Northumbria reborn

What if during the chaos of King Stephans riegn the lesser landowners and freemen of the area covered by the modern counties of Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Durham and North Yorkshire rebeled and formed a new nation? Fed up of the fuedal system they decide that they will revive the Norse Thing (not sure of the spelling), defence is based on the fyrd with the posintion of a man in it is dependent on social standing. The wealthiest either forming the cavelry or the officers of the infantry. Membership of the fyrd is compulsery. They are backed by the Scots who like the idea of a buffer state between them and England.
 
I suppose if the scots were promised Berwick and possibly Alnwick as well they would agree to this.

Not sure if it's possible after the harrying of the north though. And really, it would be all of Yorkshire and possibly Lancashire rebelling as well as York is in North Yorkshire.

Could the state survive? possibly.
 
Stephen had much more serious problems in the south, and France. The way I see it The Northumbrians would want all of Yorkshire but would be unlikely to hold it, the moors and the dales are more defensible than areas further south. Stephen was a good man but a bad king, in real life he ceded large areas of the north to the Scots for peace. My thought is that if the situation with Matilda was worse, and the Scotish King more forward thinking they could have pulled this off, especially if the Church backed them. With the backing of the church and a population still recovering from the conquest they might be able to draw in fresh settlers most of which I imagine would come from Scandinavia.

Latter on if they can survive the first few years I could see the Church having Henry 11 formally and publicaly renounce any claim on Northumbria as part of his penance for the murder of Thomas Becket.

Given Northumbria's location it would have to develope into a much more militerised state than either Scotland or England in order to survive.
 
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