Baltic League (Chaos)

The Baltic League was founded in 1640 by king of, Northern  and  together with , - and -. Originally considered as a defense against Polish or Russian threats, the League soon started to become a counterweight to the interests of French king, and his allies in the , in.

1680: died. His son was unable to govern, which he was aware of. So he decided that Brandenburg-Silesia should be governed by a collegium of the other rulers of the Baltic League (, and ) until there'd be a capable heir to take over.

Surprisingly, in 1681 Johann IX of Hohenzollern (of Franconia-Pomerania) died without heirs too. The new French king declared the collegial government over Brandenburg-Silesia and Franconia-Pomerania for illegal.

The leaders of the Baltic League stood up to the challenge, and queen Kristina would start to form a bigger alliance directed against with,  and ; the traditionally anti-French  already were at her side, thanks to her marriage to Dutch royal.

In 1682, the (several times postponed) election for HREmperor happened. (Several candidates, like crown prince Humphrey of England and king himself, had died at an inconvenient time, and the anti-French groups had had to look for new candidates, since queen Kristina of Sweden wasn't electable.) Finally, after a turbulent election, king Francisco of Sicily was elected emperor  by Brandenburg, Prussia, Saxony,, the Netherlands, Palatinate (until then controlled by France), while Francois V ("the other Franz", as the Germans called him) was elected by , -, ,  and. Francois V didn't want to accept the result of the election, which was admittedly quite unclear (are the votes of French-occupied Luxemburg and collegially governed Brandenburg valid?). As a result, the started.