Now that I look at, while not obscure, my POD is not that obvious. Sorry for making it sound easy
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The POD is that Jadwiga, who in OTL died giving birth to a girl (who also died) gives birth to a boy instead. This results in an entire different lines of Jageillons taking the thrones of Poland and Lithuania and eventually leading to intervention against Muscovy, helping out both Novogrod and the Golden Hord keep Muscovy down for while longer. Of course, both the Horde's and the Lithuanian positions in Russia inevetably collapse, leading to a power vacume that the Great Northern Trading Company gladly exploits.
Meanwhile, the butterflies get to work about 22-23 years after the POD in England with the death of the infant Henry VI in England. This allows the the Duke of Bedford (John of Lancaster) to take the throne and pursue a more succesful war with France. Orleans never happens, and France and England make peace with England placing all of Northern France and her Altantic coastline under English control. France is a rump Mediterrean state.
This peace holds for a while, until John dies and no other Lancasters are around. The throne is soon passed to the Yorks and war comes again to France and England as rump France moves to take back land. A few decades of on and off fighting ensues until another peace ensues in the late 1400's.
This lets England have a number of advantages. It avoided the War of the Roses, and it allowed the English to keep pillaging rump France while getting all the money from the wine trades and trade with Northern France. Ultimately, this peace leaves alot of warriors about and rich nobles and merchantmen who are quite willing to fund some mans dreams to cross the Atlantic (the Spaniards might get there first, but the English would be stepping on their heels). Some time in the early 1510's, a group of Englishmen get together (with Royal funding) and form the Company of (place random number here) adventurers. They funds an expidition that runs something along the lines of Cortes conquest of the Aztecs.
In the end, the companies membership expands, and everyone gets filthy rich. In their own Hubris, they change their company name to the Company of Great Men. This allows them to fund a whole slew of different companies with all their newfound capital including the Great Northern Trading Company. These new companies would not be without competition, since the Burgundians, the Portuguese, and the Spanish (maybe just Castille) aren't far behind.
That would be a very vague summary of the TL up to say the 1550's ish.