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I've read a few discussions on the Treaty of Verdun in 843. There's been some interesting threads about it, but- as I've been on a bit of a roll looking at interesting things to start writing on. My original PoD was in 1003 with an alternate discovery of America by the Norse, but I think that's still reasonably possible if I go a bit further back on an earlier PoD.

So, I was looking at the ol' Carolingian Empire and I'm sure you're all familiar with the link. The Treaty of Verdun is a really interesting event that at the time was just sort of standard Frankish practice of realm inheritance, but it seems like it had huge effects (dare I say, butterflies) over Europe in the future. The divisions of the Empire didn't exactly set the future in stone, but it definitely had an influence over some of the divisions that would occur in the future.

So my question is two part: is there an alternate resolution to the Treaty of Verdun where we could see a different partition of the Empire? Secondly, is there a PoD earlier- can be fictional (say Louis the Pious has a few more sons, a few less) with an alternate resolution to future partition?

I've come up with two scenarios, just from my brief re-reading of the history (I'd ofc been exposed to it several times before, but just remembered it now). Any input, links to other TLs or PoDs and criticism would be welcome:

-Charles is left with lands different than the ones he inherited: wiki mentions the Meuse and Pyrenees, or Alemmania. This could set the stage for a more southernly-partition of the Empire (which might not affect borders, but ends to the war).

- Peppin does not die before the partition leaving him in control of Aquetine, which could shift part of the partition southwards which would have serious consequences for whatever realm Charles ends up with and with the end of the Civil War amongst Louis' successors.

I imagine, depending on how far I want to go with the fiction (but it's an interest conjecture nonetheless), there's the potential to- in the future, have a partition that separates the Empire into one oriented around OTL Beneleux-Northern France, Occitania-Rump Hispania-Italy and a North / South division east of the Rhineland. There's also the potential to graft additional parts of land to either Germany or France, or even end up with a more concentrated Middle Kingdom separating Germany/France, lacking Italy.

O: lots of potential.
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