An Irish Pope or AHC: Pope Lukas Widding

Lukas Widding (1588-1657) has been called the closest an Irishman ever got to doing Pope. A Franciscan friar, Widding was born in Waterford into the family of wealth merchants. He attended university of Portugal, joined the Franciscan order and went on to have a career which would see him serve as the chaplain to the Spanish Ambassador to the Papal States, helped establish the College of St. Isidore in Rome for the training of Irish priests and would serve as rector. A Historian, he also wrote a long history of the Franciscan writer and created a bibliography of important Franciscan writers.

Despite not setting foot in Ireland, he would continue to support his home and was instrumental in getting Pope Urban VIII to support the Irish Confederation during the English Civil Wars. He also worked to get St. Patrick's Day recognized as an official feast day.

Widding was well thought of - so much so that friends created petitions to encourage him being named the Cardinal of Ireland. However, the Friar was less than excited by this notion and successfully managed to intercept the petitions and hide them, saving him from the tragedy of being a Cardinal. He also received votes in the Papal Conclaves of 1644 and 1655.

Now, during this time, the papacy was being contested between the forces of Spain and Spain. In OTL, the Papal Conclave of 1644 would see the ascension of Pope Innocent X.

Lets say that the election drags on and Widding ends up as a compromise candidate (he had some relations with Spain already, and many Irish nobles settled in France after the Flight of the Earls and were well represented in that nation's government and army). Just to be stereotypical, he takes the name Pope Patrick I (or, I suppose, Francis I might also be possible).

How does Pope Patrick deal with the English Civil War, conflicts with Parma and corruption in the French church (all issues that Innocent X dealt with).
 
Bumping this, because with a group as large and varied as ours, there has to be some folk who know about the 17th century papacy.
 
The pope being Irish might have an interesting effect on the ECW. Henriette Marie was accused of proselytizing at court. Nobles did convert IIRC. It's one thing for an Englishman to have the same religion as the Irish, it's another thing to have the pope be Irish. It might actually cause a bunch of the English converts to "backslide" and end up back part in the Anglican Church. IDK if this is likely or not, though.

He supported an Irish confederation, so he might go, once they've beheaded Charles I (IMHO, they had even less reason to do so than Louis XVI - but that's a whole different discussion), well, the crown of Ireland is "vacant" and recognize Charles II as king - which I'd imagine, a bunch of Catholic Irish, despite perhaps preferring the independence idea, would probably back, just because popey says so - which could actually have poor effects on his Restoration prospects ("you want Charles Stuart? The son of a tyrant, who is recognized only by a bunch of rowdy Scots and potato eating papists in Ireland"). The whole 30YW thing means that there aren't really princes in Europe with the manpower or freedom to become king of Ireland (the duke of Lorraine was offered the crown, but later decided against it), but Widding might shop around some (I'm guessing he wasn't a fan of the whole Catholic persecution in Ireland - why he left and studied abroad - so he might be anti-English/Stuart, depending).

Speaking of the 30YW, Widding is unlikely to go all Innocent X and declare that the Treaty of Westphalia isn't worth the paper it was written on (Innocent declared it "null, void, worthless, treacherous..." etc). I'm not sure if Widding is more of a reconciliationist - I'll leave the Protestants alone if they leave us alone - or some Hellfire Catholic bent on exterminating the Protestants, though.
 
The whole 30YW thing means that there aren't really princes in Europe with the manpower or freedom to become king of Ireland (the duke of Lorraine was offered the crown, but later decided against it), but Widding might shop around some (I'm guessing he wasn't a fan of the whole Catholic persecution in Ireland - why he left and studied abroad - so he might be anti-English/Stuart, depending).
Hugo Eugenio O'Neill would be a logical choice for King of Ireland if the Spanish are willing to support it, he was the grandson of Hugh O'Neill and recognised as the Count of Tyrone by Philip IV of Spain. Owen Roe O'Neill could be another good choice, being the best of the Irish Confederate generals (along with Hugh Dubh O'Neill) and one of the most anti-Stuart confederates.
 
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