Consequences of a ninth century Viking conquest of Wessex?

Brunaburh

Gone Fishin'
The idea of Wales expanding, taking parts of Western Mercia (plus maybe Dumnonia) is very interesting. Could Wales even end up being the strongest kingdom in Southern Britain? Of course, first it must unite. Would it be easier to unite Wales than to unite Danelaw? Maybe one would end up with three or four kingdoms in OTL England?

I think it really depends how much of a mess England is and how talented the Welsh leaders are. You don't need unity to expand a small kingdom from a hilly heartland, to soft flat chaotic lowlands. Welsh kings could find it easier to push into neighbouring areas of England when the local Danes were weakened for some reason than to fight each other.

The sky is the limit, but you need to make sure the Welsh don't take so much territory so quickly that they stop being Welsh and start being just another set of Christian Danes. That's why I posited a period of consolidation of the new borders to create a clear division between the heptanarchy and superwales.
 
I think it really depends how much of a mess England is and how talented the Welsh leaders are. You don't need unity to expand a small kingdom from a hilly heartland, to soft flat chaotic lowlands. Welsh kings could find it easier to push into neighbouring areas of England when the local Danes were weakened for some reason than to fight each other.

The sky is the limit, but you need to make sure the Welsh don't take so much territory so quickly that they stop being Welsh and start being just another set of Christian Danes. That's why I posited a period of consolidation of the new borders to create a clear division between the heptanarchy and superwales.

With such a border, and with Dumnonia being part of Wales/Cymru, after some time of consolidation and assimilation of the Germanic population, maybe they might expand and take Bristol? Would it help if Brittany also became part of Wales? This might come about as a result of a marriage alliance and inheritance.
 

Brunaburh

Gone Fishin'
With such a border, and with Dumnonia being part of Wales/Cymru, after some time of consolidation and assimilation of the Germanic population, maybe they might expand and take Bristol? Would it help if Brittany also became part of Wales? This might come about as a result of a marriage alliance and inheritance.

Bristol wasn't really very significant at that time, it became more so as ocean going ships stopped being able to easily navigate in rivers. Bath was more important. But spreading down the Bristol channel is a reasonable proposal, late survival of Brittonic is proposed for the area round Glastonbury, areas of Devon and even Northern Wiltshire. These all died out by the viking era, in Wiltshire by the late 8th century, but perhaps this would facilitate the superwales.

I'm a little suspicious of "then we conquer Brittany" timelines. Dynastic inheritance and marriage wasn't much of a thing at this time, and the logistics of a trans-channel kingdom are very difficult even later on.
 
If Brittany did not become part of Wales, maybe there could be migration of britons (back) to Britain? I am not sure what could trigger such migration, though. The kings probably did not care much about the language of their inhabitants as long as they were obedient.
 
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