Map Challenge: The Four Kingdoms of the British Isles

OK, so after centuries of movement the British Isles are united and the boundaries shown below are the ones which stick. The King of Ireland is always referred to as High King while both Wales and Scotland are just ordinary Kingdoms.

The Isle of Mann is a territory outside of the Four Kingdoms but is always a territory controlled by one of them until the unification. Eventually in the modern world Britain is forced to devolve power to them with the current boundaries. England is split however into equivalent earldoms making the title of Kingdom kind of a glory thing but Ireland's provinces have similar positions and the existence of High Kingdom is of no administrative meaning.

But my question to you is how do these boundaries come about? England consider themselves to be English and speak English as a first language. Welsh and Scots Gaelic are heavily spoken in the respective Kingdoms while Eastern Ireland has bilingual speakers mostly.

The idea the the far North of England should be Scottish and the North Bank of the Seven Estuary Welsh would be laughable.

Go on. Explain the POD. :)

The 4 Kingdoms.png
 
A time for this map would be useful.

The Alba / England boundary is along the Antonine Wall, so a stronger Roman presence for longer (i.e. no reteat to Hadrian's wall) is the way to get that boundary.

The Welsh boarder along the River Towy (English name) is more problamatical. The only thing that I can think of is that Mercia or Wessex got tired of raids from the Welsh and invaded southern Wales to create a buffer zone, or the Marcher Lords under William I held fedelidy to the King rather than local Earls etc, so that when the boundaries where drawn they fell into English territory rather than Welsh.

Ireland is the easiest, just don't have the English convert to protistnatism, or wipe out the Catholics, so there is no North / South divid on religious grounds.
 
Looks like
Strathclyde fell to Northumbria and not Alba before English unification
Alba later fell under Norway - explaining why it has the Orkneys and the Hebrides
 
But, wouldn't that make it kind of difficult for there to be a place called England?

Didn't really formulate this properly. I meant the Romans kept to the Antonine Wall until their withdrawal from Britania, the wall would then become the north boundary of the Kingdom of Northumbia when the Saxons came along.

I am trying to figure out where the capital of Alba would be, as they loose both Edinburgh and Glasglow. Inverness prehaps?
 
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