What if Charles IX.....

What if Charles IX King of France had, had listened to Pius IV and joined the holy league. I was a bit of Peter Piersons article If the Holy League hadn't dithered. He seems to feel that the Ottomans could have been expelled from the Balkans, pretty quickly.
 
Charles IX was probably too busy with the Religious Wars in France to join the League, anyways. I guess he could join for propaganda value, but I don't think France would be able to contribute. Charles IX was also increasingly under the influence of Admiral Coligny after the Peace of St. Germain in 1570. Coligny was the leader of the Huguenot Party and was also quite anti-Spanish. He pursued an alliance with both England and the Dutch and sought to unite the country through his war policy against Spain.

The Holy League won at Lepanto regardless of French involvement, so I don't think their involvement would severely change matters there. The huge point would be a land campaign against the Ottomans; I'm not sure French involvement would change matters. Spain was tied up in the Netherlands and France has her own troubles, meaning any campaign in the Balkans would be shouldered by the Holy Roman Emperor. Maybe they could make some ground in Hungary, but it seems like it'd be temporary and something that would fall apart at the seams. Even Lepanto in many ways was a pyrrhic victory as the Ottoman fleet was rebuilt and recovered from the disaster a year later.

France just has too many troubles in the period and chilly relations with the Spanish especially that I think they would just butt heads with other participants in the Holy League. Not to mention the semi-friendly relations France had with the Ottomans... remember, not even two generations before, François Ier was enlisting their help against Spain and even allowed the Ottoman fleet to winter at Toulon. I'm pretty sure the French still had warm relations with the Porte and knew they might come in handy should they need them against the Habsburgs.
 
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