WI: Both Harold AND William die at Hastings?

MAlexMatt

Banned
As far as I understand, the succession of The Confessor was extremely cloudy to begin with, and that Harold and William were the best claimaints, at least in terms of being able to take and hold the throne if not in terms of legitimacy.

If both of them die at Hastings, what happens next?
 
The Witan elects Edgar Atheling as King, the Normans either go home or try to set up Robert as King. Depends on who wins the battle - the Saxon numbers are diminished and the forces tired, so the Normans have the advantage.
 

MAlexMatt

Banned
Both of those possible claimants are extremely young. Would they be able to really take and hold the throne?
 
Both of those possible claimants are extremely young. Would they be able to really take and hold the throne?

Well, Robert has his uncles, especially Bishop Odo, to actually run things, as well as his powerful mother Matilda of Flanders. Edgar would probably be a puppet of Morcar and his brother Eadwine, the most powerful surviving Anglo-Saxon nobles.
 
I Believe it would end up Edgar being picked by Witan ... while he was young he still was 15 years old, so its not like they'd get an infant king... but yeah, at least early on he would be leaning quite heavily toward Morcar, or maybe even King Malcolm of Scotland, who while not actively a part of the war, was a steadfast ally granting Edgar and his sisters and mother exile after Harold took the throne, and might (as OTL) be married Edgars older sister, as per 'thanks for the help'
 
People tend to forget that pre-1066 the English monarchy was elective, not inherited. It's true that the Witan generally chose someone related to the old king and would take his wishes into account but this was seen as non-binding. As a result if both William and Harold were killed (for some reason I wrote 'won' instead of 'killed' originally. now that would be a strange scenario) at Hastings I would expect the English to be in better shape than Normandy where the succession was based on inheritance and William's only son was still very young
 
Edgar was actually elected for the English throne after Hastings ... he just never were coronated before William solidified his control and took the crown for himself.

And if considering that the war would likely peter out now that William is dead and the Normans retreating, picking Edgar wouldn't be the first time picking a young person ... Æthelred was only 10 when he was coronated in 978
 
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