If Elizabeth I Had Married ... Discussion on Outcomes Based on Marriage Proposals

Point of Divergence ... More of a discussion of various timeline scenarios that could occur as a result of Elizabeth getting married to various grooms. Picture the Tudor Bachelorette. Here are the candidates:

Phillip the II of Spain - King of Spain, future enemy and leader of the Armada against Elizabeth

James, Earl of Arran - Scottish Nobleman

Henry Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel - English Lord and Chancellor of the University of Oxford.

Sir William Pickering - English courier and diplomat.

Eric XIV of Sweden - King of Sweden

Adolphus of Gottorp, Duke of Holstein

Henry Duke of Anjou - Reluctant French heir proposed by Catherine de Medici.

Archduke Charles of Austria - Catholic Austrian Noble.

Francis Duke of Anjou - Bisexual Fop, know as Elizabeth's "frog".

Robert Dudley - Described as the love of Elizabeth's life.

Ivan the Terrible - Russian Tsar. Sanity much questioned.

Sultan Murrad of the Ottoman Empire - Sultan, correspondent of Elizabeth for many years.

What would have been England's fate had Elizabeth chosen any one of these 12 grooms? How would the world have changed as a result?
 

Md139115

Banned
As I have seen elsewhere, a match between Eric XIV and Elizabeth could work quite well... the only issue being Ivan levels of insanity to watch out for...
 
Elizabeth and Ivan would be a fascinating union. Especially given the utter different natures of the realms and how Ivan's own children were more or less killed off or sickly.
 
Can we get Liz to marry the sultan, pretty please? :winkytongue:

Okay, that's ASB. So we can remove his and Dudley's names from the list. Love of her life he might've been (as well as IIRC, the purported father of the so-called "Prince Arthur" who washed up on the Spanish coast, who claimed to be Liz's son), but Liz marrying him is poison to herself (as pointed out in another thread).

Likewise, I'm not sure who Bill Pickering was, but I don't think he will make a good consort.

About the FitzAlan boy, do you mean the last FitzAlan earl of Arundel? Or the earl's son, Lord Maltravers? Because Maltravers was pretty chummy with Felipe II from what I recall. He died in Brussels in the 1550s after being sent to the Viennese court. Plus Maltravers was married to Anne somebody.

Either way, once her half-sister's dead, short of an archangel descending from heaven, no MAN will take Elizabeth to the altar. And before that (from around 1557/58), Felipe is looking at wedding her himself once Mary croaks, he even had dispensations prepared in Rome for the event.

So, the likely point in time for getting Liz wed to the men of your list is either during the sunset of her brother's reign (when a variety of half-French or half-royal princes (the duc d'Elboeuf (my source says "a brother to the duc de Guise" and he's the only one who wasn't married or in holy orders by then), Alfonso II d'Este, Francesco di Cosimo de Medici, Frederik II of Denmark and Courtenay) were kicked around for her between 1551-1553) or once her sister's wed and believed to be with child (Maltravers, the Spanish duke of Segorbe, Emperor Ferdinand II and Frederik II of Denmark in '54; Christoph II of Baden and the duke of Savoy in '55; Erik XIV and D. Carlos in 1556). After that, Felipe's trying to cockblock everyone so that he can get Liz (she never forgave him for his arrogance in this matter AFAIK since she made a reference to the Spanish ambassador at some later point that "my one time brother-in-law who sought to have my hand while he was still wed to my sister").
 
Elizabeth and Ivan would be a fascinating union. Especially given the utter different natures of the realms and how Ivan's own children were more or less killed off or sickly.
Oh if she married Ivan, she would have either been killed or his butt would have been sent to the Tower of London. Can you imagine THAT wedding night? *shudders*
 

Onlooker

Banned
Murad or Ivan would be most fun, though admitedly least probable. Would make for an insananely good TL
 
If I were not already in the process of writing the first few parts of my TL then I would consider coming up with something about a marriage between Erik XIV and Elizabeth I. However, I find the prospect of a match between Ivan and Elizabeth to be a bit more interesting.
 

Marc

Donor
None are plausible unless you wish to impose a personality change on Elizabeth - which makes her not Elizabeth - and egregiously changing the volatile domestics politics of her era which makes 16th century England into something imaginary. Thereby moving it all into "inspired by history" fiction rather than alternate history.
Now, if there were some unlikely, but successful pressure on Elizabeth to accept a nominal, very much a marriage of social convenience, I would guess her people could find a reasonable German protestant gay prince willing to go along.
 
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