List your most promising alternate monarchs

Thande

Donor
Word of explanation: History is full of potential kings or queens who died before their accession and so the crown went to a younger sibling. What in your opinion are the most interesting ones to survive and do AHs about?

Here are some for England/Britain:

- William Adelin (son of Henry I, would have been William III) - killed in White Ship disaster - as see in Oth's timeline. OTL King superseded: Stephen

- Arthur Tudor - first son of Henry VII, would have become King Arthur I or perhaps II if he played on the Arthurian legend - died possibly of virus at age 16. OTL King superseded: Henry VIII

-Henry Frederick Stuart - son of James I, would have become Henry IX - died of typhoid at age 18. OTL King superseded: Charles I (With thanks to VoCSe)

-Frederick Louis Hanover - son of George II, would have become Frederick I - died of lung disease/being hit by cricket ball at age 44. OTL King superseded: George III



More suggestions? How about other countries?
 
If that can include OTL monarch with different personality or longer lives, this would include:
1) A Leopold II who does not immediatly die upon becoming emperor. (Pretty obscure, so linkage).
2) A Wilhelm II who is not subject to Bismarck's behind-the-scenes meddling, who instead is coopted towards greater responsibility and "Augenmaß" from someone he at the time considered a fatherly figure.

As of really alternate monarchs:
1) Emperor Heinrich I.
2) Emperor Norton of the USA ;)
 
Bismarck once said about him that people who wished for liberalism were mistaken to place their trust in him: he'd rule like an autocrath.
 
- Abd al Malick, Caliph of Cordova.
- Joan la Beltraneja of Castile.
- Any son of Henry VIII or Mary I of England.
- Henri, Comte de Chambord, as King of France.
- Napoleon IV of France.
- Leopold of Hohenzolern as King of Spain.
- Maximilian I of Mexico.
- Carlos María Isidro, either as King Carlos V of Spain or Carlos I of New Spain.
- Isabel I of Brazil.
- Móric I of Madagascar. :D
 

Xen

Banned
Queen Charlotte would have ruled Britain during the nineteenth century, she died rather young and was mourned across the Empire.

Theres always the infamous Louis XVII as well

As for me I also like Napoleon IV, he appears in several of my nineteenth century timelines.
 
Rudolf of Hapsburg
Karl of Hapsburg (if he didn't come to power in the middle of WWI)
A theoretical son of Mary I of England
Joseph Ferdinand of Spain
Mark Antony
Ptolemy Caesarion
 
- Abd al Malick, Caliph of Cordova.
- Joan la Beltraneja of Castile.
- Any son of Henry VIII or Mary I of England.
- Henri, Comte de Chambord, as King of France.
- Napoleon IV of France.
- Leopold of Hohenzolern as King of Spain.
- Maximilian I of Mexico.
- Carlos María Isidro, either as King Carlos V of Spain or Carlos I of New Spain.
- Isabel I of Brazil.
- Móric I of Madagascar. :D

Well you've got to have an Empire of Brazil haven't you? Though why the Brazilians seem incapable of grasping this is beyond me.

And Napoleon IV death is one of the classic for want of a nail PODs.

But what about this poor sod:

Ivan VI of Russia
 
Ooh, that IS an interesting WI. Iberian union a hundred years earlier, and perhaps more lasting than OTL?

There are several PODs related to the sons of the Catholic Monarchs, in fact.

-If their only son, Juan (1478-1497), would had survive, he would became King of Castile, Aragon and Navarre and nothing more.

-If their elder daughter Isabel (1470-1498) or her son Miguel (1498-1500) would had survive, they would became Queen/King of Portugal, Castile, Aragon and Navarre.

-If Joan the Mad would had dead, her sister María (1482-1517) would had became Queen of Castile, Aragon and Navarre, and her son Juan also would had unified it with Portugal.

-If the 4 elder sons would had dead, the Queen of Spain would had been Catalina (1485-1536), and the consort King either Arthur or Henry VIII of England!

-If everything goes as OTL, but Juan (death after some hours from birth in 1509), the son of Ferdinand and his second wife Germaine de Foix would had survived, he would became King of Aragon while his "nephew" Charles would had became King of Castile and Navarre and Archduke of Austria.
 
More hispanic alternate crowned heads:

* Charles I of Spain leaves as heirs: his brother Ferdinand as King of the Hispanic Monarchy and his son Philip as Holy Roman Emperor with the Hapsburg patrimonial territories.
* The "Comuneros" defeat Charles and, realizing Joan is mad, crown Charles' brother Ferdinand.
* Charles the son of Philip II survives to be crowned.
* Charles the son of Philip II manages to flee to Flanders, he is crowned as king of Flanders and his father deprives him of the rest of his territories. Flanders remains unified and independent... for how long?
* Don John of Austria, king of Flanders or king of Tunis.
 
BTW, Had you heard about Danza de Tinieblas, Condottiero? It is an alternate history novel in wich Philippe II died early in a hunting accident, and his brother John became King of Spain.

Yes. It is quite interesting, although I was not able to imagine where the Spanish Empire spanned. They talked about trenches in the Caucasus, about Holy Land...
 

Thande

Donor
Yes. It is quite interesting, although I was not able to imagine where the Spanish Empire spanned. They talked about trenches in the Caucasus, about Holy Land...
My general impression is that the OTL Spanish Empire is something that, if you had read about it in an AH book, would seem like ASB or Spain-wank..."within a few decades they conquer an area of the Americas more than twenty times the size of the homeland???"

So, as with Ruled Britannia etc., it doesn't seem much more of a leap of faith to picture Spain in this era in Moscow, Constantinople, Kyoto or on the Moon :D
 
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