Northumbria more successful?

[Lindseyman]

Harald Bluetooth then spent 5 years consolidating his power in Danskjord although he was having to deal with his son Sweyn's increasing irritation at the lack of action with regard to reconquering Danmark from the HRE. Indeed Sweyn rebelled in 981 AD but Harald managed to defeat him and Sweyn went into exile in Skane. which still maintained itself as a small independent Danish principality.

Unfortunately Otto was not able to take advantage of this. The Deiran nobles kept complaining about the time he spent in Wessex and the Wessex nobles complained about the length of time he spent in Deira. In the end, in 984AD the Wessex nobles sent a delegation to Edgar, now Duke of Saxony, asking him to come back and reclaim his throne. Edgar refused as he was now the power behind Otto II the Emperor, however his second son named Edward (born 963 AD) arrived in Wessex in 985AD and was proclaimed King of Wessex by the nobles.

The war between Otto and Edward II lasted until the death of Otto in 991 AD when Otto's son Edwin II signed the Treaty of Tamworth which accepted the separation of Deira and Wessex. It was a short lived peace!


Britain in 991AD

 

[edvardas]

I see that king Otto of the HRE is involved in England. Did the battle of Lechfeld go as OTL?

 

[Lindseyman]

Otto Duke of Swabia, then King of Germany then HRE still defeats the Magyars at Lechfeld and Reknitz. In TTL His son Liudolf, once Duke of Swabia and Crown Prince of Germany ends up being Regent for Edgar King of Wessex as it gets him out of the way of Adelaide and her sons. He seizes the throne of Wessex in 957AD(Adelaide is successful in getting her son proclaimed heir to Germany/HRE). Liudolf's son Otto who in OTL becomes Otto IIs Duke of Bavaria, in TTL becomes King of Deira and then also of Wessex. He dies in battle against Edgar's son Edward who reclaims the throne of Wessex. In TTL Bernard Billung becomes Duke of Bavaria when Henry is overthrown and Edgar becomes Duke of Saxony. The butterflies are swarming east and south as are the knock-ons, however I'm concentrating on Britain.

 

[Lindseyman]

By 975AD Alba was in disintegration. Cuilien had died in 973AD and Cinead had been elected King. However the south and east rejected him and rose up in rebellion. Aedh in Rheged was quite happy the Albans were busy fighting themselves rather than raiding Rheged. However by 984AD he had had enough of the constant border raids mounted by local Alban lairds and invaded.

The south and east welcomed him with open arms as a liberator from strife and Aedh duly annexed basically the lowlands to Rheged. However it took a further 8 years of campaigning to finally consolidate the conquest. He signed a peace treaty with Cinead who retained the Kingship of the Highlands.

The road system was slowly improved to equal that of the rest of Rheged and peace reigned in the north for the next 50 or so years.


Britain in 992AD

 

[idumea]

Good news for the Britons, that compared to his recent neighbours is some seriously impressive kingship.

 

[Lindseyman]

Sven Forkbeard built up Skane into as prosperous a Kingdom as Harald had made Danmark before the Billungs had conquered Jutland. He managed to control the islands but the Peninsula of Jutland remained firmly under HRE control and became Germanified as settlers moved in from the Duchy of Saxony. In 989AD Sven also gained control of Danskjord when Harald died and in 994AD he made another attempt to recapture Jutland. In what would prove to be the first of many successful campaigns Herman the son of Edgar Duke of Saxony defeated Sven who retreated back to Danskjord. Sven's brother Haakon ruled Skane and made his peace with Herman who succeeded to the Duchy of Saxony when Edgar died fighting in Italy in 995AD. Edgar's death demoralised the nobles of Wessex who were beginning to realise that they had made a terrible mistake crowning Edward(Edgar's second son) as King of Wessex. He was vainglorious and was only interested in banquets, hunting and lavishing presents on his favourites whom had come over from Saxony with him. He dispossessed several Wessex nobles in order to give their lands to his friends and plundered the exchequer to pay for his lavish lifestyle. Whilst Edgar had been alive Edward showed a little restraint but after his father's death he showed no restraint what so ever. Edwin politely told a deputation of nobles what to do when they sounded him out about a coup to restore him to the throne of Wessex and Duke Herman, Edward's bother brusquely told them that Edward was their problem not his. The roads went unrepaired and Edward finally in 997AD had to basically mortgage Wessex to Lundin to gain extra funds. Edwin on the other hand was slowly but surely rebuilding Deira after the War of Wessex Succession and its economy was recovering fast and had reached the levels of the 970s when events in Wessex caused Sven to intervene.

 

[Lindseyman]

By 998AD Edward needed money and needed it fast. However he had bled the Wessex exchequer dry, had exhausted the loans from Lundin and his brother refused to bail him out without all sorts of unnecessary controls(as far as Edward was concerned) on spending. Then Edward's eye lit upon a certain Danish merchant Guthrum Ragnarsson who traded extensively between Deira, Wessex, Lundin, Danskjord, Skane and the HRE. He certainly maintained several residences and entertained lavishly. So Edward had him arrested on trumped up charges and confiscated all his possessions, and finally had him killed.

Unfortunately Guthrum was both descended from Ragnar who had set up the Danish Kingdom of Lincoln which became Danskjord and was Sven's wife's cousin. Sven had been itching for a fight since finally admitting that he was not going to recapture Jutland and this gave him the excuse. In June 999AD he invaded Wessex and swept all before him. Edward finally showed that he was still good at something other than spending money when he won the Battle of Chippenham but Sven was relentless and Edward was killed at the Battle of Dorchester in October 999AD.

His wife and surviving children escaped to Normandy where they where sheltered by the Duke Robert. Sven was crowned King of Wessex on Christmas Day 999AD.


Britain in 1000AD

 

[Lindseyman]

After Aedh's conquest of Eastern Alba, Rheged entered another one of its quiet phases. Aedh's son Riderch III became King in 993AD and spent his time improving the roads and maintaining a fleet and navy due to the strife further south. He had no further worries from Alba. After the death of Cinead it splintered into petty chiefdoms. Although the descendants of the Alban Royal family were always accepted as High Chiefs, they never pushed their luck and reclaimed the throne!

In Deira Edwin II rebuilt the country after the War over Wessex and Jorrk once again began to rival Lundin as a port. Edwin foresaw a time when the largest ships would not be able to reach Jorrk so he had a new port Ottoton built where the Ouse became the Humber (OTL Goole). There were increasing strains with Sven in Danskjord but peace reigned until 1002AD.

 

[Van555]

hmm interesting

 

[Lindseyman]

Sven was more worried about Edwin deciding to make a bid to take back Wessex than was really the case (mainly because it is what he would have done in Edwin's position). It kept worrying Sven so in 1002 he launched 2 armies into Deira. The first crossed the Eastern Trent and marched towards Jorrk. Edwin's surviving son Otto met this army in battle at Selby and was decisively beaten and killed. Edwin met the western army at Lancaster and was beaten but managed to withdraw. However Edwin was seriously wounded and died from his wounds later in the year. This left Sven in control of Deira as Edwin's other surviving child was a daughter, Edgyth, married to Constantine the heir to the throne of Rheged. Riderch paid tribute to Sven to convince him that there would be no attempt to take Deira. (Also many of the Deiran nobles who had any sort of claim to the throne had been killed at one or other of the battles.) England was united for the first time in over 100 years

 

[Lindseyman]

Sven now settled down to rule his enlarged kingdom (it made up slightly for not being able to recapture Jutland). He actually proved to be a very able ruler. He took advice from Danes, Angles and Saxons alike. He rebuilt the Wessex infrastructure that Edward had ruined and rebuilt the exchequer that Edward had drained.

When the Lundin bankers and merchants tried to reclaim their loans, Sven told them that the loans had been made to Edward not Wessex and since Edward was dead they had better take the issue up with his heir Edmund who was currently flitting between the HRE and Normandy trying to drum up support for an invasion to retake Wessex and failing miserably. When Lundin then tried to close down trade routes Sven just massively increased the taxes on Lundin merchants and encouraged traders to use Hamtun, Ottoton, Ipswich and Jorrrk. He even expanded Ottoton and renamed it Haraldhavn.

He also built new roads in the old Danskjord and finally linked Ragnarsby into the trade network of England. Even in Deira he was acknowledged as a good king. However they still hankered after independence and looked to the North for help. It was to be a long time coming!

 

[idumea]

Haroldhagen - love it.

Ipswich and Hamtun are about to become very lucrative, and they didn't do too badly around this time OTL!

 

[Lindseyman]

Britain entered a trade war. The problem for Lundin was that it depended on the rest of Britain especially for food but for the rest of Britain it was a luxury not a necessity. The roads from England into Lundin mysteriously did not get repaired past the last village on the English side of the border. Lundin ships were charged exorbitant docking rates at any other port in England and the goods highly taxed and any official who took a bribe was instantly dismissed.

By 1012 Lundin was in trouble, most of its trade had gone to Hamtun and Ipswich. Neither Riderch nor Constantine, when he had ascended the throne of Rheged in 1009, had shown any interest in supporting Lundin and indeed had seemed rather amused by it and actually tacitly supported Sven!

Lundin had one last throw of the dice. They funded an army for Edmund (Edward's son and heir) in 1014 and arranged for the assassination of Sven and his two sons Harald and Knud. They managed to kill Harald but the attempts on both Sven and Knud failed. Indeed Sven's assailant was captured and tortured until he told all. To add insult to injury, bad weather kept the fleet bringing Edmund and his army of Norman mercenaries in port! In the light of subsequent events Edmund used this army to support Duke Richard in his campaigns.

Sven's retaliation was brutal. He invaded Lundin, He captured the city and razed it to the ground. The ruling council were rounded up and executed as common criminals however the surviving general population were transplanted to other parts of the kingdom. Lundin was nothing more than a garrison town for roughly 50 years until its advantages once again outweighed its history.

Sven died in 1015 and was succeeded by his son Knud.

 

[Julius Vogel]

Britain entered a trade war. The problem for Lundin was that it depended on the rest of Britain especially for food but for the rest of Britain it was a luxury not a necessity. The roads from England into Lundin mysteriously did not get repaired past the last village on the English side of the border. Lundin ships were charged exorbitant docking rates at any other port in England and the goods highly taxed and any official who took a bribe was instantly dismissed.

By 1012 Lundin was in trouble, most of its trade had gone to Hamtun and Ipswich. Neither Riderch nor Constantine, when he had ascended the throne of Rheged in 1009, had shown any interest in supporting Lundin and indeed had seemed rather amused by it and actually tacitly supported Sven!

Lundin had one last throw of the dice. They funded an army for Edmund (Edward's son and heir) in 1014 and arranged for the assassination of Sven and his two sons Harald and Knud. They managed to kill Harald but the attempts on both Sven and Knud failed. Indeed Sven's assailant was captured and tortured until he told all. To add insult to injury, bad weather kept the fleet bringing Edmund and his army of Norman mercenaries in port! In the light of subsequent events Edmund used this army to support Duke Richard in his campaigns.

Sven's retaliation was brutal. He invaded Lundin, He captured the city and razed it to the ground. The ruling council were rounded up and executed as common criminals however the surviving general population were transplanted to other parts of the kingdom. Lundin was nothing more than a garrison town for roughly 50 years until its advantages once again outweighed its history.

Sven died in 1015 and was succeeded by his son Knud.

Huh. Well, that is a first, someone properly sacking London.

Well, seems like the best way to break London's hold on *Britain.

 

[idumea]

Those butterfly nets are working very elegantly!

 

[Lindseyman]

Duke Robert of Normandy had sheltered Edward's wife and children out of duty to a distant relative. He had then allowed Edmund to seek forces to retake Wessex because he was annoyed with Knud Svensson. Knud had eloped with his daughter Emma after a visit to Normandy in 1001 to discuss the situation about Edmund. He did no more than that because Sven had paid a massive bride price and because it was obvious that Knud and Emma did actually love each other which was rare in royal marriages even stable ones.

His son Richard was even happier when Edmund gave up on reclaiming the throne of Wessex after the destruction of Lundin and used his mercenary army to destroy the Capetians (albeit not intentionally!). He had only been meant to patrol the southern boundary of Normandy but had got sucked into Robert the Pious' bad relationships with his sons. The final result in 1024 was that Edward managed to survive a battle in which the Capetians all died. Edward seized control of Paris and swore allegiance to Richard. They were both killed defending Paris from the Counts of Anjou and Boulogne in 1027 but their sons Edward and Robert successfully completed the campaign. Duke Robert II had also married Edward's sister Mathilde in 1026 and she gave birth to a son William in 1028.

1024 was also the year when Otto Duke of Saxony (son of Herman Duke of Saxony (died 1017), nephew of Edward II of Wessex and cousin of Edmund and more importantly grandson of Edgar Duke of Saxony (who should have been King of Wessex)) was elected Holy Roman Emperor on the death of Henry the last of the Ottonians. His only major rival was Conrad but Otto IV was elected as he was related to the former royal family and was a scion of the second oldest Royal family in Europe, indeed the throne of Wessex was his by birthright(not that he was going to claim it!).

 

[Lindseyman]

Knud proved to be probably the best ruler of pre-medieval Britain south of Rheged. He was energetic, intelligent and completely reorganised England so that it functioned even more efficiently. His first step was to ensure that he regained good relations with Skane and Norway. Under Sven relationships with both had been strained. Knud made peace with his uncle Haakon and even sent his eldest son Hardeknud to Skane to be brought up. He also made peace with the rulers of Norway and by 1030 he was acknowledged as the overlord of both Norway and Skane(mainly because he sent fleets and armies to help them against the Swedes). There were ulterior motives for this; the House of Wessex now ruled the HRE, ruled what remained of the Kingdom of the Franks (albeit as a Duke rather than as a King) and had a scion as heir to the Duchy of Normandy and Knud wanted to discourage them from making an attempt to retake Wessex.

Knud reorganised England into 5 earldoms Jorrk, Lincoln, Tamworth, Winchester and Canterbury (roughly equivalent to Deira, Danskjord, Mercia, Wessex and the area previously known as Lundin) and appointed thoroughly capable men as the Earls. His one mistake in appointments was to appoint a Sussex landowner Godwin as Earl of Canterbury (and that could only be seen as a mistake with 20:20 hindsight by 1070). Godwin had not been of the old Lundin hierarchy but his father had been closely enmeshed with them in business dealings but had been adroit enough to see which way the wind was blowing by 1011 and had distanced himself from the centre of power.

Trade was encouraged, roads repaired and extended, taxes were not onerous and Knud did little militarily except maintain the fleets to discourage pirates in the North and Irish seas and keep the trade routes to France, HRE, Scandinavia and beyond open.

Indeed things had become so peaceful that in 1034 Knud was able to make a pilgrimage to Rome and not worry about anybody attempting to take over the Kingdom.

He and Emma only ever had 2 sons Hardeknud and Harald but numerous daughters who were married off to several continental lords such as the Duke of Brittany, and the Count of Boulogne. When Haakons son Harald II died without an heir in 1039, Harald became Harald III of Skane.

Knud finally died in 1042 and was succeeded by his son Hardeknud.

 

[Lindseyman]

The 5 Earldoms of England

A Map showing the 5 Earldoms as set up by Knud.

 

[Julius Vogel]

Foreshadowing of Northern Ireland I see?

 

[Lindseyman]

Constantine III ruled Rheged quietly and just developed a trading network with the Kingdoms of Ireland and kept a watchful eye on the feuding chiefdoms of Alba. He died in 1033 and was succeeded by his son Owain II who was renowned for his cheerfulness and willingness to drink and hunt (often at the same time!). The inevitable happened in 1040 and Owain went hunting for boar whilst drunk and ended up being badly gored and died from his injuries. This created a crisis(well a crisis for Rheged!) as Owain's only surviving child Artair (named for his maternal grandfather) was only 4. So a Council of Regency was set up led by the Laird of Obar Dheathain (known by his nickname Mac Bethad) Artair's maternal uncle. Artair was despatched to Knud's court to be brought up and Mac Bethad ran Rheged.

At first all went well, Mac Bethad was an intelligent man and he ruled wisely and improved a lot of aspects of Rheged's exchequer and trade. However as the years went by and as the other members of the Council of Regency died (not all in suspicious circumstances by any means) Mac Bethad gained more and more power and by 1054 he was the de facto King of Rheged and acted like it. In 1056 he actually had himself crowned as Riderch IV.

This finally stirred Artair into action and he rode north with the support of Hardeknud (whose younger daughter Eadgyth he had married in 1054) and after a battle at Durham in September 1056 (in which Mac Bethad and his stepson were killed) regained his kingdom. Although Mac Bethad's coronation as Riderch IV was struck from the record he was allowed to be buried with dignity in Obar Dheathain.