Great Heathen Army

Could it have conquered Wessex and if it had been able to defeat Alfred would it have been able to subdue all of England or would the Vikings have looted Wessex and then pulled back to the East Coast?
 
Our knowledge of the size of those armies and what, if any, logistical problems it faced are all but non existent.

But given what it did, I honestly don't see why it couldn't have conquered all of England,
 
Could it have conquered Wessex and if it had been able to defeat Alfred would it have been able to subdue all of England or would the Vikings have looted Wessex and then pulled back to the East Coast?
Hard to say : we don't know that much about its leaders' motivations except loot, puppetizing and reckonizing an opportunity when it appeared singing "opportunities are there again".

Personally, I'd go with no, giving the GHA began to mark down its progress when they reached Mercia (probably out of relative disinterest for what mattered hinterland) but frankly, it covers more than a decade of events so I doubt we could really be definitive without much more precisions. We could see more or less undecisive operations in Wessex, and maybe Alfred acknowleding some sort of tributary situation (as he did IOTL in the 860's)

I could see, tough, Mercian being virtually entierly swallowed up into a Danelaw-on-steroids as parts of Wessex (especially Sussex, Essex and/or Middlesex), being included willy-nilly into an Anglo-Scandinavian ensemble on which Gunthrum's kingdom, five bourgoughs and Jorviks would be other parts.
How much this ensemble could hold, tough...The big problem of Anglo-Scandinavians was their disunity and I see no reason why it wouldn't ITTL. At best, it opens up for a period of contention for the whole of England on which Wessex wouldn't be bound to win and even if doing so, would have to integrate more Anglo-Scandinavian elements it did IOTL.
 
Top