Let's talk about the German Princedoms

Let me remind you a state too close to France is in deep trouble. Sarre, Rhenania, Lorraine and Alsace are too small and too close, it would take quite a monumental Frankscrew to stop France from interfering and tgen annexing.
However Bavaria has good potential for making a surviving South Germany.
Or you could help the Palatinate by removing French sacking of it during the 1690s.
 
I have always thought of Hamburg being like Singapore, but much less authoritarian. They were independent until 1870. It would help if Denmark could hold on to Schleswig.
 
Let me remind you a state too close to France is in deep trouble. Sarre, Rhenania, Lorraine and Alsace are too small and too close, it would take quite a monumental Frankscrew to stop France from interfering and tgen annexing.
However Bavaria has good potential for making a surviving South Germany.
Or you could help the Palatinate by removing French sacking of it during the 1690s.

Too close to France is a problem, but perhaps not an insurmountable one.

OTL, Prussia had to do an enormous amount of wheeling and dealing just to survive. It was frequently overrun by far more powerful neighbors in the early centuries. It was walking a tightrope for many years, yet eventually became the leader of Germany.

Choosing somewhere close to France provides a setting for double-dealing, diplomacy and statesmanship of the highest order. If done well, it has potential to be enormously interesting.
 
Well, Hesse was splintered due to dynastic reasons, with each side-branch of the House of Hesse getting their own fiefdom. If they were united, just calling it the Grand Duchy or Kingdom of Hesse would be the best bet, especially since the term Landgraviate is equivalent to Duchy (HRE's concept of nobility is/was somewhat confusing).

A landgraviate, like margraviate and county palatine eventually became virtually equivalent to a duke, but originally they were between a county and a duchy.

Hesse might eventually end up being re-united like Nassau, though there the Ottonian branch (Orange-Nassau-Dietz) with a strong connection with the Netherlands ended up on the Dutch Throne, with the Walram line getting the Nassau Lands.
 
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