Challenge

[Ironstark]

Here is my challenge.

Make Scotland the most powerful and influential nation in the british isles with a POD no earlier than 1066.

It must be realistic with no ASB. Could Scotland unite the British isles? Could it conquer England and Wales? Could it take Ireland? Maybe even Iceland?

Here is some background music to inspire you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSH0eRKq1lE

 

[Grey Wolf]

1086 the Danes invade England (which they did, tho everyone pretends they didn't). Have them succeed in establishing a permanent presence, rather than being driven/bought off by William

We only think of 1066 as the watershed because it was - but it did not need to be. There could have been a couple centuries more of invasion and counter-invasions, during which Scotland thrives as the centre of culture and heritage for the islands

Best regards
Grey Wolf

 

[Elfwine]

Even if there are invasions and counterinvasions, England is well established enough to deal with them.

A Danish royal line ruling England is believable, post 1066. Sort of. England as inferior to Scotland?

Extremely unlikely. Scotland doing better than OTL? Not too unlikely. Just that 1066 is too late for England to be the weaker power.

 

[Grey Wolf]

Even if there are invasions and counterinvasions, England is well established enough to deal with them.

A Danish royal line ruling England is believable, post 1066. Sort of. England as inferior to Scotland?

Extremely unlikely. Scotland doing better than OTL? Not too unlikely. Just that 1066 is too late for England to be the weaker power.

Doesn't Scotland stretch down over Cumbria at this point?

Also, all this is just off the top of what people like to call my head

England could see another partition?

Scotland could marry into the/an English dynasty and acquire the union of thrones that way, centuries earlier than OTL

Best Regards
Grey Wolf

 

[Elfwine]

Doesn't Scotland stretch down over Cumbria at this point?

It might, but that's not saying very much.

Also, all this is just off the top of what people like to call my head

England could see another partition?

Scotland could marry into the/an English dynasty and acquire the union of thrones that way, centuries earlier than OTL

Best Regards
Grey Wolf

I think the union of crowns early is entirely plausible and possible - not overly likely, but not at all undoable.

 

[I Blame Communism]

Sveyn and Knut's invasions didn't break English power - the latter in fact made it the centrepiece of his extensive domains. The place had enough of a state to be taken over and run by a succesful invader - as the Norman conquest showed.

Like Elfwine says: if the Danes do grab back the throne, that just means England was a king who's a Dane.

Post 1066 I just don't see it: by that point - before, really - the existence of an English kingdom is an established fact, and that leads us to another established fact: England is a lot bigger.

 

[DTF955Baseballfan]

Scotland could marry into the/an English dynasty and acquire the union of thrones that way, centuries earlier than OTL

Best Regards
Grey Wolf

See, that's what I thought at first, but I'm not sure if it would really fit in with the OP's requirements.

Specifically, different marriages in the 1200s -or even Alexander III not dying as is being discussed elsewhere - making the Scottish royal line stronger with more children, while the Plantagenets (sp?) die out. Have an English Civil War in the 1300s or so where the Scottish support one particular claimant who will be friendly to them, having married into the Scottish royal family. An intermarriage unites the crowns soon afterward, so it is seen as the "United Kingdom of Scotland and England," if you will, with the Scottish getting top billing with witht he Scottish royal family being the ones with the surviving dynasty.

But, is top billing in a union of crowns enough?

 

[Ferreolus]

Here is my challenge.

Make Scotland the most powerful and influential nation in the british isles with a POD no earlier than 1066.

It must be realistic with no ASB.

Sorry, that's impossible. The differences are just to big. If you look at a map, it isn't so obvious, but you must take into account that a huge part of Scotland are the barely inhabited Highlands, and that it has only a sixths of the amount of arable land in comparison to England.

Could Scotland unite the British isles?

No.

Could it conquer England and Wales?

No.

Could it take Ireland?

No. Even the English only managed to get control over Ireland in the 16th century, and rebellions were common during the entire history of Ireland.

Maybe even Iceland?

Looking at the evidence from genetic research about the population history of Iceland, it is likely that a significant part of the population has Scottish origins. However before the modern period, Iceland was to far away for any European power to have more than nominal control about it.

Of course, all that doesn't include a Scottish monarch becoming King of England or a united Britain, either through inheritance or gradual conquest of a balkanized England. But as in OTL, when James, King of Scots, inherited the English crown as well, the King would move his court south, and you'd end up with an English-dominated Britain as in OTL.