France (Chaos)

== Beginning as OTL ==
Being too far away from OTL's Mongol conquests, French history took a while to divert significantly. From 1209-29, France fought and eradicated the sect of the Albigensians, acquiring for the king.
At the same time around they had to fight the Angevine Empire; although France was initially weaker, the former ended with the Battle of Bouvines in 1214. This victory helped Philippe Augustus to make France a hereditary monarchy in 1226. Later in 1259 England lost all possessions in France but Guyenne.
Louis IX was a very pious ruler; in 1263, he planned a crusade as retail for the lost cities in Palestine, but his brother was busy in Italy, so it was postponed. In 1270 finally, the Seventh Crusade happened. France attacked (which was wanted by Charles too), without success.
In 1276, Philippe III of France fought for reasons of succession, without success. In 1296, the Auld Alliance between France and Scotland was made.
In the north, France had tried to get under its control. But in 1302, Flemish citizens massacred French occupation troops, and defeated them in the . The fights went on, until Flanders and France made peace in 1312; Flanders ceded its French-speaking parts.
In 1303, Philippe the Fair was excommunicated by the pope. In the same year however, Pope Boniface VIII was seized by the French. In the following decades, the (mostly French) popes would reign from , which was chosen as the new residence in 1309.
1306, the Jews were kicked out of France - the state was almost broke, and the king wanted to take their money. For the same reason, the Knights Templar were accused for heresy in 1307 and again in 1311/12, which ended with their destruction.
== Divergence and ==
After the deaths of Philippe IV the Fair 1314 and his son (who may or may not be identical to his OTL counterpart) in 1317, the latter's baby son became new king. At the beginning, his uncles Charles (-1323) and Philippe (-1327) reigned in his name. In 1336, the young king started a short war with .
Although the question of succession didn't become as urgent as OTL, where it lead to the Hundred-Year War, and France still managed to find an opportunity to fight. In 1341, the began. France supported , England - with the result that both were drawn into the war, which now became the . It was joined by Flanders on England's side and on France's side. Thanks to their longbows, the English defeated the French several times; and although the wouldn't happen until some decades later, France was hit very hard by the famines and the Peasants' revolt of 1351. At least, in 1349 France acquired the .
In 1353, France has to make peace with England after the defeat in the . John of Montfort became duke of , England got all of (similar as in the peace of OTL 1360), Flanders acquired the .
Now the French king thought about his family and planned to give several duchies from the crown's domain to his sons, as appanage. If that plan had been realized, the French kings would've lost half of their power, since he had no less than four surviving sons. However, in 1355 the French queen Isabelle deposed her incompetent husband and made her son king. About the other sons, the queen promised them lands that had yet to be conquered, in the English territory.
In 1366, went to France. In the same year, the French started the war against England again. Since they had learned how devastating the English / Welsh longbows were, they avoided open fight - with success. In 1385, England and France make peace again; the English lost what they conquered in the last war, going back to the borders of 1340.
1396, the arrived in France.
== Second and ==
1414, England under new king made alliances with Castille and the , attacked France again. The had begun. While France suffered some defeats in the beginning, 1421, they made a separate peace with the Netherlands, giving emperor Flanders, which was incorporated into the Netherlands. Now, the tides turned again: Storming the conquered cities with cannons and relying on their greater manpower, the French slowly drove the allied English and Castillians back. 1424 the , the Castillian estates, protested the high costs and low results of the war. King was sorry about it, but had to leave the war too. Things were complicated again however when the pope and the king of asked the French king in 1426 for a crusade against the . King agreed, made peace with the English, leaving Guyenne in their hands; king Richard III had to accept it as a fief, though.
1439, got a pro-French ruler, eventually returning to the fold.
But in 1455, France was shook up again when king had his completely mad younger brother Philippe (also duke of Bourbon) killed. The nobles (including the royal sidelines, and old king Richard III of England, who was talked by his advisors into it) who were already concerned with the growing power of the king, used this accident to rebel against him. 1460, the ended, Louis' other brother became king. He had to grant the other dukes a lot of power, however, which made them practically independent.
Now however he was free to make the Third Aquitainian War 1477-83, which ended with Aquitaine finally becoming French. Scotland- also had entered the war on France's side, but this ended with Scotland falling under English rule.
== Expansionism ==
1486, France sent the first ships to , under a (of the infamous pirate family), making claim in the area of OTL Carolina, where they founded at the site of OTL Charleston.
France also interfered in the , by making the 1486-91, which gave them the Artois, plus the free cities of Metz, Toul and Verdun.
In 1490, made the Republic of appoint his cousin Jean "protector of the republic", essentially giving him lots of real power, promising them an "everlasting alliance" with France against the Muslims. This alliance would be expanded: In 1511, François, the Regent for his nephew, French king , was elected Roman king (as ). He had to find out soon that the title was far from meaning much power. To counter this, he founded the " / Alpenbund" with Venice, and -Carinthia, which is mainly directed against the Seljuks.
1522, the king was warned by that the was about to conquer the rich lands of the Tenochca. Alasdair pointed out: "If the king owns their gold, he can afford to hire all the mercenaries in the world! You have to stop him now!" King Charles agreed with him, started the . French troops fought in Iberia, North Africa and Atlantis, and in the , France acquired West , Panama and the Mississippi valley and, maybe more important, became the protector of the native states of and (the Inca empire).
Now that the was ended and the main opponent weakened, France turned its look eastward. 1567-74, they fought the against the weakened Seljuks. In the (Austria) 1574, the Seljuks had to cede western to France. François of the royal sideline of was elected new king .
The 1570s became "The golden years": All the great Western European states - the , France, and Alasdair's empire had competent, popular rulers who lived in peace with each other. The Style of Occidentalism(o) was at its height.
After the sons of Charles VIII had died without heirs, their second-grade cousin François of the sideline became new king in 1586. He was anything but popular, but fortunately, he'd die one year later already.
1599, the kings of the and agreed to solve their conflict in Aragon in a way that satisfied them both: Aragon was divided - and the lands south of the Ebro went to Castille, the lands north of it, plus the , and Sardinia (which was sold to , though) to France. They also fought the together, further strengthening their empires.
== ==
The new king had to cut down the power of the nobles at the court (1619-25), finally succeeding and making France an absolutist state. About this time, the formerly good relations between the Triple Monarchy and France cooled down dangerously, which was also the fault of the other new monarch, . It was a triumph for François IV when his opponent first lost the Iberian peninsula, and later even the crown of England. So it was no wonder that France supported uprisings in Castille 1628 - and when the Castillians had been successful, France also supported uprisings in Aragon and Portugal, to weaken its neighbor further. In 1629, he used the opportunity to grab , where the Castillian rule wasn't firm enough yet. In Atlantis, the French-Spanish border between Caroline and was moved south, giving (OTL Georgia - named after the Virgin Mary) to France.
He lead France into several wars against the , as the second and the . These wars expanded France's influence on the Balcans and along the route to India. He also managed to conquer back, being the first European ruler since the Crusades to do so.
But he also made several wars in : He interfered in the , making both participants members of the Alliance des Alpes and thus his satellites. 1630-35, France and - fought the Netherlands in the . In the , the Dutch gave Denmark-Braunschweig , and France got a good part of Flanders and all of Hennegau / Hainaut. 1660-64, he made the : France and its allies Venice, Bavaria, Switzerland and made claims for Luxemburgian territories, although they were highly doubtful. But with the absolutist François IV as French king, things like this didn't matter. Although Luxemburg had (most of) the HRE on its side, they were defeated and dismembered. Afterwards, he himself was elected Roman king in 1664.
1637, had joined GN with his help, and even got one electoral vote. Its German neighbors secretly claimed that this was for keeping them in check. Having his relative Charles / elected , he pushed through the in 1653: All the free cities and other smaller territories of the HREGN were mediatized (given to bigger states). France itself received some lands too - the Grafschaften (counties) of Mömpelgard, Salm, Saarwerden-Saarbrücken, Veldenz and Sponheim, now extending into German-speaking territory.
With his help, Nassau defeated the (1676-79), annexed it. Denmark-Braunschweig was angered somewhat by this because France had promised them earlier to get all of Münster.
Economically, he continued the policy of his predecessors to encourage trade with . 1612: French merchants from arrived in , started diplomatic connections. France took to secure the way to India. 1620, the first French ship (coming from Suez) arrived in India. In the 1630s, French traders were allowed to trade in the Portuguese colonies in , after Portugal had become independent with French help. 1664, French traders reached in .
The king also promoted the fine arts: In the castle of , the first "" was made in 1645. (Mexican gardens are influenced by the Aztec way of gardening / planting crops, putting many different colorful plants next to each other, forming geometrical patterns, with colors matching of course.) Under him, the style of reached its height.
But at the end, even his allies became aware of the rising power of France. When he annexed the German state of in 1681, against all the rules, laws and traditions, even France's allies in Germany weren't willing to take these excesses anymore.
== The ==
The new king, , immediately tried to become Roman king like his father. 1682, the (several times postponed) election took place. (Several candidates, like crown prince Humphrey of England and king himself, had died at an inconvenient time, and the anti-French groups had to look for new candidates, since queen wasn't electable.) Finally, after a turbulent election, king Francisco II of Sicily was elected emperor by Brandenburg, Prussia, Saxony, Jülich-Berg, the Netherlands, and the Palatinate (until then controlled by France), while François V ("the other Franz", as the Germans called him) was elected by Poland, Württemberg-Austria, Nassau, Braunschweig and Luxemburg. François 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 anti-French War broke out. The king himself didn't witness the end of it anymore, although at the time of his death (1692) the French defeat was forseeable.
His successor went on to fight a bit pro forma, but after he had a chieved a symbolic victory by breaking the siege of , he was willing to make peace. In the , he had to give up his allies Scotland, Mexico and Portugal.
== Rebuilding French power ==
In 1700, France made an alliance with , against the Seljuks and . As a consequence, it supported the first in the 1714-25.
During 1717-23, France used the opportunity that Italy and Russia had defeated the Seljuks, allied with Persia and stroke against the Seljuks in the . The French again occupied the Sinai and . This time, Jerusalem was left alone.
1725, France and Persia made an agreement about . Both nations were allowed to trade with the land, it was not forced to switch religion in any way, but had to pay tribute to both of them.
France also expanded in India, taking Sri Lanka in 1728. And 1731, France founded the with , , Thailand, , and . In 1738 however, the Swedes took Sri Lanka, after defeating a stronger French fleet surprisingly.
=== In Europe ===
After the death of king (and Roman emperor) in 1722, the Netherlands were united with Sweden-Norway-Mecklenburg in personal union under his grandson. France objected the unification. 1724, it found an ally in Luxemburg; the (also called Dutch War of Unification) began. It was resolved in 1729; France took Hainaut and parts of Flanders (again...), Luxemburg got Namur.
Then in 1735, , last duke of the Rhine Palatinate, died without heir. It wasn't completely clear whether France or Bavaria should get it. New emperor of Brandenburg let the French unmisunderstandably know that he wouldn't tolerate them taking it. As a result, during 1736-42, the took place. Although the German and Swedish-Dutch armies couldn't defeat the French armies, when Spain and Britain threatened France, peace was made. The Palatinate went neither to France nor Bavaria, but to a grandnephew of the Bourbon king of Hungary. In case he and his brother should die without heir, the Palatinate would fall back to Bavaria.
After the , France tried to get more influence on the Catholic church again. 1738, king François VI managed to smuggle pope Innocent from Rome to Avignon. The Italian king protested, but couldn't change it.
== To the French Republic ==
In 1743, French king died surprisingly without heir, so his unpopular uncle became king.