Medieval *England without Norman conquest

Okay a few things here.
1068-1073: Harold II forms alliances with the remaining independent/autonomous regions of *England and with former Viking settlements in *Ireland, further unifying the kingdom
I'd like to know more about how this happens. Also aren't the Irish Vikings basically Irish culturally by now as well? As for the unification of Ireland/Scotland/England. I don't see any incentive to unification here (even if it's just in name in Ireland). I'd also like more details on the army changes. Housecarls ride to battle then fight on foot with heavy armor and axes right? They are the same guys that ran off to become Varangians for Alexius I. Fighting on a horse is a very different set of skills so take care to not make them too effective to quickly.

Finally I am completely baffled as to the ability and purpose of an English invasion of Italy. Look at the preparations required to ship Henry I's army from England to the Holy Land in both logistics and expense. And that was for a Holy War. Even if the Byzantines cared at all about an alliance with some island off in the sticks, I can't see how they could practically help. If you want to play off an Anglo-Saxon attack on Sicily.... but it's more believable as mercenaries because then the people already there are paying expenses. Say the Anglo-Saxons get hired by the Normans for some reason and then they take over. Irony

ED: Also if the initial Brit unification is rocky as certain things your wrote seem to indicate, wouldn't it be extremely risky to force them to contribute or weaken yourself to go on a huge expedition on the other side of the continent? Even if successful?
 
Okay a few things here. I'd like to know more about how this happens. Also aren't the Irish Vikings basically Irish culturally by now as well? As for the unification of Ireland/Scotland/England. I don't see any incentive to unification here (even if it's just in name in Ireland). I'd also like more details on the army changes. Housecarls ride to battle then fight on foot with heavy armor and axes right? They are the same guys that ran off to become Varangians for Alexius I. Fighting on a horse is a very different set of skills so take care to not make them too effective to quickly.

Finally I am completely baffled as to the ability and purpose of an English invasion of Italy. Look at the preparations required to ship Henry I's army from England to the Holy Land in both logistics and expense. And that was for a Holy War. Even if the Byzantines cared at all about an alliance with some island off in the sticks, I can't see how they could practically help.

  1. i may elaborate on the event itself later, buts basically supposed to be a toned-down and less/non-violent version of the norman conquests
  2. the irish vikings could very well be culturally irish; that part is honestly kind of a cop-out on my part, just a lead-in to TTL's english domination of ireland
  3. at this point, its not so much an official union between england with ireland, wales, and scotland, but more a strengthening of contact and relations between them all; a more formal union of england with wales and scotland comes in the 13th century, and i havent yet written up a formal union between britain and ireland
  4. the housecarls would have been more distinct during harold's reign but later on essentially become knights; the difference between a knight and a housecarl would be like the different between an earl and a jarl (or an earl and a count, if you prefer)
  5. admittedly, i'll need to do some more work on their ventures into sicily. my supposition was that they would reach italy in the same way that the normans did. also, by the time the english start going there, the normans that were already in italy would presumably be getting reinforcements and supplies from the coast of france rather than from (i guess) sailing through the pillars of hercules. logistics are indeed a big issue here, but now that i think about it this could work as part of a lead-in to a later military venture with TTL's black prince raiding the french countryside not only for his own wartime glory but also to steal france's wealth in the wake of the black plague
i do appreciate constructive criticism like this; it's the only way i can figure out what's wrong so that i can improve it :D
 
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