An Empress for an Empire

Who might be a good candidate for a wife of Josef I's son? This can be a surviving Leopold Josef (b1700), or Maria Amalie is born a boy. IIRC Empress Wilhelmine caught syphilis from Josef I, leading to no further children. Also, Empress-Dowager Eleonore personally chose Wilhelmine for a daughter-in-law as a way of continuing her political influence. Might Wilhelmine pplay the same game?
 
It is funny I thought you were talking about Charles VI at first as he had a son named Leopold that died too.

It is no secret Frederick William I of Prussia wanted a marriage alliance with the Habsburgs so he would offer Wilhelmine as a match. She would have to convert but Frederick William would make that happen. Frederick the Great and Wilhelmine were close so this would greatly change history.

Augustus the Strong only has illegitimate daughters of the right ages. I did not see any Wittelsbach of the right age. Same with Savoy.

I doubt a Bourbon match would even be considered with the Spanish Succession fallout. Though a living son of Joseph could send Charles Habsburg to at least the throne of Aragon if not all of Spain.

George II of UK and Hanover has Anne or Amelia who might work age wise. Though I think the convert to Catholic would stop this.
 
I was looking for princesses lying around in the 1700s that weren't French or from pro-French families, but I don't know how many of them would do for an empress.

1. Francisca Josefa of Portugal (b.1699)
2. Anna Charlotte Amalie of Nassau-Dietz (.1710), OTL Erbprinzessin of Baden-Durlach
3. Auguste Johanna of Baden-Baden (.1706), OTL duchesse d'Orleans (but who's parents were both staunch supporters of the emperor)
4. Theodora of Hesse-Darmstadt (.1706) daughter of the Viceroy of Milan and his Belgian Catholic wife, OTL duchess of Guastalla
5. Polyxene Christine of Hesse-Rheinfels-Rothenburg (.1706), OTL princess of Carignan
6. Wilhelmine Sophie of Hesse-Kassel (.1695)
7. Anne of Hannover (.1709) OTL princess of Orange
8. Amalie of Hannover (.1711) OTL one time fiancee of Friedrich the Great
9. Wilhelmine of Prussia (.1709) OTL Margravine of Bayreuth
10. Henriette of Brandenburg-Schwedt (.1702) OTL Erbprinzessin of Wurttemberg
11. Anna Sophie Charlotte of Brandenburg-Schwedt (.1706) OTL duchess of Saxe-Eisenach
12. Luise Wilhelmine of Brandenburg-Schwedt (.1709)
13. Charlotte Amalie of Denmark (.1706), Josef I had originally been proposed as husband to her aunt Sophie Hedwig (who had also been betrothed abortively to Carl XII and to Johann George III of Saxony)
14. Carolina Sobieska (.1697) OTL duchesse de Bouillon (a match arranged by Karl VI)
15. Clementina Sobieska (.1702) OTL wife of James Francis Edward Stuart

And the only Italian princesses I can find are d'Estes - Amalia Giuseppina (b.1699) and Enrichetta (b.1702), as well as Elisabeth Therese (b.1711) and Anne Charlotte of Lorraine (.1714)

Besides these last four, the Sobieskas, Theodora, Polyxene and Auguste, every one of these would have to convert which they might refuse to.
Likewise Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia would more likely marry his cousins, the Schwedt princesses to the Hapsburgs, than his daughter. One of his big fears was that he wasn't one of the elect and would thus burn in Hell, so he might not want to let his daughter betray the protestant religion by marrying a Catholic. Also, he stamped on Friedrich the Great's plan to marry Maria Theresia (a Catholic) and Anna Leopoldovna (an Orthodox)
 
How many of those meet the Equal Marriage* requirements of marrying a Habsburg?

Does the Brandenburg-Schwedt House even have Imperial Immediacy? If not then that would be marrying a vassal. That is definitely outside Equal Marriage requirements.

Wouldn't the Sobieska lady's be in the same situation that Duchess Sophie of Hohenberg was in. Even in the late 19th century her marriage was considered only morganatic.

*Sovereign reigning dynasty (even small places like Parma counted as the Farnese could marry anyone) or if in the Holy Roman Empire a family with Imperial Immediacy and voting rights in the Imperial Diet.
 
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AFAIK Schwedt was simply a cadet branch of the house of Brandenburg, since Wurttemberg, Prussia Sweden, Denmark and Hesse-Kassel would not have acknowledged the children of Friedrich II Eugen (Wurttemberg) or Ferdinand August (Prussia) as anything more than maybe furst or graf, but they were not, since Friedrich II Eugen's daughter was married to HRE Franz II and Czar Pavel of Russia; and Ferdinand's daughter Luise was considered by Juliane of Brunswick as future queen of Denmark; and also for duchess of York. While Philippine, landgravine of Kassel was originally Luise Ulrike of Prussia's favorite for queen of Sweden.

I'm not too sure about the Sobieskis, though. Since neither England nor France have the concept of morganatic marriage.
 
The Sobieskis qualify for equal marriage status since one of the older Sobieski girls, Marie Casimire, was originally put forward as a possible wife for Carl XII; and Karl Albrecht of Bavaria inherited the Bavarian title without a problem, and his mother was Tereza Sobieska
 
No one really cared too much about rank other than Habsburgs. The Brandenburg-Schwedt House does not have Imperial Immediacy according to these two sites:

http://www.mindserpent.com/American...tor/constitution_of_the_holy_roman_empire.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg-Schwedt

However, I cannot say either are that great of source.

The Sobieska are not a ruling family so that strikes me as an instant disqualification. Though, I could be wrong.

Hesse-Rheinfels-Rothenburg and Nassau-Dietz also appear to be over inferior rank being just Counts. Coming from an old noble family is not enough for a Habsburg as Franz Ferdinand found out. His wife would of been fine marrying a British royal but was not high enough status for a Habsburg.

Lastly, d'Este family is probably the safest bet in the whole list being catholic and from an old ruling family.
 
The Nassaus were good enough for the Habsburg a hundred years later I.e Henriette of Nassau (wife of Duke Karl II of Teschen), so why not then? They can boast a Holy Roman Emperor in the family (Adolf of Nassau) and while they MAY only be counts, they have connections to some of the premier Electoral families (Pfalz, Prussia, Hannover).

Secondly, Sophie, Archduchess Franz Ferdinand might have been able to marry a British royal because morganatic marriages don't exist in Anglican canon law. Queen Mary of Teck tried to get Stanley Baldwin to propose such a marriage if Edward VIII married Wallis Simpson.

Thirdly, the Hesses come from the line of the House of Brabant (descending from the kingdom of Lotharingia), which means that like the Nassaus they can boast a HRE in the family, albeit much further back.

And as the Sobieskis not being from a reigning family is concerned, that would render Emperor Karl I's marriage to Zita of Parma, his father's marriage to Maria Teresa of Braganza, and Archduchess Margarethe's marriage to the Prince of Thurn und Taxis invalid, MOST importantly Franz Josef's marriage to Sisi was invalidated by her not being from a reigning house (her paternal grandmother was Amelie of Arenburg (a non-dynastic marriage)).
 
Zita of Parma worked causes the rules changed after German mediatization (1795-1814). Families that formerly reigned but lost their titles were considered valid. Therefore, though Parma was now part of Italy their family was still considered a ruling House. Maria Teresa of Braganza was more of a political thing (though again you can argue the changed rules helped her), technically she was the daughter of the King of Portugal, even if he was no longer King. Thurn und Taxis held Imperial Immediacy so that marriage is fine. You can be a count you just need Imperial Immediacy. Though I still think the Sobieskis would be below an equal marriage, if the Habsburg's wanted to play politics to make a play for the Kingdom of Poland then a marriage to one of the two sisters would work (would also make the upcoming Polish Succession War very interesting). However, you would definitely alienate Saxony in the process.

Argh... I should of looked up Anna Charlotte Amalie Nassau-Dietz, instead of just her house name (which had died out and been restarted multiple times). As a Orange-Nassau she is fine, in fact strengthening the bond with a Mercantile Nation (England or Netherlands) as the Habsburg looked at things would be a huge win. It also might help Austria keep Naples & Sicily during the Polish Succession. The junior branches of the family would be on the outs but the main family in the Otto and Walram lines are fine.

House of Hesse is complicated, I am not sure if I even got this right. They divided up the Hesse-Kassel into multiple branches, but without Allodial title. So, it sounds like the families had some sort of internal agreement. Hesse-Kassel has Imperial Immediacy and is fine. I believe Hesse-Darmstadt did as well (not sure, if she does not then she will not work). Hesse-Rheinfels does not, but it also does not technically exist either. I guess if they wanted to make it work, Polyxene Christine would marry as Hesse-Kassel and all would be good.
 
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The Hapsburgs had done it before where they'd contracted a double marriage in order to gain a kingdom, so here you could let Leopold marry one of the Sobieska girls, and let one of his sisters marry their brother, Jan (1698-99) a la Ferdinand I and Mary of Hungary to Louis II and Anna Jagiellonika. However, both Sobieskas only had TWO children, which isn't gonna help the Hapsburg cause any, since if a younger son goes into the church, and the elder dies without issue you're gonna have a War of the Austrian succession albeit later.

Polyxene and her sister, Christine both did relatively okay in their childbirthing (5 and 9 respectivelyy), so perhaps one of them. Since if they have the same amount of kids with the same boy-girl ratio your looking at enough archdukes (if sons 2 & 3 survive) to not cause too many problems, plus enough archduchesses to marry where necessity demands.

Amalia Giuseppina and Enrichetta both remained childless, but I'm not sure if this is due to the comparatively late age at which they married (Enrichetta was 26, in an age where royal girls married ten years younger) or disinterest on the part of either spouse. There were rumors Enrichetta was pregnant when her husband died, but on a first exam (Jan-July 1731) there was no confirmation of pregnancy, but a second exam (july 1731) said she WAS seven months pregnant, however a third exam in september ordered by Isabel Farnese found no evidence of either a child/recent pregnancy.

Theodora of Hesse-Darmstadt would be an interesting dark horse. Like Whilhelmine she was a Catholic scion of a Protestant house. She was likewise childless but that could be due to the fact that she was barely married two years (proxy wedding was 29.7.1727 in Vienna-19.4.1729 her husband died). Or her husband and his brother were both rumored to be retarded ergo perhaps incapable of fathering a child.
 
I realize the Hapsburgs would never like the French Bouurbons, marry someone like Marie Leszczynska, but just to make it more interesting, Rakoczi II Ferenc, rebel king of Hungary, had a daughter, Sarolta. To let Sarolta (Charlotte in German, I think) marry Leopold, might be a way of pacifying Hungary and maybe bring KuK union in place earlier?
 
I doubt ANYONE would see Rakoczi Sarolta as an anywhere near fitting match for an emperor. Also, how would that marriage work? Were the Rakoczi's even princes with imperial immediacy or however it worked?

Maybe if Sarolta had been descended from an earlier Rakoczi, the one who married Henriëtte von der Pfalz, daughter of the king of Bohemia, who held the title of prince of Siebenbeurgen. Though, Rakoczi throne (Transylvania) IIRC was elective, much like the stadtholderate in the United Provinces, so would he even count as royal versus aristocratic?
 
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