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In 1490 philip the son of maximilian and mary the rich dies leaving as duchess of the burgundian territories his sister margaret. Realizing that his betrothed is much more valuable than anne of brittany charles viii decides to keep true to his betrothal and not go after anne. They are married in 1494 just before charles goes of to war and she is left pregnant. She gives birth to a healthy baby boy. Charles comes back from war as in otl but does not hit his head letting him live till 1519. And while he and margaret do have more children all the younger boys die as children leaving only adult sisters for his eldest son charles.
While charles is preparing for his next italian campaign scheduled for 1500 two things happen. First he buys the claim to the duchy of milan from his cousin louis. And second his father in law after years of trying to replace his male heir and failing is declared unable to have children by his doctors. So he decides to make his grandson his heir on 3 conditions. First he'll marry a hungarian princess when vladislaus ii produces one. Second the valois will add habsburg to there name. And third for hapsburg support in the Italy all the territory conquered by the french in Italy between the duchy of milan and the kingdom of naples will be given to maximilian and even those two territories he'll hold as a vassal to maximilian. If these terms are accepted maximilian will give the habsburg dynastic lands to his grandson and will try to get the electors to make the boy maximilian's successor as holy roman emperor. Knowing this is too big of an opportunity to pass up charles viii accepts.
So with a combined habsburg french army charles basically conquers all of italy even kicking the spanish out of sicily and sardinia over 10 years with the spanish giving up all claims to any italian territory. The pope even acknowledges maximilians superiority over him and gives him the papal states.
Charles viii son grows up to be a genius. He has great military and administrative ability and boundless energy and charisma. His personality is like that of ferdinand I of otl. He runs France from the age of 20 with his father living in retirement. In 1519 after marrying anne of hungary his father, grandfather and brother in law louis ii of hungary all die within weeks of each other. As the dauphin he succedes his father as king of france and succeeds his grandfather as holy roman emperor with massive bribes. In louis ii lands he is able to bribe his way onto louis three thornes. That election leaves him massive debt
How does charles IX handle all the problems of his reign. Can he handle Germany where he's viewed as French? How about protestantism? And his massive debt both accumulated by him and inherited from his father's italian wars? What about foreign powers like the ottomans? What about spain who is united with portugal thanks to butterflies and whose king is getting rich off trade from the indies and the new world while being bitter about losing all of the italian territory and claims to charles VIII. Can england still be a threat to this behemoth of an empire that has many more pressing enemies it must face? And lastly can Charles IX pass on his empire to one son or does it have to be divided amongst his sons sons? Also what would be the logical choice for Charles official capital? He would have to move around alot to properly govern but he would probably have an official capital. So where would it make most sense?