AHC/WI: Saxon *Normandy

Early Middle-Ages Saxons : Basically what happened IOTL.

Now, if you meant having Late Anglo-Saxon invading Normandy at roughly the same date than IOTL Norman conquest of England, that's seem quite far-fetched on the first look of it, but not totally unrealistic.
After all it nearly happened IOTL in the early XIth century, as Æthelred was pissed off by Normans harboring Dane raiders in Normandy but his whole army was crushed quite bluntly.

First, the reason why it may not happen :
While AS England certainly did intervene on the continent (Harold's fame is at least partially coming from his experiences in Flanders, acting against Normandy would be weird and makes little sense geostrategically.
Indeed, Normandy was a powerful feudal entity able to defeat the several more important armies that tried to defeat it, critically with beneficing from the powerful Flemish alliance.

Then, it would be the best way to put Normandy back into the traditional alliance with Capetians that was broken at Varaville. Even admitting the invader manages to gather all the forces available, he would have to deal with the coalition of the most important lords of Northern Francia.
Late AS England simply didn't have this kind of power.

Of course, the Saxon invader could try to tied an alliance with Capetians, and that's kind of doable. Still : the precedent efforts of Capetians kinda failed and the principle of calling out a foreign king to deal with a powerful vassal would certainly piss off the other ones (Angevine, Bourguinon, etc.) even if not directly involved.

I simply don't see an isolated Capetian and an AS army being successful there either.

Now it could happen, if you manage to somewhat reverse the ties between House of Wessex and House of Normandy : basically, let's say Richard III isn't poisoned and that he's defeated by the revolt of his brother, Robert and forced to exile in England.

House of Wessex or another important AS house ends by inheriting a claim and with Robert dying and his son falling not only out of Capetian favor (maybe overstretching his forces against Anjou and Brittany) being considered as a good target to enforce this claim.
With a right timing, and enough forces and alliances with Northern Frankish principalities, you may see a Saxon noble managing to get the domination on Normandy (tough I certainly don't see a personal union between England and Normandy).

Now, would it last? I'm not too sure : Saxons would definitely lack the clientèle they need in Normandy and would be stuck in a rebellion circle in the region which would be immediately beneficial to their neighbors.
 
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