Hi everyone. Long-time reader, first-time poster. To me Conradin, the last Hohenstaufen, is a tantalizing character. Personality-wise, since he died so young, he's largely an enigma (and therefore an AH writer's dream), other than clearly being courageous and ambitious; in 1268, while still a teenager, he led an army against Charles d’Anjou, an intolerant monster even by medieval standards, to reclaim his family’s usurped kingdom of Sicily. OTL, Conradin and his maybe-lover Frederick of Baden were defeated at Tagliacozzo and executed soon thereafter.
But what if Conradin gets lucky? Say he wins Tagliacozzo, manages to kill or capture Charles, and takes over Sicily. He’s still in a difficult position; he’s excommunicated, and a Hohenstaufen restoration in Sicily is the last thing the Pope wants. More papal-sanctioned invasions of the sort Charles executed against Conradin’s uncle Manfred seem possible. On the other hand, the Ghibellines will likely rally to him, and he has friends (such as his former guardian Ludwig II of Bavaria) in Germany.
What, then, does Conradin’s future look like? How much chance does he stand of eventually being elected Holy Roman Emperor, and, if he manages that, of making progress toward his grandfather Frederick II’s goals of curtailing the power of the Papacy and the nobility? Or might he be unable to hold his German possessions at all, and wind up pursuing a policy similar to that of Charles OTL, focused on the Mediterranean rather than the HRE? And is there any prospect of rebuilding the multicultural society and quasi-post-feudal system of government his grandfather had instituted in Sicily? Meanwhile, what does Italy look like with a Hohenstaufen present to serve as the fulcrum of another round of Guelph-Ghibelline strife? And what about Germany without the “Swabian explosion” that occurred on Conradin’s OTL death, the permanent splintering of the Duchy of Swabia which allowed for the rise of, among others, the house of Hapsburg?
But what if Conradin gets lucky? Say he wins Tagliacozzo, manages to kill or capture Charles, and takes over Sicily. He’s still in a difficult position; he’s excommunicated, and a Hohenstaufen restoration in Sicily is the last thing the Pope wants. More papal-sanctioned invasions of the sort Charles executed against Conradin’s uncle Manfred seem possible. On the other hand, the Ghibellines will likely rally to him, and he has friends (such as his former guardian Ludwig II of Bavaria) in Germany.
What, then, does Conradin’s future look like? How much chance does he stand of eventually being elected Holy Roman Emperor, and, if he manages that, of making progress toward his grandfather Frederick II’s goals of curtailing the power of the Papacy and the nobility? Or might he be unable to hold his German possessions at all, and wind up pursuing a policy similar to that of Charles OTL, focused on the Mediterranean rather than the HRE? And is there any prospect of rebuilding the multicultural society and quasi-post-feudal system of government his grandfather had instituted in Sicily? Meanwhile, what does Italy look like with a Hohenstaufen present to serve as the fulcrum of another round of Guelph-Ghibelline strife? And what about Germany without the “Swabian explosion” that occurred on Conradin’s OTL death, the permanent splintering of the Duchy of Swabia which allowed for the rise of, among others, the house of Hapsburg?