Albert/Albrecht VII of Austria as HRE w/ heirs

Say Albrecht and Isabella Clara, have progeny and he succeeds Mathias as HRE. What are the potential consequences on
- thirty yrs war/denominational conflict within the Empire
- the situation in the Low countries? Can they be re-captured or is the 12 yrs truce renewed
- Imperial French relations, still the same, different?
- Anglo-imperial relations? If no Spanish match would a Burgundian/imperial match be an alternative?
- other thoughts you might have?
 
Say Albrecht and Isabella Clara, have progeny and he succeeds Mathias as HRE. What are the potential consequences on
- thirty yrs war/denominational conflict within the Empire
- the situation in the Low countries? Can they be re-captured or is the 12 yrs truce renewed
- Imperial French relations, still the same, different?
- Anglo-imperial relations? If no Spanish match would a Burgundian/imperial match be an alternative?
- other thoughts you might have?
If Albert and Isabella had surviving children then we will butterfly not only Ferdinand II’s Imperial succession but everything lead to it. Burgundy will likely pass in imperial hands and is not impossible seeing the Low Countries reunited in a single state under Habsburg’s rule.
The 30 years war here will be much different, if it happened at all, while Imperial French relations will be worse as the possession of Netherlands will intensify the tension.
Anglo-Imperial relations will be more or less the same, maybe closer (for the Netherlands possession) and an Imperial/Burgundian match will be surely a viable alternative to a Spanish Match or maybe also more interesting than a Spanish one
 

Vitruvius

Donor
With such an early POD potentially altering the Habsburg family dynamic I'm not sure that Matthias would even be elected Emperor. There was a lot of bad blood between the brothers. If Albert has children they would be the obvious heirs Rudolf. The only living grandchildren of Maximilian II would be Albert's children and Philip III of Spain (whose claim went through Max's daughter). So I could see the childless unmarried Matthias (who was generally the black sheep of the family going back to his misadventure in the Netherlands) being skipped over in favor of Albert.

On the other hand it wasn't Philip's intent to unite the Netherlands with Austria so that could be a complication. I could see the other brother, Maximilian III (who was fairly popular with the lesser German lords through his leadership of the Teutonic Order) being elected as a place holder Emperor after Rudolf. But he wouldn't last long so there would be another election pretty quickly. Anyways, definitely a different dynamic in the HRE in the early 17th century.
 
Anglo-Imperial relations will be more or less the same, maybe closer (for the Netherlands possession) and an Imperial/Burgundian match will be surely a viable alternative to a Spanish Match or maybe also more interesting than a Spanish one

Recently, I must confess, I've found myself just why James didn't attempt a general Habsburg match instead of a Spanish one. I get that he wanted to seal the peace with Spain blah-blah, but instead of letting his son and heir take off to parts unknown, why not approach Ferdinand II about a match? Ferdinand II might've been arch-Catholic, but surely he could see the benefit of having England as an ally? Or was it simply that Ferdinand's daughters were considered too young? James did try to arrange a marriage between them and his grandson though, and the Austrian Habsburgs didn't shoot such a match down immediately (despite Friedrich Heinrich being a Protestant - although maybe they would've wanted him to convert as well).
 
Recently, I must confess, I've found myself just why James didn't attempt a general Habsburg match instead of a Spanish one. I get that he wanted to seal the peace with Spain blah-blah, but instead of letting his son and heir take off to parts unknown, why not approach Ferdinand II about a match? Ferdinand II might've been arch-Catholic, but surely he could see the benefit of having England as an ally? Or was it simply that Ferdinand's daughters were considered too young? James did try to arrange a marriage between them and his grandson though, and the Austrian Habsburgs didn't shoot such a match down immediately (despite Friedrich Heinrich being a Protestant - although maybe they would've wanted him to convert as well).
Likely because Austria was not an interesting ally for England (unlike Spain, France, Portugal, Netherlands, Denmark or Sweden), but Burgundy will be an interesting one
 
With such an early POD potentially altering the Habsburg family dynamic I'm not sure that Matthias would even be elected Emperor. There was a lot of bad blood between the brothers. If Albert has children they would be the obvious heirs Rudolf. The only living grandchildren of Maximilian II would be Albert's children and Philip III of Spain (whose claim went through Max's daughter). So I could see the childless unmarried Matthias (who was generally the black sheep of the family going back to his misadventure in the Netherlands) being skipped over in favor of Albert.

On the other hand it wasn't Philip's intent to unite the Netherlands with Austria so that could be a complication. I could see the other brother, Maximilian III (who was fairly popular with the lesser German lords through his leadership of the Teutonic Order) being elected as a place holder Emperor after Rudolf. But he wouldn't last long so there would be another election pretty quickly. Anyways, definitely a different dynamic in the HRE in the early 17th century.
I do not know, the timespan is too short (as Albert will not be a candidate for Isabella’s hand before 1596 and in OTL he married her only in 1599 and their first child/son was born in 1605) plus I found discording dates for Matthias’ wedding to Anna of Tyrol and as they married most likely only in 1611, we can not be sure he will be heirless before his death and surely not in time for preventing his ascension. Plus bad blood between the brothers make more unlikely having some agreement between them so the heritage of the lands (and the power necessary for being elected Holy Roman Emperor or King of the Romans) will go down stricly in birth order (in OTL Maximilian favoured strongly Ferdinand’s succession and Albert had nothing against it).

If you want butterfly Matthias’s reign then is better keeping Ernest (who was the second brother) and marrying him to Isabella (with Netherlands) earlier. Let either Rudolf deciding earlier against marrying Isabella or Philip II deciding who Ernest, while quite landless, would be a better husband for Isabella than Rudolf around 1590 giving them Netherlands (OTL Philip II started to think this in 1594, here maybe will decide that a little earlier) so either Ernst will be Emperor or, if he still died before Rudolf but left sons, either of his brothers in the Church (aka Maximilian and Albert) will become Emperor (with Ernest eldest son as designated successor and elected King of the Romans as soon he will have 18 years)
 
Top