Okay according to author's profile he isn't considering this TL on pernament hiatus. If he does chose to continue i offer some suggestions to that end. Firstly the POD: During that time to have a shot at the title of king of Poland you had to have some claim to it (and whether you had one depended solely on your family ties more specifically the ties you had to the royal family). The free for all election came later with the introduction of Articuli Henriciani and Pacta Conventa. Luther not only didnt have the nessesary qualifications, even if he did he still couldnt make any claims since his vows as grand master prevented his from doing so. There are a few changes to the POD that could achieve same results and make them more propable.
The local duke Ziemowit is chosen as king and marries Hedwig of Anjou (he was eligible for kingship since he was a Piast decendand). Jagiełło entered the race late and there was a pretty good chance of Ziemowit winning. To do that he either needs to kidnap the princess during her visit to Poland and marry her (such a thing was not uncommon at the time so he would get away with it) or make peace with his opposition in lesser poland. He does either and gets the throne and then continues the recovery of lands once held by Poland but lost after its fragmentation. Then come the hussite wars. Now IRL the Czech crown was offered to Władysław II Jagiełło in return for support (so there is a good chance they make the same offer to Ziemowit ITTL). Now that offer was unrealistic due to the existance of the teutonic order. Should Poland try to help hussites there was a good chance of teutons attacking poles from the north. So we need the order butterflied away. The simplest way would be to make Przemysł II chose not to invite the order. Truth be told teutons were not really needed there in the first place. Several knights under Przemysł formed a sucesfull defence against the prussian tribes and there was no reason to think they would falter. Przemysł II however feared their growing influence and so decided to scrap their defence and instead outsource to the teutons. No Teutonic Order would mean Lithuania propably gets Prussia but even with that buff lithuanians wouldnt pose the same threat as the order. Plus Lithuania wouldnt hold prussian lands for long anyway since Ziemowits first goal after becoming king would be securing danzig and its nearest lands. The other option would be making teutons stay in Hungary. There is a fairly good discussion about such a scenario called teutons in transylwania on this site if you want to go in that direction. Okay back to Ziemowit. He stands with the czechs and wins so there is no reason to change that part. Commonwealth (not to mistake with polish lithuanian one) gets established and Ziemowit spends his remaining years trying to bind the two regions together. One problem i forsee in such union would be geological. The only real connetion (mountains excluded) between Bohemia and Poland landwise is the so called moravian gate. Its small so it could slow down integration and trade. On the other hand you have the hussitic church that could speed things along (converting the king to hussitic faith would be the condition for the crown, so the faith would become the official faith inside the country) so it may go either way. If you wanted to improve the chances make Ziemowit produce sons and then grandsons so there is no election to create instability. In such a world Zapadoslavia (calling it the commonwealth of bohemia and poland is too much of a hanful for me) would propably replace Germany of our world. The land of Germany would most likely be divided between the french, danes, austrians and zapadoslavians. If anyone forms Germany it would be the austrians and its borders would propably match the austro hungarian empire more then irl Germany anyway. Okay back to Zapadoslavia. The best way to ensure that such a state thrives instead of falling apart is to get them their slice of trade between China and Europe. You can do that by either making Zapadoslavia expand into the baltic sea and building a navy worth its salt (in other words make the baltic their Mare Nostrum) or secure trade by land (that would require getting rid of the ottomans who blocked that trade). So either a militaristic nation similar to IRL germany or a sea fearing nation operating mainly in the baltic (though a colony or two wouldnt be impossible). Lithuania would propably convert to orthodox since the conversion to catholic faith is no longer possible without teutons or poles. Lithuania gets closer and closer to Russia till it is culturaly indistinct from Moscovy. The lithuanian culture was undeveloped and many nobles in lithuania chose to adopt russian culture instead. Thats why jagiello wanted to convert (at least its one of the reasons since that decision brought him many benefits) to make lithuanian culture more distinct and seperate it from russian culture. Since that doesnt happen lithuanians "russify". Then you get the brothers war between lithuania and moscovy and one eats the other. Either way the winner forms Russia and then proceeds to try to dismantle Zapadoslavia though whether the suceed is another matter.
The local duke Ziemowit is chosen as king and marries Hedwig of Anjou (he was eligible for kingship since he was a Piast decendand). Jagiełło entered the race late and there was a pretty good chance of Ziemowit winning. To do that he either needs to kidnap the princess during her visit to Poland and marry her (such a thing was not uncommon at the time so he would get away with it) or make peace with his opposition in lesser poland. He does either and gets the throne and then continues the recovery of lands once held by Poland but lost after its fragmentation. Then come the hussite wars. Now IRL the Czech crown was offered to Władysław II Jagiełło in return for support (so there is a good chance they make the same offer to Ziemowit ITTL). Now that offer was unrealistic due to the existance of the teutonic order. Should Poland try to help hussites there was a good chance of teutons attacking poles from the north. So we need the order butterflied away. The simplest way would be to make Przemysł II chose not to invite the order. Truth be told teutons were not really needed there in the first place. Several knights under Przemysł formed a sucesfull defence against the prussian tribes and there was no reason to think they would falter. Przemysł II however feared their growing influence and so decided to scrap their defence and instead outsource to the teutons. No Teutonic Order would mean Lithuania propably gets Prussia but even with that buff lithuanians wouldnt pose the same threat as the order. Plus Lithuania wouldnt hold prussian lands for long anyway since Ziemowits first goal after becoming king would be securing danzig and its nearest lands. The other option would be making teutons stay in Hungary. There is a fairly good discussion about such a scenario called teutons in transylwania on this site if you want to go in that direction. Okay back to Ziemowit. He stands with the czechs and wins so there is no reason to change that part. Commonwealth (not to mistake with polish lithuanian one) gets established and Ziemowit spends his remaining years trying to bind the two regions together. One problem i forsee in such union would be geological. The only real connetion (mountains excluded) between Bohemia and Poland landwise is the so called moravian gate. Its small so it could slow down integration and trade. On the other hand you have the hussitic church that could speed things along (converting the king to hussitic faith would be the condition for the crown, so the faith would become the official faith inside the country) so it may go either way. If you wanted to improve the chances make Ziemowit produce sons and then grandsons so there is no election to create instability. In such a world Zapadoslavia (calling it the commonwealth of bohemia and poland is too much of a hanful for me) would propably replace Germany of our world. The land of Germany would most likely be divided between the french, danes, austrians and zapadoslavians. If anyone forms Germany it would be the austrians and its borders would propably match the austro hungarian empire more then irl Germany anyway. Okay back to Zapadoslavia. The best way to ensure that such a state thrives instead of falling apart is to get them their slice of trade between China and Europe. You can do that by either making Zapadoslavia expand into the baltic sea and building a navy worth its salt (in other words make the baltic their Mare Nostrum) or secure trade by land (that would require getting rid of the ottomans who blocked that trade). So either a militaristic nation similar to IRL germany or a sea fearing nation operating mainly in the baltic (though a colony or two wouldnt be impossible). Lithuania would propably convert to orthodox since the conversion to catholic faith is no longer possible without teutons or poles. Lithuania gets closer and closer to Russia till it is culturaly indistinct from Moscovy. The lithuanian culture was undeveloped and many nobles in lithuania chose to adopt russian culture instead. Thats why jagiello wanted to convert (at least its one of the reasons since that decision brought him many benefits) to make lithuanian culture more distinct and seperate it from russian culture. Since that doesnt happen lithuanians "russify". Then you get the brothers war between lithuania and moscovy and one eats the other. Either way the winner forms Russia and then proceeds to try to dismantle Zapadoslavia though whether the suceed is another matter.
Last edited: