Greetings and salutations.
Been working on a Spainwank involving, among things, the Trastamara dynasty surviving. Habsburgs still get the Burgundian inheritance, and have that plus Austria, and maybe Bohemia depending on how things fall out in Hungary with the Ottomans later. Under the circumstances, the main royal residence is probably going to be in Low Countries, where most of the tax revenues are: sure, there's the problem of the French next door, but Austria has the Ottomans.
So, I'm wondering what this does to Protestantism in the Low Countries. With the monarch being locally based the Habsburgs are in a better position to rally local forces against Protestant rebels: on the other hand, they don't have Spanish armies or American silver. So, what seems more likely:
1. Habsburgs manage to suppress Protestantism or at least keep it the faith of a small enough minority that it's annoying but not an existential problem in the Burgundian Inheritance. Catholic united Netherlands, providing the Habsburgs with enough of a resource base at least hold onto the Holy Roman Emperor title, although nowhere near enough to suppress Protestantism in many parts of Germany.
2. Habsburgs try (and fail) to suppress a *Dutch revolt. This may well lead to a general collapse of Habsburg power in the Low Countries, since they'll be in poor shape to resist French claims on Flanders and elsewhere. Of course, even Trastamara Spain may support the Habsburgs, as a check to French power (since this theoretical Spain still includes southern Italy, they'll inevitable have some conflicts with France, aside from the simple fact France is the strongest power in Europe sans the mega-Habsburgs of OTL and therefore requires some balancing).
3. Habsburgs get on the Protestant train! Of course this may not work out very well: the Habsburgs are likely to want a *Lutheran or *Anglican Protestantism under their control, and Calvinists don't play that. [1] And the Habsburgs going protestant is going to give French aggression a lot of ideological cover.
Thoughts, brickbats?
[1]The idea has occasionally been floated of the German emperors taking control of the Protestant movement for their own purposes, creating a German *Lutheran Church, and gaining loads of expropriated Catholic Church lands to make into royal lands or with which to reward noble supporters. Due to the peculiarities of the protestant movement in the Netherlands, the Low Countries may be a rather poor place to inaugurate such a policy.
Been working on a Spainwank involving, among things, the Trastamara dynasty surviving. Habsburgs still get the Burgundian inheritance, and have that plus Austria, and maybe Bohemia depending on how things fall out in Hungary with the Ottomans later. Under the circumstances, the main royal residence is probably going to be in Low Countries, where most of the tax revenues are: sure, there's the problem of the French next door, but Austria has the Ottomans.
So, I'm wondering what this does to Protestantism in the Low Countries. With the monarch being locally based the Habsburgs are in a better position to rally local forces against Protestant rebels: on the other hand, they don't have Spanish armies or American silver. So, what seems more likely:
1. Habsburgs manage to suppress Protestantism or at least keep it the faith of a small enough minority that it's annoying but not an existential problem in the Burgundian Inheritance. Catholic united Netherlands, providing the Habsburgs with enough of a resource base at least hold onto the Holy Roman Emperor title, although nowhere near enough to suppress Protestantism in many parts of Germany.
2. Habsburgs try (and fail) to suppress a *Dutch revolt. This may well lead to a general collapse of Habsburg power in the Low Countries, since they'll be in poor shape to resist French claims on Flanders and elsewhere. Of course, even Trastamara Spain may support the Habsburgs, as a check to French power (since this theoretical Spain still includes southern Italy, they'll inevitable have some conflicts with France, aside from the simple fact France is the strongest power in Europe sans the mega-Habsburgs of OTL and therefore requires some balancing).
3. Habsburgs get on the Protestant train! Of course this may not work out very well: the Habsburgs are likely to want a *Lutheran or *Anglican Protestantism under their control, and Calvinists don't play that. [1] And the Habsburgs going protestant is going to give French aggression a lot of ideological cover.
Thoughts, brickbats?
[1]The idea has occasionally been floated of the German emperors taking control of the Protestant movement for their own purposes, creating a German *Lutheran Church, and gaining loads of expropriated Catholic Church lands to make into royal lands or with which to reward noble supporters. Due to the peculiarities of the protestant movement in the Netherlands, the Low Countries may be a rather poor place to inaugurate such a policy.
