Ok, I've had an idea in my head for a little while.
Give me a thumbs up or down on this scenario. I'm only interested in the marriage, not the campaigns or outcome of the 7 Years war.
Is there anything that would turn this unlikely circumstance into alien space bats?
Thanks
Prince Charlie got run out of Britain and spent the next few decades drunk under Papal protection. The French had disavowed he and his father (James III and James XIII) in the peace of 1848 and most expected them to fade from history.
In the mid-stages of the 7 Years War, there was a plan for a French invasion of Britain with which the theoretical remaining Jacobites (which I suspect were more theoretical by this time given the decades oppressing the remaining Catholics and the highland clearances) would play a main part. It was unclear if putting the House of Stuart back on the throne was the intent. The Duc de Choiseul brought in the Bonnie Prince for a Pow-Wow and was not impressed. He showed up late and drunk and spent the whole time arguing with Choiseul, whom dismissed any idea of using the House of Stuart or Jacobites in their offensive. As it turned out, the Battles of Lagos and Queberon put an end to the invasion idea anyway.
I have a POD idea where Charlie never made that meeting (he was "injured riding" meaning that he fell down the stairs drunk) and sent his clever aide James Johnstone in his place. Johnstone managed to convince Choiseul that hordes of Jacobites were waiting for the House of Stuart to return in Scotland, Northern England and Ireland (this might have been true about the Irish).
Johnstone is concerned France may want to conquer Britain themselves rather than put the House of Stuart back on the throne.
Choiseul is concerned about rumors that Prince Charlie had converted to Anglicanism in hopes of being put back on the throne by the House of Hanover's enemies in Parliament.
Both agree that some measure of contract must be signed for this alliance.
In the meantime, the French navy, more by luck than design, managed to avoid meeting the British at sea and no crippling naval disasters occur in 1789, though this leads to a level of complacency as they believe that they are a match for Britain at sea (they are, in fact, not).
Choiseul talks to King Louis XV whom contacts the old "King James III" in Rome. James wants his throne back but is too old to run a Kingdom himself.
King Louis XV is outraged in 1759 when the British, having agreed to an armistice after defeat in Hanover, break the armistice on a weak legal position and reenter the war on the continent. This is more than a military setback but displayed George II's complete lack of honor. The French would never trust the British again. It had been largely assumed by all sides that George II would be given his ancestral home back in its entirety after the war, naturally for the return of all or most of the French possession lost to the British overseas.
The old French King heard of an offhand conversation between Johnstone and Choiseul discussing that a marriage might ensure the alliance. Well, the King had three unmarried daughters whom did not have any prospects. For the most part, they spent their time gossiping and bitching for more money. None was willing to accept a husband without a throne of his own. But Louis XV was tired of paying for them and had little to lose by marrying one of his spinster daughters off (and ugly by most accounts).
Would James III and Prince Charles accept one of them as the Prince's (now nearly forty) bride as a sign of faith. No one cared if it was a happy marriage. Both would get a pension for however long it lasted from Paris.
Seeing nothing to lose, James III agrees, to Charles' shock. He's heard the reputations of Louis XV's unmarried daughters. However, he also knows that this is his last shot at securing himself a throne. He therefore assures the French that his conversion to Anglicanism is an ugly rumor and is quite secure with the Papal Church and was "delighted" to marry the King's eldest unmarried daughter, Marie Adelaide, who was 28 years old.
The wedding between the Prince and the weeping "Madame" (she knew something of Charles' reputation too but her father told her to shut up and breed a couple times with the Englishman and then she could do what she wished, maybe as a Queen) took place in early 1760 after the French defeats at Mindon and Quebec as well as the surprising victories of Frederick the Great in 1759.
Is there anything missing from this scenario that would stop such a marriage?
Give me a thumbs up or down on this scenario. I'm only interested in the marriage, not the campaigns or outcome of the 7 Years war.
Is there anything that would turn this unlikely circumstance into alien space bats?
Thanks
Prince Charlie got run out of Britain and spent the next few decades drunk under Papal protection. The French had disavowed he and his father (James III and James XIII) in the peace of 1848 and most expected them to fade from history.
In the mid-stages of the 7 Years War, there was a plan for a French invasion of Britain with which the theoretical remaining Jacobites (which I suspect were more theoretical by this time given the decades oppressing the remaining Catholics and the highland clearances) would play a main part. It was unclear if putting the House of Stuart back on the throne was the intent. The Duc de Choiseul brought in the Bonnie Prince for a Pow-Wow and was not impressed. He showed up late and drunk and spent the whole time arguing with Choiseul, whom dismissed any idea of using the House of Stuart or Jacobites in their offensive. As it turned out, the Battles of Lagos and Queberon put an end to the invasion idea anyway.
I have a POD idea where Charlie never made that meeting (he was "injured riding" meaning that he fell down the stairs drunk) and sent his clever aide James Johnstone in his place. Johnstone managed to convince Choiseul that hordes of Jacobites were waiting for the House of Stuart to return in Scotland, Northern England and Ireland (this might have been true about the Irish).
Johnstone is concerned France may want to conquer Britain themselves rather than put the House of Stuart back on the throne.
Choiseul is concerned about rumors that Prince Charlie had converted to Anglicanism in hopes of being put back on the throne by the House of Hanover's enemies in Parliament.
Both agree that some measure of contract must be signed for this alliance.
In the meantime, the French navy, more by luck than design, managed to avoid meeting the British at sea and no crippling naval disasters occur in 1789, though this leads to a level of complacency as they believe that they are a match for Britain at sea (they are, in fact, not).
Choiseul talks to King Louis XV whom contacts the old "King James III" in Rome. James wants his throne back but is too old to run a Kingdom himself.
King Louis XV is outraged in 1759 when the British, having agreed to an armistice after defeat in Hanover, break the armistice on a weak legal position and reenter the war on the continent. This is more than a military setback but displayed George II's complete lack of honor. The French would never trust the British again. It had been largely assumed by all sides that George II would be given his ancestral home back in its entirety after the war, naturally for the return of all or most of the French possession lost to the British overseas.
The old French King heard of an offhand conversation between Johnstone and Choiseul discussing that a marriage might ensure the alliance. Well, the King had three unmarried daughters whom did not have any prospects. For the most part, they spent their time gossiping and bitching for more money. None was willing to accept a husband without a throne of his own. But Louis XV was tired of paying for them and had little to lose by marrying one of his spinster daughters off (and ugly by most accounts).
Would James III and Prince Charles accept one of them as the Prince's (now nearly forty) bride as a sign of faith. No one cared if it was a happy marriage. Both would get a pension for however long it lasted from Paris.
Seeing nothing to lose, James III agrees, to Charles' shock. He's heard the reputations of Louis XV's unmarried daughters. However, he also knows that this is his last shot at securing himself a throne. He therefore assures the French that his conversion to Anglicanism is an ugly rumor and is quite secure with the Papal Church and was "delighted" to marry the King's eldest unmarried daughter, Marie Adelaide, who was 28 years old.
The wedding between the Prince and the weeping "Madame" (she knew something of Charles' reputation too but her father told her to shut up and breed a couple times with the Englishman and then she could do what she wished, maybe as a Queen) took place in early 1760 after the French defeats at Mindon and Quebec as well as the surprising victories of Frederick the Great in 1759.
Is there anything missing from this scenario that would stop such a marriage?
