Avoiding Habsburg obsession with Hungary?

With a PoD in the 15th century, is there any way to prevent the Austrian Habsburgs from obsessing over Hungary, yet still reuniting and maintaining their hold on the Austrian ancestral lands and obtaining the Imperial and Bohemian crowns?

It seemed that in OTL, even when they had agreed on paper to accept someone else as the king of Hungary, they plotted to regain it. The Hungarians having to deal with the Ottoman Empire on their eastern borders probably didn't help either.
 

Autariates

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My idea> For this to happen you would need crusader success at Varna in 1444 so hungary can have time to gain strenght so magnates wont find Habsburgs acceptable option , meaning in the long run weak and longlasting native hungarian dynasty with prestige gained from controlling Balkans and removing Ottoman Threat from Europe .
 
Please look at the map. Anyone ruling Danubian Austria, be it Habsburgs, Babenburgs, Luxembourgs, the Race, or Alien Space Bats, with their seat of power in Vienna is going to obsess about a neighbor less than 100 miles away across a flat plain with no natural frontier lines. In this case geography is destiny.
 
When the Habsburgs intermarried with the royals of Hungary, Bohemia and Hungary were united under the same crown already. You may need a POD before that.
 
Please look at the map. Anyone ruling Danubian Austria, be it Habsburgs, Babenburgs, Luxembourgs, the Race, or Alien Space Bats, with their seat of power in Vienna is going to obsess about a neighbor less than 100 miles away across a flat plain with no natural frontier lines. In this case geography is destiny.
Good point, but what if Hungary was ruled by a different branch of the Habsburg family or something along those lines? I know that that wouldn't necessarily mean eternal peace or anything, but still.

When the Habsburgs intermarried with the royals of Hungary, Bohemia and Hungary were united under the same crown already. You may need a POD before that.
IIRC the Bohemian and Hungarian crowns were both elective at this point, and could - and did - split up at various points.
 
As long as the Ottomans are a major threat, the Habsburgs will be interested in Hungary. If the Ottoman Empire fragments before 1453, or is never able to enter Europe, than the Habsburgs might not be as interested in Hungary as other opportunities within the Empire.
 
@ Blackfox5: without the Ottoman threat the Habsburgs or any other dynasty based in Austria may even be more interested in Hungary, since then Hungary itself might be the threat.
 
As was the case during the reign of Matthias Corvinus, aye?

Here's an idea: have Matthias Corvinus have a legitimate son or have his illegitimate son be accepted as heir. That way the Jagiellons remain on Bohemia and Hungary remains independent. Then we can have Bohemia eventually end up with the Habsburgs. There you go the Habsburgs have the Imperial Crown and Bohemia and Hungary remains independent.
 
I was also thinking if we could prolong the Jaigellon dynasty in Hungary (tricky since the last Jaigellon king Louis II was killed at Mohacs). Or is it possible to have Poland-Lithuania develop an interest in Hungary instead of the Habsburgs?
 
As long as the Ottomans are a major threat, the Habsburgs will be interested in Hungary. If the Ottoman Empire fragments before 1453, or is never able to enter Europe, than the Habsburgs might not be as interested in Hungary as other opportunities within the Empire.

Yes, this is the key. Hungary was the essential buffer against the Turks. And a true buffer it was, since more than half of Hungary ended up on the Ottoman side of the Military Frontier. If the rump of Hungary isn't ruled by Habsburgs, it's only a matter of time before it's ruled by Ottomans.

Not to mention, that very Military Frontier became quite central to the Habsburgs' sense of themselves. They were the "Defenders of Christendom" - which in their case meant literally defending the border against the eastern hordes.
 
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