WI : Byzantine Scotland Survival

zhropkick

Banned
I would think that any nobility of Greek extraction that somehow come to end up in Scotland would “gaelicize” or “scotticize” depending on the timeframe we’re looking at here. Unless we get an implausible scenario where the entire government flees to Scotland, they won’t really keep their Greek culture past a generation.

I also can’t really see a bunch of Greeks uprooting and sailing to what they viewed as literally the ends of the earth. Even if one of their own holds the throne of Scotland, if they were forced to mass migrate in some scenario then the Balkans or Italy are 1000 times more attractive options than Scotland.

I think the most we could see out of a scenario realistically is a dynasty of Greek heritage ruling Scotland but they’re thoroughly Scot and they can only really have as reasonable a claim to being “the Roman Empire” than a place like Iceland being ruled by the Hohenzollern Kings and claiming to be the legitimate Germany.
Having a claim that unreasonable didn't stop the Russians from screeching about being the real Rome for centuries
 
Having a claim that unreasonable didn't stop the Russians from screeching about being the real Rome for centuries

Well the Russians had a reasonable enough claim in my opinion. They were Orthodox, related in blood to the Emperors of Byzantium (notably Vladimir the Great’s Imperial wife and Ivan III’s wife, Sophia Palaiologos. They were an autocratic monarchy a la the Basilea ton Rhomaion, etc. On an interesting little note as well, Moscow was built on 7 hills like Rome and Constantinople were.

The claim of the Muscovites being the heirs of the 15th century Byzantines is much more reasonable in my opinion than some through and through western Catholic nation with a Greek sovereign claiming to be Rome.
 

zhropkick

Banned
Well the Russians had a reasonable enough claim in my opinion. They were Orthodox, related in blood to the Emperors of Byzantium (notably Vladimir the Great’s Imperial wife and Ivan III’s wife, Sophia Palaiologos. They were an autocratic monarchy a la the Basilea ton Rhomaion, etc. On an interesting little note as well, Moscow was built on 7 hills like Rome and Constantinople were.

The claim of the Muscovites being the heirs of the 15th century Byzantines is much more reasonable in my opinion than some through and through western Catholic nation with a Greek sovereign claiming to be Rome.
Being Orthodox doesn't seem like too much of an issue when you're still Christian anyway, just ask the Franks. You could always use the Turks as an example too, but I'm pretty sure not even the Turks themselves bought that after a while. Having a little bit of royal Byzantine blood flowing through your veins, like the Russian ruling family did and like the Scottish ruling family would have in this scenario (the OP draws a parallel to the Palaiologoi in Montferrat), seems like all you really need to claim the legacy of some or other Roman Empire when it's in your geopolitical/diplomatic interests to do so. Either that or the Pope saying you're Roman but that's not a part of this scenario. It's on the same level as Russia more or less.
 
Considering the incredible prevalence of internecine warfare, backstabbing, conniving, murder, mayhem and chaos that Scottish mediaeval politics consists of, I'm not absolutely certain that this did not actually happen.
 
Close, but not quite cigar. The most AH.com title would be

WI: Ottoman-ruled Austria-Hungary and Bismarck's Kaiserreich invade the Soviet Union to establish Israel in St. Petersburg, Liberia in Namibia, and U.S.A. 'pulls a Texas' in Alaska while Ethiopia pulls a Meiji?
But what influence did the Byzanto-Scots stab-in-the-back of Greater Mercia have during the Ottomans’ Operation Sealion?
 
IOTL Charles Gonzaga Duke of Nevers presented claim to Byzantine throne as descendant of Margaret Palailogos, heiress of Montferrat. King of Poland Władysław IV married his daughter Marie Louise mostly because of these claims before his planned war with Ottomans. We could easily switch fates of Montferrat Palailogos and Mantuan Gonzagas, so also French line of House of Palailogos appears as Princes Étrangers. Say daughter of Palailogos Duke of Nevers marry Scottish King, later her brother dies without issue and that daughter and her Scottish husband claim to be rightful heirs to House of Palailogos and thus also to Byzantine throne. That is easiest way.
 
IOTL Charles Gonzaga Duke of Nevers presented claim to Byzantine throne as descendant of Margaret Palailogos, heiress of Montferrat. King of Poland Władysław IV married his daughter Marie Louise mostly because of these claims before his planned war with Ottomans. We could easily switch fates of Montferrat Palailogos and Mantuan Gonzagas, so also French line of House of Palailogos appears as Princes Étrangers. Say daughter of Palailogos Duke of Nevers marry Scottish King, later her brother dies without issue and that daughter and her Scottish husband claim to be rightful heirs to House of Palailogos and thus also to Byzantine throne. That is easiest way.

I'm coffee-drunk enough to say that I want to hug you, that is glorious.

Especially because I think that would still (butterfly netted ofc, the switch of Palaiologoi and Gonzagas would have some unexpected changes) enable a Stuart-Palaiologoi on the throne of England without much overwhelming geopolitical change.

Rule Britannia, Britannia Rebuilds the Empire. :D - "What do you mean Mr Picot? This is ancestral Roman Land belonging to us! We shan't do any less than annex the Turk outright!"
 
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