AHC: Habsburg England, Valois Scotland

D. Felipe II of Spain was certainly an opportunist when it came to the English crown, not only after Queen Mary died. He was betrothed to the Princess Elizabeth in 1536 (shortly before Anne Boleyn fell) when England was seeking a rapprochement with Charles V; and again after Maria Manuela died in 1545; and then, as everyone knows sought Elizabeth's hand once Mary was barely cold in the grave. Likewise, he offered D. Carlos for Liz whilst he was married to Mary. Also, Archduke Ferdinand (known for his marriage to Philippine Welser) was also proposed once or twice.

France, eager to offset Habsburg power in Europe, attempted to marry the future Queen Mary off, first to the Dauphin - François III, duc de Bretagne - or Elizabeth off to the duc d'Angoulême. Then, in the next generation they settled on getting Mary Stewart married to the short-lived François II. The marriage was childless, much like that of her cousin's Habsburg match across La Manche.

The challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to have the England and Scotland of the title. The ruler of England or of Scots does not necessarily have to be the same as the ruler of Spain/France/the Empire. Bonus points if England and Scotland don't get united to each other, but remain in a cadet line of the royal families of the title.
 
Habsburg England
Basically what you said. Mary or Elizabeth have kids with one of the Habsburgs of their sort of generation. Before the Tudors the Plantagenets don't care about Austria in terms of marriages (generally), and if we go into the 1600s we've got the problem of religion to surmount, and then even if, say, James II wasn't deposed, he was a Francophile anyway, so we wouldn't see a Stuart-Habsburg match from him. Elizabeth Stuart (OTL married the Elector Palatine) was only proposed to Protestants. Like, maybe if Arbella Stuart had successfully rebelled and married a Habsburg? And then Scotland broke away because of Presbyterianism?

Valois Scotland
Again, religion comes into play after the 16th century. That means that, other than Mary Queen of Scots having a son with her first husband, we're left with either Margaret of Scotland, daughter of James I, having children with Louis XI and a whole lot of other people dying - or Mary Stewart, OTL Countess of Arran marrying one of these guys instead (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_IV,_Duke_of_Anjou or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles,_Count_of_Angoulême or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/René,_Duke_of_Alençon) and Queen Mary not having issue.

Another long shot could be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemia_Stewart,_Countess_of_Strathearn. If we go for a really stringent view on the Act of succession of 1371, her descendants were the rightful heirs after James V died, so if she had married a Valois, the King of France might see fit to press his House's claim to the Scots throne in the 1540s - see http://www.wargs.com/essays/succession/strathearn.html for the legal reasoning.


Yeah, basically you answered the AHC in your OP. The long and short term effects will obviously be unique to each case.
 
Hmmm,

Habsburger England:
HRE Charles has a younger brother Maximilian who also comes under instruction of his aunt Margaret Governor of the Netherlands and ends up with Protestant leanings.
Max gets married off to Elizabeth, inherits the Netherlands as part of Charles V's compromises, and becomes King Consort of England when Mary dies roughly as OTL.
Their descendants become champions of the Protestant Imperial Cause though this dream becomes as unworkable as the Catholic one.
 
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