This is a forum for those who think monarchy is a noble and viable alternative to the crude and materialistic mob mentality of republicanism.
Question
I’m making an alternate history project and one of the differences is that Prince Harald of Denmark who was chosen for and accepted the throne of an independent North Macedonia in 1912 actually ends up ruling the country in 1913 after the Balkan Wars. The Kings are as follows:
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Harald Christian Frederik (1913-1949)
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Gorm Christian Frederik Hans Harald (1949-1991)
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Ulrik Harald Gunnar Oluf (1991-present)
There is also an alternate line based on the idea that Ulrik’s father’s (Oluf Christian Carl Axel) marriage was illegitimate ad it was morganatic:
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Harald Christian Frederik (1913-1949)
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Gorm Christian Frederik Hans Harald (1949-1991)
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Wilhelm Friedrich Harald Christian Ernst August Karl Gustav (1991-present)
My question is though, what names do you think these people would have chosen when ruling as Kings of Macedonia, it’s not uncommon for foreign monarchs to choose names associated with the native culture such as how Prince Carl of Denmark became Haakon VII of Norway, or how Prince Christian of Denmark became Geórgios I of Greece.
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For the name question, that is a tough one.
Macedonia at that point had almost two and a half millenniums of conflicted identity and had over two millenniums of being under various empires.
My grandfather was born around then in what would now be North Macedonia. He considered himself Greek Macedonian My mother considers herself Greek Macedonian. But they distinctly speak a Slavic language. A fair chunk of his family are Greeks from what would now be Greece who spoke/speak Greece.
That’s what makes your question a hard and interesting question. If a hypothetical monarch during that time decided to adopt a “local” name, would they go with a Slavic or Greek version?
there was no macedonian identity at the time. Vardar macedonia was a contested zone because it was populated mainly by Bulgarians while Serbia wanted it cause it's at the center of the Balkans. there is no possible agreement over an independent macedonia because Serbia had only that as expansion zone since the alternative was a war on Austria for Bosnia. Bulgaria wanted to complete the borders of the Santo Stefano treaty. that's literally the reason why the second balkan war started.
later on TITO started brainwashing them telling them stuff like " you're Alexander the Greek descendants" or that Tsar Samuel ( one of the last rulers of the first Bulgarian empire) was macedonian as well
or giving them an alphabet which is Bulgarian written in Serbian. example: Bulgarian family name is Georgiev? congrats now you are Georgievski.
if you want to make a north macedonia TL fine but your starting pods are all starting after 1950.
cause before that there was IMRO
If you somehow make a macedonian independent state after the first Balkan war, it will ask to unify with Bulgaria in less then a decade like in 1919 right after ww1. cause no one would be able to actually contest it as Bulgaria would be ready for war and fresh while everyone else would be exhausted form ww1.
correction, maybe Greece might wanna say something but last time i checked Bulgaria has 3 times the size of the Greek army until the end of ww1.
the only difference form OTL you get is Bulgaria looking at ww1 and being like "not worth it"
Interesting, I wonder if they would fall to Communism though.
Macedonian nation is fake. 90% of them are Serbs and rest are Bulgarians and others. Because of that no Macedonian monarchy would be possible or would be able to withstand challenges of both WW1 and WW2. Not to mention western names.