WI West Francia absorbs Middle Francia

So basically the kings of West Francia get crowned by the pope as Kings of Francia and Kings of Italy.

Will the franks push into Iberia like the Germans pushed into the Baltics IOTL?

What happens to poor old East Francia (Germany), centralization like France IOTL? And how does that affect western slavs?
 
Do you mean Italy, Burgundy and Lotharingia? A minimum would be at least the first two. Lotharingia, like Burgundy IOTL might stay independent longer. Furthermore with West Francia being busy in Italy and thus also Burgundy, Lotharingia might still end up with East Francia or as mentioned stay independent longer. The faith of Lotharingia will also depend on the POD, since already by 880 Lotharingia (Northern Middle Francia) was entirely gained by East Francia.

Another nitpick is that the rulers of West, Middle and East Francia were all a king of the Franks (Francia).

An imperial West Francia will as the Premier Catholic Power have an interest in the Reconquista in the Iberian Peninsula.

East Francia (whether with or without Lotharingia) might centralize, but in what form is far from certain. East Francia could become more OTL French or OTL English, there are some possibilities.
Also an East Francia not busy in Italy will probably stay at least as active towards the Western Slavs as IOTL.
 
Because when both Burgundy and Italy was under the HRE, Occitan was very much popular, I think a West Francia that has Burgundy and Italy could make Occitan be considered a better choice for a National Language.

As a cultural influence it might indeed be greater than IOTL, but at the same time it will also depend on the political centre, if that like IOTL stays Paris, then any national standard will be a mix of those two. Well mix, more like one (highly?) influenced by the other.
 
Top