Pan-French Movement = Gaul?

Alright. Let me explain this one.

Let's say we have a France that does much worse in the Hundred Years' War. England "wins", but over time, slowly loses their grip over the territory they control on the mainland until France is in essence a bunch of squabbling microstates - much like the Germanic states at the time, but without the semi-unifying factor that was the HRE.

Skip forward a couple hundred years. It's 1860 or so, and romanticism and nationalism have kicked in more or less on time. These French microstates have just unified - whether one came to dominance and absorbed the rest a la Prussia or something else isn't the concern.

Now, what I'd like to ask is this. Could the notions of romanticism lead to a situation where instead of the new state being named France or something similiar, the powers that be decide to christen their new country Gaul? Or is that not likely?
 
The only way I can think of that happening is something where "French" as in "Frankish" never becomes the identity of "France" as in the area we're talking about.

Which requires Occitania (not necessarily as one state), if nothing else.

But I'm hardly an expert, just that it seems like "France" would be the natural term unless "French" has come to mean something limited within the context of the region.
 
The only way I can think of that happening is something where "French" as in "Frankish" never becomes the identity of "France" as in the area we're talking about.

Which requires Occitania (not necessarily as one state), if nothing else.

But I'm hardly an expert, just that it seems like "France" would be the natural term unless "French" has come to mean something limited within the context of the region.

It'd make sense if it was like the Unification of Germany, Prussia was the most powerful states, and the NGC was basically Greater Prussia and the German Empire basically Prussia + Others, so if their already was a state called France that was among the places unifying it'd make sense to go with another name to prevent conflict.
 
It'd make sense if it was like the Unification of Germany, Prussia was the most powerful states, and the NGC was basically Greater Prussia and the German Empire basically Prussia + Others, so if their already was a state called France that was among the places unifying it'd make sense to go with another name to prevent conflict.

Yeah.

How would that work with the Plantagents winning the HYW?
 
How would that work with the Plantagents winning the HYW?

I don't know, to be honest politics and stuff like that of the middle-ages is sort of one of my blind spots, I mean I know cultural and demographic stuff, but..
 
I don't know, to be honest politics and stuff like that of the middle-ages is sort of one of my blind spots, I mean I know cultural and demographic stuff, but..

Drat.

I know enough about Medieval politics to talk intelligently, but not enough to feel confident in things like this. A HYW win for the Plantagents and a shattered France has such huge consequences its hard to know where to start drawing the mid-late 19th century map.
 
Yeah.

How would that work with the Plantagents winning the HYW?

Well, assuming that in order for them to maintain control over the Kingdom of France without detaching themselves from England like Richard I, they could govern it decentralized, with duchies being held by major Plantagenet supporters.

But the thing is, for England to win the HYW the Plantagenets simply regress to being a foreign dynasty in England itself, unless Paris is no prize...
 
Drat.

I know enough about Medieval politics to talk intelligently, but not enough to feel confident in things like this. A HYW win for the Plantagents and a shattered France has such huge consequences its hard to know where to start drawing the mid-late 19th century map.

I'll be totally honest, the only things I know about the HYW war is that it was neither a single war nor one-hundred years exactly and that England and sorta-kinda France were the main ones fighting it.
 
I'l be totally honest, the only things I know about the HYW war is that it was neither a single war nor one-hundred years exactly and that England and sorta-kinda France were the main ones fighting it.

Yep, it had at least three major conflicts, and two French dynasties were fighting over the vacuum left by the death of the main Capetian branch.

Of course, it's pretty simple at this point.
 
It isn't impossible, given the Austrian Netherlands resurrected "Belgium" from its 1,700-year sleep for their national identity.

The question, as was pointed out before, is what these nationalists look back to and base themselves on. "Gaul" could be an attractive handle especially if you want to include Occitans, Flemings, Alsatians, Basques and Bretons in your new national consciousness, since "France" is already conflated with "French" by the fourteenth century, and likely to remain so. But a consciously linguistically French identity is unlikely to look back to these days and will much rather take its narratives from the glory days of the Capetians, Carolingians and Merovingians, which pretty much makes "France" the default choice.

Germany is an analogy of limited usefulness because the linguistic roots of German go back so far. People in (much of) Germany spoke early forms of German as far back as we can trace any language, and quite likely before. With French, you have a much more complicated history to package.
 
What if you kept Burgundy in the mix?

The Plantagenets win the Hundred Years War then the Burgundians gain control of parts of France becoming a separate entity, keeping England's grasp on France weak enough that England remains the centre of the Plantagenet Empire. Burgundy would control the Netherlands and maybe Paris while England controls Brittany and Normandy. One or both claim the title of King of France and both serve the role the Austrian Empire did in dominating Germany and keeping it divided. Neither would have any interest in French nationalism, England as a foreign power, and Burgundy ruling a diverse multi-ethnic kingdom including the Netherlands and parts of Germany. So by the 1800s the remaining French states develop a romantic nationalism based around the name Gaul as France is used by the English and/or Burgundians to identify their French-speaking territory.
 
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