The Ferdinands - WI a male line of the Habsburgs continue

No offense, but Maria Antonia's father was a bit of a dick about her succession rights to Spain OTL (having her sign a renunciation thereof on her marriage, and then AGAIN in favor of her infant son), both of which Carlos II considered invalid - which was why he nominated her son (perhaps out of spite?) instead of Anjou or the Archduke Charles. (And granted, it was also probably under pressure from his mama, the queen-dowager). Another thing, Leopold was promising the Spanish Netherlands to Max IF Antonia renounced her claim (which naturally Carlos was furious over, since he regarded the Netherlands as belonging to him) to the Spanish crowns (either in favor of her father (originally), then her half-brothers (when the marriage contract renunciation was signed) and finally her son (naming Leopold or an Austrian archduke as Regent (instead of her husband) (the second renunciation)).

That said, Antonia's marriage with the elector was apparently rather tempestuous - she was aware of her status as the heiress to Spain, and she never let her husband forget it, and he was ambitious and scheming. While there were periods of happiness, the six pregnancies (usually the three miscarriages she had in 1687, 1688 and 1691 go undocumented) didn't help her nerves any. However, they shared a love of music and theatre (inherited from her parents).

So, to my mind, whichever husband she marries, she's going to still have the same personality (possibly) knowing that she's the heiress to the Spanish dominions, and ergo, being puffed up about it. This would lead to friction with any husband in a time when women were regarded as inferior/subservient to their fathers/husbands.

However, it does make for interesting speculation. Although it is a valid point to remember that her OWN grandmother, Mariana of Austria, when the time for Carlos II to marry in '79, didn't want her as a daughter-in-law due to the reports she had heard about her temper and behaviour (I think Antonia marrying Carlos might've been an earlier version of Maria Anna of Neuberg IMHO) but also because Carlos would have to wait at least three years, and nobody was sure that the king would have that long.

That said, one of the Ferdinands daughter's could maybe hook Carlos as a bride (she'd be comparatively unrelated (much like the Neuburg lady), and if she favors her Gonzaga looks rather than her Habsburg, beautiful, too (something that all of Eleonora Maddalena Gonzaga's daughters were reportedly).
 
I'm not sure Maria Antonia is the right age or I would have suggested her. She was born in 1669, 12 years after Ferdinand Joseph and Ferdinand Karl would have been born at LEAST a decade younger than her. Besides I think Leopold was really interested in the alliance with Bavaria and wanted to reward Maximillian Emmanuel (who later plotted to become HRE after the birth of the lamented Joseph Ferdinand). Besides I think more Habsburgs in Spain would just lead to more issues/head aches for Europe when the Ferdinand line becomes the Imperial line in this equation.

Her age does not really matter. She is the heiress presuntive of Spain and with a male Habsburg who is not her half-brother around she will marry him. Ferdinand Joseph will be 16 years old when Margarita died and her four years old daughter became the heiress presuntive of Spain and I do not think the Emperor will marry off his half-brother so quickly without securing Spain first so he will be free to be engaged to Antonia after her mother's death (or maybe also before, with the understanding who the engagement will be broken if she will not be anymore the heiress of Spain). You can look at her mother case and see this is the rule: Margarita was 11 years younger than Leopold and she still marry him.
In any case with a surving Ferdinand Joseph and the health of the prince of Asturias is not unlikely who the King of Spain will decide to marry Margarita to the younger prince (who can be shipped in Spain). Margarita was bethroted to Leopold when she was about three years old and at that time Ferdinand Joseph was not yet born (he is five years younger than her) and so Leopold was the only son of his father and Philip IV still hoped in a healthy son by Mariana. In the last year or two years of his life he knew his only potential heirs were Carlos, unlikely to have long life and being able to sire children, and Margarita (and his greates fear was the possibility who his other daughter Maria Teresa or her children inhereited the Spanish Empire).



For me the most likely scenario for the Ferdinands at this point is: in 1663/1664 young (seven or eight years old) Fernando (that will be his name now) will be shipped in Spain for marry the thirteen years old Infanta Margarita and will be educated there. The wedding will be formalized and consumated around his 14th/15th birthday (with Margarita being about 20 years old).

If needed for political reasons a match (first wedding for both) with the bride being anywhere from 6/7 years older and 12/13 years younger than the bridegroom is possible (Leopold married Margarita, eleven years younger than him, Louis XV married Marie Leszczyńska, seven years older than him and in Middle Ages you have famous matches like Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine and his parents Empress Maud and Geoffrey Plantagenet were the bride was at the second wedding (the bridegroom at the first) and eleven years older than the bridegroom and had many children).
 
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That said, one of the Ferdinands daughter's could maybe hook Carlos as a bride (she'd be comparatively unrelated (much like the Neuburg lady), and if she favors her Gonzaga looks rather than her Habsburg, beautiful, too (something that all of Eleonora Maddalena Gonzaga's daughters were reportedly).

Yes, but anybody who marries Carlos will not be having children. His many problems apparently left him impotent. So there will still be a succession crisis.

For me the most likely scenario for the Ferdinands at this point is: in 1663/1664 young (seven or eight years old) Fernando (that will be his name now) will be shipped in Spain for marry the thirteen years old Infanta Margarita and will be educated there. The wedding will be formalized and consumated around his 14th/15th birthday (with Margarita being about 20 years old).

You may be right. But this would just lead to even more issues down the right. So if you go that route:

Fernando Carlos (to use his Spanish name) is born around 1673-75 eventually becomes King of the Spanish Empire after Carlos II, probably marries one of Leopold's daughters (maybe Archduchess Maria Elisabeth). The War of the Spanish Succession never happens (with Phllip of Anjou remaining in France or if he still marries Isabel Farnese, moves to Parma, without ever renouncing his French rights) and the map looks very different since Fernando Carlos inherits the Spanish Empire intact (meaning Milan, Naples, Sicily and the Spanish Netherlands) and then eventually with the demise of the Austrian branch and Charles VI, Fernando Leopold (aka Ferdinand VII of Spain) inherits the Austrian/Hungarian/Bohemian dominions. I assume he marries one of Charles VI's daughters as well (I know this amount of interbreeding is what my original timeline wanted to get away from, but that is probably what would happen). The War of the Austrian Succession doesn't happen, and no Pragmatic Sanction (assuming Leopold, Joseph I, Charles VI don't try to bypass the now younger Spanish branch).

Fernando Leopoldo (who is now heir to most of Italy as well) takes control over an empire that basically mirrors or surpasses that of Charles V. What would the rest of Europe do? They won't stand idly by, will they?
 
Yes, but anybody who marries Carlos will not be having children. His many problems apparently left him impotent. So there will still be a succession crisis.



You may be right. But this would just lead to even more issues down the right. So if you go that route:

Fernando Carlos (to use his Spanish name) is born around 1673-75 eventually becomes King of the Spanish Empire after Carlos II, probably marries one of Leopold's daughters (maybe Archduchess Maria Elisabeth). The War of the Spanish Succession never happens (with Phllip of Anjou remaining in France or if he still marries Isabel Farnese, moves to Parma, without ever renouncing his French rights) and the map looks very different since Fernando Carlos inherits the Spanish Empire intact (meaning Milan, Naples, Sicily and the Spanish Netherlands) and then eventually with the demise of the Austrian branch and Charles VI, Fernando Leopold (aka Ferdinand VII of Spain) inherits the Austrian/Hungarian/Bohemian dominions. I assume he marries one of Charles VI's daughters as well (I know this amount of interbreeding is what my original timeline wanted to get away from, but that is probably what would happen). The War of the Austrian Succession doesn't happen, and no Pragmatic Sanction (assuming Leopold, Joseph I, Charles VI don't try to bypass the now younger Spanish branch).

Fernando Leopoldo (who is now heir to most of Italy as well) takes control over an empire that basically mirrors or surpasses that of Charles V. What would the rest of Europe do? They won't stand idly by, will they?

Your scenario will became reality only if both Fernando Carlos and Fernando Leopold (but his second name likely will not be Leopold but Felipe, Juan or another spanish name) are only children. And maybe with a POD so early Joseph I or Charles VI maybe are never born (Leopold's OTL second and third wives are both younger than Margarita and if Leopold does not marry her he will marry his ATL first wife earlier than OTL so this wife will be older than Claudia and Eleonore and maybe that wife will be able to give him sons older than his OTL children and live longer than Margarita so Leopold never marry Eleonore and his heirs will be many years older than his OTL sons)

I think Elisabetta Farnese (if she is still born, something not likely if her aunt never became Empress and if still became the heiress of Parma) will probabily marry either an italian or spanish or maybe portuguese prince. A french match for her is unlikely.
 
Your scenario will became reality only if both Fernando Carlos and Fernando Leopold (but his second name likely will not be Leopold but Felipe, Juan or another spanish name) are only children. And maybe with a POD so early Joseph I or Charles VI maybe are never born (Leopold's OTL second and third wives are both younger than Margarita and if Leopold does not marry her he will marry his ATL first wife earlier than OTL so this wife will be older than Claudia and Eleonore and maybe that wife will be able to give him sons older than his OTL children and live longer than Margarita so Leopold never marry Eleonore and his heirs will be many years older than his OTL sons)

I think Elisabetta Farnese (if she is still born, something not likely if her aunt never became Empress and if still became the heiress of Parma) will probabily marry either an italian or spanish or maybe portuguese prince. A french match for her is unlikely.

The question then arises, who takes the consort's diadem of the Holy Roman Empire if Margarita stays in Spain?

A Bourbon-Orléans empress is unlikely, Portugal's in open rebellion, and Bavaria (the usual cherry orchard for the Habsburgs) doesn't have any princesses available. The Neuburg girls are too young. And the only other proposal I can think of - and I'll admit that this is so far out of left field as to be close to ASB was a proposal for him to marry a Danish princess (one of Frederik III's daughters), since the Saxon Elector's sister is sickly/has fertility problems. Although if Minette is still unmarried I suppose she could become empress.

Unless we go with an Italian princess.
 
The question then arises, who takes the consort's diadem of the Holy Roman Empire if Margarita stays in Spain?

A Bourbon-Orléans empress is unlikely, Portugal's in open rebellion, and Bavaria (the usual cherry orchard for the Habsburgs) doesn't have any princesses available. The Neuburg girls are too young. And the only other proposal I can think of - and I'll admit that this is so far out of left field as to be close to ASB was a proposal for him to marry a Danish princess (one of Frederik III's daughters), since the Saxon Elector's sister is sickly/has fertility problems. Although if Minette is still unmarried I suppose she could become empress.

Unless we go with an Italian princess.

Likely an Italian princess (many of them had Habsburg blood) but Minette and the Orleans princesses are also candidates if they are still unmarried.
 
Some of the more conservative Lutheran princes might have daughters willing to convert -OTL Joseph I and Charles VI both married Brunswick princesses, and Hesse-Darmstadt and Saxony also seem like possibilities.
 
Some of the more conservative Lutheran princes might have daughters willing to convert -OTL Joseph I and Charles VI both married Brunswick princesses, and Hesse-Darmstadt and Saxony also seem like possibilities.

All three of the Darmstadt girls I can find died more or less the same time as Leopold's OTL wives 1 & 2:

Henriëtte Dorothea (b. 1641, m. Johann, Gf von Waldeck in 1667; d. 1672) no issue.
Auguste Philippine (b. 1643, +1672) died unmarried
Marie Hedwig (*b. 1647, m. Bernhard I of Saxe-Meiningen in 1671; d. 1680) 6 children (4 girls, 2 boys)

As to Saxony, the Elector's only sister/daughter is Erdmuthe Sophie who married the Margrave of Bayreuth, but died without issue (most likely as a result of health issues on her side, since her husband went on to have kids with wife no. 2).
And I think there are too many Saxon princesses in the Ernestine lines and in the junior Albertines to mention.
 
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