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I'm not sure if this thread has been posted before, but here we go. I was reading the other day about the act by which King Philip II of Spain ceded the government of the Spanish Netherlands to his daughter, Isabel, and her husband, the Archduke Albert VII of Austria. Isabel and Albert were to rule the Netherlands as joint sovereigns, and the crown of the Spanish Netherlands was to pass to their son and descendants in the male line.
If they had a girl, said infanta/archduchess? was to marry either the king of Spain (Castile, Aragon, Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, Portugal and Milan) or, if he was already married, his brother. And failing that, a prince (most likely an Austrian archduke?) approved of by the king in Madrid.
Now, here's my POD, question, whatever you would like to call it: what if by ceding government to Isabel and Albert, Philip set a precedent by which the younger sons of the Spanish king were sent as viceroys to the former kingdoms. Mind you, only the Spanish Netherlands, Naples and Sicily, and Portugal; not places like Galicia or Leon &c.

I know Isabel had three children OTL, the Archdukes/Infantes Philip (born 1605) and Albert (born 1607), and a daughter, Archduchess/Infanta Anna Mauritia (born 1608/1609). However, all three children died in infancy.

Now, if Anna Mauritia were to live, and marry, say, the younger brother of King Philip IV of Spain, Don-Infante Fernando (born 1609) who in any case became Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, and thus continue aforementioned line of Albert and Isabel (useless for the Imperial succession - since it's through females BEFORE the Pragmatic Sanctions of Leopold I and Charles VI).
And after this, Philip IV's youngest brother, Don Carlos, is married off to an archduchess from Austria, perhaps, and sent off to Lisbon (as Albert was before he married Isabel) or Naples (as Juan of Austria the Younger was) to act as the king's viceroy there.

I realize this idea is probably highly unlikely since Fernando was made a cardinal - but then again, Albert had been the Archbishop of Toledo (the highest clerical office in Spain), both Holy Roman Emperors Leopold had originally been destined for the church (Leopold II's anticlericalism was said to be a result of this).

Any thoughts?
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