House of Godwin

1035 – Alfred and Edward, the sons of Ethelred the Unready, are killed by Harold Harefoot.

8 June 1042 – King Hathacnut dies and is buried in Winchester.

10 July 1042 – Witenagemot meets and after argument Godwin is elected as the new king. Emma of Normandy immediately flees for Normandy and is offered a place in Duke Williams court. Whilst she presses for William to take on Godwin he never makes serious plans to invade England, preferring to take on the French King instead.

12 July 1042 – The new king confirms the five earldoms, Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Wessex and Kent. Harold is named Heir and is given the Earldom of East Anglia. His brothers Tosnig and Sweyn and are named Earls of Mercia and Wessex. The Earldom of Kent is kept by the King and London is named as the new capital. Over the next year the King’s council finalises the internal borders of the Earldom.

1 April 1043 – King Godwin is crowned in Winchester.

10 May 1043 – King Magnus lands in Durham with an invasion army, he is resisted by Sigurd, the Earl of Northumbria but defeats and kills the Earl at the Battle of Ryhope.

23 July 1043 – King Godwin marches his army north and meets Magnus’s forces outside of York. In a two day battle Godwin defeats the Norse invaders and pushes the remains of the invading army towards the sea. Tosnig is named the new Earl of Northumbria, whilst Godwin’s son Gyrth is named the new Earl of Mercia.

27 July 1043 – Magus flees to Denmark, leaving the majority of his remaining troops behind. Whilst some choose to die fighting the majority surrender to Godwin.

5 August 1043 – King Godwin consecrates a new cathedral in London to mark his victory over the Danes. St Pauls Cathedral takes 80 years to finish.

10 December 1043 – The King issues the Naval Proclamation. Each Earldom is to furnish 5 ships, fully provisioned and manned to patrol the German Sea to stop the Danes and Norwegians from invading. Over the next year the port of Kingston upon Hull (normally just called Hull) is built to house these ships. By 1050 the Sea Earl (Harold) is in command of 30 ships.

1044 – 1049 – The Welsh Wars. Various Welsh earls and Princes invade over Offa’s Dyke. Godwin and his sons defeat each trust, but Hereford is burnt to the ground and Worcester is under siege for a month before a relief arrives. Eventually a peace treaty is signed where Godwin recognises Gruffydd Llewelyn as King of the Welsh.

4 April 1048 – Sea Earl Harold meets the Norse invasion fleet of Harold Hardrada of the cost of Yorkshire. In a day long battle the Norse ships are systematically destroyed by the English navy. Hardrada is captured by the English, but dies of his wounds later that night. Of the 50 ships that left Norway only 2 returned, of the 27 English ships 14 are declared unseaworthy but only one was sunk.

6 March 1052 – Emma of Normandy, mother of Alfred and Edward, dies in Duke William the Bastards court.

15 April 1053 – King Godwin dies of a stroke, his son Harold is proclaimed King by the Witenagemot.

2 June 1053 – King Harold splits the navy into two fleets, the German Fleet (based in Hull) which has 20 ships and the Southern Fleet of 10 ships based out of London. In 1065 a third fleet of 5 ships is created in Southampton, this is called the French Fleet. Edwin, the son of a previous Earl of Mercia is named Sea Earl.

March 1056 – News that Edward the Exile, son of Edmund Ironside, is alive reaches the London. Harold sends envoys to Edmund summoning him home.

1 May 1056 – Edward is given Earldom of Kent in return for swearing loyalty to Harold and renouncing all claims on the throne for himself and his progeny.

April 1057 – King Harold and his brother Tosnig (Earl of Northumbria) launch a joint invasion of Wales. The Welsh are routed and Wales is forced into submission. Harold demanded tributes and hostages. The Welsh murder Gruffydd Llewelyn and give his head to Harold as part of the tribute. Bleddyn Cynfyn is installed as Prince of the Welsh and swears loyalty and fidelity to Harold.

3 November 1057 – Tosnig leads forces into Wales at the behest of Prince Bleddyn who has failed to put down a revolt of northern Princes. Tosnig is killed in battle, however the rebels are defeated. Harold appoints several of his most loyal Thanes to rule over the rebel areas. Thane Alfred of Snowdon builds the first “Norman” castle in England after he had seen such structures on a visit to Normandy the previous year.

1057 – 1100 – Castles are built in York (capital of Northumbria), Newcastle, Carlisle, Hereford, Oxford (capital of Mercia) , Norfolk (capital of East Anglia), London and Southampton.

1 March 1058 – King Harold brings his troops to the Tamar. The four year old King Dungarth of Cornwall is in no position to rally forces to his banner and his regent (his mother) surrenders to Harold without a fight. Harold proclaims that Cornwall is now an Earldom within England and having named Dungarth the Earl takes him to London, leaving his brother Leofwine as the new regent.

5 July 1058 – King Harold summons all Earls and Thanes of England to a feast in London, were he proclaims his Kingship of all England. His brother-in-law Malcolm III of Scotland, who had married Harold sister Edith in 1048 was invited but declined to attend. As a matter of courtesy however he did stop raiding Northumbrian towns for the summer.
 
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Ok, my attempt of a non-Norman timeline.
I have a POD that both of Emma of Normandy's boys are killed by Harold Harefoot (in OTL Edward the Confessor didn't accompany his brother).

I have always felt the Edward was a weak king who split his nation and allowed the Normans an entry. With his death William the Bastard is forced to turn towards France for glory, he has no foothold (however small) in England.

I am also intrested in developing the Navy much earlier than in OTL and seeing how that may play out.
 
This is an interesting take on proceedings. Without wanting to put you off, may I make a couple of observations?

The new king confirms the five earldoms, Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Wessex and Kent. Harold is named Heir and is given the Earldom of East Anglia. His brothers Tosnig and Sweyn and are named Earls of Mercia and Wessex. The Earldom of Kent is kept by the King and London is named as the new capital. Over the next year the King’s council finalises the internal borders of the Earldom.
I can't imagine everybody will be happy that only Northumbria is not in the hands of Godwin's sons. This might be a bit unpopular with the Witengamot, especially after...
King Godwin marches his army north and meets Magnus’s forces outside of York. In a two day battle Godwin defeats the Norse invaders and pushes the remains of the invading army towards the sea. Tosnig is named the new Earl of Northumbria, whilst Godwin’s son Gyrth is named the new Earl of Mercia.

4 April 1048 – Sea Earl Harold meets the Norse invasion fleet of Harold Hardrada of the cost of Yorkshire. In a day long battle the Norse ships are systematically destroyed by the English navy. Hardrada is captured by the English, but dies of his wounds later that night. Of the 50 ships that left Norway only 2 returned, of the 27 English ships 14 are declared unseaworthy but only one was sunk.
This seems a rather lopsided result. I'm not questioning the likelihood of such, as I don't know enough about it. However, 48/50 losses against 1/27 seems like an utter drubbing, even if another fourteen are classed as total constructive losses...

1 May 1056 – Edward is given Earldom of Kent in return for swearing loyalty to Harold and renouncing all claims on the throne for himself and his progeny.
Can he do that? Saying he does not wish for the throne is fair enough, but to bar his line from such, especially when the throne is elective, seems odd...

Now I've had my quibbles, can I say I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes? :)
 
Thanks for the comments.

With regards to Godwin's sons taking all the Earldoms, I have just moved the timeline forward slightly, by 1060 OTL the sons controlled all the Earldoms. Ok, so they were older but the Earl was not necessarily the major land holder (unlike the Norman Dukes etc.), just the senior Thane. Although the title may have passed from father to son it was not a forgone conclusion that it would.

I thought this would be a streach but here is my resaoning:
1) The English had a full time navy, who would be training in ship to ship fighting and have had 5 years to work out tactics.
2) The Norse longships were not designed for battle, they were troop carriers. The English ships however were designed for ship to ship warfare. They had a much smaller range and were designed to operate from a safe harbour. I am assuming the battle took place within sight of land (at least initially).
3) The English had access to a technology that the Danes and Norse didn't, that is the idea of the ship ram. The meditaranian countries that England traded with still used the ram (indeed Spain still had a ship with a ram in the Napoleonic times). Whilst these ships are less manoverable than the nimble longship even a near miss may take a longship out of the fight.

With regard to Edwards oath, the Anglo Saxons were very serious about a given word and Edward would have seen the way that the wind was blowing (in OTL he was murdered by someone, propably on the orders or wish of Harold). I extended the oath to include his sons just so they would not die of "food poisoning" in the next week or so. Harold has always struck me a man who was ruthless at getting his way, but would trust a given word. Harold would be happy with the oath so he could avoid the sort of stigma that attached to his father with the death of ALfred in OTL.
 
Thanks for the comments.
No problem, Georgie. :)

With regards to Godwin's sons taking all the Earldoms, I have just moved the timeline forward slightly, by 1060 OTL the sons controlled all the Earldoms. Ok, so they were older but the Earl was not necessarily the major land holder (unlike the Norman Dukes etc.), just the senior Thane. Although the title may have passed from father to son it was not a forgone conclusion that it would.
Good point about the fact Earls wouldn't have held much of the land. I suppose part of it depends on the ages of other people and such. If those such as Edwin and Morcar are younger than Godwin's sons, then it'll be somewhat easier...

The Norse longships were not designed for battle, they were troop carriers. The English ships however were designed for ship to ship warfare. They had a much smaller range and were designed to operate from a safe harbour. I am assuming the battle took place within sight of land (at least initially).
That's an important point. A lot of people think that longships were some sort of fantastic naval weapon, as opposed to a fast troop transport. The proximity to harbour also has an impact, as presumably some of the fourteen TCLs would have foundered before getting back to Denmark, as the enemy had to...

I extended the oath to include his sons just so they would not die of "food poisoning" in the next week or so. Harold has always struck me a man who was ruthless at getting his way, but would trust a given word. Harold would be happy with the oath so he could avoid the sort of stigma that attached to his father with the death of ALfred in OTL.
I suppose that makes sense. I definitely agreed with Edward himself doing it, if only to make sure he lives until the next page of the TL, but it's prudent of him to think of his boys. I mean, if the chance comes for either of these two to make a claim in the witengamot (presumably not until the 1070s or later, depending on when any crisis blows up) then I'm sure they can find a loophole if required...
 
What next?

Ok so we now have Harold in command of a united England and the Welsh are subdued.
He still has Scotland that will raid into Northumbria, but I doubt that Malcolm would invade.

Do you think that Harold would just let his land prosper (may be updating the law code that had been inplace for about 100 years?

Would he try to involve himself in Norse / Danish polotics?

Would the English sailors / merchants extend the English trade routes (the 13 colonies in 1100 rather than 1700?)

What does he do with the church, which I seem to recall was rather corrupt?
 
What does he do with the church, which I seem to recall was rather corrupt?

I don't know the Church as a whole was. There was one particular Archbishop of Canterbury with a scandalous record, but by 1066 he had only six years to live. OTL, William I got him deposed in 1070, two years before his death. Under Harold, he probably gets to die in office, but the King will pick someone really squeaky clean, like Wulfstan of Worcester, to succeed him and mend fences with Rome.
 
Harold the Golden

Having brought peace to his realm Harold now looks at making it stong.

He delivers the Church to Wulfstan, appointing him Archbishop of Canterbury in 1060. Wulfstan's reforms end simony in the English church and stop much of the curruption that had become endemic within the church. Unfortunately it lead to troubles with Rome and two papel envoys threatened Wulfstan with ex-communication (in 1068 and 1071) if he didn't follow Rome more closely.

The laws of Edmund were brought up to date and the Shefiffs were given the power to raise a troop of men to keep the King's Peace.

Harold also encouraged trade, expanding the merchant fleet to include ships heading east to Norway / Denmark and further to Russia; south to France and into the Mediteranian; and West to Iceland, Vinland and beyhond.

His great cities on London, Southampton and Bristol as well as Hull and Newcastle became major trading centres with ships from all over the known world landing goods there.

Harold died on 14 October 1086 and was suceeded by his oldest son Godwin.
 
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