Inspired by my question regarding Eduard of Simmern's son surviving, I decided to look at another Pfalz prince who also lost a son that could've had an interesting effect on the European chessboard: Eduard's distant cousin, Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine of the Rhine.
Now, JW was a notorious horndog and unfortunately had syphilis, which, while I'm not sure about his first wife, he apparently did pass it on to his second wife, Anna Maria Luisa de Medici (sister of the last grand duke of Tuscany). Anna Maria was delivered of a stillborn son in 1692, but, courtesy of her husband giving her syphilis, she never had another child. Now, let's assume that the boy is born hale and hearty (let's call him Johann Wilhelm Edmund (it's a random name, I'll admit, but there was a Count of Sinzendorf who married Bianca Maria Sforza (a descendant of Ludovico il Moro) with the same name - they only had a daughter who had the same name as her mother, and married into the Doria family)). Either way, Johann Wilhelm Edmund is going to be 21 years old when his uncle, Ferdinandino de Medici dies. Could he eventually be seen as heir to Tuscany as well as the Palatinate? He would have a far better claim than his cousin, Isabel Farnese (hell, he might even marry La Farnese). What about in Germany? He'd succeed there before he would (if at all) in Florence.
Now, JW was a notorious horndog and unfortunately had syphilis, which, while I'm not sure about his first wife, he apparently did pass it on to his second wife, Anna Maria Luisa de Medici (sister of the last grand duke of Tuscany). Anna Maria was delivered of a stillborn son in 1692, but, courtesy of her husband giving her syphilis, she never had another child. Now, let's assume that the boy is born hale and hearty (let's call him Johann Wilhelm Edmund (it's a random name, I'll admit, but there was a Count of Sinzendorf who married Bianca Maria Sforza (a descendant of Ludovico il Moro) with the same name - they only had a daughter who had the same name as her mother, and married into the Doria family)). Either way, Johann Wilhelm Edmund is going to be 21 years old when his uncle, Ferdinandino de Medici dies. Could he eventually be seen as heir to Tuscany as well as the Palatinate? He would have a far better claim than his cousin, Isabel Farnese (hell, he might even marry La Farnese). What about in Germany? He'd succeed there before he would (if at all) in Florence.
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