What if the union of William III and Mary II produced an heir, butterflying away Queen Anne and the entire House of Hanover? What would the effects be in England and beyond it?
It is always hard to say, since you don't know how what charactertraits such an hypothetical child or its descendents would have. Would the potential monarch be able to keep the American colonies? Or would England lose India? Very hard to say without more information.What if the union of William III and Mary II produced an heir, butterflying away Queen Anne and the entire House of Hanover? What would the effects be in England and beyond it?
Oh, and the "personal union" between England/Scotland and the Dutch Republic? It would probably end after one or two generations. I doubt the Dutch (at least the regents in Holland) would want to be ruled from London.
Oh, and the "personal union" between England/Scotland and the Dutch Republic? It would probably end after one or two generations. I doubt the Dutch (at least the regents in Holland) would want to be ruled from London.
Well, theoretically, if Mary has a child, then Queen Anne's kids have the potential to survive.
I agree, but would add the reverse is also true. Supposing at some point there are two sons (the 'easy' solution for splitting the countries), and the son in London died, the English would also make a fuss until they have either a new monarchy or the 'Dutch' son moves to London.
Alternatively, of course, the Dutch could just promote the Frisian branch to ruling all the (Orange-)Nassau possessions in the Republic, which could lead to some dynastic shenanigans added to the general Dutch-English relationship (and that might lead to some weird changes, given that Dutch-English relations were basically excellent from the glorious revolution until the American revolution)
I doubt it. I think the stadholder king would be busy enough being king in England to spend a lot of time in the Netherlands. Also I kind of doubt the English would accept it.Couldn't it be arranged that the stadtholder-king be required to spend, say, four months out of the year in the Netherlands?
Possible, but I believe that at some point the king will be making demands that the Dutch regents won't accept (or more correctly don't want to accept). I always believe it will take a generation or two for the split to happen and it would happen when the house of Orange will be truely English, instead of the Dutch rulers of England, like Willem was.Also, might not some of their high mightinesses enjoy not having somebody looking over their shoulder?
Possible. The thing is, usualy the way the Orangist faction got in power was after some disaster happened (like the year of disaster) and the stadholder himself tried to place himself as the savior of the Netherlands. It realy depended on the stadholder himself and his personal charisma/competence. Without him (or with a weak stadholder like Willem V) the opposing parties will get into power. Especialy considering that that is were the money is.Conversely, wouldn't the Orangeist faction be emboldened by William having an heir, plus gaining three crowns?
I don't follow. What is the connection between the pregnancies of Mary II and her younger sister Anne?
Mary never carried a child to term to give birth to a living child.
Anne did, on three occasions, her daughters Mary lived to almost reach her second birthday, Anne Sophia almost reached one and William, Duke of Gloucester even made it past his 10th birthday.
What I'm saying is that if Mary has a son (in 1679/1680), then the chances of Anne's kids being precisely as OTL, or even dying as OTL diminishes (unless you have a pretty strong butterfly net).
Also, I found the Nassau-Oranje England TL I was thinking of when I saw this thread.