Habsburg Russia?

There's actually a relatively easy way to do this. Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna (eldest daughter of Emperor Paul) was married to a fourth son of the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold II. There was a very real fear when she was pregnant that the baby would be a boy, and lead the secession of Hungary from the Austrian monarchy (since Alexandra and her hubby were very popular in Hungary, more so than the emperor and empress). However, unfortunately (or fortunately) the baby was a girl, named Alexandrine, but neither child nor the mother survived the birth.

Let Alexandrine be born as Archduke Josef Alexander, and survive; then somehow kill of Grand Dukes Nikolai and Mikhail before they can have children, and bam! the nearest legitimate heir to the Russian Empire when Alexander I or Constantine I dies is an Austrian archduke.

That's nifty. But here's the question: under the succession law of the Emperor Paul that excluded women from the throne of Russia, could the throne still be passed down through the female line to male heirs?

It's weird how the succession law works here, by the way. On one hand, it formalizes things to the point where it's not merely a matter of "the army says I win!" and thus the otherwise unthinkable event of the throne passing to a foreign prince becomes possible. However, if it restricts the succession to the male heirs of the male lines, then it does not work to produce your hat trick.
 
There's actually a relatively easy way to do this. Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna (eldest daughter of Emperor Paul) was married to a fourth son of the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold II. There was a very real fear when she was pregnant that the baby would be a boy, and lead the secession of Hungary from the Austrian monarchy (since Alexandra and her hubby were very popular in Hungary, more so than the emperor and empress). However, unfortunately (or fortunately) the baby was a girl, named Alexandrine, but neither child nor the mother survived the birth.

Let Alexandrine be born as Archduke Josef Alexander, and survive; then somehow kill of Grand Dukes Nikolai and Mikhail before they can have children, and bam! the nearest legitimate heir to the Russian Empire when Alexander I or Constantine I dies is an Austrian archduke.

Do you have any sources for that? Hungary successfully seceeding from Austria under a Hapsburg cadet branch would be a very interesting TL in itself.
 
Do you have any sources for that? Hungary successfully seceeding from Austria under a Hapsburg cadet branch would be a very interesting TL in itself.

It's also not under the realm of impossibility. I could see it happening depending on the emperor who would maintain an allied status with a Habsburg Hungary controlled by a cousin/brother and then not having to bother with the Hungarian demands in 1848.

But as for a Habsburg Russia, I can think of one way that's fairly easy, Peter II and his sister Natalia were the first cousins of Empress Maria Theresa (through their mothers who were sisters)- if Peter or Natalia live to have children I can easily see them intermarrying with the Austrian cousins since that was the Habsburg way.
 
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But as for a Habsburg Russia, I can think of one way that's fairly easy, Peter II and his sister Natalia were the first cousins of Empress Maria Theresa (through their sisters)- if Peter or Natalia live to have children I can easily see them intermarrying with the Austrian cousins since that was the Habsburg way.

The problem with that is that Peter and Natalia were the same age as Maria Theresa, so there weren't any Habsburg OR Habsburg-Lorraine princes for Natalia to marry. Peter could marry MT or Maria Anna, but that would just join Austria to Russia rather than the other way round.
 
The problem with that is that Peter and Natalia were the same age as Maria Theresa, so there weren't any Habsburg OR Habsburg-Lorraine princes for Natalia to marry. Peter could marry MT or Maria Anna, but that would just join Austria to Russia rather than the other way round.

Sorry, what I mean what was that if Peter and Natalia's deaths were butterflied away and they both had children I can see those CHILDREN intermarrying with the large Lorraine-Habsburg brood (and could lead to a lasting Austrian-Russian alliance).
 
Sorry, what I mean what was that if Peter and Natalia's deaths were butterflied away and they both had children I can see those CHILDREN intermarrying with the large Lorraine-Habsburg brood (and could lead to a lasting Austrian-Russian alliance).

Oh right, that makes sense.
 
It's also not under the realm of impossibility. I could see it happening depending on the emperor who would maintain an allied status with a Habsburg Hungary controlled by a cousin/brother and then not having to bother with the Hungarian demands in 1848.
Actually the Habsburgs were horrified at the idea of losing Hungary, especially considering how hard they had fought to get Hungary in the first place. Another would have been how shabbily they (particularly the jealous empress) had treated the Grand Duchess in Vienna and how popular she was with the Hungarians (think as popular as Sissi later in the century) and that the baby was born in Buda.

But as for a Habsburg Russia, I can think of one way that's fairly easy, Peter II and his sister Natalia were the first cousins of Empress Maria Theresa (through their mothers who were sisters)- if Peter or Natalia live to have children I can easily see them intermarrying with the Austrian cousins since that was the Habsburg way.

Their mothers were both Welfs, and the youngest sister, Antonia Amalie, had enough Protestant sons for Russian grand duchesses (one of them was Anton Ulrich, consort of Anna Leopoldovna).

Also, the Pauline Succession allowed for semi-Salic succession - so a female COULD succeed BUT only after all the male-lines are dead. Paul was an only son, Alex and Constantin had no legitimate children, and Misha only had girls. So, killing off Nicky and Misha, Josef Alexander is the legitimate heir.
 

LordKalvert

Banned
The problem with that is that Peter and Natalia were the same age as Maria Theresa, so there weren't any Habsburg OR Habsburg-Lorraine princes for Natalia to marry. Peter could marry MT or Maria Anna, but that would just join Austria to Russia rather than the other way round.

Peter II marrying Maria Theresa that would be a big, big frigging war. The Pragmatic Sanction was only accepted with the stipulation that MT married a prince who wouldn't upset the balance of power of Europe- and that one is big time.

But yeah, Russia and Austria versus the rest of Christendom and the Ottomans. It has possibilities.
 
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