X Marcks the Spot

What would the result of a surviving Karl Friedrich, heir to the United Duchies of Julich-Kleve-Berg be? He was highly intelligent and a good Catholic, might we see a re-Catholicization of the German south during or after the 30 Years War, or might his descendants follow a principle of religion tolerance? And would a surviving house of Cleves in the Rhineland ally with the Empire or France in the TYW?
 
Well no Brandenburg-Prussia inheriting the Rhineland for one. No (or delayed) Julich War of the Succession. And just because he was thought of highly by one pope doesn't mean the next one will be as in love with him. Look at Henry VIII - Leo X granted him the title Fidei Defensor and Clementus VII refused him a divorce/annulment. Likewise he could be just as childless as his brother anyway.
But assuming he isn't, does he marry Catholic or Protestant? Or one of each?
 
I agree that he MAY have a see-saw relationship with the following vicars of Christ, Greg did see him as a way of recatholicizing Germany by example rather than by war. Also Henry VIII (his one time uncle by marriage) was KING (slightly outranking a mere duke) and thus his loss to the Catholic fold, followed by much of the anticatholicizing of his country was a little bit more unsettling than some petty German duke - pope's champion or not.

Another thing to consider is that Bavaria's dukes didn't do much in the way of spreading the True Faith because they were more concerned with being made first Electors, then Holy Roman Emperors or a king of somewhere. Even Max I's entry into the TYW was entirely political. So why wouldn't Karl Friedrich and his line do the same?

But it still brings me back to one of my earlier questions, without inheriting the Rhineland, will it be Brandenburg that still unites Germany? Or perhaps a Wittelsbach/Wettin?
 
I agree that he MAY have a see-saw relationship with the following vicars of Christ, Greg did see him as a way of recatholicizing Germany by example rather than by war. Also Henry VIII (his one time uncle by marriage) was KING (slightly outranking a mere duke) and thus his loss to the Catholic fold, followed by much of the anticatholicizing of his country was a little bit more unsettling than some petty German duke - pope's champion or not.

Another thing to consider is that Bavaria's dukes didn't do much in the way of spreading the True Faith because they were more concerned with being made first Electors, then Holy Roman Emperors or a king of somewhere. Even Max I's entry into the TYW was entirely political. So why wouldn't Karl Friedrich and his line do the same?

But it still brings me back to one of my earlier questions, without inheriting the Rhineland, will it be Brandenburg that still unites Germany? Or perhaps a Wittelsbach/Wettin?

OK I'm very confused here. I thought that Brandenburg/Prussia didn't get the Rhineland until the Congress of Vienna?
 
Treaty of Xanten (1612) split duchy of Julich-Cleves-Berg between the two heirs (Wittelsbach vs Hohenzollern). Brandenburg got Julich, Mark and Ravenstein while Pfalz-Neuberg and Pfalz-Zweibrucken got the rest - duchies of Berg and Cleves and somewhere else.
 
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