AHC:United Kingdoms of France Great Brittian Ireland and Portugal

your challenge if you choose to accept it is to have a United Kingdom of France Great Brittian Portugal And Ireland
Any time after 1000 but before 1900
 
Have the Plantagenets win the Hundred Years' War. That takes care of the big one (France and England). Their descendants eventually intermarry into the Scottish and Portuguese royal houses.
 

longsword14

Banned
Have the Plantagenets win the Hundred Years' War. That takes care of the big one (France and England). Their descendants eventually intermarry into the Scottish and Portuguese royal houses.
For a short time perhaps. France would break away soon enough with the priorities diverging. France had a lot of strong vassals, France under 'English' rule would have trouble in the long run.
 
Actually i think that France under 'English' rule would not have any trouble on the long run, but clearly making England more french by marriage between their nobility and the English, or just by the strong difference between the English ruling minority and the french population majority. Much like china under the mongols (even if the numbers are even worse there), they assimilated or died off, their influence is there but china didn't became much Mongolian!
 
The English nobility already is quite french in term of influence even more at that time as the leading noble family were more french than English in term of blood and they still are today.
 
The English nobility already is quite french in term of influence even more at that time as the leading noble family were more french than English in term of blood and they still are today.
Well, they're more German then French today. Of course back then it would be French blood.

I think having the Plantagenets win is the best and most obvious option. After that, Portugal is inherited by marriage in say the 1500s. By the 1700s assuming they've managed to hold onto their realm, they'd be a real powerhouse. Portugal would still be exploring the New World as would the English alongside them. I imagine England would be much more Franco-philic, and the nobility would revert back to their Franco-Norman roots.
 
For a short time perhaps. France would break away soon enough with the priorities diverging. France had a lot of strong vassals, France under 'English' rule would have trouble in the long run.

The bigger problem might be holding onto England. I would expect the royal court to be established in Paris, as the French throne carried the most prestige. The nobility would assimilate into French culture.
 
Well, they're more German then French today. Of course back then it would be French blood.

I think having the Plantagenets win is the best and most obvious option. After that, Portugal is inherited by marriage in say the 1500s. By the 1700s assuming they've managed to hold onto their realm, they'd be a real powerhouse. Portugal would still be exploring the New World as would the English alongside them. I imagine England would be much more Franco-philic, and the nobility would revert back to their Franco-Norman roots.
Today they are more french in term of name and custom for the old important family in blood I imagine they would be of Brython/Welsh/celtic blood as it is if I remember what the majority of England/Scotland/Nireland/Wales inhabitant genetically are the royal family truly have been german these pas few century.
 
Alternatively, have (somehow) Louis VIII succeed in his conquest of England.
Ireland from there on is harder (possible Plantagenet remnant) but Portugal is feasible - its kings are Capétiens.
 
Alternatively, have (somehow) Louis VIII succeed in his conquest of England.
Ireland from there on is harder (possible Plantagenet remnant) but Portugal is feasible - its kings are Capétiens.
France conquering England is alot harder. They could do it, but it wouldn't be easy and holding onto England while maintaining continental holdings will drain the French. The Plantagenets are in my opinion the best option, though King Louis of England would be interesting too. Surprisingly Portugal is the easiest part.
 
France conquering England is alot harder. They could do it, but it wouldn't be easy and holding onto England while maintaining continental holdings will drain the French. The Plantagenets are in my opinion the best option, though King Louis of England would be interesting too. Surprisingly Portugal is the easiest part.

In all fairness, within the parameters of the POD, the French did conquer England. And held massive territories in France while doing so.
 
Louis VI captures Mathilda in 1125 on her way back to Normandy. She is forcibly married to young prince Philipp. Henry I is in uproar and elects Stephen as his heir. Nonetheless, the french court maintains Mathilda's claim at Henry's death. When Louis VI gets the Aquitaine inheritance, he marries Eleanor to his younger son Peter and prepares to launch an assault on Normandy, then England. After a long civil war, Mathilda and Philipp are crowned kings of France and England and confiscate the counties of the House of Blois. Through marriage, either the royal line marries in the cadet Aquitaine line or the reverse, France-England and Aquitaine are united. The Toulouse counts are crushed and annexed (a claim coming from the Aquitaine line) and there is an open interest in the Peninsula, maybe satellizing Catalonia. The intermarriages in the English-French-Aquitaine aristocracy effectively unite the ruling class, all civil wars (for example, for a tiered Parliament/States General system or for only a personal union system) involve no regional grouping. The outcasts of the system are driven to seek a place in the sun on the marges : Reconquista, Crusades, Ireland. Personal union with Portugal comes later (14th c ?) when a succession crisis brings a female-line claim to the Franco-English monarchy. The simple sheer numbers of the Parisian king armies allow him to triumph.
 
In all fairness, within the parameters of the POD, the French did conquer England. And held massive territories in France while doing so.
Holding the territory for a long period of time still undoubtedly would be difficult. I didn't say it was impossible. I think it would be easier for England to hold France than vise versa.
 
Holding the territory for a long period of time still undoubtedly would be difficult. I didn't say it was impossible. I think it would be easier for England to hold France than vise versa.

They held England for a few hundred years, in the face of plenty of unrest and civil wars, within both France and England.
 
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