Please, help me decide which Italocentric TL to write!

Which TL should I attempt?

  • Biondo era e bello e di gentile aspetto

    Votes: 32 39.0%
  • Aut Caesar aut Nihil

    Votes: 7 8.5%
  • 'A reggina schetta

    Votes: 12 14.6%
  • For the love of my people, I sacrifice my honour

    Votes: 31 37.8%

  • Total voters
    82
  • Poll closed .
Would love to read this one!

I think that's my personal favourite honestly, but it's losing bad in the poll, and in any case it's damned close to an ASB scenario.
Maybe someone has ideas how to make it practical, besides what I scribbled in my previous post? Naples itselfwas pretty unstable in those years (see masaniello in '47, and the abortive Republic of '56). But winning back the provinces is a whole other thing.
Maybe the Duke of Guise attempt in 1648 succeeds, but he becomes too unpopular and some years after that Christina is called in from Rome...
France would still prefer it to a return of the Spanish.
 
Any pre-Napoleonic TL about Naples I'm quite interested in Neapolitan culture.. Not an Italian nationalist, rather saddened by the loss of local traditions and languages in Italy.
 
Yanez!!! Ever going to continue An Ausonian Tale?

I vote A, but would like to also write-in an option E: Norman Sicily continues into the 13th century and beyond.
 
The run between Manfred and Eugene is rather tight! Do you have suggestions on the ideas I proposed, or changes to the POD that would make them more interesting or realistic? I am open to suggestions!

Any pre-Napoleonic TL about Naples I'm quite interested in Neapolitan culture.. Not an Italian nationalist, rather saddened by the loss of local traditions and languages in Italy.

We are on the same line then! (BTW I might look like an Italian or Neapolitan nationalist, but I am very far from it. I write about these topics because I don't have enough knowledge on other topics and also to try and "mend" some wrong turns of our history).

Option (a) has obviously the biggest linguistic potential, as the Sicilian poetry school would not decline and therefore either separate linguistic identity is kept for Southern Italy for longer (I mean at an elite/literary level, common language and dialects are pretty different even now) or modern Italian is formed on a Sicilian rather than Tuscan basis.
(b) and imho especially (c) could see a revival of the Neapolitan language, but literary Italian was rather well formed by then.

Yanez!!! Ever going to continue An Ausonian Tale?

I vote A, but would like to also write-in an option E: Norman Sicily continues into the 13th century and beyond.

I might reboot it one day, I tried reviving it a couple of times, but it didn't work, hence why I am trying these new ideas.
I love Hauteville Sicily too, but Zioneer is doing a TL about that and I wouldn't want to step on his lawn. Also, I don't want to butterfly away Frederick II, the Stupor Mundi.
 
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Sorry for the double post, but I had an idea about TL (a). Instead of having the POD at the battle of Benevento and Manfredi as the initial protagonist, maybe the Timeline would be more successful if the POD was a successful descent by Conradin two years later, either with a victory at Tagliacozzo, or at a different place and under different circumstances.
In fact I believe that Manfred defeat at Benevento was due to political more than tactical factors: reading about the whole campaign makes it clear that Manfred's power basis in Sicily was quickly crumbling.

Conrad has the advantage of being legitimate (helping with negotiation with someone as upright as Louis IX) and that Sicily, having tasted two years of Charles' "mala signoria", as Dante says, was on the verge of rebellion.
Finally, it is now clearer which barons are loyal and which are not, and some purgrs might more easily be done, to cement the young eaglet's rule.

What do you all think?
 
I have chosen D, more 'simple' to research and so more probable to be able to finish in the XXth century and is more probable easier to relate with this TL as it will be, at least superficially, more similar to our own.

Regarding the fear of 'wanking up' too much South Italy; well honestly screw it more than OTL is difficult and everything can be considered much much better.
Just avoiding the last Bourboun and get instead even an average competent ruler mean an improvement large like Star Wars Death Star
 
I have chosen D, more 'simple' to research and so more probable to be able to finish in the XXth century and is more probable easier to relate with this TL as it will be, at least superficially, more similar to our own.

Regarding the fear of 'wanking up' too much South Italy; well honestly screw it more than OTL is difficult and everything can be considered much much better.
Just avoiding the last Bourboun and get instead even an average competent ruler mean an improvement large like Star Wars Death Star

A very reasonable choice!

Poor Franceschiello... I wouldn't be so harsh on Ferdinand II, he side start so bad, it's only that he was crippled by his political paranoias.

We have more or less a tie between a and d.... I will now wait until 10 am GMT tomorrow, then see. In case there is still a tie I will cast my vote as a tie breaker, possibly at random, because the two choices are more or less equal for me.
 

B-29_Bomber

Banned
I chose A.


If you do go with A, then I could help with the Byzantine angle.

Quite frankly Michael VIII was a terrible ruler for the Empire, though on some level he was well meaning. However his overthrow of the Laskarid Dynasty went a long way to alienate Roman Anatolia and his efforts at a church union only made things worse. Getting rid of the threat of an Anjou ruled Sicily could help this hugely. But if you want a true Roman resurgance then a small PoD before the big one where Michael keeps John Laskaris as his heir could go a long way towards this.
 
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