How did this happen?

[Jay916]

Playing a game as Brandenburg and the King of Burgundy dies event just fired in the year 1476-and Hesse is the one who inherited all their land.
What?
Did something change in the game that I don't know? (I haven't played in months just got back into the game)
I'm just so used to seeing that land get divided between France and Austria. How the heck did Hesse get the land that usually goes to Austria?

 

[Nassau]

France? You mean Spain?

 

[Xara]

The Emperor cannot inherit the land if the event fires at the moment that Burgundy occupies even a single province of the Emperor's. Typically, this is Sundgau, which Burgundy manages to siege while Austria is busy flopping about like a headless chicken before getting it's @#$# together and invading the Low Countries. (The Emperor is also ineligible if they drop below a number of provinces threshold, which Austria has more leeway on)

When the Emperor is made ineligible, the event passes to the next in chain, a neighboring HRE member with whom Burgundy had a royal marriage. It is uncommon, but this is typically why you see sudden HRE small countries take it over.

It can also still be ineligible for them, and continues on to other possibilities, like a non-neighbor royal marriage partner, or Castile.

 

[Jay916]

Ah ok thanks for that info Xara, appreciate it!