Worse Weather on the Channel in 1066

I'm watching the series of programs called: 1066 Battle for Middle Earth on Channel 4. It's very good and is interesting but the narrator on the second program raised an interesting point. He said that the Norman's couldn't swim very well, and that many men drowned; but he then says "If only some more had been cast to the depths where they belonged."
Now my WI is that, what if the weather had been rougher and more Norman's had been killed; say some 2000 men, of which 1500 were cavalry and 500 were missile troops.
I know this may seem like a large amount of men but the Norman's were not a naval race and possibly worse weather may've actually killed a lot more men than OTL.
With the force down to just 6400 men now, while the Anglo-Saxons had 7500 men would this have definitively tipped the balance to allow the Anglo-Saxons to defend their land again from the Norman's as they did with the Vikingr from the North?
Would our small island nation have been left alone then as we would've fought of two invading forces in quick succession of each other? Would King Harold have ordered a better army to face of any future foes?
Discuss.
 
Would our small island nation have been left alone then as we would've fought of two invading forces in quick succession of each other? Would King Harold have ordered a better army to face of any future foes?
Discuss.
I just read a counter-factual from Cecelia Holland on this. According to her the result of victory at Hastings for Harold = AWSUM!!!!1!!
 
William waited for the weather enough OTL that you need a pretty good reason for him to risk it here even if he's somehow trying to capitalise on Stamford.

Assuming he does go for it despite conditions then I'd suggest he was smart enough that losing three quarters of his cavalry alone might be a good enough reason to make him turn right around, rebuild and try again some other day.

Harold’s forced march on a Norman army this weakened would put him in far too strong a position for Hastings to proceed in any recognisable fashion as William has no way to be anything other than on the defensive.

Either William goes home or Harold flat out beats him after which Britain remains Frog free for a while. The changes to the English (now Saxon) class system from that alone are too big for me to think about at this time of night.

A more immediate issue is that now the French/Normans have a long standing claim on the British throne and reason to invade us rather than the other way around. How long a Saxon England can keep going in the face of that constant threat is up in the air.
 
Thing is, William was delayed IOTL for a significant amount of time due to the weather. he probably isnt going to just sail into a storm, although a sudden squall combined with some impatience could wreak havoc.

Maybe a more interesting POD is that the winds shift earlier, and William is able to land at roughly the same time that harold Hardrada arrives off the coast of yorkshire. How do the three claimants to the throne react to this event?
 
I know this may seem like a large amount of men but the Norman's were not a naval race and possibly worse weather may've actually killed a lot more men than OTL.
QUOTE]

What ? Dude, the Normans were descended from the Vikings, sailing was definitely in their blood- look at the way Norman knights fought in Siciliy plus other places further afield- & got there via their naval technology...

hmmm, as to the qn of weather- yeah, if William does go ahead in the storm & loses the approx. nos. you've raised, then the Saxons do stand a better chance of winning- esp in light of other factors such as bad weather poss delaying William's army to the extent that Harold's army, racing south from Stamford Bridge, could also have a bit more time to recover in time for the decisive battle. William would sorely miss 2,000 good men who were knights or archers- just look at other battles where weather was such an important factor- ie Omaha Beach, where nearly all the DD tanks supporting the US V Corps sank due to the rough weather, thereby exposing the attacking US soldiers to withering German defences & resulting enormous casualites; or the original KAMIKZAE in 1281 which destroyed the Mongol invasion fleet before they could sail to Japan.
 
I know this may seem like a large amount of men but the Norman's were not a naval race and possibly worse weather may've actually killed a lot more men than OTL.
QUOTE]

What ? Dude, the Normans were descended from the Vikings, sailing was definitely in their blood- look at the way Norman knights fought in Siciliy plus other places further afield- & got there via their naval technology...

By not a seafaring nation I meant that most men couldn't swim, that's why there were so many deaths due to the weather in OTL.
 
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