Challenge: Spanish rebellion against the Holy Roman Empire

Challenge: have the Spanish fight an independence war against the Holy Roman Emperor in the 16th and 17th centuries.
 
Let´s try this challenge!:

Recipe to get a spanish rebellion against the Holy Roman Empire

First, to get a spanish rebellion against the Holy Roman Empire (and not a rebellion against the spanish king who is also the Holy Roman Emperor as was the case with the Revolt of the Comuneros) you need for the Spanish kingdoms to be part of the HRE. The "Universal Monarchy" of Emperor Charles von Habsburg was a massive personal union of multiple kingdoms, duchies and counties that only had in common the fact that they had the same ruler, and that ruler was elected as Holy Roman Emperor. Also, this direct connection with the HRE ended with Charles´ abdication, when the Habsburgs Domains where divided between the Austrian and Spanish branches of the family. Here, we arrive to my first POD: The childless death of Ferdinand, brother of Emperor Charles, before the abdication. OTL, Ferdinand became Holy Roman Emperor after Charles retired and founded the "Austrian" branch of the family, getting the Empire, Austria, Bohemia and Hungary in the division of the Habsburgs Domains. He was the prinicipal obstacle against Charles´ dream to maintain all of his domains united with his son Phillip (OTL Phillip II, King of Spain) as his only heir. Without him, Charles can leave all of his titles to Phillip, so the King of Spain and the Emperor of the HRE can remain being the same person (if the fear of the Super-Habsburg Empire being permanent doesnt make the different princes change their ideas and elect a weaker emperor, or accept the bribes made by the French to select their king as emperor.).

Second, you need to get the "Casa de Austria" to still be seen as a foreign rulers who dont care about the spanish kingdoms, or at least, to not care about Castile. While Charles always had a foreign air, Phillip II and his sucessors were spaniards, and considered themselves as such. In fact, it was said that Phillip was too much spanish for the german princes of the Empire to like him (and elect him). If Charles decided to select one place as permanent capital of his domains, and that place was out of Spain, or if Phillip II were to be born and raised out of Spain (lets say, the Netherlands) you could get a second POD capable of doing just that.

Third, increase the amount of taxes, wars and centralization policies made by Charles and his heirs. If you want a revolt in Spain during the 16th and 17th centuries (and 18th and 19th centuries too) the only thing that the King needs to do is to increase taxes and military contributions of all constituent parts of the "Universal Monarchy" to pay for eternal wars that only benefit one part of it (example: Aragonese and Portuguese fighting wars that only benefit Castile, or Aragonese fighting in the Netherlands in a war that doesnt benefit Aragon´s interests at all, or Castile paying the lion´s share of such wars because nobody else wants to pay) , and trample their individual laws, rights, traditions and fueros in the process, acting like there was only one kingdom and not a personal union of different kingdoms. Trying to centralize the Habsburgs Domains/HRE and fight the Wars of Religion will do nicely to generate the conditions for a revolt.

Fourth, to guarantee the success of the revolt, match it with other revolts, wars or even get a foreign intervention at the same time. If the Empire is too occupied with the Protestants, the Dutch, the Turks, the French, the English and/or the Portuguese, it cant stop the spanish.

The next steps are optional to get a succesful rebellion, but it will help.

Fifth, get the survival of the Avis Dynasty in Portugal as another POD. With this, you get "a not that foreign" dynasty with a claim to the Spanish kingdoms for any revolt with the intention of bringing down the House of Austria. Also, you get a reason for a Portuguese intervention in the revolts. Without the Avis, the only other dynasties with a claim strong enough to compete with the Habsburgs for the Spanish Thrones are the french ones, and there isnt a local spanish family strong enough to unite everybody behind them.

Sixth, involve the Reform and Counterreform Conflict somehow, if protestantism gets support in Spain or in the Habsburg court, that can generate enough friction for a long and strong revolt. (For the Know How, just ask OTL Netherlands.)

Note: The incorporation de iure of the Spanish kingdoms to the HRE can be part of those impopular centralization measures that will contribute to the start of the Revolt. It must be remembered that while the Habsburgs where Kings of Hungary and Holy Roman Emperors until the HRE´s dissolution, they never incorporated Hungary to the Empire. So incorporating the Spanish Kingdoms to the Empire is a divergence so big that can be included as its own POD.
 
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Challenge: have the Spanish fight an independence war against the Holy Roman Emperor in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Spain never was a part of the HRE so what "independence" are you talking about?

Between 28 June 1519 and 27 August 1556 it was linked to the HRE by a personal union and until 1714 there was a personal union between the Spanish crown and Spanische Niederlande which formally had been a part of the HRE. Well, there was also Franch-Comte which was officially ceded to France in 1678.
 
Spain never was a part of the HRE so what "independence" are you talking about?

Between 28 June 1519 and 27 August 1556 it was linked to the HRE by a personal union and until 1714 there was a personal union between the Spanish crown and Spanische Niederlande which formally had been a part of the HRE. Well, there was also Franch-Comte which was officially ceded to France in 1678.
My bad, I meant a separation from the HRE by violent insurrection.
 
@Danifa94: would not be easier having Philip II dying childless before the abdication instead? With both Philip and Don Carlos dying before Charles’ abdication Spain and Burgundy would be inhereited by Charles’ eldest daughter Maria, who had married her cousin the future Emperor Maximilian II...
Add to this the survival of Juan Manuel of Portugal (son of Catherine of Austria, husband of Juana of Spain, Charles’ younger daughter, and father of OTL King Sebastian) and you have all the ingredients needed for a forced separation between Spain and HRE
 
You mean Holy Roman Emperor? It was never part of the HRE, the Kings of Spain just happened to Holy Roman Emperors or relatives of them. Charles V actually faced a rebellion and his regent was the future Pope
 
@Danifa94: would not be easier having Philip II dying childless before the abdication instead? With both Philip and Don Carlos dying before Charles’ abdication Spain and Burgundy would be inhereited by Charles’ eldest daughter Maria, who had married her cousin the future Emperor Maximilian II...
Add to this the survival of Juan Manuel of Portugal (son of Catherine of Austria, husband of Juana of Spain, Charles’ younger daughter, and father of OTL King Sebastian) and you have all the ingredients needed for a forced separation between Spain and HRE

Could be easier, but it is also more dangerous, and left us with less time to do everything needed to achieve the challenge. In that case, Maximillian II will be King-CONSORT of Spain, and the Habsburg Domains will only be joined together after his death and the death of Maria. Also there is the fact that Maximillian and Maria had a LOT of daughters and sons, so there is the possibility of another division of the Domains. The greatest difficulty of this challenge is to get the spanish kingdoms as part of the HRE, so it can get independence of it and not simply revolt against the King of Spain that is also the Holy Roman Emperor (because a revolt against the Emperor is not necessarily a revolt against the Empire itself) and for that, time is needed. I already talked about how the survival of the Avis would be useful to achieve the result asked by the challenger in another post. While I infer that you believe that Juan Manuel of Portugal is the Avis that we need, I think that King Sebastian or a son of his would be better. Juan Manuel was only ten years younger than Maximillian and Maria, so he would be dead or too old before the heir to Spain and the HRE gets enough power to try to centralize everything around him and the Empire, making all of the Habsburg Domains a de iure part of it. In fact, that "heir" would only be King of Spain after 1603, if Maria lives as long as she did in OTL. (By then her sons still alive where Rudolf who died in 1612, Matthias who died in 1619, Maximillian who died in 1618, and Albert who died in 1621. And that is without counting the daughters, who can be Queens of Spain but not reigning empresses of the HRE.)
 
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