What if-- Harold and Tostig

[thomas.berubeg]

Had Harold II sided with his brother Tostig against the Yorkshire nobles (or thanes)... I don't know why, possibly out of a greater sense of brotherly loyalty than in RL, what would have happened in the succedding few years.

Would Harold have lost his throne then in a Civil war? if so, would William have made his move to attack a (more) divided Anglo-Saxon england?

or, would england have remained peaceful, and, when William launched his invasion, would the English army have been fresh for the fight, not having to deal with a Norse backed invasion by Tostig?

thanks-
thomas

 

[Traitorfish]

Perhaps England would become so divide that both the Norse and Norman conquests would become successful, leading to a re-portioning of England between the old regions of Danelaw and Wessex (with Bernician falling to the Norse, and a possible Norman conquest of East Anglia). That could lead to an interesting contrast between an more heavily Normanised South and a more traditionally Germanic north.
Maybe the Norse would even be invited to occupy the North by the Danish aristocracy, who may, if sufficiently pissed off at the Godwinsons, have preferred a Scandinavian king to an Anglo-Saxon one. This may have lead to Harold submitting to William and becoming a vassal, putting Wessex in the hands of the Normans, albeit indirectly. I'd imagine that unconquered Saxons would chafe under William's inevitable attempts at Normanisation, possibly leading to a rebellion against the Godwinsons, which would either end in defeat, allowing the Normans to truly conquer Wessex as they did in history- and leading to the contrasting kingdoms that I mentioned above- or a victory which could lead to a re-established Saxon monarchy or a union with the Norse kingdom in the Norse in the hope of gaining protection from Norman reprisals.