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As some here may know, questions regarding the complex and tangled succession rules of Renaissance Portugal led to the much debated and infamous Iberian Union, a 60-year-long event that pointed the start of the decadence of the already unstable Portuguese Sea Empire.

Isabella of Portugal, the second child and eldest daughter to the portuguese king Manuel I, transmissed her succession rights to her first born, the already king Philip II of Spain, after the death of her maternal grandson Sebastian I of Portugal. However, according to the forementioned succession laws, Philip would not be the first in succession. The chosen one should have been Ranuccio I Farnese, Duke of Parma, and that's why:

Portuguese succession laws stipulated that daughters could inherit the crown BUT their claims would be weaker than those of any surviving sons or male-line descendants of the original monarch. After Sebastian died, the line should have passed through Edward of Avis, 4th Duke of Guimarães, more specifically, through his eldest daughter Maria of Guimarães, by marriage the duchess of Parma, and finally Ranuccio, her son.

Philip II's hunger for power didn't let him leave the claims to its rightful heir (who was also his half-grand-nephew through Philip's eldest half-sister Margaret). However, supposing that Ranuccio somehow ascends to the throne of Portugal, what would have happened next?

1 - Would the Portuguese domination by the Spanish be successfully averted?
2 - Being the heir both to the Portuguese throne and to the duchy of Parma, would he forsake his rights to the italian estate in favour of his younger brother Oddoardo?
3 - Would Portugal be substantially influenced by the foreign/italian customs and traditions?
4 - Would italian adventurers have more room to even create Italian-speaking territories in newly found land all over the world (in Brazil or southern Africa or Eastern Asia)?
5 - Supposing that Ranuccio ascends, who could him marry in order to strenghten his position as the new Portuguese monarch? How would dynastic history of Portugal develop from now on, with the new ruling house of Farnésio?
6 - Would the position of Portugal as one of the main defenders of the Catholic Faith be elevated, due to the Farnese family connections to the Pope and Rome?

Let's try it out.
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