Combining the French and Spanish thrones

scholar

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The Glorious Revolution Backfires, Louis XIV wins the first war and secures the promise of Spanish succession, Louis declares war on the Dutch and William of Orange drags England into another war. In spite of revolutionary financial means of handling debt, the crown still defaults. The nobles had had enough, William has lost popularity, the Queen dies without issue, Scotland outwardly declares they are going to pick up the Catholic Stuart Monarchy, and when France inherits Spain's massive empire England finally caves to the French candidate and largely hailed legitimate heir to the English throne.

As a consequence of having France become the "Russia of the West" as someone put it, France and the United Kingdom also become allies as the Sun King and the Catholic Stuarts are both relatives and deeply connected personally. This may fall by the way side later on, but for the first generation or two there is Peace in the West. This is also a situation that may well save the Spanish colonies in Latin America as French administration kicks in and Spain is revitalized as a part of France. Louis is hailed as the new Charlemagne and may promptly take the title of Augustus or Emperor, depending on his fancy, with the blessings of the Pope.
 
Well, France had 20 million and Spain 8 million.


Italy had more people than Spain and Spain conquer the country...till the Pope had to see the Spanish - Imperial Power in Rome...The Spanish Power in Italy came from Sicily to Genoa or Lombardy... and you forgett Ottomans... conquered Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Albania, Egypt etc etc...
But in France, Spanish Armies were in North, South, East and West... from Paris (The Spanish Tercios were in Paris from 1590 to 1592)...to Normandy...

And Wars, my friend.. and wars...

But if you conquer the country, you can break the Salic Law, I think.

You are right, the famous phrase Alii bella gerunt, tu felix Austria nube. Both Austria - Hungary Empire and Spanish Low Countries came from marriages (and the union between Castilla and Aragon.. but not Navarre, conquered by the Catholic King to the Frenchmen). And not Italy.. The Spanish Dominions in Italy came from War. (Aragon/Spain).
Yes about XVI Century. but not the rest of your phrase
Why French? Because are better than Spaniards? They didn´t show that in Pavia...or in Genoa...or in Saint Quentin...or in Garegliano or in Sicily or in Bicocca or in Landriano...No French.. or Spanish or nobody.. if The Spanish infantry beat the French Heavy Cavalry in Cerignola, the German Black strip mercenaries or the famous Swiss... Why a French? Not French. A Spanish Blodd Habsburg, of course!
Exactly, the French-Spanish rivalry came from a Aragonese and Burgundian heritage. The wars between Spain and French begun in XV century and finished in 1814.

Please, lets's not go down to nationalist caricature.

This is not about one nation being better than an other. It's about what the world was at the time and how it worked. States and countries were getting stronger with more obvions and more asserted national identities.

There was an age for conquest and possible integration of a region or a country by another and there was an age when this was too late because the communication meant were stronger and enabled stronger national self-concsiousness and even nation-building.

France and England were the most ancient centralized States and the most asserted identified. They were big enough to be too big to swallow.

It was too late in the 15th century for such big pieces to be swallowed.

Italy was not then a single country but a network of small of medium size principalities divided against each other.
 
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