Alexander I de Valois, August Emperor of Europe, King of France and Germany, Archduke of the United Netherlands, Prince of the Swiss Confederation
Due to not having sons, Louis XII of France was succeeded by Francis I, who was...lackluster. So what if Louis had a son? How could that change the fate of Europe?
Note: This timeline is about establishing a novel state, made up of semi-plausible facts. This is basically a timeline about a Renaissance Alexander the Great, born as the heir to the French throne.
Point of Divergence[]
- In 1499, King Louis XII of France and his wife Anne, Duchess of Brittany had twins - Claude and Alexander. They had an heir in Alexander, named after the famed Macedonian conqueror, who could continue the Orleans branch of the House of Valois.
Alternate timeline[]
- 1499 - Alexander of Valois's birth confirms the Orleans branch of the House of Valois to the French throne.
- 1st January, 1500 - Louis XII confirms his son as Dauphin of France and heir to the throne in a lavish ceremony.
- 1514 - Alexander at age 15 marries Princess Mary of England.
- 1 January 1515 - Louis XII of France dies. The Dauphin, by then Duke of Brittany from his mother's inheritance, becomes Alexander I of France.
- 28 June 1519 - after a lot of cajoling, Alexander manages to get the Electors of the Holy Roman Empire to elect him Holy Roman Emperor in succession to Habsburg Emperor Maximillian, preventing the latter's grandson Charles I of Spain to be elected instead. Alexander achieves his childhood dream of becoming the second Charlemagne but desires for a more stable empire.
- 25 May, 1521 - on the conclusion of the Diet of Worms, Alexander I, Holy Roman Emperor and King of France declares that Martin Luthor is "free to preach his view on Christ as only God may prove his truth or lies". In order to "establish a more perfect Christendom", he calls on the Pope to summon an ecumenical council in order to clear out the issues, raised by the Lutherans. A formal request is written by the Emperor and signed by him and all the nobility of the Empire and France and sent to Rome.
- 14 November 1521 - 23 October 1523 - The Holy War - Pope Leo X refuses the Emperor's summons for an ecumenical council and threatens him with excommunication. In turn, similarly to the the old medieval conflicts with the Papacy, the Emperor raised an army and marched on Rome. Charles I, Archduke of Austria and King of Spain declares for the Pope, while King Henry VIII of England, whose sister is the Emperor's wife, backs Alexander. The Emperor personally commands his troops and puts down all rebellious princes within the empire (led by Ferdinand, brother of Charles and de facto ruler of Austria on behalf of his brother) and defeats Charles' troops in the field. Afterwards, he marches on Rome and takes the city, while commanding for there to be no looting of the Rome itself. By then Pope Leo, as well as his successor, the Spanish-backed Pope Adrian VI, have died to illness and the papacy is vacant. New Papal elections are held with Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Henry VIII of England's chief minister, being elected as a compromise candidate. Taking the regnal name Celestine VI, the new Pope does the bidding for both his masters (since he was in service of Henry and in the pay of Alexander). He divorces Henry from his wife upon the latter requesting it and convenes an ecumenical council, which ultimately allowed Martin Luther to continue preaching and pledged to resolve most of the issues, he addressed in his theses. Ultimately though, the the Papacy showed mostly lip service to Luther's claims, Celestine did not want his authority questioned. However the council did two very important things, which drastically altered religion in Europe - the granting of the emperor the ability to control religious life within the empire with only nominal supervision from Rome and the acceptance of Lutheranism as a "part of Christendom, which is not a heresy", ultimately preventing his persecution and de facto approving of a different path of Christ, even if nominally the Pope retained supremacy.
- 23 October 1523 - The Treaty of Aachen. The leaders in the war meet in Aachen, where they sign a peace treaty, which is utterly ruthless in regards to Charles of Spain. The treaty forces him to abdicate both the Netherlands and Austria to the Emperor and allow uninhibited colonization of North America to both England and France. The emperor annexes the lands of the Electorate of Bavaria, whose sovereign had opposed him as well. As a "tribute to the papacy", Charles is forced to cede parts of the Kingdom of Naples to the Pope. Reparations in Gold are also demanded.
- 1528 - 1531 - The Imperial Civil War - The Emperor makes the final move towards his ultimate goal - the restoration of the empire of Charlemagne, in particular its unity. This caused great displeasure in many of the German princes, who were unwilling to part with their privileges. The empire was split between the Royal and Nobility factions, with the latter being funded by Charles I of Spain, who wished for revenge against Alexander. This, of course, led to war, during which Alexander once again showed his military prowess, when during the so called "Battle of Six Armies", the emperor crushed six separate armies within a single day. Alexander's fleet, which he had been improving since his accession to the French Throne, assaulted the Spanish fleet at sea, cutting them off from supporting his enemies and delivering gold from the New World to Spain. By 1530, the German princes had been crushed and the conflict became yet another one between Spain and Alexander until Charles I sued for peace in 1531.
- 13 September 1531 - In the aftermath of the Imperial Civil War, Emperor Alexander makes the Edict of Aachen, with which he dissolves the Holy Roman Empire and unifies France, the German principalities and the Netherlands into the Empire of Europe.
OTL vs ATL differences[]
- With France, the Netherlands and Germany unified, there are fewer wars in western and central Europe.
- Italy is unified by the Medici after a pact is made between Cosimo I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany who marries a daughter of Emperor Cyrus of Europe.
- Henry VIII, still in an alliance with Emperor Alexander I of Europe, betroths his bastard son Henry Fitzroy to one of Alexander's French relations and places the boy as King of Ireland, who together with an Anglo-French army subjugate the island completely. Thus, Ireland becomes an independent country upon unification.
- There is no reformation in England. Henry VIII's marriage to Anne Boleyn produces a son - future Henry IX of England (male version of Elizabeth I, because why not). Henry IX continues the House of Tudor's rule in England.
- Mary of Scots marries Robert of Valois. Robert is the third son of Cyrus, Prince of France and heir to the European throne. Protestant rise in Scotland is prevented and the two promote Gaelic culture, renaming the country to the Kingdom of Alba.
List of Nations[]
| Name | Flag | Type | Ruler(s) | OTL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| European Empire |  |
Federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy | Emperor: Orpheus II
Chief Minister: Marine Le Pen |
France, Catalonia, Germany, Benelux countries, Switzerland, Austria, parts of Poland, Sicily, Sardinia |
| Kingdom of Bohemia |  |
Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy | King: Ladislaus III
Prime Minister: Andrej Babiš |
Czechoslovakia |
| Kingdom of Italy |  |
Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy | Queen: Lucrezia
Prime Minister: Mario Draghi |
Italy, plus parts of Slovenia and Croatia, minus Sardinia and Sicily |
| Kingdom of Lithuania |  |
Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy | King Mindaugas III
Prime Minister: Ingrida Šimonytė |
Lithuania, Belarus, parts of Poland |
| Kingdom of Alba |  |
Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy | Queen Anne II
Prime Minister: Nicola Sturgeon |
Scotland, Faroe Islands |
| Kingdom of England |  |
Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy | King: Henry XII
Prime Minister: Boris Johnson |
England and Wales |
| Kingdom of Ireland |  |
Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy | Queen: Morgan
Prime Minister: Leo Varadkar |
Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland |
| Kingdom of Hellas |  |
Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy | King: Michael XII
Prime Minister: Kyriakos Mitsotakis |
Greece, eastern Thrace, Bosporus region, Izmir, Cyprus |