So I'm planning a new TL set in the mid-sixteenth century and has two POD's: one is major and obvious to people (the people of the sixteenth century at least) and the other is subtle (again to the people of the sixteenth century). The First is having Reginald Pole being elected Pope in 1549 and the second is Mary I never developing cancer, thus both living and being able to have children. THe main POD is odviously the part about Mary but the Pole thing is something I've been toying around with for the last few months. I find his belief in Sola fide or justification by faith over works fascinating and would love to explore how a Pope Pole could effect the Council of Trent and relations between the Catholics and Protestants. My main problems so far is figuring out the ages that they could reasonably live. For Mary, even if she doesn't have cancer, her health was still up and down throwout her life so I'm not sure what would be reasonable. Her mother lived to 50 but had been imprisoned for years before and negatively affected her health. Her father was morbidly obese and in bad health for years but lived to 55. Not to mention on her mothers side, her great grandmother was 68 when he died. So I was thinking Mary could reasonably live to 50-55, thus reigning until 1566 at the earliest and 1571 at the latest.
As for Pole, he lived until 58 but returning to England after living in Italy and a Mediterranean climate for 22 years meant that returning home had a bad effect on his health, leading to his death two years later. So I was thinking, if he stayed in Rome/Italy he could reasonably live another 5 to 10 years, thus reigning till 1563, at the earliest or 1568/69 at the latest.
Do these observations sound right or no? Any help is greatly welcomed.