This Earth of Imperial Majesty - The Realm of the Angelcynn

Original Post and FAQ
Hello and welcome to my first timeline on this site which will follow the history of the Kingdom of England and the trials it faces along with the advances it makes. The main PoD will be one during the Battle of Hastings, however I promise this will not be a simple story of throwing the Bastard back into the sea and all being fine and well, this will have an England that sees a lot of strife in the period of time of 1066 going until 1100-ish.

Now the first "true" update will be later today, which will reveal both its primary effects and a few tidbits about some of the people involved that are often forgotten or just not talked about, but for now a short Q&A about what to expect in terms of scope, scale and format from this along with a small number of minutia.

Q. When will this timeline progress to?
I have notes on England and those pertaining to it for a period until about the 1200s/1250s, I'll take a break/check there to gauge my own enjoyment of this and depending on that we'll follow the TL to the discovery of the new world whenever that occurs and pick-up again in a sequel TL in the vein of the White Huns.

I'll probably end up doing a revamp of this when I evolve more as a writer and expand my research of the period(s), or I'll give up. Who knows.

Q. Will you covering areas outside of England in this TL?
I have rough plans for things going on in France, Christian Iberia, the HRE and even less on (but still something) on Christian Eastern Europe and an even infinitesimally smaller series of notes on the Baltic and other Pagan/Islamic parts of the wider European continent.

Q. How much butterfly effect will occur?
Not sure, I have it working to an extent in some of my notes on Europe. One of the problems with doing an Anglo-Saxon timeline is the lack of details about many of the figures of the Anglo-Saxon nobility and thus nearly anything they do could be seen as unrealistic or OOC.

Q. What will an update look like?
Basically just text, maybe a few rough maps. But mainly just text and maps, because if it works for works like LTTW then hopefully my much lesser work can survive on that format too.

Q. How far will you follow in the style on those who use alt-history to teach real history?
Um, a little but not too much, largely I'll be doing that in the early updates and less in the ones that follow 1100 in terms of facts about England. It'll likely occur still in Europe post-1100 but not much there either.


Anyway, hope that the promise of an Anglo-Saxon timeline has piqued your interest, the first update and the container of both background dressing and the PoD should be up at around 20:00 GMT at the latest.
 
Chapter One - The Mourning After
The Mourning After


Edith the Fair [1] walked across the field and hill of Hastings, walked to where the soldiers told her her husband lay [2]. Across the field she saw Leofwine's body and Gyrth's grieving for his brother, himself still bloodied and bruised from the day long battle. Treading around those who lay dead and those who were dying. The Normans had been fully routed, and thus the battlefield was safe enough to be traversed and for people to try to identify corpses. Half-stumbling down the hill herself, Edith moved to the location where her husband, the king had breathed and fought his last. It was at the base of the hill of the battlefield, the immediate area covered in captured flags and standards brought to the side of the dying king to give him hope for the future in his last thoughts prior to his expiration. Edith still knew aught of the battle save that he had won the day, she had rushed to find his body as soon as she had heard the news and thought only of asking the details when she could cup what was left of him in her arms.

At last she saw him, his body still encased in his armour. Around him were strewn the corpses of many a Norman, Breton and French lord [3]. Most notable was the corpse of the Bastard Duke himself [4], cut in half by the sword of Harold, the duke's halves had been loosely connected by what remained of his innards, but for the sake of the approaching lady the soldiers had "put him back together" so as not to upset Edith. The remaining housecarls told her of the king's decision to make good use of the pursuit upon learning of the death of Leofwine and the survival of Gyrth [5]. Thus they told her, when the Duke appeared to attempt to rally his men, Harold and his van dove into the fray. Himself known as an imposing figure, Harold cut a swathe through the guards of William and loudly shouted in his best[6] Norman and French a challenge first to the Bastard Duke but then boasted that he would take up all who would take the place as commander of the invading forces when William fell. This boast, not only designed to aggravate William and force his hand but also to attempt to prevent the invading forces to choose a new leader, was to be the salvation of the English and yet Harold's own death.

Harkening to his own men that he would "Never tolerate a Norman yoke on an English neck"[7], he and the duke circled around each other waiting for one to make the first move and knowing that this duel could decide the fate of the battle and of England. The King had abandoned his shield and bastard sword in favour of a great-sword in the Welsh and Scottish design of the period, the Duke for his part opted to highlight the spectacle and used a sword and shield. The Duke seemed more aware than the King that this duel meant more than the immediacy and that a victory here would rally his army and turn the tide on the broken English shieldwall. His choice to pit himself as the polar opposite of Harold seems to be him seizing upon quick symbolism and perhaps reflect the Duke's eye to reinforce the religious imagery, with the duel as a David vs Goliath moment. The soldiers telling Edith the story laughed at his foolishness, but the gentle piety of Edith just found herself understanding the man who mortally wounded her husband. With no blood claim to the throne, and only an oath he claimed of support for kingship and a papal bull the Duke needed to win over the English somehow and the idea of godly righteousness was better than a piece of paper and a rumour. Edith's distracted thoughts caused the soldiers pause, fearful of angering the female embodiment of beauty and virtue considering the circumstances. Edith noticing them would have laughed under better circumstances, but instead decided to just direct the soldiers to continue the telling.

The duel was over in seconds, Harold's imposing strength [8] allowing him to take a scant few steps forward and bring down a smashing blow with his sword, the Duke seemed to recognise his impending fate and instead opting to use his shield to buy himself split-seconds and instead he struck back what seemed like a glancing blow. The shield could not protect the Duke well enough, and was battered away by the force of the great-sword strike, and the Duke was cleaved in half. With the dividing line being just above the waist meant that the top half of the Duke toppled backwards after the blow, with his legs falling forwards [9]. The shocked lords of the invasion, stammered to challenge the king one by one, determined to avenge their liege lord. The king fought over a dozen lords that day, and while the last nearly killed him, by the time they had finished the invading army had collapsed with the finest crop of its leaders too distracted to rally them and too afraid of provoking a worse rout by being seen as running scared from the man they sought to dethrone. However by the end of the day, the king lay bleeding out at the foot of the hill and nothing could resuscitate him.

At this point, and rather conveniently for herself, Gyrth brought himself over to speak to his sister-in-law. United in grief, they spoke of the wider matters in the kingdom in the light of the setting sun. The Witan[10] had already been put into assembly by the brothers Morcar and Eadwine [11] and all knew that they likely sought to elect either the last of Cerdicingas[12] or the last of the Cnytlings [12] in order to have a compliant puppet to their wishes. It was all but guaranteed that the nobles of Kent [13] would make Gryth their new earl to replace his brother. The future of the Earldom of Wessex was unknown, and would likely have a candidate fostered there by the Witan in the days to come of the deliberation of the assembly there. Edith would travel and with Edith of Mercia[14] they would both look after roughly half of the scions of Harold, as even the oldest still had a year left before he came of an age to no longer require a regent. Under the setting sun of the 15th of October, 1066 the last of the bodies of the soldiers dead were moved and cleared. England would endure. Harold had paid the ultimate price, but he had prevailed in his double defence and the kingdom of the English people would go on.

Footnotes
[1] I'll be using a massive mish-mash of names in the early parts of this TL, as we move to the point where there are no longer sources with conflicting translations we'll probably see a shift back to "proper" Old English names in place of modern names such as Edith. I might correct this on a second go through from the start though. Watch this space.
[2] IOTL Edith was the one to find Harold Godwinson's body, due to William's refusal to surrender it to the English. She identified it according to marks on his chest that only she would know according to legend.
[3] As per OTL, the invading force is primarily Norman but with many Breton and French backers along for land as well.
[4] A reference to William the Conqueror, primarily known as "the Bastard" prior to his conquest.
[5] Here is the PoD, only Leofwine dying when both of his brothers died early in the battle IOTL. Harold, wanting to save what he can decides to risk it and fully commits to the pursuit of the Norman rout. This putting him within striking distance of William when the latter appears to help rally his troops.
[6] Seeing as Harold was for some time held hostage in Normandy, it stands to reason that he knew some French and Norman. Despite this, he's not exactly fluent but he doesn't need to be for a challenge.
[7] I'm going to keep allohistorical allusions on the downlow, but there may be a few.
[8] Harold's physical strength is well documented, but also often forgotten. And this clear prowess in combat is why people believe that the man killed by an arrow represents Harold on the Bayeux Tapestry due to this need for a non-traditional death
[9] Duel of the Fates optional
[10] Short for Witengemot, the Anglo-Saxon body that mostly resembles the Tudor parliament in operation. Arguably the single institution whose mere existence prompted much Whiggish history on the idea of the "Norman yoke".
[11] Earls of Northumbria and Mercia respectively
[12] Alternate names for the House of Wessex and for the descendants of Canute/Cnut. The latter will eventually be more Anglicised but due to the narrative framing retains its more Danish and Norse version for now.
[13] As mentioned in Footnote 1, but reminded here that such naming will remain in Modern English for nearly all places due to the fact that while some changes would be nice to show the difference, that said difference is worth little if you need a footnote by the name of every English city.
[14] Edith the Fair was Harold's wife in "the manner of the Danish", while Edith of Mercia was his wife "in the manner of the Christians". More on this polygamy later and it's fate without its forced destruction with the new laws and customs of the Normans.

Author's Note

And so we're underway, hope you enjoyed the first update.

We'll be moving onto to a more textbook/lecture hall format with the vast majority of the updates to come but I found that the narrative style would help more for the first chapter.

Some small foreshadowing for the future here, some not so small.

Any feedback and criticism would appreciated, thanks for reading the first update! Next update : "The Second Assembly of 1066".
 
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Some minor corrections:
Gyrth not Gryth.
Cnytling not Kyntling. The Old Danish would be Cnytlingar with a C like Old English, K is a later change to the alphabet following German influence.

And some advice:
If you're going to use Old English spellings then I'd suggest also using contemporary spellings for Old Welsh, Old Danish, Old Norse, and Middle Irish (Gaelic).

Other than that I shall respond as I read :cool:.
 
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Some minor corrections:
Gyrth not Gryth.
Cnytling not Kyntling. The Old Danish would be Cnytlinga with a C like Old English, K is a later change to the alphabet following German influence.

And some advice:
If you're going to use Old English spellings then I'd suggest also using contemporary spellings for Old Welsh, Old Danish, Old Norse, and Middle Irish (Gaelic).

Other than that I shall respond as I read :cool:.

Thanks for the top two suggestions, as someone used to playing Paradox games and others things like that often throw me off due to the vast differences in different. So would Cnytling be how Anglo-Saxons talk of the House of Canute in 1066? Thanks regardless.

As for the second, for the time being until people start dying off and the prevalence of at least 3 different versions of each Old English name (for example Wikipedia lists 3 different Anglo-Saxon versions of Edith, and I'm sure specialist sources could manage a couple more) appear I'll be using Modern English. My plan was then to use CK2's HIP mod name lists as the base and supplement that with online name dictionaries of the time, do you have anything that could help with that if you don't mind me asking? I might retroactively fix the names, but for now I'll stick to modern English for the sake of verisimilitude.
 
Thanks for the top two suggestions, as someone used to playing Paradox games and others things like that often throw me off due to the vast differences in different. So would Cnytling be how Anglo-Saxons talk of the House of Canute in 1066? Thanks regardless.
No worries.
They would call them tha Cnytingas or Cnytlingas the Cnytlings, bearing in mind this will include all their household not just relatives since while they distinguished brothers and sons with names they didn't with families as such.
As for the second, for the time being until people start dying off and the prevalence of at least 3 different versions of each Old English name (for example Wikipedia lists 3 different Anglo-Saxon versions of Edith, and I'm sure specialist sources could manage a couple more) appear I'll be using Modern English. My plan was then to use CK2's HIP mod name lists as the base and supplement that with online name dictionaries of the time, do you have anything that could help with that if you don't mind me asking? I might retroactively fix the names, but for now I'll stick to modern English for the sake of verisimilitude.
Online name sources are ok though they don't often distinguish Angle dialect from Saxon so it's worth looking at the differences between the dialects if you want consistency.
 
Chapter Two - Days Gone By
Days Gone By


In the wake of the battle of Hastings, the Brother-Earls [1] of Mercia and Northumbria with their armies had marched to the royal capital of Winchester [2] having heard that the battle was won and called for a special assembly of the Witenagemot [3] to discuss the matter of the next royal succession. Harold Godwinson had a son of fifteen years but the minor controversy surrounding his own election and a general discrediting of the Godwiningas faction and decision of Gyrth to truly mourn for his brothers and to then secure Kent for himself left such the faction in disarray at the Witan when the matter of succession to the deceased king came up. This meant that the Witan would elect a new king, and one not of the line of Godwin. This naturally led to many debates about which of the theoretical existing claimants of blood might be chosen, aswell as the potential for electing a new line from the nobility.

Going off blood of the previous royal houses there was two claimants, Edgar Aetheling[4] and Aelfwine Haroldsson. Edgar was the grandson of King Edmund Ironside, with his father Edward the Exile having fled England when Canute invaded. He and his father were brought back to England from Hungary in 1057 when Edward the Confessor learned that his nephew in Edward was still alive. His father would die shortly after arriving on England’s soil, in circumstances that have led many to accuse the Godwiningas and their ilk of foul play. Whatever the case may be, Edgar was around 15 at this time and thus capable of ruling unaided. Edgar had previously been passed over in favour of Harold, due to Edgar’s inability to defend England in crisis and the presumption that Harold could. Aelfwine Haroldsson was the illegitimate son of the previous King Harold Harefoot. Aelfwine was a claimant in absentia as he was in the lands of Aquitaine at this point and would have to be recalled to the isles to be crowned if chosen. As he was the last of the Cnytlings, he was seen as both a symbol of good economic times and a more stable past but also had a stench of foreign conqueror to others.

The four potential claimants by agreements made by Edward the Confessor include Sweyn Estridsson, Magnus Haraldsson and Olaf Haraldsson and Robert Curthose. Sweyn, Magnus and Olaf all based their claim off agreements made between the last of the Englisc [5] rulers and their royal brothers in the North Sea regarding the future of the English crown. Sweyn being the King of Denmark, and Magnus and Olaf being the new co-kings of Norway following the death of their father during his invasion of England. Robert was a claimant based off his father’s papal bull and was a son of the Bastard Duke, while theoretically a claimant and thus worth mention in practice the inclusion of him as a possibility in the Witan assembly was a formality and all the various Anglo-Saxon Chronicles [6] mention that apart from an initial reading of the obvious possibilities he was not brought up again. All four candidates here though left varying degrees of sour taste in the mouths of most of the Witan, due to each having been part of or aided/been beneficiaries of the double invasion. Sweyn being the least tainted of them due to having merely made peace with Harald Hardrada and “allowing” his invasion. Despite their lack of real possibilities of being elected without duress, all of these four would not yet fall out of England’s story. [7]

The Witan began with a reading of all the various candidates listed above, and then moved on to a rough debate regarding which of the claimants to elect as King. Having taken a while to convene in the wake of Hastings, the Witan only really began its assembly on the 19th of December due to the time needed for members to convene from across England. The Brother-Earls wanted to have the King elected on Christmas Day [8] both as a measure of haste and for the obvious religious symbolism. The Witan also met to decide how not only to reform the local archbishoprics and bishoprics due to the corruption permeating there being a key reason why the Pope had given his support to the Duke of Normandy but also to decide the fate of those Normans who had chosen to remain behind in England rather than return home [9]. But both of those matters paled in comparison to the issue of the new king and were discussed largely for the various factions and leaders to work out who would work with whom and to figure out the best way to get a coalition to vote in the next King.

The matter of Stigand [10] was resolved, with the Witan resolving to allow papal legates to arrest the pretender Archbishop of Canterbury and remove him to Rome for trial in the land of the Holy See. The various remaining Normans were decided to be impressed into the national army, and to be rewarded with small farms across England to replace any settlers moved to new conquests. This action was taken to ensure assimilation and to prevent the wasting of such competent soldiery. Then came the matter of kingship and one of the greatest oddities of this special assembly occurred when despite the Brother-Earls clear support for either Edgar or Aelfwine a large faction grouped and dedicated themselves to electing the elder brother Eadwine as king. Despite their own insistence against such “nonsense” this faction persisting until the final vote on Christmas Eve. The eventual agreement was that in order to allow for a king easily malleable to both the Witan and the Earls that the pseudo-foreign Aelfwine was to be found and brought back to England to be coronated on Christmas Day the next year. These results were proclaimed on Christmas Day, and given in detail to the public to prevent the same sort of controversy that had surrounded Harold due to his quick and sudden election. The results went as follows, and the roots of the period that was to be called “The Strife” in three out of the four chronicles can be seen in who won and who lost out in the election:

· Aelfwine – 170
· Edgar – 130
· Eadwine – 75
· Morcar – 25
· Sweyn – 15
· Magnus – 5
· Olaf – 5
· Robert – 0 [11]

Despite the relatively clear outcome of the election, the top four candidates would each go on to be counted as official Kings of the English [12] and the surviving three of the last four would also each claim the title in pretence [13]. England would see little peace until 1091, and yet she would expand her imperial crown. Thus, was it to be that England would see brother pitted against brother and a fifth and final invasion in the 11th century. [14]


Footnotes

[1] An invention of mine, these brothers will see more prominence in this TL, and thus this phrase is coined after them. Will see use similar to “Catholic Monarchs” with Eadwine and Morcar being the Ur example but there being enough similar circumstances for its use as a general term.
[2] IOTL the Anglo-Saxons had no set capital, with London as the largest city but Winchester was the preferred capital of Edward the Confessor
[3] Witan and Witenagemot are interchangeable, and thus from now on I’ll be using Witan but I thought I should list both for complete accuracy at least initially.
[4] Aetheling meaning something akin to “of royal blood”, similar to royal prince but not quite. Also note that in this first “edition” of TEIM I’ll be using Ae rather than the conjoined version, at least initially.
[5] Another invented term, credit not mine though, the term itself was sussed out by the HIP modding team for CK2 and thus anyone familiar with that mod will recognise what the use of this term over others indicates.
[6] I’ll probably do a full update on just exactly what the Anglo-Saxon chronicle was, but for now I’ll just leave it at the fact that there were 4 different chronicles of English history which despite political differences between versions all claimed to merely be copies of the others
[7] IOTL Sweyn would be a figure who raided on his own being paid off by William, and would return again with Edgar later with either himself or Edgar to be acclaimed King. Obviously, he failed. Magnus and Olaf would rule as co-rulers until Magnus died in 1069 and Olaf ruled alone until 1093. Robert would rule as Duke of Normandy following Williams death, and the duchy itself would return as demesne to the King during the last of the Normans reign.
[8] IOTL William was crowned on Christmas Day after a march on London in which he obtained the submission of other cites en route.
[9] It’s important to note that small numbers of Normans had been in England prior to the invasion and thus this grouping left behind/that have chosen to remain won’t stick out quite as much as you’d think
[10] A corrupt bishop, who was one of the reasons Pope Alexander II gave William his Papal bull and standard. IOTL he was arrested in 1070 by Papal legates.
[11] One can assume that the chroniclers themselves rounded the numbers, I actually have little data on the numerical composition of the Witan, and if any readers do that would appreciated if it was available to be shared.
[12] The title “King of England” was mainly used by Canute and some of the other Englisc/Anglo-Danish monarchs and eventually by William and his successors while the Anglo-Saxon/Angelcynn monarchs preferred “King of the English”
[13] As will be gotten to, this is technically untrue, but gets the point here that they’ll all be returning at some point without giving too much away. What I can reveal easily now is that Magnus will dies as OTL in 1069. Hence the “three out of four” remark.
[14] The invasions being as follows; Sweyn Forkbeard, Canute the Great, Harald Hardrada, William the Bastard (Conqueror) and this deliberately vague fifth invasion.

Author’s Notes

First off, don’t expect many updates from being daily, though I might be able to manage it during the rest of this week, who knows?

Secondly, I’d like some input on footnotes. Am I doing too many, too few or just about enough?

And lastly do any readers have any preferences for update material/topics to cover? I have the political stuff down pat for the rest of the 1000s but I can get in a couple of cultural/religious/continental interludes if people want that kind of thing. Though I’d need to know on what, so as to know when to place these interludes and minor pieces.

Thanks for reading, I hope you stick with this, and again feedback and criticism would be welcome to help me improve my craft.
 
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No further comments or nitpicks at present;).
Except if you want to do any in-universe bits of writing it would be worth distinguishing in-universe footnotes from out-universe footnotes. This allows you also to do footnotes of your footnotes :relievedface:.
 
Chapter Three - The King Who is Promised
The King Who is Promised

Taken from To be King – The English Kings during the 11th Century (1999 – Richester University Press)

With the matter of the election to the kingdom settled, it was time for a regent to be appointed to lead the kingdom until Aelfwine could be brought back. The Witan would go on to select the Earl of Mercia, Eadwine, to be regent with his brother Morcar to be the one to find the King in the Duchy of Aquitaine and potentially the Counties of Barcelona and Toulouse adjacent to it. Many historians cite this as a precursor to the Brother’s War much later, and see Eadwine as already seeing the threat presented by his brother and the greater natural ability in command and war compared to Eadwine’s own talents in intrigue and diplomacy. Such a view is mostly reductive, and ignores that Morcar was equally capable or scheming or hashing out agreements when needed and this can even be seen in his southron travellings. Regardless Eadwine as sole regent began to act upon his agenda as the true power in England, at least for now.

It is certainly a quirk of English tradition that Eadwine choose to increase Witanic [1] power in order to give his regency’s new centralising laws a degree of legitimacy amongst the nobility. We should discard some of the more nationalistic notions that the Witan was directly elected at this point, that would not come until much later. However, at this stage, it was seen as the legitimate voice of the people via their sheriffs and thus to implement centralisation via the Witan went a long way towards endearing Eadwine and the absent king to the people. While Aelfwine is still considered a decent monarch for the time, Eadwine would come to actively squander this goodwill. But I forget my focus, Eadwine also began preparations for an invasion of the remaining principalities of the Welsh. Ever since the death of Gruffydd [2], the Welsh were divided between his two brothers, and an insurgency by his two sons who sought the lands themselves. Eadwine was the son of a rebellious earl, who sought to divide the English lands with Welsh rulers and thus had a fear and respect for Welsh power not often seen in other English figures after the death of Gruffydd.

It is important to understand that while the Welsh saw a slow and steady conquest over the many centuries since the arrival of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes that they had seen this conquest only as a result of their division and that in the times they had been united they had threatened English supremacy and hegemony. After all, Gruffydd had only been defeated by the betrayal of his own men, and that was despite the English leader being the recently deceased Harold Godwinson [3], and Eadwine was no Harold. Eadwine is said to have studied the history of the Welsh according to the manuscripts of the Chronicle [4] and have grown weak upon reading the stories of the legendary battle leader Arthur and his ability to push the “Saxons” back. Eadwine feared what a second Gruffydd could do and so began to assemble the Normans that had chosen to remain and his fyrd. He chose a commander with reasons to do well, and picked Eadric the Wild. Eadric was a magnate of the Midlands [5], which then bordered the Welsh petty kingdoms.

Eadric rallied the local men and the men of Mercia, with reinforcements led by Godwin Godwiningas [6]. The newly elected Earl of Wessex brought with him the Normans and had integrated them on the march. Wessex would be governed by the two Ediths while he was on campaign. Eadric drilled the troops in preparations for invasion in the hills of the shires. The troops drilled in what is now the Richester green belt; The Wye and Dean nature district [7]. The hills and forests being roughly akin to the West Midlands [8] terrain. It is reported in the less Eadwine friendly versions of the Chronicle that Eadwine detested the drills due to their hindrance of his ability to hunt in the ancient forest, which had traditionally hosted the royal hunts of the English and was renowned for its natural beauty. The army, numbering approximately 10,000 would march in the summer of 1067 and not return home for many years. This action would both boost Eadwine’s popularity initially but would drastically reduce it over the years to come due to the massive extensions of the fyrd’s time fighting and not farming. It is perhaps less reductive than before, with the remark on the Brother Earls, to say that Eadwine would unknowingly seal his fate with this action, though none would see this until it helped to see his death and the restoration of English fortune.]

As for Morcar, he would make his way North to charter his own ship from his lands to reduce the burden on those ransacked by the Normans during their brief occupation. Doing so, he shortly raised his own fyrd and via a short siege would return the fortress of Carlisle and the county of Cumbria into the Northumbrian fold. He did this largely to keep the local sheriffs and thegns distracted by protecting the border from incursions from the Scottish ruler and leave them unable to depose him as they had the previous earl Tostig [9]. He made plans for landing in East Anglia, Flanders, Brittany and then Bordeaux to travel faster on the open sea. This highlights the fact that rulers of this age were not aware of all goings on, even in their own realm. This helps us understand the perilous journey that Morcar would find himself on and his struggle to remain alive and to bring back the future king Aelfwine safely. For he knew little of the crisis in the North of the Kingdom of France, and how he would come to be forced into helping found one of the greatest powers of Christendom. He knew not of Konan’s invasion of Normandy or of the now legendary Cadoc’s own invasion of Brittany. He only ventured to find the King that had been promised.

Footnotes

[1] An invented term, equivalent to “parliamentary” in Modern English.
[2] The only person to ever be considered a true King of All Wales, though he naturally used “King of the Britons”. Died in 1063.
[3] Then “only” the Earl of Wessex.
[4] Chronicle will probably be used as shorthand for the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle from here on out. Please tell me if this ever becomes too confusing.
[5] Normally described as being from the West Midlands IOTL, the obvious change reflects an obvious outcome.
[6] The eldest son of Harold and Edith the Fair, who was the PoV/framing device of the first chapter.
[7] So, this is a bit of fanservice as this is me shouting out my current stomping grounds, however this is all true in terms of geographical and geological similarities. Hope it doesn’t seem too out of place, and if it does tell me and I’ll find a way to correct it.
[8] See note 5.
[9] Historically IOTL and ITTL Tostig was deposed as Earl by a local rebellion, which was put down by allowing them to replace Tostig with the current Earl Morcar. Tostig would accuse Harold (still not king, but acting as a royal constable in this matter) of fermenting this rebellion to remove a potential threat and this would be the prime factor in Tostig supporting Harald of Norway as King if he would restore Tostig as Earl.

Authors Notes

Not too much to say here, excepting the usual request for any needed corrections and any mistakes. Some more hints towards the future here. Also be sure to point out any inconsistencies given the new method of framing the content.
 
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I wonder if Aelfwine (for as long as he lives anyway) will find himself to be "a prisoner on the throne". For that matter, he may end up refusing. IOTL, he never made an attempt for the throne.
 
I wonder if Aelfwine (for as long as he lives anyway) will find himself to be "a prisoner on the throne". For that matter, he may end up refusing. IOTL, he never made an attempt for the throne.

Well IOTL he never had much support, and Edgar was that much closer. Edgar as mentioned was passed over for the sake of a martial king IOTL, and here he's (initially) passed over once more in favour of Eadwine/Morcar having a more pliable king he's still around. Aelfwine was already in France IOTL and it's currently believed that he sponsored some minor church and monastery stuff. One must also remember that he was a son of a truly hated king, and that we don't even know if the English knew he even existed. So, that is definitely one thing I'll probably expand upon and potentially have to just roll with.

Anyway, glad you're enjoying it. The next update will focus on the quest to find Aelfwine and the trials along the way. That might end up being a two parter depending on how the first draft goes. Then an update from a much later biography about Aelfwine ITTL which will be used as a framing device for his early reign and the initial progress of the final conquest of the Welsh. These are my current thoughts though, and they may change.
 
So I take it they find Aelfwine soon rather than it being a short "reign of the missing king"?

Yeah, however as mentioned Morcar will be travelling through the seas in times of a naval crossing and a couple invasions in the Normandy/Brittany region. Then he'll have to find the king in the Aquitanian lands and to get intel might require a few favours to get info and safe passage/escort. This is to say nothing of what might happen when you turn up on the door of a person helping patronise a church and say; "You're King of England now, and you have to leave this construction halfway through!".

Suffice to say, Morcar and Aelfwine will be acquainted before both return to England's shore.
 
Chapter Four - A Lull in the Sea
A Lull in the Sea

Excerpt from Fact and Folklore – Morcar’s Odyssey [1]Edith Fare

Morcar’s journey from Bamburgh to London was perhaps the only time this voyage could be considered “entirely uneventful”. The vessel he had procured travelled with an escort of two, making the entire naval party’s number three. Staying in London and its nascent docks district for a period of one day, Morcar and his party staying in a relatively simple residence due to the lack of any real noble estates to stay in. London was a city of the guilds and merchants, not the nobility and thus the need for them to put up with less than they would usually have despite being in the richest and largest city of the kingdom at the time [2]. On the morrow of the 20th January, Morcar would finally leave England. With the new supplies, his aquatic route would take him to the port of Nantes in the Duchy of Brittany. Here we see the first of many coincidences and oddities, as had the party remained in London but a day later they would have heard of Cadoc’s gathering of his host and would have known that making land in territory that might consider itself an enemy of the Earl would not be a good idea [3]. However, they hurried off and so would find themselves jumping into trouble headfirst of their own unknowing volition.

Making port in Nantes, the modern person often forgets that due to the lack of naval ensigns that the port authorities in the city would not have known that a scion of England was docking. It is this short time before the truth was revealed that allowed Morcar and his party to survive and go on to Bordeaux. In popular consciousness Morcar is saved by the efforts of his Cornish [4] guide. And here we come to the first thing that clearly shows the gaps and incredible ability for folklore to exceed reality, for as with the later “French” guide, the name of this guide changes based on who was telling the story. Romance writers originating from the British Isles [5] typically name the guide Howel/Hywel [6], in the manner of the last Cornish king. Those from France typically name him as Kenan, seemingly after the reigning duke who was invading Normandy. More odd is how sources of the Holy Roman Empire and the Northern kingdoms of Scandinavia typically use Roland. This is perhaps the oddest of them all as it seems to come from confusion over the paladin Roland as leader of the Breton march and represents a misunderstanding of that situation. Whatever the case be, this guide was able to alert Morcar to this truth and they were able to be aware of what was to come. The civil authorities moved to arrest the party, and they seem to have spent some time imprisoned before Cadoc asked for them to be released in exchange for Nantes being solidified as his new capital and being granted privileges akin to those London had in the realm of the English.

Morcar would arrive in Bordeaux at around the 27th March of 1067 and would then learn that an exilic prince was currently residing in the abbey of Conques and that he was there aiding in the construction. It speaks volumes of either his meddling or his poor French that anyone in Bordeaux knew of whom Morcar might be looking for. Morcar and his party seem to rest for a time in Bordeaux to recover from their imprisonment. This delay due to them only arriving in Conques at around the 21st of June allows me to say with some confidence that the folkloric image of Cadoc arriving at Nantes just in time to prevent their imprisonment by the same deal mentioned earlier is another myth of the journey. Morcar would leave Bordeaux and head straight to Conques, resting on the way, and would find that as he arrived at the small town that a stranger sight than he expected greeted him there. For when he arrived at the doorstep of the Abbey, he was surprised from behind by the Duke of Aquitance and the Counts of Toulouse, Barcelona [7] and the Margrave of Provence [8]. It seems that word of him had travelled faster by quicker horses and by messengers more used to the locales of Aquitaine and France. Sitting awkwardly among them, was the King-to-be Aelfwine. And Morcar is said to have despaired, for he knew he would be forced to remain apart from his England. Those less charitable remark his despair was more for his hold on Northumbria, “usurped” and knowing how easy it might be for them to depose their own creation.



Footnotes

[1] People love referencing classical stuff, and an Anglo-Saxon England won’t change that
[2] I’ve alluded to “Richester” before, all I can say is that while London won’t decline, it definitely won’t be the uncontested centre of everything though ITTL.
[3] I’ll do an interlude on the situation in the Kingdom of France and Brittany with a more detailed explanation of Cadoc. His actions will be important for England, but in ways that won’t yet be obvious.
[4] Cornish today being ironically less akin to Breton despite the Channel and many many years.
[5] I’ll probably be changing this in the revision, as British here will probably remain a description of the Welsh and “North” Welsh and being used as a synonym for both and the for the older Britons.
[6] Cornish/Breton – Welsh spellings respectively.
[7] Barcelona being a very loose territory of the Kingdom of France still at this point, this would become more and more of a legal fiction until the Barcelona/Aragon personal union in the 1200s.
[8] Provence being an imperial territory and part of the de jure Kingdom of Arles/Burgundy which is in union with the imperial crown.



Author’s Notes

As always, feedback would be appreciated. It really helps keep the motivation going and helps me stay focused on this and not the countless side projects on my mind. I'm most curious about if people would prefer more shorter chapters, or fewer longer chapters.

Also, starting from now, when we reach the end of Act/Volume/Book/Season One or whatever in the early 1100s. I’ll be asking for people to PM with a complete list of what all the chapter titles are referencing and you can ask for a shout-out for figure XYZ or your home area of ABC and what’s happening with them ITTL.
 
Chapter Five - Southron Ambitions
Southron Ambitions

Excerpt from Fact and Folklore – Morcar’s OdysseyEdith Fare

The Lords of Aquitaine had gathered around Aelfwine, and had all but held him hostage in front of Morcar into order to force a constable of England to help them achieve independence from the French crown. William, Duke of Aquitaine desired to resurrect the Carolingian kingdom of Aquitaine with himself as King. He desired to establish it in a personal union with a new Grand Duchy of Provence covering the Francophonic lands of the current Kingdom of Burgundy in Imperial hands. He would raise the Counts to Dukes and with a secret agreement with Robert, Duke of Burgundy, to get the Pope’s approval for Robert to suborn the “Count” of Paris and the other rebelling lords of the “re-organised” Kingdom of Burgundy. Morcar thought his plan odd and over-ambitious, and could see a long bloody war to gain this independence. He would prove to be prescient on this and independence for the Kingdom of Aquitaine would not come easily.

Regardless, with the King of the English as their hostage, Morcar had no choice but to undertake a new journey to Rome and then to Bordeaux to rescue the King and to potentially also destabilise the Kingdom which had harboured the Bastard Duke. He could not predict the events to come in that regard, but then again few did. Morcar could speak with the King to be at this point, and seemed to be affected by his piety. Folklore tells us of what they spoke, and seeing as I have clearly labelled this as likely being couched in untruth let us recount what the Constable-Earl and the King said prior to them both leaving to meet again. Aelfwine was born in England, and while having never grown up there his accent was impeccable and he seemed eager to return to the place of his birth as the duly elected and rightful king. We are told that Aelfwine asked Morcar of the White Cliffs of Dover, with Morcar responding that he too had only seen them from afar on his vessel and has never stood atop them. We learn that Aelfwine asked Morcar of how his father and the other Englisc kings were known and whether they were as bad as the rumours that flowed South described them as.

Morcar himself was younger than the king, and thus was put in a curious position, as the King had been born in 1036[1] and had been forced to flee England to the Danish court initially and had learned English there and been taught English and other languages there by the Englisc tutors of the former court. He had then moved to France and to the present location in 1060 and thus had never spent a moment in England in many years. The King spoke in a heavily accented English manner, though it had the oddity of being part Occitan and part Danish in terms of accentuation. Morcar ended up stating that Harold Harefoot was English to the bone with him having been born, raised and died there. This seemed to placate the young lord, who asked Morcar for his oath ahead of the coronation to ensure that Morcar did not ask Alexander for a papal blessing for himself. Morcar seems to have reeled from this in the popular accounts, but eventually took as proof the boy was smart and quick enough to be King of the English peoples.

Giving his oath and departing, Morcar cursed the perfidy of the lords of Aquitaine as it gave him worry for his own position as Earl. For if Dukes and Counts would make themselves Kings and Dukes, then what might the nobles of Northumbria do with an absentee ruler as himself. He travelled to the port of Toulon, and there took a ship of the Count of Provence to the Holy City itself. Reportedly this impromptu pilgrimage greatly affected Morcar in the same way that meeting Aelfwine had. Seeking an audience with Alexander, Morcar was detained such that he would not return to Bordeaux until the Summer Solstice. Alexander was blunt with Morcar, and quickly attempted to heal the divide caused by his support for the Bastard Duke. Alexander was well known as a supporter of united Christian actions against heathens and heretics and thus might have wanted to ensure that whatever became of Gallia that they would stand against the Islamic powers that had only recently splintered. His Holiness may have also been reconciliatory given his recent attempts against Morcar’s people compelling him to return a favour to the man seeing that they kept true to the faith and had not attempted to break from Rome [2]. As such he penned this greatly important Papal bull, to be sent to all corners and most especially to the “Count of Paris” [3] and the Roman Emperor [4] and his vassal in the “Grand Duke of Provence” [5]. Known as “The Donation of Alexander” the document is widely considered one of the most important for the wider medieval area and many have speculated that such a document might not exist but for an Englishman in Rome. [6]

This achieved, Morcar set sail to Roussillon, and from there to Bordeaux. Here he arrived as a rather odd version of a Roman envoy, and presented the declaration to the new king. This achieved he regathered his men and found the King to return to England. Upon those ships he asked the King what he wanted to achieve first, and the response he got lives forever in folklore due to the later results. “Anything I can, for such an earth of imperial majesty, England deserves all I can give.”. The likelihood that a king so long out of England would make such a poetic statement is likely evidence that such a statement is truly only an element of folklore and legend, but I hope the reader has gathered from my musings on this that I believe there is a truth to folklore that it makes itself the truth by changing the attitudes of the people. The ships would return to Winchester, and from there would return themselves North after disgorging the King and Morcar. Back for a later Christmas day however, they only returned for a special coronation on Christmas Day of 1068. Eadwine relinquished the regency, and things began to go change once more. The Witan confirmed Aelfwine as King, and he set about trying to rule his new Kingdom and find a place in the world for the English people and their dominion.



Footnotes

[1] There is some contention regarding when he was born, I’m saying 1036 and as such he’s about 31 with Morcar being 18/19.
[2] I’m not a big fan of TL’s that do “Reformation with a different Luther” and so we’ll be seeing something a bit more original with regards to reform within Catholicism when it comes.
[3] King Philip of France
[4] The Holy Roman Emperor, not the actual Roman Emperors in the Orient. Currently Henry IV of the Salians.
[5] New title for the former “Kingdom of Arles/Burgundy” and held by the King of Aquitaine. IOTL Duke William VIII of Aquitaine and here King William I of Aquitaine.
[6] The TTL book gives little focus on the truly immense negotiations here, and they themselves see more focus from Occitan and other historians.

Author’s Notes

So, from this I found that I was very blocked by this adventure, although I think this has helped me develop. A map of the new situation in France will follow when we reach 1100. England will also see changed borders. Hopefully this wasn’t too ASB (and preferably not at all), but please tell me if you think this is unrealistic.

Also, I'm changing the previous competition from a complete list to just those who get the highest amount of title references correctly.
 
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