AHC/WI Italian Elector/s

Would it have been possible for one or more Italian princes to be granted the status of an Elector of the Holy Roman Empire. I see Savoy as the easiest, since it was considered to technically be part of Germany, and the Electors only ever elected the King of the Germans. Could Savoy have been made an elector, together perhaps with one or two other Italian lords in order to bind Italy more closely to the crown? And if so, how might that have effected the Empire?
 
Technically, Savoy was part of the old Kingdom of Arles until the late 1300s so doesn't really count as Italian for your premise.
Milan is probably the best bet. It was the preeminent Italian state for much of the 1400s.
 
King of the Germans
The title "rex romanorum" (King of the Romans) was used. This implies, that the elected king has now the right to travel to Rome to become emperor.
(In the early Middle Ages long before the Electoral Council it was "rex francorum" (king of the Franks); some popes used "rex teutonicorum" as an insult, references to Germania/Germany appeared in the title only after the Middle Ages (but they appeared), -> You need to be really really careful with terms like Germans or Germany (it is complicated) )

While it seems unlikely, that an Italian ruler would be among the original Electors (they developed when the empire was in chaos, and it's authority over northern Italy wasn't anymore).
Later, when it became possible to create new electors in the 17. and 18. century, it would be possible under the right circumstances to give this title to an monarch in Northern Italy.
I don't know the exact legal rules for creating new electors. (It would probably help the Emperor if he could get the support of the other electors and other principalities in the Imperial Diet).

It is probably good for the prestige of princes and dukes to gain the elector title. If you are already king, it wouldn't mean as much prestige.
Maybe the emperor (Habsburg) has or wants to give a protestant duke in northern Germany an electorate to gain political support. Now the other catholic electors are unhappy. As a compensation to maintain the catholic majority, he now gives an electorate to a catholic northern Italian ruler (Savoy or Tuscany??).

But if Savoy manages to gain with Sardinia a kingdom, it probably won't care that much about an electorate. Another problem I see with Savoy, is that it is pretty close to France. French pressure could influence the way Savoy would possible vote. This could create some skepticism to the idea of giving them an electorate.

I don't now much about Savoy and Milan and their internal policy. But Milan has a long tradition of being one of the main opponents to Imperial Authority over Italy. Would it be weird, or could it become a problem towards the citizens of the city, if a ruler accepts an electorate (and therefore strengthens the position and presence of the Empire in Italy)?

If the Emperor is Protestant (while Italy remains Catholic), any Imperial Authority over Italy becomes almost impossible. A protestant Emperor needs some really good reasons to give an electorate to a catholic Italian (it is probably not entirely impossible, but I can't think about a plausible way it could happen).

You need to be aware, that it is probably difficult to create new electorates. You need to maintain the careful balance and peace between Emperor, Electors and other principalities, as well as after the Reformation the peace and balance between Catholics and Protestants.
 
Italy's relationship with the empire is complicated. The electors are a consequence of the Golden Bull, and owe to a bunch of things, chiefly dynastic politics. For an Italian elector to occur would be difficult, as Italy was a mess, and a largely non feudal mess at that- at the time of the Golden Bull the local rulers are strongman of various stripes who had largely suppressed the communes and sought legitimacy from either or both of the Pope or Empeorr in order to expand their influence. Add to this that any strong Italian Prince will have strong reason to either usurp the Imperial Crown or break away from the Empire, neither of which would be welcomed by the leading dynasty.


The best option is either on the way 1400s, when the HRE and papacy are both in turmoil, or later on, during the Reformation. Have either a Habsburg line in Milan (or maybe the Spanish king as duke of Milan, heh) claim it in exchange for a Protestant electorate elsewhere.
 
The best bet for an Italian Prince Elector is during the Great Western Schism, and the contemporaneous weakness of the HRE. At the time of the Golden Bull (1356) there was no Italian ruler who was powerful enough to put forward a claim to this dignity, the more so because most of the Italian states were (at least formally) republics.
However during the second half of the century the Della Scala in Verona and the Visconti in Milan set the foundation for strong states, and Gian Galeazzo Visconti managed to buy a ducal crown from Wenceslaus in 1395.
The raise of the Della Scala ended up pretty quickly, but Gian Galeazzo managed to become the effective ruler of most of Northern and Central Italy before his untimely death in 1402.
If his death is butterflied away, I can see him aiming for an electoral dignity which might be achieved by him (or his heir) by 1410-1420.
Of course this would create a problem of its own, since the number of Prince Electors was set at 7 in the Golden Bulla in order to avoid the possibility of a tie in the imperial election. OTOH neither the Wittelsbach of Bavaria nor the Habsburg of Austria had received this dignity (and the Habsburg were significantly pissed off by this slight). A possibility might be that during the negotiations to end the Great Western Schism (which IOTL was settled at the Council of Constance, 1414-18) an increase in the number of the Prince Electors is agreed too: a Visconti and either a Wittelsbach or an Habsburg). 9 PEs would not be much different from 7 PEs, although the bribes at the time of an imperialelections would become a bit more expensive.
 
Could make for fun times if an Italian prince decides during one of the periods of the Holy Roman Empire's weakness, to do what the first archduke of Austria did - bump his title up through forgery/illegal means to give him parity with the electors. And then later, when the papal bull is extended determining the electors, the pope names said Italian as an elector.
 
Might it be done to balance an extra Protestant elector? If the Bohemian crown were to pass away from the Habsburgs and to a local protestant dynasty, might there be an attempt to preserve Catholic dominance of the electoral college by extending it, while using the fact that Italian and Burgundian princes did not have the right to participate in the Reichstag as a way to mollify the German princes and the other electors?
 
What if Matilda of Canossa had able heirs?

Mathilda lived a century before the restriction of the election of new kings to the electors. A lot could happen between a POD during or after her life and the 13. century. A lot could happen. (for example the Staufer could maintain their control over the Empire for a longer or shorter time than OTL). If we see a different powerful dynasty in Northern and Central Italy, this dynasty could gain the elector title if we see the formation of a small group of electors (as in OTL in the 13. century), and if this dynasty has luck/ under the right circumstances. So it is a possibility, but not central for our question. It probably wouldn't make our goal more or less likely.
 
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