Part 13 – Trying To Sort Spaghetti Government - A Little Sanity Anyway
It's fixed. I'm sorry about the delay. Guess what? As it turned out, it's pretty similar to how I had it, but a few things get moved around, and it's more clear cut now.
Part 13 – Trying To Sort Spaghetti Government - A Little Sanity Anyway
Chevillon had reigned less than a year as Louis XV – that name, Louis, was so popular four kings from three different branches and two totally different families has used it within 30 years, one at the end of his reign and one at the start of his. Louis-Charles made his mark in several ways as Louis XVI “The Peacemaker.”
First, he decided that Roger should marry Marie, being closer in age than Jean-Armand. The man who was now Dauphin, Louis-Charles, was already married to Marie de Lameth, and had two sons. This was very good news for the continuation of the Courtenays. However, he also had to listen to the pleadings of Laura Martinozzi for her daughter, Mary of Modena. The introductions, made through the French Ambassador, was said to be delayed by her desire to perhaps marry her to Emmmanuel Philibert in 1670 (he ended up marrying Margaret Theresa), then by her waiting to make sure the Courtenays had a clear shot at actually reigning. In the competition between Mary of Modena and Marie Bourbon, it was pointed out by Queen Anne of France that Marie was actually third in line to the throne of Spain now; and, the joke went, “She could move to second any day.” If this were to happen, the Courtenays would have a personal union between France and Spain, which one royal wag said would be, “The most incredible run of good luck in history!”
Mary of Modena felt entitled to a present or future king, though, as her mother famously joked about this time, “It’s as if the crowned heads of Europe are all having daughters at the same time, or are dying off completely.” They wanted it to be a hereditary one, too, with no danger of a lost election. However, there weren’t many available. The coup which overthrew Alphonse of Portugal after Minette died was not totally unexpected, and Pedro already had a wife, Elisabeth of France/Lorraine. England was way out, Italian states were in major flux, and so she bided her time. She was born in 1658 so it wasn’t like she had no chance. She’d simply had to wait in line behind a bunch of of Hapsburg ladies trying to prolong their line.
This had been the same problem which had plagued Ferdiand Maria with his oldest daughter, Maria Anna Victoria. He’d tried to betroth her to a variety of people, but the men kept dying out. The only good part was that German princesses tended to marry later, so it wasn’t a major problem when 1676 came and only then did he betroth her to Elector Palatine John William after the death of Claudia Felicitas. Whether he stayed there and inherited or was elected King of Bohemia, he would hopefully produce heirs with her. Sadly, he could produce none, and she was ill quite often anyway, though they enjoyed a good relationship. She died in 1690.
Mary of Modena had considered him, but that wouldn’t have interested her as much, as he hadn’t inherited as much yet. She’d eventually, in 1674, contracted to marry the Crown Prince of Portugal, who was 7 years her junior but would at least but able to consummate a marriage by the late 1670s. She didn’t like this arrangement, though, and hoped there would be a way out.
Ironically, she’d rejected the idea of Jean_Armand, since Louis XVI already had heirs himself, allowing him to marry a French woman. And yet, she wound up with Louis XVI anyway! His wife died in that time period.(1) Mary of Modena became Queen of France, breaking her arrangement with the Prince of Portugal, who would not have been able to consummate for a couple years yet and wouldn’t have become king till 1706. She had a few issue who survived.(2)
Charlotte, daughter of Philip and Minette, was still only seven, so at least there were some guys who would be eligible for her. However, she seemed to be out of the running for anything in France, though nobody knew with Spain. Ferdinand Maria was already making inquiries about her marrying his second son, who normally would have gone into the priesthood.(3) Jean-Armand married Henri V’s granddaughter, uniting that segment of the Bourbons with the Courtenays as well; he died in 1677.(4) With him being only the third son, and Louis XVI already having two surviving sons in the early 1670s, he hadn’t been considered heavily for the Bavarian duke’s oldest daughter.
Turenne’s skill had prevented France from becoming a wasteland. Rebels had nipped at the edges for a couple more years as a couple other members of the House of Guise died in the fighting. In addition to the main claimant, Charles of Lorraine, at the end, Francois Marie and Alphonse Henri also died in battle; they also tried to take Lorraine even though Louis XIII had declared it to be indivisible with France in the same way Navarre was. (such an attempt brought the ire of the Portuguese, whose Elisabeth claimed it from Nicole, thus earning their help for the courtenays.) Queen Anne still worked with a vast network of supporters behind the scenes, too.
As Louis XVI discussed Charlotte with Ferdinand Maria, the Holy Roman Emperor and French king also considered just how much of a mess Europe was. Something needed to be done to solve this problem. The Emperor had the upper hand as one of the most respected rulers in Europe now, while the Courtenays were still learning the ropes. He wouldn’t pass up a chance to reshape Europe the way he hoped for it to be.
The focus on the Southern part of Europe meant he stayed away from Sweden, but he wasn’t as concerned about putting a Protestant Wittelsbach on that throne. His concern was for the Empire – and, given the animosity in Sweden toward the HRE, Sweden was best left alone.
Henry Stuart of England invited himself to their meeting in Munich while armies rested in early 1675, knowing his brother wouldn’t be decisive enough – and ignoring Louis XVI’s disdain for him as the man who seized Calais. This concerned Parliament, which demanded that Charles promise not to support a Catholic; rumors said that Henry, because of his ties with France, would be a closet Catholic like they said Charles was. This is despite Henry’s marriage to Frederica Amalia of Denamrk; Parliament was notoriously fussy about avoiding Catholics. They feared a disaster where the throne passed to the Catholic Charlotte. The fact Minette had later been Queen of Portugal till her death heightened fear, since Charles’ wife was Portuguese.
Henry had married a Protestant, though, allaying those fears somewhat, and Mary’s son William of Orange marrying Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine.(5)
Back to negotiations, the Portuguese and a few others were also invited since Henry had chosen to come. Mariana of Spain/Austria/Milan/wherever settled in as Duchess with her son, sickly but much healthier than the former Spanish king. He was raised to rule it as Duke of Milan, as the Hapsburg-Guise tried to get back some of their possessions. But then there was whole flock of Guise fighting for Naples. And, quite a few possessions were technically Maria Antonia’s, though the easternmost were more and more de facto not Hapsburg, thanks to Ferdinand Maria, though he continued to promise they would go to the issue of his son and Maria Antonia. The Hapsburg ladies vowed to put a stop to that and make them solely Hapsburg once more. Unless, of course, it could be proved that they would eventually be Hapsburg-Wittelsbach. And this doesn’t even get into Eleanor producing healthy heirs with the Farnese.
Lost in all of this was the Spanish Netherlands. The Governor-General had been ruling there somewhat freely for a while. As the conference broke down and the fighting resumed in 1675, however, it did seem to be one major area for compromise.
Who would own it, though? There were still fears that the French and Spanish could have a personal union or at least a very close family, and the French were worried the Portuguese could claim Spain through Elisabeth if people kept dying. This led to discussions of who would marry Charlotte, who could wind up inheriting a lot or nothing. No side really wanted the Wittelsbachs to receive it, and there were still Hapsburg ladies around.
Naples fighting was quite telling. Cosimo’s wife, Maria Anna Josepha, only bore three children, all of whom died before age five.(6) He feared he would remain married and end up without an heir. So, he focused on spending his money to take Naples, which he deemed easier to control than Sicily based on its proximity to Tuscany. This put him at odds with other Italian states, led by the Mantuans, who insisted that the Hapsburg possessions in Italy should be theirs, and after 1674 with the formerly French Guise, and since a couple years before with the Portuguese. Without a suitable heir, there was no possibility of a union between the Medicis and Gonzagas, which could have helped to settle things. However, Tuscany began to get the edge.
Then, the Spanish intervened, once they had the upper hand in Sicily – Wittelsbach attention was too focused on the Ottomans - continuing the Italian “spaghetti government,” which eventually became a term used for any extremely complicated system and lost the joking connection between the many strands of pasta in a bowl of spaghetti and the many groups fighting for control of the countries on the peninsula.
Cosimo III eventually bowed out with a treaty promising a son who was born in 1675 would wed Maria Emmanuela Leopolda of Spain, the surviving daughter of Emmanuel Philibert and the Queen of Spain. Maria Antonia could therefore simply inherit Austria and perhaps Miland and Piedmont, and fight the Guise if desired for Naples, while his heir could be King Consort of Spain and King of Sicily and Sardinia. Charles of Lorraine’s son, another Charles, born in 1650, became King Charles VI of Naples in 1675. Charles VI married Maria Angela Catarina of Modena, in an effort to solidify relations in Italy with the Guise.(7)
This angered the Portuguese, but Elizabeth and Pedro were promised the Spanish Netherlands. They had no real interest in them, but Henry Stuart persisted. A comical parody of the TV game show “Let’s Make A Deal” would later have the King of Portugal trying to choose between that and what was behind one of three doors; two of which were Italian provinces, one rich and one poor, and one of which was a simple cottage on the Riviera.
Eventually, they accepted the trade; Spanish Netherlands was a very rich merchant area. They and their British allies could do much to keep France in check, and could act quickly if there ever was danger of a union between France and Spain. France agreed not to try to conquer it since it was no longer Hapsburg or Guise or…. Spain kept the most possessions, though, Sicily and Sardinia were theirs, and Emmanuel Philibert was given Piedmont back, in addition to being regent for his daughter. The Guise who had been exiled to Naples held it. Eleanor, now a Farnese, could also inherit a number of thrones, after all. Her issue was first on the list to get Milan if Mariana passed with no surviving heirs, and to get Naples and even Tuscany if Cosimo died with no surviving heirs.
The Tuscan-Savoyard marriage was contracted in late 1675 at the same time. It couldn’t be consummated for over a decade. But, that hadn’t stopped Maria Antonia’s contract with the Bavarian heir. If Cosimo died without other heirs, a product of this match could even take all the thrones, while Maria Antonia’s heirs could have Austria and Bavaria, leaving Milan to Mariana’s heir with the Guise.
Cosimo III’s son died at age three in 1677. The treaty was reworked to allow for a future son to be married to Maria Emmanuela Leopolda. However, the deaths of Margaret Theresa and then Maria Emmanuela Leopolda killed that. Louis XVI is said to have been asked what should be done now and commented, “Solomon himself would have trouble with this craziness.”
He was no doubt speaking of Austria as well. And Charlotte, but we’ll leave her for later. Suffice to say that, born in 1666, she had a number of possible suitors, all with issues. Pedro and Elizabeth’s son and she would put Portugal and Spain in personal union if she became Queen. Ferdinand Maria’s second son meant more Wittelsbach power and the original plan had been to make him a church member. Italian princes seemed less important and weren’t the right age, anyway, for the most part. Ironically, the best candidate might even be Jan Sobieski’s oldest son, and with the king of Poland riding a high wave of popularity in 1676 for beating the Ottomans, his chances might be the best. Yeah, that was weird, too.
---------------------------------
(1) OTL, his wife died after having a baby that died in 1676, according to the family tree. He had another child in 1689 with a second wife. Given the stresses of being Queen with the war on, it’s possible she dies earlier if she died in the 1680s, which is likely since the last child wasn’t born till 1689. Even if she didn’t die in childbirth in OTL, though, the fact the baby died so soon showed something may have been going around, and mortality rates of women in childbirth mean it’s quite plausible.
(2) She had only 1 son and a daughter (who died rather young still). Some of that was due to smallpox, others were convulsions which indicates a problem somewhere; was it all with James? Probably, given mary’s and Anne’s OTL problems.
(3) OTL’s Archbishop of Cologne – and maybe here, too, we’ll see.
(4) He’s not listed as an abbot or anything in the French Wikipedia, though it’s possible he had become a priest and not risen any higher. Whether he died in battle or of some disease in 1677 OTL, given mortality rates in those days it’s quite conceivable. The line was not producing handfuls of surviving issue each time and was slowly dying out by this time even without all the inbreeding royal houses were doing in this era.
(5) It’s likely she only converted because of the sacrifices made to unite her with a French candidate, one who isn’t present here; she likely doesn’t marry one of the three Courtenays because of desires to influence Italy and unite families, as mentioned..
(6) She had only two boys, both dying quickly, with a German prince in OTL. It wasn’t just the Hapsburg connection that caused them to have problems bearing health children by this time.
(7) He apparently never married OTL, but he’d be in a much better position TTL, even though it would be less powerful than with some kingdoms. She’d be almost 20, which was more normal than waiting till almost 30 like OTL. He would still die in 1690.