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On 19 December 1490, Anne, Duchess of Brittany, was married by proxy to Maximilian I of Austria at Rennes Cathedral. The French were furious but, what's worse, the timing was wrong: the Habsburgs were too busy in Hungary to pay any serious attention to Brittany (probably related to his father's succession as King of Hungary) . As a result, Anne ended up being married 1st to Charles VIII and then to Louis XII, betrothal of Charles VIII to Margaret of Austria was cancelled and France did not get the counties of Artois and Burgundy.

Now, what if Max is sorting his priorities differently and real marriage to Anne happens (anything from sending a considerable contingent to Brittany to make French intervention difficult and all the way to carrying her by sea to the Netherlands)?

On one hand, Brittany backed up by the Hapsburgs (Anne is still a Duchess and when the duchy passes to her child it is still a separate entity) is a permanent pain in the French posteriors but, OTOH, it is a big question what is more important economically at that time, Brittany or Artois and County of Burgundy (later, it took a lot of fighting to make them French).

OTOH, Brittany is in a personal union to a Hapsburg (Maximilian) and is going to be inherited by Anne's child as an independent state. Max already has a son (Phillip the Handsome) so we are talking about an additional branch of the Hapsburg family without (obvious) rights to the rest of the Hapsburg possessions and if this branch is getting extinct, then the legal rights of the main Hapsburg line to Brittany are highly questionable.

The Hapsburgs are getting one more piece of a territory which is not connected to their other possessions, which can be accessed only by the sea, and which they have to defend. It may be convenient to have as a base half way between Spain and the Netherlands but its maritime value is not yet the same as in the XVII century and the local loyalties are rather dubious: French party is quite strong.

An additional possibility: Anne, as in OTL, has the only surviving child, a daughter who inherits the Duchy of Brittany. There are no free Hapsburgs available for marriage and the Duchy is still vassal of France. During one of the peaceful periods, the daughter is marrying heir of the throne of France, future Francis I. The differences from OTL are minimized except that France is getting Artois and French Comte much earlier and without a war.
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