What if the Habsburg-Trastamara marriage alliance worked out differently? Suppose that Margaret of Austria's marriage to John, Prince of Asturias lasted longer and it was Philip the Handsome's marriage to Joanna the Mad that ended with Joanna dieing from childbirth with a stillborn. Philip of course now needs a wife and heir, so he marries the daughter of one of the more powerful german princes. An alternate history counter-part to Charles V is quickly born who inherits from his father the low countries and French-Comte, from his paternal grandfather Emperor Maximilian the Habsburg lands in Austria, and from his maternal grandfather (who in this senario lost his other heirs via outliving them) a powerful german princapality. Personally, I'd like to see Charles inherit either Bohemia or Barvavia, but my knowledge of the dynasitc situations of those areas is increadibly schetchy.
This situation leaves Charles V as the major powerplayer in the HRE. He doesn't have access to new world gold that his RTL counterpart did, but at the same time he doesn't have to split his attention with Spain or deal with the problems that too much gold brought for the Spanish. Mainly focused on the HRE, Charles V spends much of his reign streangthing the Catholic position in the empire while incidentally increasing his personal power over the German princes. A thought that came to me is that this version of Charles could be a bit more ruthless and decide that all lands of Luthern nobles was forfit and declare that they therefore belonged to the Emperor (i.e. him). The end result of this senario is that by the time Charles dies or abdocates, the Habsburgs have effectively broken the power of the German princes while expanding their own. Charles' successors would then use this powerbase to continually streangthen their position until the HRE becomes a very centralized state under Habsburg control by the mid 1600s.
Does anyone have any commets on this senario? I came to me as I was studying the early Habsburgs and noticed that they were quite capable rulers before inbreeding weakened their abilities as rulers. Charles V came across as a very capable ruler, but his problem was he simply had too much to rule over. This lead me to wonder, if the Habsburgs stayed in the HRE, could the HRE have centralized under their control.
This situation leaves Charles V as the major powerplayer in the HRE. He doesn't have access to new world gold that his RTL counterpart did, but at the same time he doesn't have to split his attention with Spain or deal with the problems that too much gold brought for the Spanish. Mainly focused on the HRE, Charles V spends much of his reign streangthing the Catholic position in the empire while incidentally increasing his personal power over the German princes. A thought that came to me is that this version of Charles could be a bit more ruthless and decide that all lands of Luthern nobles was forfit and declare that they therefore belonged to the Emperor (i.e. him). The end result of this senario is that by the time Charles dies or abdocates, the Habsburgs have effectively broken the power of the German princes while expanding their own. Charles' successors would then use this powerbase to continually streangthen their position until the HRE becomes a very centralized state under Habsburg control by the mid 1600s.
Does anyone have any commets on this senario? I came to me as I was studying the early Habsburgs and noticed that they were quite capable rulers before inbreeding weakened their abilities as rulers. Charles V came across as a very capable ruler, but his problem was he simply had too much to rule over. This lead me to wonder, if the Habsburgs stayed in the HRE, could the HRE have centralized under their control.