Alternate HRE Emperors?

The HRE was technically open to any member to be elected Emperor. However, the Emperorship was dominated by the Hapsburg dynasty from the 1440's to the HRE's dissolution in the early 1800s. However, what other houses could have a shot at the Emperorship? How could that help or hurt the HRE?
 
The HRE was technically open to any member to be elected Emperor. However, the Emperorship was dominated by the Hapsburg dynasty from the 1440's to the HRE's dissolution in the early 1800s. However, what other houses could have a shot at the Emperorship? How could that help or hurt the HRE?
Technically the Wittelsbachs had a shot at several times during the internal HRE conflicts. Also François de Valois-Angoulème, King of France as François Ier.
 
Sure technically it was open, but in reality only a few houses were realistic candidates. The only period, which was more open, was the period during and just after the Great Interregnum. The counts of Nassau and Holland also were elected and even Richard of Cornwall and Alfonso of Castille were elected at one point. However the Electors soon realized, that non native candidates, without a powerbase in the Empire was a mistake.
Moreover successful new dynasties with Rudolf of Habsburg and Henry of Luxembourg (with his son John of Luxembourg) managed to establish themselves amongst the other great houses in the Empire. Indeed Adolf of Nassau, which to do the same thing, when he made his move on Thuringia (and Meissen).

Another option could be a surviving and more imperial orientated house of Valois-Burgundy, or much earlier the (younger) house of Welf, though that would require them to keep most of Bavaria and Saxony. Bavaria lost Austria, Styria and Tyrol (technically also the lands of the house of Andechs and Merania), Saxony OTOH was broken a bit more drastic, perhaps a Saxony, which is broken up more like Bavaria might help a bit.

The house of Wittelsbach is an obvious choice, I'm a lot more sceptic about the real chance of king Francis of France; he was useful to drive up the bribes for the Prince-Electors, though a member from a German dynasty seems like a more obvious choice, if they don't go for Charles V, as IOTL.
 
Did Ottokar of Bohemia have a chance back in the 13th century?
Moreover, if the Przemyslid dynasty continues, could they bid for the emperorship? A czech emperor would be interesting.
 
Did Ottokar of Bohemia have a chance back in the 13th century?
Moreover, if the Przemyslid dynasty continues, could they bid for the emperorship? A czech emperor would be interesting.
I think so. Some of the opposition to Ottokar is what founded the Habsburgs in Austria.
Even if Ottokar fails to gain the Imperial Crown but maintains his territory for his heirs, the Premyslids will be an important dynasty in imperial politics.
 
Ottokar, especially after his acquisitions during the Great Interregnum, was not popular with his fellow Prince-Electors. Rudolf of Habsburg was elected as a relative nobody, since most did not want a too powerful emperor. In fact Ottokar and Rudolf fought two great struggles. In the first (1276) Rudolf was backed by all the other great houses and Ottokar had to give up Austria, Styria, Carinthia and Carniola. After which point Rudolf started to secure those lands for his dynasty. During the second struggle, which lead to the battle of Marchfeld in 1278, Rudolf solely depended on his own imperial troops supplemented with those from the Austrian lands and his own allies. This second stage was fundamental to secure those lands (Austria & Styria for the house of Habsburg and Carinthia & Carniola for the Meinhardinger (Tyrol-Görz) allies).

As for a Czech dynasty the house of Luxembourg de facto was, since Charles IV onwards.
 

Kaze

Banned
Prior to the 30 years war there are

Three ecclesiastical Electors:
The Archbishop of Mainz
The Archbishop of Trier
The Archbishop of Cologne

Four secular Electors:
The King of Bohemia
The Count Palatine of the Rhine
The Duke of Saxony
The Margrave of Brandenburg

After the 30 yrs war the electors are:

Catholic electoral votes:
The Archbishop of Mainz
The Archbishop of Trier
The Archbishop of Cologne
The King of Bohemia (Habsburg)
The Elector of Bavaria

Protestant electoral votes:
The Elector of Saxony (Catholic)
The Elector of Brandenburg, who was also King of Prussia
The Elector of Hanover, who was also King of Great Britain
--
In theory all of these could become emperor.
If each elector elected himself as emperor, the vote would be split and there would be no emperor.
But the House of Hapsburgs and House of Hohenzollern held most (1-3) of the positions of the electors - they could elect their favorite candidate, in this case the Hasburgs held the most electors.
 
Congress of Vienna from 1515 made Hungarian Jagiellons successors of Habsburg lands if House of Habsburg died out. At the time treaty was signed JMaximilian had two male-line grandsons while Hungarian Jagiellons were represented by one sick and incapable old man and retarded boy, but if Lajos was healthly and some accident happened to Charles and Ferdinand...
 
I've always been quite taken with the idea of Napoleon being elected Holy Roman Emperor by his German allies (either as a result of some peace treaty or just on the event of the premature death of Franz II/I), and adding it to his various titles.
 
A High Medieval possibility: Duke Henry X of Bavaria becomes Emperor instead of Conrad III.

Henry was the scion of the (Bavarian) House of Welf, and Conrad was the head of the (Swabian) Hohenstaufen, and father of Frederick I Barbarossa. The dispute between the Welfs and the Hohenstaufen would last for generations, until the ultimate victory of the latter in the reigns of Henry VI and Frederick II. In spite of having powerful and resourceful princes, most notably Henry the Lion, the Welfs would in the end lose their bid for power, be ousted from Bavaria, remaining as a minor dynasty in western Saxony, which will eventually form the fief of Brunswick (and, much later, Hannover).

Now, Henry X presents a very interesting possibility: he was one of the most powerful magnates of Europe in his time, having inherited Bavaria from his father and the whole of Saxony from his father-in-law, the former Emperor Lothair III, and he had also been granted the fiefs of Matilda of Canossa in Spoleto, having a sizeable foothold in Italy. His dominion was so vast that it for the first time in the HRE's history brought up the question regarding the possession of multiple duchies by a single holder, creating a precedent that would be much loved, later, by the Houses of Luxembourg and of Habsburg, whose lords held various ranked titles.

There is also the fact that butterflying away the Hohenstaufen Emperors creates a peculiar set of divergences on their own. How would the Lombard League fare against the Emperor if his family retains also the Margraviate of Tuscany and Spoleto? What will be the fate of the Kingdom of Sicily if it never goes into the HRE? And most importantly, will the Welfs have a better chance of "centralizing" the HRE into a more coherent polity due to the sheer power and influence they would have as the rulers of Bavaria and Saxony? So many questions... a TL about this would be interesting.
 
Henry the Proud wasn't elected exactly because he had two duchies (he wasn't the first to hold two btw) which scared the princes shitless, so they choose Conrad that only held (Eastern) Franconia and was the direct heir of the old Salian dynasty.

Also, the Guelphic claim to Tuscany was one of many, the Pope claimed Matilda left it to him, the Henry V claimed for himself as a reversed fief and the Tuscans claimed self-rule due to the death of their suzerain, the Guelphs would've to deal with them in the same fashion as the Staufers, results varies.
 
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