Surviving County of Provence

In OTL, when Charles IV, duc d'Anjou, died childless in 1481, he willed the County of Provence to King Louis XI of France.

WI: Charles, had heirs, who kept the County of Provence independent of France?

Any thoughts?
 
Well, the situation of Provence would be strategic for all the series of Italian Wars of France against Aragon and Castilla (and after Spain), with Provence independent it could be interesting what effects would have in the fight for the supremacy in Italy between France and the hispanic kingdoms.
 
I'm not sure if Provence is a powerful enough region to escape French control. I think ultimately regions that are linguistically and culturally distinct need to be powerful enough, or lucky enough through diplomatic quirks in history, to remain independent. After all, a language is a dialect with an army and navy.
 
I'm not sure if Provence is a powerful enough region to escape French control. I think ultimately regions that are linguistically and culturally distinct need to be powerful enough, or lucky enough through diplomatic quirks in history, to remain independent. After all, a language is a dialect with an army and navy.

Agreed. Personally, Provence is unlikely to remain independent. At any rate, Provence wasn't even independent in the traditional sense... it was under a Duke, yes, but his suzerain was the King of France. Provence is just like Bourbon, Orléans, and the other fiefs under cadet branches of the Valois dynasty.
 
But as far as Occitan-speaking areas go, did Aquitaine have any more of a chance of being independent and distinct from France than Provence did?
 
Not in the time period we're talking about (the 15th century) simply because Aquitaine was ruled by the English and then taken back by the French and integrated into the royal domain. This man was the Duke of Guyenne for a short time, but I do believe it was a more of a courtesy title.
 
Wasn't Provence part of the HRE at that point? If so trying to annex it could result in a horde of German armies coming across the Rhine. (and/or Spanish armies coming across the Pyrennees depending on who the HR Emperor is).
 
Wasn't Provence part of the HRE at that point? If so trying to annex it could result in a horde of German armies coming across the Rhine. (and/or Spanish armies coming across the Pyrennees depending on who the HR Emperor is).

Formally? Yes, Provence was part of the HRE. But in reality? No. Provence was basically in the same boat as the Dauphiné, which became part of France in the 1360s, but remained part of the empire, on the stipulation it never united with France and was ruled by the Dauphin. Yet Louis XI formally united the Dauphiné with France in the 1460s and the empire didn't bat an eyelash. The Emperor would have bigger fish to fry in the 1480s (such as the Burgundian inheritance, Hungary under Mathias, Bohemia, Sigismund in Tyrol, Germany and Italy in general) to deal with the Provencal succession; it had been ruled by a cadet branch of the Valois dynasty since the 1380s, so if the branch went extinct it would legally go to the French king. There's not really much the emperor can do.
 
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