Countries in your scenario could end up as the Alsace and French Flanders. OTOH by the 19th Dutch was a fully developed language, so they have a better starting position than the Alsace and French Flanders; which wouldn't prevent French turning into the prestige language, but it does help the Dutch in managing to keep enough national identity to have minority rights.

Furthermore this France probably will face problems with national and emancipation Dutch movements or even Dutch revival movements (and I'm sure France's neighbors don't mind that France is being distracted). For instance IOTL the Czechs also rediscovered their Czech roots...
 
Falecius said:
Louis XI wins his war for the Burgundian heritage and takes the whole lot, possibly arranging a marriage between, say, Dauphin Charles and Margaret of Burgundy. Poor Max should marry someone else (Anne of Brittany maybe?). I haven't checked the dynastic situation at the time.

The problem is that Mary of Burgundy was in her 20s. Young Dauphin Charles, on the other hand, was a child... You could have men in their 40s-50s marry women that could have been their daughters (ergo less than 20) but the other way around was rare... if not implausible.

If Mary were to fall in French hands before she marries Maximilian, we could see Louis XI or his heirs inherit Burgundy and secure it after her death. Of course, she has to remain unmarried and enter in Religion.

Another possibility would be for the Valois-Burgundy not fucking up their relations to the French crown and being still around when the Royal House of Valois dies: they would thus inherit the crown, bringing Burgundy and the Netherlands into the French Kingdom. From then on, it could go pretty easy... providing the Religious War don't get in the way.
 
The problem is that Mary of Burgundy was in her 20s. Young Dauphin Charles, on the other hand, was a child... You could have men in their 40s-50s marry women that could have been their daughters (ergo less than 20) but the other way around was rare... if not implausible.

If Mary were to fall in French hands before she marries Maximilian, we could see Louis XI or his heirs inherit Burgundy and secure it after her death. Of course, she has to remain unmarried and enter in Religion.

Another possibility would be for the Valois-Burgundy not fucking up their relations to the French crown and being still around when the Royal House of Valois dies: they would thus inherit the crown, bringing Burgundy and the Netherlands into the French Kingdom. From then on, it could go pretty easy... providing the Religious War don't get in the way.

Well even with Mary marrying Maximilian France ended up with the duchy of Burgundy though the French and the Burgundians & Dutch differ in their view whether that was legitimate (which depends on the status of Burgundy);).

Seriously doubt the fact that the Estates of and in the Burgundian Netherlands would accept the king of France as their Sovereign Lord, unless he marries Mary or he is the son of Mary.
They probably choose another noble with better claims, since salic law as in France did apply or ironically they might still invite the emperor and his son Maximilian to protect them.
 
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