AHC: Royal House Swap: Capetian England, Plantagenet France

With a POD post-1200, your challenge is to create a situation where the House of Plantagenet loses England, but holds the throne of France, while the House of Capet holds that of England. How might this situation arise? Would the Plantagenet be as determined to recover England as they were to recover lost territories in France? Would something like Parliament still arise even without the excesses of the Plantagenets to protest?
 
The best chance of getting a Capet on the English throne would probably be for Prince Louis the Lion (later Louis VIII of France) to win the First Barons' War. He had the support of a big chunk of the English nobility and a fair degree of military success, but his support drained away when King John died and the regent for the young King Henry III conceded most of the points the barons had gone into rebellion over.

If John lives long enough to be decisively defeated, or if Louis manages to capture Henry, then Louis has a good chance of sticking as King of England.

It would take some dynastic shenanigans to complete the reversal. A surviving Plantagenet would need to develop a power base within France (Henry being allowed to inherit some of the old Angevin lands in exchange for renouncing his claim to the English throne?). From there, we could go one of a couple different ways:

  • The direct Capetians eventually die out as per OTL, and the Plantagenet successfully press a claim to the French throne through a female line, while a male-line cadet branch of the House of Capet holds onto the English throne (perhaps because they'd been the last Direct Capetian King's stewards in England).
  • France is technically an elective monarchy in the high middle ages, although the election is little more than a formality (generally, the King has his son elected as heir (officially, junior co-monarch) within his own lifetime). If the Capets over-focus on England and get too politically weak in France, the French nobility might refuse to elect the Capet heir, and might instead elect a Plantagenet.
 
The best chance of getting a Capet on the English throne would probably be for Prince Louis the Lion (later Louis VIII of France) to win the First Barons' War. He had the support of a big chunk of the English nobility and a fair degree of military success, but his support drained away when King John died and the regent for the young King Henry III conceded most of the points the barons had gone into rebellion over.

So instead of conquering Wales, Longshanks could conquer France (or at least part of it). Cool :)
 
With a POD that far back in his father's life, and that significant, I doubt you'd get someone like OTL Edward Longshanks (b. 1239).

Could we get someone with a similar personality? I've always been under the impression that the Plantagenets were often afflicted with delusions of empire (or grandeur, if you prefer), joining in wars against France long after any reasonable person would say that their chances of actually conquering France had dwindled to pretty much zero. Or maybe this is just coming from the fact that most of what I "know" about British history (and Russian, and the history of New York,) come from Edward Rutherfurd's historical fiction.
 
Philip Augustus and Arthur of Brittany seal their alliance by marrying the Dauphin Louis to the princess Eleanor, Arthur's sister. When the time came to challenge John for the English throne, he'd have a far more legitimate claim to do so.

How to get a Plantagenet on the throne is the harder challenge. Perhaps Louis after his conquest allows the young prince Henry (OTL Henry III) to retain some fiefs of his own: maybe Tourraine and Maine to provide a buffer between the expanded royal demesne (now including Brittany, Anjou and Normandy) and the troublesome lords of the south, and most likely the succession to his grandfather's county of Angoulême. A generation or two later and the French-born Plantagenet is "elected" King and pushes out the tiresome Capetians who keep draining the land for their wars in Wales and Scotland. Transition could be made easier if OTL Henry III marries into the Capetian house.
 
Could we get someone with a similar personality? I've always been under the impression that the Plantagenets were often afflicted with delusions of empire (or grandeur, if you prefer), joining in wars against France long after any reasonable person would say that their chances of actually conquering France had dwindled to pretty much zero. Or maybe this is just coming from the fact that most of what I "know" about British history (and Russian, and the history of New York,) come from Edward Rutherfurd's historical fiction.

We could - it's not as if Longshanks was some special snowflake. I'm just saying that you wouldn't get it automatically, or even as the most likely event.
 
-1216 invasion of England by Louis VIII and Alexander II of Scotland goes better resulting in Plantagenets leaving England for Normandy
-John leaves for Bordeaux and begins plans to rebuild his Empire as the Capetians occupy England
-Capetians are comfortable in England as John rallies/bribes opposition to them in France, over a few generations Plantagenets gain Paris while Capetians stay in England
 
Not very credible.

How could the Plantagenets control again Normandy in 1216 ? They had lost it 10 years before. And losing England, you would have them regain Normandy from which power base ?

From 1214 on, the Capetians were at their peak and were the most powerful dynasty of all Europe.
 
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