Instead of remaining a bastion of Catholicism (and thus being hit very hard by religious conflict), how can we make the French crown break with Rome*?
*Remember that while the Reformation began on theological grounds, it was primarily adapted to increase the power of the ruler at the expense of the church.
Well, the problem with this is that, in the
Concordat of Bologna (and the
Pragmatic Sanction before that) the French crown had effectively taken over of most aspects of the Catholic church in France, including the appointment of clergy. Thus, the French kings had no incentive to break with Rome-they essentially controlled all the important functions of the church anyway.
A possible POD to deal with this could be the early part of the Italian wars going significantly worse for the French, to the point that the Pope doesn't feel as threatened by them as he did IOTL. Thus, rather than confirming
de facto royal control over the French church at Bologna, he tries to re-centralize the church under his control and puts pressure on the French to repeal the Pragmatic Sanction. Have this snowball into a major spat between France and the Papacy just as Martin Luther gets his career started, and the France will have a much greater incentive to go Protestant.