Post by eurofed on Jan 11, 2020 12:11:02 GMT
Inspired by recent discussion in another thread and my boundless AH love for successful European hegemonies. Let's assume ITTL a close equivalent of Charles V is born, but a more favorable event sequence in the last century enabled him to inherit a bigger and more stable set of domains. In addition to all the OTL stuff, he got Portugal (different sequence of intermarrying and inheritance between the three Iberian kingdoms and the Habsburg), a vast portion of the HRE (ITTL the Habsburg managed to inherit Saxony and Brandenburg in addition to Austria and the Burgundian lands, thanks to a convergent dynastic merger between the Habsburg, the Luxemburg, and the Wettin, as well as the Hohenzollern never getting Brandenburg from the Luxemburg in the first place), and most of North Italy (the Visconti managed to crush the Republic of Florence, push Venice out of the mainland, and merge Lombardy, Tuscany, Emilia, and Venetia in one North Italian state, which the Habsburg later inherited, or claimed as Emperors when the dynasty lapsed). He also got the Kingdom of Hungary just like OTL, thanks to the Hungarians electing him King to get protection from the Ottomans.
Of course, the German and Italian enemies of the aborning Habsburg hegemony tried to oppose their expansion, but they always got defeated. For a good while, France was too busy dealing with the HYW and civil wars between rival factions of its high nobility to interfere. Once it had put its own house in order, France projected forward to affirm its own ambitions in Italy, the Bugundian inheritance, and the western HRE, but they failed to achieve much success. Merger of the Spanish and Imperial lands in one realm under Charles made the French monarchy even more determined and desperate to fight to the bitter end in order to break encirclement.
Due to the domain of the Habsburg Emperors getting so vast, a successful centralization process was well underway in the HRE, including establishment of functional Imperial taxation, levy, and courts systems, as well as limitation of private armies, ban of military conflicts between the princes and their alliances with foreign states, and Imperial succession becoming hereditary (de jure or de facto, it mattered little. The Habsburg power base had become so vast they usually had more than enough influence to control the election). In exchange for these reforms, a federal/proto-parliamentarian representation system for the Imperial lands was established through the Imperial Diet and the Imperial Circles (the latter being extended to Bohemia and North Italy).
Thanks to a different resolution of the Western Schism, a thorough religious reform had been implemented in the last century, which established the supremacy of the Ecumenical Council, decentralized the Church and dismantled the power of the Popes, greatly reduced corruption, improved education, and seized the excess wealth of the clergy, abolished many religious orders, and secularized the ecclesiastical principalities. In short, many causes of the Reformation had been done with and away, averting it entirely. The reform also enabled a reunification of the Western/Latin and Eastern/Orthodox Churches, thanks to the main stumbling bloc of Papal supremacy being removed and creative theology finding a working compromise on the Filioque and Purgatory issues. Due to the rule having been established against temporal power of the clergy, and the radical loss of power of the Popes, the Papal States, the Teutonic State, the Comtat Venaissin, and the other ecclesiastical principalities across Europe were secularized, partitioned, or annexed by their neighbors.
Soon after his accession to the throne, *Charles acknowledged the implacable hostility of Valois France and the dire threat of the Ottoman Empire and decided he was given a set of life tasks by Providence, in no particular order of priority: 1) enact state-building reforms for his various domains to put them in a good shape, keep them united, and gradually advance their legal merger in a sufficiently centralized state as much as feasible. He understood that due to its vastness, some degree of federal autonomy and proto-parliamentary representation for his empire may be necessary, and thanks to his experiences dealing with the Imperial Diet, the Spanish Cortes, and the various Estates of his other domains, he was willing to work with it as long as the counterpart proves reasonable. 2) make his empire prosperous and well-ruled enough that no overwhelming unrest occurs, and the few particularist, taxation, or heresy-spawned rebellions that inevitably occur are crushed w/o excessive difficulty. 3) crush the Valois and rebuild the Carolingian Empire/WRE by merging (most of) France in his empire. He was willing to offer England the northwestern French lands if they cooperated with the defeat and partition of France. 4) conquer and re-Christianize North Africa. 5) make Hungary safe, kick the Ottomans out of the Balkans, and bring the eastern borders of Christendom back where they stood before the rise of the Ottomans. He would surely love to recover all the land that was lost to Islam since the Arab expansion, but reluctantly understood this might be a task better fit for his successors. 6) Expand the borders of Christendom and the glory and wealth of his empire by pursuing vigorous colonization of these new lands in the Americas and Asia.
Since he regarded Imperial (re)unification of Christendom as a sacred charge he inherited from his glorious namesake predecessor and has to preserve and advance as far as possible, *Charles was never going to accept political division of his inherited and conquered domains for himself and his successors as long as he had a choice. However, he was entirely willing to delegate reasonable amounts of authority to viceroys, picked among members of his family and trusted ministers. He might be willing to make exceptions for the most peripheral or culturally alien lands, such as the liberated Balkans, but the restored unity of the Carolingian core of Germany, Iberia, Italy, and hopefully France was beyond question. He expected Hungary too may be eventually folded back in the empire as well, but he understand fulfilling this task might require some serious time and effort.
He enjoyed a somewhat better health than OTL, due to the expanded family tree that birthed him (no deformed lower jaw or epilepsy), although gout remained a distinct possibility depending on his diet. Notwithstanding the dynastic divergence, he got a close but more longeve equivalent of Isabella of Portugal as consort, a talented, fertile, and devoted wife of suitable royal pedigree who was going to survive with him into old age.
Of course, the German and Italian enemies of the aborning Habsburg hegemony tried to oppose their expansion, but they always got defeated. For a good while, France was too busy dealing with the HYW and civil wars between rival factions of its high nobility to interfere. Once it had put its own house in order, France projected forward to affirm its own ambitions in Italy, the Bugundian inheritance, and the western HRE, but they failed to achieve much success. Merger of the Spanish and Imperial lands in one realm under Charles made the French monarchy even more determined and desperate to fight to the bitter end in order to break encirclement.
Due to the domain of the Habsburg Emperors getting so vast, a successful centralization process was well underway in the HRE, including establishment of functional Imperial taxation, levy, and courts systems, as well as limitation of private armies, ban of military conflicts between the princes and their alliances with foreign states, and Imperial succession becoming hereditary (de jure or de facto, it mattered little. The Habsburg power base had become so vast they usually had more than enough influence to control the election). In exchange for these reforms, a federal/proto-parliamentarian representation system for the Imperial lands was established through the Imperial Diet and the Imperial Circles (the latter being extended to Bohemia and North Italy).
Thanks to a different resolution of the Western Schism, a thorough religious reform had been implemented in the last century, which established the supremacy of the Ecumenical Council, decentralized the Church and dismantled the power of the Popes, greatly reduced corruption, improved education, and seized the excess wealth of the clergy, abolished many religious orders, and secularized the ecclesiastical principalities. In short, many causes of the Reformation had been done with and away, averting it entirely. The reform also enabled a reunification of the Western/Latin and Eastern/Orthodox Churches, thanks to the main stumbling bloc of Papal supremacy being removed and creative theology finding a working compromise on the Filioque and Purgatory issues. Due to the rule having been established against temporal power of the clergy, and the radical loss of power of the Popes, the Papal States, the Teutonic State, the Comtat Venaissin, and the other ecclesiastical principalities across Europe were secularized, partitioned, or annexed by their neighbors.
Soon after his accession to the throne, *Charles acknowledged the implacable hostility of Valois France and the dire threat of the Ottoman Empire and decided he was given a set of life tasks by Providence, in no particular order of priority: 1) enact state-building reforms for his various domains to put them in a good shape, keep them united, and gradually advance their legal merger in a sufficiently centralized state as much as feasible. He understood that due to its vastness, some degree of federal autonomy and proto-parliamentary representation for his empire may be necessary, and thanks to his experiences dealing with the Imperial Diet, the Spanish Cortes, and the various Estates of his other domains, he was willing to work with it as long as the counterpart proves reasonable. 2) make his empire prosperous and well-ruled enough that no overwhelming unrest occurs, and the few particularist, taxation, or heresy-spawned rebellions that inevitably occur are crushed w/o excessive difficulty. 3) crush the Valois and rebuild the Carolingian Empire/WRE by merging (most of) France in his empire. He was willing to offer England the northwestern French lands if they cooperated with the defeat and partition of France. 4) conquer and re-Christianize North Africa. 5) make Hungary safe, kick the Ottomans out of the Balkans, and bring the eastern borders of Christendom back where they stood before the rise of the Ottomans. He would surely love to recover all the land that was lost to Islam since the Arab expansion, but reluctantly understood this might be a task better fit for his successors. 6) Expand the borders of Christendom and the glory and wealth of his empire by pursuing vigorous colonization of these new lands in the Americas and Asia.
Since he regarded Imperial (re)unification of Christendom as a sacred charge he inherited from his glorious namesake predecessor and has to preserve and advance as far as possible, *Charles was never going to accept political division of his inherited and conquered domains for himself and his successors as long as he had a choice. However, he was entirely willing to delegate reasonable amounts of authority to viceroys, picked among members of his family and trusted ministers. He might be willing to make exceptions for the most peripheral or culturally alien lands, such as the liberated Balkans, but the restored unity of the Carolingian core of Germany, Iberia, Italy, and hopefully France was beyond question. He expected Hungary too may be eventually folded back in the empire as well, but he understand fulfilling this task might require some serious time and effort.
He enjoyed a somewhat better health than OTL, due to the expanded family tree that birthed him (no deformed lower jaw or epilepsy), although gout remained a distinct possibility depending on his diet. Notwithstanding the dynastic divergence, he got a close but more longeve equivalent of Isabella of Portugal as consort, a talented, fertile, and devoted wife of suitable royal pedigree who was going to survive with him into old age.