WI: Philip II broke with the Church
- Thread starter Peppe
- Start date
Vive el revolucion. When your titles includes "the catholic monarch" and you're fighting the 80 years war effectively for religious reasons, you don't get to be protestant
You probably want Philip II to become disillusioned with Pope in Rome. If the Pope denies him or angers him enough, he could declare the Pope in Rome as a heretic, or a puppet of one of his rivals, and then declares a New Catholic Church/Sect in Spain, declaring the “true form of Catholicism”. I don’t think it be like English Anglicism, it’d be the same Catholic doctrines, but just doesn’t follow the Pope in Rome.
How would a break from the church affect the marriages of the Hapsburgs?
Which probably looks more like setting up an anti-pope than anything. I have a hard to seeing Phillip permanently breaking from Rome, just appointing someone more ... "suitable."
The question is why would Philip break from Rome in the first place. The Spanish were the dominant power in Italy from the mid 16th century on, and the only other foreign powers with a vested interest in the region were the Ottomans (switched from expansion to consolidation in the mid 16th century), the French (who seemed to be more interested in the Low Countries than in Italy after the Valois) and the Imperial Habsburgs (same dynasty).
Well, it seems that Phillip considered himself a better Catholic than the Pope and probably was in a direct communication with the Deity so he would not consider himself really breaking with the Church, just showing the Church right way to go. So he would remain One and Only Catholic King and the Pope would become a schismatic or even a heretic. 😜
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It certainly will not stop the Dutch revolt. The Dutch did not just revolt over religion. There were more problems with the Spanish like taxes and increased centralisation. Besides that most Dutch protestants became calvinist and there is a big theological difference between calvinism and pseudo catholicism. Perhaps the biggest change would be that Dutch catholics might actualy revolt too. If this for example means more support for the revolt in the OTL union of Atrecht/Arras Spains position in the Netherlands is doomed.
The anti-Habsburg Paul IV did exactly this. Had the inquisition start drawing up the documents to declare Felipe and his dad BOTH heretics.
Skallagrim
Banned
Regarding the Netherlands, a lot depends on when this happens. William of Orange was initially quite happy to be a Catholic, albeit a tolerant one. If this happens early enough, all the Dutchmen (Catholic and Protestant) may see themselves united in a Revolt that is aimed against Philip explicitly, and not so much against Catholicism. With the Catholic powers also against Philip, the odds of quicker Dutch independence shoot straight upwards. In such a scenario, William could remain Catholic, and establish an independent Netherlands (comprising all of the Low Countries) under his aegis, which is to be explicitly based on religious toleration.
To William of Orange, this would actually be much closer to his ideal than what happened in OTL. Also, he probably doesn't get murdered by a fanatical Catholic, so that's a plus for him personally...
To William of Orange, this would actually be much closer to his ideal than what happened in OTL. Also, he probably doesn't get murdered by a fanatical Catholic, so that's a plus for him personally...