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While planning my next TL, I have some actual ideas about a storyline concerning the creation of a restored WRE based on a surviving Visigothic Kingdom instead of the OTL Frankish-Carolingian WRE.

For a successfully surviving Visigothic Kingdom I think I need to set two premises:

1) No Muslim threat. I thought about a typical no-Islam scenario but I prefer to be more creative and I would like to introduce a PoD where the Sassanid Empire manages to crush the Byzantines around 610. A stronger and larger Sassanid Empire would be able to defeat the Arabs later, and this fact will surely prevent the expansion of Islam outside Arabia, thus becoming just a local religion. In the other way, the fall of the Byzantines will make the Pope to look for protection against the Lombards a century or so earlier than OTL. Considering that the Franks were divided at the early 7th century and unable to provide effective protection, the Pope might look for an alliance with the Visigoths instead.

2) The Visigothic Kingdom must be politically stable. An additional PoD to be introduced should be the transition from an elective monarchy to a dynastic one, where the number and influence of noblesmen would be significantly reduced and the bishops would lack of political power. The continued fights and murders between the last Visigothic Kings doomed the fate of the Kingdom IOTL.

So, if the Visigothic Kingdom manages to be a relatively stable and strong entity by the time when the Pope needs help against the Lombards (in this case, during the first half of the 7th century due to the anticipated fall of the Byzantine power), an alliance between the Visigoths and the Papacy could be triggered. Then, it's possible to introduce a Visigoth equivalent of Charlemagne that could defeat the Lombards, and the Pope could offer him the Imperial crown in the same way. In this case, without any controversy, as long as the ERE does not survive and there is not an alternate Emperor.

A Visigothic-based WRE would be for sure very different from the OTL Frankish one. It would be not as Germanic-focused as long as it will pivot mostly on the union of Spain and Italy. Italy will be more politically unified from the beginning once the Lombards are evicted and if there are not Germanic or Byzantine interferences. And probably the Visigothic Emperor will reside in Rome itself, with some sort of vice-kings of his own dynasty ruling in Spain. This could mean some political infight for power though.

If this Visigothic WRE manages to succeed, some kind of expansion is possible during the following centuries. A sort of 'colonization' of the North African coastline from Tanger to Carthage is likely I think. And a continued fight against the Franks for the control of the 'land bridge' between the Visigothic Septimania and Liguria is pretty predictable. It would be interesting to explore the effects of such Visigothic WRE over the Southern Gaul.

As you know, I'm quite ambitious with my TLs, so I would surely think about a further expansion to the East once the WRE would have consolidated (probably not before the 11th century). If the Sassanid Empire (of its successor) keeps on ruling the Eastern part of the Mediterranean, there are two possibilities: either the Empire tries to gradually impose the Zoroastrian religion to move Christianism slowly out (in a similar mood of the OTL Arab Caliphate) or maybe the Empire will finally embrace one of the Christian branches. Personally, I think the last option is more likely. However, it's quite sure that they will not opt for a Christian church linked to the Roman authority.

Considering that in this scenario there is not Eastern Schism and there are probably not iconoclastic movements (because there is not ERE), it's possible that some Eastern Christian communities would remain loyal to the Roman church, especially in the Balkans and Greece. So it's not unlikely that they would seek for the protection of the WRE against the Sassanids. But I need to think more about these later developments.

Well, any suggestion about these premises will be more than welcome :D
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