Suppose the Saxons had won the battle of hastings. Would England have been more similar to scandinavia?

Suppose the Saxons had won the battle of hastings. Would England have been more similar to scandinavia?

Indeed it would have.

interesting

If Harold Godwinson, an Anglo-Dane who respected the north and welsh was allowed to reign? YES.

Also safe money is we'd have a lot more archbishops like Stigand as opposed to trash continental Lanfranc.

>Breaking oath made on saints bones
>ANY chance of winning

Its a mene question Harold should have never been elected.

Was Harold a descendent of Alfred the Great?

no, he was the son of Earl Godwin of Wessex

how would it look like if Harald won?

English would sound more like the rest of the Germanic languages but they also would have about half a century ahead of Scandinavia in Christianisation. Maybe the whole UK would be Lutheran.

Was Earl Godwin a descendant of Alfred the Great?

The Anglo-Saxons were more like bandits raiding towns and monasteries in small groups while vikings seem to have sometimes employed greater numbers if not in the British isles then elsewhere.

On the other hand the Saxons were committed to building permanent settlements on the southern coast while Vikings just took what they plundered back with them at first changing later with the Danes.

As for genetics I don't know how it would remain with the incursions on the Celts.

>Would England have been more similar to scandinavia?

No, it would have been more similar to England. You know, the land that was governed and ruled by the Germanic people known as the English?

Yes, in the irrelevance aspect at least
The French influence is what turned England into a major power

This. Without the French the Saxon creation of Common Law wouldn't exist, nor would the Saxon limiting of power.

>youmadethis_imadethis.jpg

>Edgar becomes king
>marries sister to Malcolm Dunkeld
>Dies childless
>England and Scotland united hundreds of years early

No, but Harald's sister fucked Edward the Confessor, which was a descendant of Alfred the Great

No

Britain would be the similar as today, except English would sound more "Dutch".

The Saxons and Vikings were only ever warrior elites.

The patterns of behaviour and outlook of the bulk of the populace would have remained the same.

It's not even clear that a victory at Hastings would be the end of William of Normandy; what with the Saxon utter lack of a pursuit capability.

And even if the Bastard had been driven off for good, the inherent weakness in the Anglo-Saxon system would mean that sooner or later, someone else would kick it over. I doubt there would be enormous long term consequences.

What inherent weakness?

Anglo-Saxon kings were structurally internally weak compared to kings of other polities in Europe at the time. While it wasn't a feudal system in name, they operated under a very feudal system for calling up men for battle. When their time is up, it's up, and they go right the fuck home. There weren't things like emergency provisions to keep the men in the field longer, or a notion that instead of getting your troops to serve out of a sense of social obligation, that you levy taxes and pay them instead, which meant that Harald Godwinson's entire campaigning had to be centered around moving when and where he could keep his army together, not based around external campaign factors, like when and where his enemies were likely to strike.

So, for instance, despite the fact that he had a massive naval superiority over William, his fleet, called up late that spring in 1066, disbanded before William was ready to cross the channel, and wound up being useless. He couldn't even mobilize fyrdsmen from further up north to help him out at Hastings; the fyrd that fought that battle was completely separate from the one that won him Stamford bridge.

They were, quite simply, far less able to tap into the resources of their kingdoms than continental kings, and it allowed the destruction of the kingdom at the hands of someone who had enormously less resources. If Willliam loses out, someone else would try to take advantage.

This is a damn good answer

>When their time is up, it's up, and they go right the fuck hom
How was that different from anywhere else in Europe