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This is my first crack at a timeline and I'm relatively new to this, so I'd appreciate your feedback.

Timeline of the Greater Norman Empire and its successor states.

Premise:
My original interest was in a "what if Harold won at Hastings" timeline. For various reasons however, I decided to go for a variant on this theme. First, Harold winning at Hastings has been done several times over, and the results haven't particularly interested me. Second, Harold was in a manifestly tight spot, with two impending invasions and two foreign armies seeking his crown. Could he really have held both of them off? Its certainly possible, but equally likely that he could not have. What interests me far more is a Norman victory, but one which is far less total or complete than that in our timeline. Here, William will get England, but Norman domination of the aristocracy will be patchy at best. This will leave William with a problem; a large pack of land hungry disillusioned Norman nobles and warriors. What to do, what to do? Well, there's Sicily, to be conquered much more quickly and completely, and while he's in Italy, the Pope suggests a project to William which interests him greatly. Its ambitious, but then, so is William. The odds are steep, but then, these are Normans after all. Meanwhile, with the agreement of the DeCoatville brothers to swear fealty to William, a king in Paris wonders if one of his dukes is getting too big for his britches...
The point of divergence is as follows. In our timeline, of course, Harold Hardrada of Norway arrived in England first. As a result, Harold marched north, did battle with him, defeated him, then turned around and lost to William. In this timeline, William arrives first. Harold's fresh forces meet him in southern England and, after heavy fighting, are defeated. While Harold is killed, large portions of his husskarl force survive, although they are not in good order. William begins to march through England, but in this timeline, his army is considerably more battered. And a new threat has just materialized to the north. We will pick up the action as Harold Hardrada lands in Northumbria, and wins a sharp but decisive battle against Morcar and Edwin. William is marching northward, harassed by disorganized bands of Saxons. Meanwhile, the boy prince Edgar, called the Atheling and aided by Stigund the archbishop of Canterbury, is seeking to rally Saxon forces in the west of England, and a young king of Gwynedd has taken an interest in his cause, unbeknownst to either the Normans or Norwegians. (note: the format of these posts will be similar to that of shattered world, or decades of darkness, a timeline interspersed with more detailed posts).
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