Three Stuart Princesses

Charles I and Henrietta Maria had five daughters - of whom, only the eldest (Mary) and the youngest (Henriette Anne a.k.a. Minette) left surviving issue. The other three - Elizabeth (b. 1635), Anne (b. 1637) and Katherine (b. 1639) - are generally either forgotten or ignored by history.

However, Elizabeth and Anne were reportedly both killed by their frail constitutions, while Katherine is according to various sources either listed as a stillborn child; born alive but died immediately after birth; or lived only a day. Elizabeth was a relatively important figure in her short life, since at one point, Charles wanted to swap her out with Mary to marry the Prince of Orange, due to him considering the house of Nassau unworthy of a king's eldest daughter. Unfortunately, Lizzy died at Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight in 1650, a few days before the permission came for her to join her sister, Mary, in the Netherlands.

Employing some handwavium, say Elizabeth, Anne and Katherine had survived, and their health is somewhat better, how might these princesses grow up, where do they marry (if they marry at all), and do the younger two fall-in with the Catholicism of the French court? or do they join Elizabeth and the duke of Gloucester in refusing to become Catholic? And what effects does this have on England's future?
 
Well, Elizabeth is likely to be "low church" much like Gloucester, so I suspect she'll butt heads with her mother during their stay in Paris. Anne is likewise a possibility for a low church - esp. considering she and Katherine might spend a lot of time with Elizabeth and Gloucester before being shipped off to their relatives.

As to their futures, I think a Catholic match is out for Elizabeth (i.e. none of Minette's possible bridegrooms - the duke of Savoy, grand duke of Tuscany or Holy Roman Emperor) due to her religious beliefs. She might be married off to Rupert of the Rhine though. Depending on how the younger girls are raised, probably the German electoral princes - I don't think Denmark or Sweden had princes of an age for them, or perhaps (though this is possibly very out of left-field) the French princes du sang.
 
Just did a quick check and the German Electoral Princes weren't exactly thick on the ground either:

Friedrich Wilhelm, the Great Elector (b. 1620) originally wanted to marry Elisabeth of Bohemia (their cousin) but married Luise Henriette of Oranje.
The youngest Palatine prince (and cousin) is Johann Philipp (b. 1627). Another Palatine prince is Adolf Johann of Kleeburg (younger brother of Carl X of Sweden, although Carl might also be considered since he only married in 1654 so Elizabeth would be 19)
Electoral Saxony's youngest prince is born in 1619, and then the earliest prince of the next generation (Johann George III) is 1647.

As to marriages, I could see them (much like all except their eldest sister) waiting in the wings to marry if and when the Restoration occurs. But I can say this much, Elizabeth is not going to marry a Catholic suitor, meaning that (barring her and her sisters dying without issue as OTL) I regard it as more than a little unlikely that the Electress Sophia's line is going to get anywhere near the throne if things still run as OTL.
 
So in doing some looking up on the Stuarts between the Civil War and the Restoration, it seems that there were two requests from within the British aristocracy for their hands.

The son of the Marquess of Worcester (later the first Duke of Beaufort) was promised the hand of the Princess Elizabeth in 1646 when the war was over. How interesting that might've been - a combination of the Red Rose of Lancaster (albeit an illegitimate one) and the Stuarts.

Also despite it's fictionalization by Margaret Irwin, there is actually grounds for James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose demanding the hand of their cousin, Louise Hollandine of the Palatinate as a reward for his victory in Scotland. Now a little tweaking and I wonder if he could perhaps press for one of those three daughters of Charles I. And I also wonder if Charles II would even consider it? Thoughts?
 
I recently found this interesting snippet on another site about the possibility of Charles I's younger brother surviving, as well as Charles I's unfortunate children (Elizabeth, Anne, Katherine and Henry)

Charles I's brother Robert probably would have waited to marry until after Charles did; by that time the Thirty Years War was going strong, limiting the pool of available brides. To shore up Charles's French alliance, he probably would have married a French bride from the powerful families of Rohan, Tremouille, or Bouillon. Those three families were Huguenots, which meant that Robert's French bride would have acted as a counterweight to the Catholicism of Charles's bride.

Robert would have been a member of Charles's privy council, but it's unlikely that he would have held any other important post. Thanks to his father's tutelage, Charles would have been reluctant to allow a potential rival to hold a position of authority. Once war broke out, Robert would have been appointed as one of Charles I's generals by virtue of being a member of the royal family. It's unlikely that he would have been a good one, since he would have had no opportunity to gain practical experience of warfare. I doubt that he would have been executed so long as one of his brother's sons remained alive and out of Parliament's clutches.

As for Charles I's sisters, Margaret might have married Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden or possibly an Italian prince. By the time the other two would have been old enough to marry, the Thirty Years War had broken out, limiting their choices. It’s probable that one would have married Frederick Henry of Orange, while the other might have married an Italian prince. They might also have married into the French nobility.

There is no reason to think that any of Charles II's siblings who were being held prisoner by Parliament would not have been released right on schedule. They would have joined their mother as a matter of course. It's unlikely that any of them would have married during the Interregnum due to their poverty.

After the Restoration, they would have had a narrow pool to choose from. Charles II's decision to marry Catherine of Portugal alienated the Austrian and Spanish Habsburgs and their clients. Poor Henri Jules de Bourbon-Conde was considered a very eligible young man, and there were various Italian princes and princesses available. Hortense Mancini would have been a dark horse candidate as a bride for Henry

Does anyone think that this is likely?
 
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