Challenge: "King of France", you say?

Remember how English monarchs kept their claim to the French throne after the 100 Years' War and kept it until, what, 1801? Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to turn that claim into reality by the present day with a POD no earlier than the death of Henry VIII.
 
Well, I had this idea once that if the French throne was up for grabs during France's less stable and centralized phases, an HRE-like system is set up where members of 'France' vote for the next King. Get England into such a system, and you'll probably see the King of England getting the French throne a few times.
 
Well, I had this idea once that if the French throne was up for grabs during France's less stable and centralized phases, an HRE-like system is set up where members of 'France' vote for the next King. Get England into such a system, and you'll probably see the King of England getting the French throne a few times.
Of course, one could argue that it was too late for that by Henry VIII's death...
 
James II puts down the "glorious revolution", divests the crown of the title "defender of the Faith", agrees to emancipation of both Catholics and Protestants, plus a few more royal deaths in France from small pox in the early 1700's and then James would have a decent claim to make for the French crown. Unlikely, but AH doesn't have to be likely.
 
Remember how English monarchs kept their claim to the French throne after the 100 Years' War and kept it until, what, 1801? Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to turn that claim into reality by the present day with a POD no earlier than the death of Henry VIII.
Easy. During the French Revolution, the Royals are somehow prevented from escaping (border guards turning revolutionary?) and the whole Bourbon line is slaughtered at the guillotine by 1795.
After the Reaction, Napoleon rises, runs, and falls. In the postwar settlement, the powers decide to carve up France to prevent it from ever becoming a power again in its own right, maybe because Napoleon does more damage ITTL.
Aquitaine is made its own Kingdom, with a collateral Bourbon line ruling. Burgundy-Arelat is made a holding of the Savoys, in conjunction with Piedmont and Sardinia. Northern and Central France becomes directly administered by the British King as a separate dominion, like Hanover. George III becomes King of Great Britain and Ireland, of France, and of Hanover.
 
Of course, one could argue that it was too late for that by Henry VIII's death...

Oh, missed that. Well, IOTL the Hundred's Year War was a uniting factor among the French states. So if we could make it a dividing factor instead, we might see France becoming incredibly decentralized.
 
Oh, missed that. Well, IOTL the Hundred's Year War was a uniting factor among the French states. So if we could make it a dividing factor instead, we might see France becoming incredibly decentralized.

Hoodbhoy said "no earlier than", and while my history may not be perfect... ;)
 
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