When Elector Palatine Frederick V was chosen to assume the royal crown of the kingdom of Bohemia, he immediately became guilty of treason against the Habsburg emperors. When push came to shove after the death of Emperor Matthias, Frederick (as Bedrich Falcky, King of Bohemia) voted for none other than the Habsburg candidate, Archduke Ferdinand, which instead of making him a king declaring war on another king, he merely became a vassal guilty of treason against his master. (Surely he couldn't have thought the Habsburgs would just leave him alone in Prague?)

Now, the POD is this. Say in the Imperial election that chose Ferdinand II, Friedrich/Bedrich decides to show some backbone and vote for someone else (IDK who else was available, they might have considered electing Friedrich to the Bohemian throne as a stepping stone to him becoming emperor). I also don't know how the chips fell (under what majority Ferdinand was elected emperor), but I can imagine that should Friedrich have taken a stand, at least one of the other electors would've sided with him, and usually at least another one was at sixes-and-sevens with the Habsburgs, which means that even if they didn't like Friedrich personally, they might've rebelled "a little" against the Habsburgs, which would've given Friedrich three votes (not sure if the Palatine vote would've counted alongside the Bohemian one (I don't think so, unless Friedrich's Palatine vote was wielded by his younger Simmern-Kaiserslautern brother).

But what might the results be if Ferdinand II doesn't get elected immediately, or someone else (who?) gets elected instead?
 
Frederick did not cast a vote as King of Bohemia. Ferdinand was still recognised as that, and duly voted for himself.

Fred had instructed his delegate at Frankfurt in no circs to vote for Ferdinand, and the man registered a vote for the Duke of Bavaria. Unfortunately, the DoB had declined all votes in favour of Ferdinand, so the Palatine vote got registered as a vote for Ferdinand.
 
The Catholic-dominated estates of Bohemia elected Ferdinand as King of Bohemia, the protestants rejected and acclaimed for Frederick of the Palatinate as a pretender (as he was the leader of the Protestant Union), in other words, pretty much no one relevant would recognize his vote as King of Bohemia, in fact Saxony was pretty much in the Imperial camp in order to score something for themselves, so even with the contested vote Ferdinand still have the three spiritual votes and the Wettins, jackpot.
 
Frederick did not cast a vote as King of Bohemia. Ferdinand was still recognised as that, and duly voted for himself.

Fred had instructed his delegate at Frankfurt in no circs to vote for Ferdinand, and the man registered a vote for the Duke of Bavaria. Unfortunately, the DoB had declined all votes in favour of Ferdinand, so the Palatine vote got registered as a vote for Ferdinand.

The Catholic-dominated estates of Bohemia elected Ferdinand as King of Bohemia, the protestants rejected and acclaimed for Frederick of the Palatinate as a pretender (as he was the leader of the Protestant Union), in other words, pretty much no one relevant would recognize his vote as King of Bohemia, in fact Saxony was pretty much in the Imperial camp in order to score something for themselves, so even with the contested vote Ferdinand still have the three spiritual votes and the Wettins, jackpot.

Damn, damn and double damn.

Saxony was in the imperial camp, the Brandenburg elector a weak reed, and the legitimate king of Bohemia an arch-Catholic. Fun times. So, obviously Friedrich isn't going to vote as king of Bohemia, so rather than changing the votes, is there a way to get the duke of Bavaria to accept the candidacy? I don't know how, really? He seems to have been rewarded with the electoral vote for his loyalty. But the wiki article on his second wife says that she espoused a pro-Bavarian/Bavaria-first policy despite her being a Habsburg archduchess.
 
Top