your call: 1066

who should be King?

  • William, Duke of Normandy

    Votes: 13 13.0%
  • King Harold Godwinson

    Votes: 37 37.0%
  • King Harald of Norway

    Votes: 33 33.0%
  • Tostig Godwinson

    Votes: 2 2.0%
  • Edgar the Ætheling

    Votes: 12 12.0%
  • other

    Votes: 3 3.0%

  • Total voters
    100
alright I'm going to make a poll and see who you all want to be king of England after 1066, give me your thoughts on PODs, TLs and other junk :)
 
I vote for the scildwall to hold. No running down the hill after the Normans, no arrow in the eye for Harold, William is driven off. Hastings is an English victory, plain and simple. English remains mostly a west Germanic language, with a bit of Norse thrown in.
 
Hmmmmmmm.....

I am torn between Edgar the Ætheling and Harald Hardrada.....

But using General Wibblepants logic I must go with Harald Hardrada lest my father disown me... :)
 
Why not just OTL William? Whether OTL English like it our not, those Normans were very important for the development of the OTL English, no Normans equals ATL English (although just as in the rest of Western Europe with French cultural influence )...
 
Why not just OTL William? Whether OTL English like it our not, those Normans were very important for the development of the OTL English, no Normans equals ATL English (although just as in the rest of Western Europe with French cultural influence )...

Because he was a mass murderer and an imperialist thug.

He decided he wanted to be king whether the English people liked it or not, killing off most of England's landowners and dispossessed the survivors (in some cases forcing the widows to marry their husband's killers), and devastated the North for refusing to submit to his rule.

Plus William's government was essentially a colonial one--bringing in Normans and Flemings to take over all the land and government jobs.
 
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My heart say Edgar but my head says Harold, so Harold it is

I was thinking something similar.

Edgar might have had the better legal claim and Harold Godwinsson was a thug too, but Edgar was young and weak and that would be problematic for England as a whole if he took the throne.
 
Leaving all prejudice aside, Harold was very competent and was also receptive to continental influences, so likely things like castles and knights would happen, but not as extensively and a lot more peacefully.
 
Wasn't Harold Hardrada chief of the Varangian Guard under the Macedonians? Would he have kept the filioquists out of England? If so, he has my vote! :cool:
 
My first post so please take it easy on me and my scattered logic, :), but I'm sure many problems would have been solved if the Witan had elected Edgar the Ætheling. First of all Tostig wouldn't have been banished by Harold the King and the Battle at Stamford Bridge wouldn't have taken place, thus the Saxon infantry would have been well rested. Second, Harold would have been a leader of the Saxon Army so when the Saxon's met the Normans with fresh troops they would have been well led and would have won the day at the Battle of Hastings and sent his cousin William fleeing back to Normandy.
 
How about a messy multi-sided war that runs on for years, has no real winner, weakens everyone in England and enables the Cymry to get their act together and then retake Britain? :D
 
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