AHC: England the least powerful/important of four British nations

Mighty Scotland, fair Ireland, noble Wales, and... oh yes, England. What it would take to have England be the runt of the litter on the British Isles? I.e., how do you screw England while leaving the other nations intact?

I can't figure out a good way to do this that isn't ASB, and expect people will have to get creative. England has most of the good farm and pasture land, and has always been able to support a larger population, so even if another nation's rulers take the throne (as they did in OTL) they'll almost certainly move the capital to England and Anglicize anyway.
 
Define "intact". Are we allowed to change the borders of the nations at all?

If not, then England is going to be the strongest economic power in the British Isles, short of something truly horrible happening, which will also have knock on effects for the other nations.
 
Have a more successful "King Arthur" or equivalent figure push the Anglo-Saxons back to a coastal enclave from, say, Kent to Norfolk. Subsequently this becomes known as England.
 
Define "intact". Are we allowed to change the borders of the nations at all?

Let's say borders can change if the inhabitants of each nation are still linguistically and culturally distinct from each other; i.e., Scotland can have Northumbria only if in this TL Northumbria isn't just legally Scottish, but filled with Scots.
 
Strathclyde reached down over Cumbria. In a Scotland where this pertains, that's their border

Wales includes the Marches, which are defined by being the border areas. If these (Shropshire/Herefordshire etc) are on the Welsh side of the border

But beyond all this, look at Erik's York, the whole North was a kingdom apart from the nascent unity that was England. If the aftermath had gone to Scotland, then the border could have been on the Humber

In that scenario Scotland could constantly interfere in England

best regards
Grey Wolf
 
The pertinent issue therein from the point of view of this topic is that England, despite being the junior partner in the personal union in that James was king of Scotland first, became the dominant part of the UK almost immediately due to it's economic and demographic superiority.

We would probably need a 6th or 7th century PoD, wherein the Britons/Welsh manage to remain united more effectively than the Angles and Saxons and retain/retake both parts of the old north, Cornwall and preferably a large chunk of either the inland parts which became Mercia or the southern coast which became Wessex. If the Scots later take the remainder of Northumbria, that would still leave the Saxons with the most fertile lands, but only those most fertile lands.

In the tripartite indenture timeline posted above, Mortimer England is still the strongest of the now five nations (assuming that Ireland is currently united, which it wasn't at the time of the last post in the timeline insofar), but not strong enough to force it's will upon both Northumbria and Wales at the same time.
 
Danelaw holds ground and starts being a key part of Britain. Scotland might be able to get in there while the Danes are establishing the order and what not, able to take good parts of their kingdom and eventually come to dominate.
 
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