Plausbility Check: Protestant France

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.
 
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.



Simple have the hugenots win the French wars of relegion....
 
I don't know. Francois I and his successors were pretty tight with the Pope. I don't think they would decide on flipping to Protestanism.
 
They sort of won, actually, Henry of Navarre defeated the Catholic League, but decided to convert to Catholicism anyway.

A POD I'm looking at is that Francis I becomes more sympathetic to the Reformation, to the point where the Affair of the Placards doesn't piss him off terribly.
 
They sort of won, actually, Henry of Navarre defeated the Catholic League, but decided to convert to Catholicism anyway.

A POD I'm looking at is that Francis I becomes more sympathetic to the Reformation, to the point where the Affair of the Placards doesn't piss him off terribly.

The Pope decides to stay on Spain's side/Francis I defeating Charles V and conquering northern and southern Italy and gets **tched on by the Pope Clement?
 
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.



Ohh another idea occured to me... Wif during the wars of League of Cambrai France sided with Venice later on against the papal states, so just have The pope excommunicate France.... Pissing off the French enough to break with Rome...
 
That's another good possibility.

Remember, Henry VIII broke with Rome immediately because his wife didn't bear sons, and was a widow whose consummation was doubtful. ;)
 
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.
 
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