The union of England with Wales, Scotland and Ireland respected their recognition as separate entities/nations (also with dependencies like Man or Jersey), but what could have happened if the English would have converted them just into other English counties with no special recognition, covering all the British Isles as an enlarged Kingdom of England?
WI: Wales, Scotland and Ireland converted into English counties/provinces and not recognized as separate entities
- Thread starter Mario
- Start date
It probably would have happened to Scotland too, if the English conquered it, They never did though. Scotland had a personal union with England and later willingly joined in a seprate kingdom with England.
Just makes me wonder if the Tudors could have just rebranded England+Wales as Britain.
Edward Longshanks has a more capable son who integrates Scotland into England. Wales annexation goes along the same lines as OTL but a few centuries earlier. Britain is unified in 1300s and can dedicate its resources to conquering Ireland before the reformation. Both islands go through the reformation together.
Under Elizabeth you sort of see this with a strong correspondence between English and Scottish notables, John Dee I remember was active in this
Easier with Wales as it was an accepted vassal.
Ireland was difficult as while the Lordship was a vassal the Crown was too busy trying to apply it to all of Ireland first.
Scotland would require a union under an English king first I think. Even then it'll need rebranding so fails the op as just England.
For me that would be Great Britain. I've got a sliding scale of Britain (E+W) -> Great Britain (B+S) -> British Isles (GB+I) that's kind of stuck in my head.
Britain and Great Britain are the same thing, i.e. the island which contains the England, Wales and Scotland. As to the OP an Edward I who dies 3 or 4 years earlier and is succeeded by a competent monarch. With the Kingdom of Great Britain formed the next challenge is to switch focus onto Ireland at least a century before the Reformation and avoid continental distractions. Which is tricky as a single French province and not even a big one is considerably more lucrative than the whole island or Ireland.
Might be thinking of the Roman province of Britannia being primarily England-and-Wales and then slicing off the Latin suffix as Germanic adaptions of Latin place names are very wont to do.