AHC: Wilhelm II as King of Britain

Asami

Banned
Okay, I know it's A1900, but this will take place in the post-1900 era, save three years.

Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to make Kaiser Wilhelm II, King of Britain, while retaining Germany. Effectively meaning, you have to create a German-dominated Anglo-German Empire.

This would mean that within four years (1897-1901), you have to change the British succession to allow Princess Victoria, German Empress to ascend to the throne, and her son to succeed her when she dies in August 1901.

Go!
 
Okay, I know it's A1900, but this will take place in the post-1900 era, save three years.

Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to make Kaiser Wilhelm II, King of Britain, while retaining Germany. Effectively meaning, you have to create a German-dominated Anglo-German Empire.

This would mean that within four years (1897-1901), you have to change the British succession to allow Princess Victoria, German Empress to ascend to the throne, and her son to succeed her when she dies in August 1901.

Go!

It wouldn't happen. If it came to a situation where Victoria II reigns, Germany likely retains Wilhelm, while his brother takes the throne in Britain.
 
Okay, I know it's A1900, but this will take place in the post-1900 era, save three years.

Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to make Kaiser Wilhelm II, King of Britain, while retaining Germany. Effectively meaning, you have to create a German-dominated Anglo-German Empire.

This would mean that within four years (1897-1901), you have to change the British succession to allow Princess Victoria, German Empress to ascend to the throne, and her son to succeed her when she dies in August 1901.

Go!

Not possible w/o the death of numerous people in line ahead of him AND also without radically altering the make-up and mindset of parliament so that they'd be agreeable to having a foreign head of state also reign in Great Britain, Ireland, & etc. In other words, w/o ASBs or magic it's not going to happen.

Further, if you go back to a POD where Victoria is Albert & Victoria's only child, then her marriage to the future Frederick III would most probably be butterflied away.
 
Okay, I know it's A1900, but this will take place in the post-1900 era, save three years.

Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to make Kaiser Wilhelm II, King of Britain, while retaining Germany. Effectively meaning, you have to create a German-dominated Anglo-German Empire.

This would mean that within four years (1897-1901), you have to change the British succession to allow Princess Victoria, German Empress to ascend to the throne, and her son to succeed her when she dies in August 1901.

Go!

Wilhelm is a descendant of Victoria in a female line. Thus, even though his mother Victoria is Victoria's eldest child, she (and therefore he) ranked after all of Victoria's sons and all of their children and grandchildren in the line of succession.

As of 1 January 1897, there were 24 living sons and male-line descendants of Queen Victoria, and two more were born in March and April. Here is the list:

Prince Albert Edward (Edward VII)
--Prince George (George V)
----Prince Edward (Edward VIII)
----Prince Albert Frederick (George VI)
----Princess Mary (born 25 April 1897)
--Princess Louise, Duchess of Fife
----Princess Alexandra of Fife
----Princess Maud of Fife
--Princess Victoria
--Princess Maud
Prince Alfred of Edinburgh
--Prince Alfred
--Crown Princess Marie of Romania
----Prince Carol of Romania (Carol II)
----Princess Elisabeta (Queen Elisabeta of Greece)
--Princess Victoria Melita
----Princess Elisabeth of Hesse
--Princess Alexandra
----Prince Gottfried of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (born 24 March 1897)
--Princess Beatrice
Prince Arthur of Connaught
--Prince Arthur of Connaught
--Princess Margaret of Connaught
--Princess Patricia of Connaught
Prince Leopold of Albany (died 1884)
--Prince Charles Edward
--Princess Alice of Albany
Dowager German Empress Victoria
--German Emperor Wilhelm II

Thus, for the younger Victoria to succeed, either Britain adopts gender-neutral primogeniture, or catastrophes kill all 26 of those ahead of her in the line of succession in four years. Several more children ahead of her in the line were born in 1897-1901; these children must be prevented or killed.

The first is beyond improbable.

As to the second - the only time all these people might have been gathered together in one place was Queen Victoria's funeral. (By which time Edward VII would have already succeeded, but never mind that.) Some demented anarchists or Reds might attack this great assembly of royalty, say with a bomb. If the bomb killed all 26+ of the seniors-in-line while sparing Empress Victoria and Wilhelm... but I am not sure that was even possible, as there would be several babies and toddlers among the seniors, and they might not be brought to the ceremony, being left with their nurses instead.

Even then... it is most unlikely that Wilhelm would claim the British throne or that Britain would accept him as King. The most likely outcome would be the adoption of some other survivor not encumbered with a foreign crown. Wilhelm's younger brother Heinrich would be a strong candidate, or one of his sisters.

Or a child of Queen Victoria's younger daughters. For instance, Prince Ernst Ludwig of Hesse, only son of Princess Louise, second daughter of Queen Victoria. He would be the widower of Princess Victoria Melita, grand-daughter of Queen Victoria by her second son Prince Alfred (their child Princess Elisabeth of Hesse would have to be dead too). This would be... interesting - as OTL Ernst Ludwig and Victoria Melita were divorced in 1901, as soon as their grandmother died, to the great scandal of royal Europe. This was due in part to her resenting and neglecting "royal duties", and throwing things at Ernst Ludwig when he rebuked her. But also to his being a promiscuous bisexual: "no boy was safe, from the stable hands to the kitchen help", according to Victoria Melita. (He was bi, though: besides Elisabeth, he had two children by his second wife.)

Amusing as all that is, it gets us no closer to the AHC. I think for that to happen, Empress Victoria, Wilhelm, and Wilhelm's children would have to be the only surviving descendants of Victoria. Which means eliminating dozens of female line descendants as well, including all of Victoria's other children and grandchildren. Even then... There was plenty of reason to avoid a union of crowns, so the British crown would probably pass to the second eldest of Wilhelm's six sons (assuming more than one survived the catastrophe). That is, Victoria, Wilhelm, and his eldest son would also renounce the British crown.

No, what's required is a near-total holocaust, leaving only Victoria, Wilhelm, and one of Wilhelm's children out of all the old Queen's descendants. This would be possible only if all of them were at the funeral; and I think that infants and toddlers were not present; and also that some of the great-grandchildren didn't come to Britain.

How could this happen? A conspiracy devoted to hunting down Queen Victoria's descendants - perhaps a revived Thuggee cult avenging the subjugation of India and suppression of Thuggee. But how do they miss Wilhelm?

Ah! I have it. A collection of demented Boers, who spare Wilhelm because of his known pro-Boer sentiments. No, that doesn't work, because they wouldn't kill his children.

Sorry. I give up.
 
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