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Of late I’ve been looking at the last generation of Medicis to rule Tuscany, the three children of Cosimo III and his estranged French wife. All three had marriages where one of the partners had syphilis. None left children.

Now, of the three matches – two (that of Giovan’ Gastone and his sister, Anna Maria Luisa) were known to have the possibility of children (Anna Maria birthed a stillborn son in 1692 and never gave birth again; while Giovan’ Gastone’s “insane” wife, the Duchess of Lauenburg, had two children from her previous marriage (she just refused to sleep with her Italian husband).*

So, that said, what if one of the two marriages were to be successful in that sphere?

If Giovan’ Gastone’s wife were to produce a child, a boy would be heir to the Medici state, plus inherit mom’s claim on the duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg ahead of his half-sisters; while a girl would be an interesting alt-Isabella Farnese for the Bourbons, the Savoys or the Habsburgs to snap up.

But what might be truly interesting, is Anna Maria Luisa’s son being born alive. Now I’ve only seen the possibility of a Tuscany in personal union with the Electoral Palatinate once in a TL before – maybe it’s been done more often – but I think that the survival of that boy, let’s call him Giovanni Guglielmo Cosimo, could make for an interesting future, since it wouldn’t just affect Tuscany (were he to inherit (and there’s every likelihood of him doing so, since Cosimo III wanted to name his daughter as heiress if her brother were to remain childless), but the Palatinate too.

What do you guys think?

*Ferdinandino and his Bavarian wife have no recorded pregnancies, plus, he contracted syphilis relatively early in the marriage - while Giovan' Gastone's own bout came after he returned to Florence from Germany IIRC.
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