I didn't say cousins who were Austrian archDUKES. The Hapsburgs often made junior lines counts. Although I'm dredging through Ferdinand III's descendants and I'm having trouble finding people who don't go through the Spanish line or... died. I did find a cousin of hers from a different ancestor, Henry Benedict Stuart, but he's not Austrian and not a secular noble. Hmmm, you're probably right, if she had any we would be having a War of Austrian Succession.
In what dimension did the Habsburgs do this? Whether they were junior or senior lines, anybody that descended in the male line from Ernst der Eiserne and Cymburgis of Masovia, was an
archduke/duchess in addition to any other titles they held (infante of Spain). The only counts that were family of the Habsburgs were ones descending via morganatic marriages - and at this point (1740s), the only one on record is that of Archduke Ferdinand II to Philippine Welser. The two sons - one became a cardinal and the other a burggrave - both left illegitimate issue, but by 1727 IIRC both of their lines went extinct.
Henry Benedict Stuart (if it's the one I'm thinking of, Cardinal-Duke of York), wasn't enrolled in the priesthood in 1740. His brother, Charles Edward, was also a secular noble, but Britain's gonna curbstomp any ideas that see a Stuart ruling anywhere - despite the fact that through Mary of Modena, James III has a pretty good claim to the duchy of Modena at least (even though Modena allowed only male-to-male succession). I toyed with the idea of a Stuart Italy at one point, James III marries Isabel Farnese and their kids are chosen as a neutral option (vs the Bourbons/Habsburgs) to succeed in Tuscany, Parma and/or Modena. But it's a big stretch, and rather unlikely.
I'm quite sure the Spanish wanted to weaken Austria, but reclaiming Spanish territory was more important. If Hapsburg troops were all over Italy, they wouldn't be able to reclaim it. Wait, I thought Spain already had Naples at the start of the war? They had to reclaim it in the war of Austrian Succession? Huh...
Naples was held by the Spanish since the previous war. I was referring to Parma. And as I say, Austria losing/Spain gaining Parma doesn't really shift the power in the same way as Austria losing/Spain gaining Naples or the Austrian Netherlands.
I thought the exchange of Lorraine for Tuscany was dependent on France recognizing Pragmatic Sanction and since they kind of did not, he should get to keep both.
François III Étienne gave up Lorraine to marry Maria Theresia. Karl VI refused a marriage between them without a renunciation of his rights to Lorraine. The king of France's father-in-law, the onetime king of Poland, Stanislas I, was given the now dukeless duchy of Lorraine as compensation - but Lorraine belonged to France by this point, and Stanislas was appointed duke at the French king's discretion. François III was only chosen to succeed in Tuscany because the Bourbons were forced to renounce their rights there in exchange for Austria recognizing that they were now in possession of the kingdom of Naples.
As to recognition of the Pragmatic Sanction - then all states in Europe that swore up and down thatthey would uphold it, and didn't, should be likewise punished.
Situation revision
OK, let's assume the Spanish do want to weaken the Hapsburgs. I think they did. I mean, reclaiming was more important, but if they couldn't do that...
But after 3 years of fighting, 1/4 of their invasion force is prisoners and the rest are casualties or war or retreated back to Spain. Let's say a Savoy army beat a Spanish army triple its size and then to add insult to injury a week later Hapsburg cavalry start killing everyone who doesn't leave all their heavy stuff to flee. Prussia peaced out with Silesia (as in OTL). Austrian and the British kicked the French out of Austrian Netherlands and Lorraine. The entire geographic area of Italy, including Naples, is controlled by Hapsburg or Savoy troops.
The Hapsburg intelligence grossly overestimates the strength of the next Spanish invasion force, which is really just a few raiding parties. They send out peace feelers.
Why do the Habsburgs suddenly just start killing everyone? It's going to make it
even more difficult to control the areas where they did this than OTL. Doesn't make sense. How does
only the Empire (some of whom (Bavaria, Prussia) weren't on the Austrian side) and Savoy drive Spain from Italy? Did all the Spaniards suddenly turn into cowards? Killing off Isabel Farnese might make sense, since she was kinda a big reason they got involved in the first place? And France? Did all her generals have collective strokes? Remember, at this time, IIRC, the Maréchal de Saxe (arguably one of the best commanders of the 18th century) is leading the French army.
In it the terms are that Spain renounce claims to Naples (I thought it was already theirs at the start of the war, but you said otherwise) and Parma. 1/4 of Parma goes to Milan, its historical origin, and the remaining is broken in counties to go to the Savoys (in OTL Parma was lost, so getting some of it back into Milan where Maria-Theresa rules is an improvement). They also promise to break the Spanish-claimed Italian territory into 4 pieces, 3 of which will be reduced to individual counties and go to the oldest children of Maria-Theresa that don't inherit the Archduchy of Austria (in other words, direct Austrian control will be broken). If she doesn't have 4 children, then the extra pieces stay with the Archduke of Austria and King of Germans for another generation and will get split off when ever a generation has a splitting opportunity, so at SOME point the 3 Hapsburg-Lorraine pieces will be broken off from the main line and won't rejoin unless
I never said that Spain
didn't control Naples
before the war, the quote I included above was a brief summary of Felipe V's reign. Naples had been Spanish, IIRC since the Treaty of Vienna in 1737.
By June 1740 Maria Theresia had three daughters already, so it could be argued that in lieu of sons these daughters would be heirs to the Habsburg domains in Italy. By June 1745 two of those three daughters were dead, but she had four more children (five in all, two of whom were boys).
This is European royalty, and the Habsburgs had made their surname a sort of byword for incest already. Not to mention, most European royal families (I'm not talking about somewhere like Wied or Waldeck or whatever, but the major players on the scene)
were related within the last two generations. So if by incest you mean brother-marrying-sister, okay, good. But cousin marriages were quite the everyday occurence everywhere except Russia (and other Orthodox countries) at the time.
The remaining 1/4 of Naples (remember in this WI the Hapsburgs are sitting on Italy) stays in the Kingdom of Naples and goes to the son of Isabel Farnese.
How big is this quarter of Naples? Does the kingdom get broken down into the medieval dukedoms/counties (Gaeta, Naples, Capua, Benevento, Apulia etc)? Or is it more like Sicily is a quarter, Naples is a quarter, Parma is a quarter, Presidi is a quarter?