So does the writer of the timeline remember it? Because it sounds like it was an idea worth exploring.
Even if thread necromancy is the blackest of the black arts.
I'm in the process of re-re-writing.
There will be a Mk3 at some point this year!
But to answer CdQ:
What of Spain?
Aragon had strong ambitions over Languedoc and Toulouse. The Counts of Barcelona all descended from the house of the lords of Carcassonne, and even if Toulouse was stable and independent from France, the Albigensian Crusade is still pretty much possible. If so, the king of Aragon, probably Peter the Catholic as in real life, would have something to say.
At Sancho the Strong's death, Navarre was left without a male heir of the former dynasty. King James the Conqueror signed a pact with him, according to which the first to die would inherit the other one's kingdom. James could have pressed this claim. In real life, he gave up Occitan ambitions, but if his father Peter didn't die at Muret in 1214, he would have probably kept on pursuing this goals. Peter wasn't the most cunning politician, but he had huge balls. Enough to fight this possible Toulouse-Navarre merging and try to keep both Navarre and Toulouse for himself.
Sorry if I missed something in your timeline. I like it very much so far.
I'm working something in similar.
There won't be a "crusade" but a more tolerant conversion led by the Dominicans.
James still doesn't get Navarre but his grandson gets it as a vassal.