AHC: Norway-Finland-Scotland

Your challenge, with a pod in 1050 CE, is to meet the following requirements:

A kingdom/empire that possesses:

-Norway
-Finland,
-Lapland
-Sami lands
-Karelia
-Novgorod
-Scotland
-Orkney islands
-Iceland
-Isle of Mann
-Estonia

Further, the state must be catholic to some degree, even if it is otherwise strained relationally to the Papacy. All other requirements do not matter. Is this comglomeration possible?

Warning: For the challenge, this state cannot include England, Normandy, Sweden proper or Denmark...
 
Thinking of a name would be hard enough, much less holding together so many different cultures in medieval times.

Elective monarchical confederation?
Some kind of aristocratic Republic?
A haven for misfits and exiles?

I'm drawing a blank.
Really not sure how a Catholic nation that includes Orthodox Novgorod is doable unless there's some kind of Particular Church type arrangement, allowing them to whichkeep their liturgy, which could also give an extra lease of life to the Celtic Church in Scotland.

Whoever can manage it, hats off to to you.

The King in the North!
The King in the North!
The King in the North!
The King in the North!
The King in the North!

How about the Boreal Empire?
 
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Can it include:
- Ireland (all or part)
- Western parts of Russia
- Lithuania
- Latvia
- Prussia
- Northern Poland
- Green Land
- Eastern Canada
 
Can it include:
- Ireland (all or part)
- Western parts of Russia
- Lithuania
- Latvia
- Prussia
- Northern Poland
- Green Land
- Eastern Canada

Yes to Canada, Ireland, Latvia, Greenland, Prussia. No to Lithuania, Russia, Northern Poland, etc... We wish to keep out stronger population bases so that the three main constituents, Norway-Finland-Scotland, remain near dominant in the union. Ireland could be included in this ruling caste, but the addition of Poland, Lithuania and so forth, would be too much. If Prussia, Latvia is added, it cannot be of Germans-Germanized peoples, so if so, pre-Northern Crusade.
 
The hardest part is going to be getting Novgorod in this union. The easiest part is getting Scotland and Norway unified. There were already opportunities IOTL for that to occur by marriage. There could also feasibly be an invasion by Norway under some pretense or another which leads to them conquering Scotland, assuming they had some good luck on their side. Iceland and the other mentioned islands should come with those two crowns, and the next part is harder. Norway is not likely to invade Finland by itself, they would much sooner target Sweden or Denmark. Sweden and even Denmark are also far better positioned to take Finland than Norway is.

Theoretically however, you could have Swedish nobles based in Finland gain independence and have their own kingdom of Finland that would partake in eventual crusades in the Baltics and take Estonia, though it would be quite difficult and require a lot of luck*. Then, if you have them intermarry with the earlier mentioned Scotland-Norway, you could get Scotland-Norway-Finland, with most Sami lands drawn into their orbit naturally. Then the hard part is getting Novgorod, which is strong enough by itself to crush the union and take Finland for itself. The best way to avert this is to have the Swedes take Novgorod when they take Finland (this is unlikely, but possible if they have some military geniuses on hand while Novgorod is lead by morons), and for Novgorod to be the main powerbase of the Kingdom of Finland when they get independence from Sweden. The issue here is one of religion, since Novgorod being thr main powerbase of Finland would lead it to likely turn Orthodox, which would likely ruin the chances of Finland getting inherited by some king of Norway and Scotland. The best way to avert this is to have the union occur early enough that Finland has not yet turned Orthodox, though it does appear that the schism did not stop intermarrying between Scandinavian kings and the Rus until centuries later.

However, Norway-Scotland-Finland's interest is likely going to be to get Sweden and Denmark, so what would likely need to happen is Sweden and Denmark being strong enough to hold off the NSF union, but not strong enough to dissolve it. But the union is very unlikely to last, simply due to logistical issues. Either the "Finns" will want independence again, or a neighbor is likely to end it at some point.

*becomes easier with the assumption that Novgorod is part of the Finnish kingdom, but potentially screws the timetable for Finland to get into the union to begin with, unless Sweden conquers Estonia prior to Finland getting independence, with Estonia being part of Finland when it gains independence.
 
Remember, that Lapland is part of this; thus Norway will own all areas of modern Sweden north of Stockholm... My goal though is to stop Norway from containing larger Scandinavian population centres aside from Norway proper.
 
Have Harald Hardråde invited as a Grand Prince of Novgorod, due to some political scheme sometime in the 1060’s. He can then take part in Novgorodian-Karelian punitive raid against Finns, which turns into a conquest. After subjugating Finland Proper and Tavastia, he directs the Norwegians and Karelians to claim Lapland for himself.

Harald then spends some time consolidating his new greatly expanded realm and is subsequently late, when William the Bastard makes good of his claim to English throne in 1066. After the Normans have taken London, Harald lands at Yorkshire. Now the hard part is not having one of the claimant kings to completely overcome the other. Norwegians could e.g. have lost some of their forces to a storm while crossing the North Sea or something like that. Normans could be too weak to mount a decisive force to drive off another invasion. Anyhow, William still marches north, but after squaring off a bit, some sort of agreement is reached where Harald settles on control of York and Scotland, and William gets the rest of England. Harald then has the Scots Swear fealty to his family, most likely by force.

Harald should then start making sure that his heir inherits the the realm he has toiled to carve for his family. Maybe he outlives Magnus and his second son Olav gets Norway and Novgorod (including Finland). Olav then completes the conquest of Scotland as well as the North Sea isles, and you have the land areas that were requested in OP. Denmark can be lost to a rebellion or inherited by Olav’s second son. Have Novgorodian nobility to convert to catholicism in exchange for help against other Kievan Rus.

NB! This sort of empire is almost certainly doomed to an early grave during the middle ages, due to logistical problems (nightmarish), cultural diversity (only common factor is everyone owning a fur coat). Not to mention that the largest and wealthiest city is on the far edge of the empire.
 
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I think Norway-Scotland is doable, but including Finland without Sweden seems extremely hard to me.
Indeed. The populous parts of Norway are the other side of Sweden (even if just Swearland) to the populous parts of Finland.

However dividing both Norway and Sweden in two with Trondelag based Norway that unites with Scotland and a trans Bothnia Swearland united with Finland, then have these come together against a rising megaDenmark to the south that has Gothenland and Vikenland might be doable *. East and West halves would likely be fairly autonomous up to modern times due to differing centralisation foci and the Megadanes would wedge that for all their worth.

*Scandinavia has 4 centres to pull kingdoms around: Trondelag coast (the "Northern Way"), southern Bothnia-Baltic, Öresund-Baltic (origin of Denmark), and Skaggerok-Jutland.
 
If we had the P.o.D in 1290, having Margaret, Queen of Scotland survive her voyage to Scotland from Norway, in 1299, when her dad dies she is now queen of Norway and Scotland, she’s also queen of Iceland and Greenland, through the Union Signing of the Old Covenant in 1262

Her sons claim more lands through battles in her honour.
 
Indeed. The populous parts of Norway are the other side of Sweden (even if just Swearland) to the populous parts of Finland.

However dividing both Norway and Sweden in two with Trondelag based Norway that unites with Scotland and a trans Bothnia Swearland united with Finland, then have these come together against a rising megaDenmark to the south that has Gothenland and Vikenland might be doable *. East and West halves would likely be fairly autonomous up to modern times due to differing centralisation foci and the Megadanes would wedge that for all their worth.

*Scandinavia has 4 centres to pull kingdoms around: Trondelag coast (the "Northern Way"), southern Bothnia-Baltic, Öresund-Baltic (origin of Denmark), and Skaggerok-Jutland.

Where is Vikenland?
 
There needs to be a way for Finland to "pull a Lithuania" and keep Sweden and Novgorod away in the critical period where the Finns can coalesce a state, which for the purposes of the OP, will get inherited by Norway.
Yes to Canada, Ireland, Latvia, Greenland, Prussia. No to Lithuania, Russia, Northern Poland, etc... We wish to keep out stronger population bases so that the three main constituents, Norway-Finland-Scotland, remain near dominant in the union. Ireland could be included in this ruling caste, but the addition of Poland, Lithuania and so forth, would be too much. If Prussia, Latvia is added, it cannot be of Germans-Germanized peoples, so if so, pre-Northern Crusade.
Our Norwegian state can inherit Iceland and Greenland no problem. They'll expand into Karelia and northern Russia no doubt as part of it. Finns will settle much of OTL Norrland and will also become key settlers of Canada as they did OTL New Sweden as well as Kainuu, Kvenland, etc.

The key factor is having Finland a united entity. I think you'd need to have Finland "pull a Lithuania" for this to happen, since OTL Finland was rolled over too fast in the Northern Crusades. Maybe a collection of Finnish rulers invites a Swedish prince to rule them, or maybe a Finnish ruler in Finland proper around Turku whose united his own people, and the Tavastians, Savonians, etc. converts to Christianity to gain institutional support and gets a bishop in Turku to help secure his rule.
 
I don’t think this is impossible, but I think there’s two way around it.

Either a stronger Norse settlement in Bjarmaland, which lead Norvograd looking more north and we get a unification that way and later the Norwegian invade Finland from the east.

The other way is a early Norwegian-Scottish Union, which allow them to be more active in the Baltic Crusades.
 
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