A random death in 1628 (by drowning) forfeited the life of the Palatine Erbprinz, Friedrich Heinrich - eldest son of the Winter King and Elizabeth Stuart - leaving his younger brother, Karl I Ludwig, as heir to the defunct (at that point) Palatine electorate.
What would've happened if he hadn't been taken with to see the captured Spanish treasure fleet moored on the Harlemmermeer where he drowned? Or, he at least knows how to swim (always possible, since Charles II and Minette were reportedly both great swimmers). James I had been conducting negotiations (in the hope of increasing England's presence on the European political stage) for his grandson with a Spanish infanta (unspecified and unnamed, since D. Felipe IV had no surviving daughters before James' death, although D. Maria Eugenia was born in 31 October 1625, and lived to the age of 2), after the failed Spanish match for the Prince of Wales and the Infanta Maria Ana. This was also with the hope of having the Palatine Electorate restored to his son-in-law via the Spanish king's cousin, the Holy Roman Emperor.
How might European history (both immediately and in the long term) be affected by the survival of the Erbprinz? Would he have grown up being with a personality more like Karl I? Or like Rupert? How would the exile in the Netherlands affect his life-view, and his religion? Does he go intense Calvinist? Or does he adopt an attitude towards religion like Charles II or Liselotte?
What would've happened if he hadn't been taken with to see the captured Spanish treasure fleet moored on the Harlemmermeer where he drowned? Or, he at least knows how to swim (always possible, since Charles II and Minette were reportedly both great swimmers). James I had been conducting negotiations (in the hope of increasing England's presence on the European political stage) for his grandson with a Spanish infanta (unspecified and unnamed, since D. Felipe IV had no surviving daughters before James' death, although D. Maria Eugenia was born in 31 October 1625, and lived to the age of 2), after the failed Spanish match for the Prince of Wales and the Infanta Maria Ana. This was also with the hope of having the Palatine Electorate restored to his son-in-law via the Spanish king's cousin, the Holy Roman Emperor.
How might European history (both immediately and in the long term) be affected by the survival of the Erbprinz? Would he have grown up being with a personality more like Karl I? Or like Rupert? How would the exile in the Netherlands affect his life-view, and his religion? Does he go intense Calvinist? Or does he adopt an attitude towards religion like Charles II or Liselotte?