Protestant Austria

samcster94

Banned
What if Austria became Protestant??? I know there was a slim chance pre 1555, but after the Tridentine Reformation, it had no chance. Also, if Austria becomes a more formal empire(it almost certainly will) by 1700, what is the effect of that???
 
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It never went Protestant, not even briefly; however, Protestantism did spread into Austria before the Council of Trent, which would make this a valid POD if you can get prominent Hapsburgs to convert. If you can crush the Counter-Reformation in its cradle (maybe due to infighting between Catholic powers) you could probably make it work.
 
There were Habsburg Länder that went protestant, it was a aspect of most peasant revolts at the time. A cadet branch converting isn't out of question. But the main branch is very unlikely. You'd most likely need a POD at or predating the Reichstag at Worms. Afterwards the Habsburgs as Emporer of the HRE are comitted to catholicism and protestantis is within the Empire a part of the opposition movement. Also: The Emporer in Question was Karl V. who also ruled Spain. It would probably have been difficult to keep together that empire with all the trouble a conversion would cause.
After the Augsburger Religionsfrieden of 1555 conversion would be troublesome with the HRE legal system.
So very very unlikely.
Also: what do you mean with more formal empire? Most definitions of Empire only fit only to a very limited degree in OTL 1700, is this some ATL development you'd expect, or a different usage of empire than those I know?
 

samcster94

Banned
There were Habsburg Länder that went protestant, it was a aspect of most peasant revolts at the time. A cadet branch converting isn't out of question. But the main branch is very unlikely. You'd most likely need a POD at or predating the Reichstag at Worms. Afterwards the Habsburgs as Emporer of the HRE are comitted to catholicism and protestantis is within the Empire a part of the opposition movement. Also: The Emporer in Question was Karl V. who also ruled Spain. It would probably have been difficult to keep together that empire with all the trouble a conversion would cause.
After the Augsburger Religionsfrieden of 1555 conversion would be troublesome with the HRE legal system.
So very very unlikely.
Also: what do you mean with more formal empire? Most definitions of Empire only fit only to a very limited degree in OTL 1700, is this some ATL development you'd expect, or a different usage of empire than those I know?
I just mean a strong power that dominates central Europe.
 
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