1066 and all that: Timeline

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AN ALTERNATIVE HISTORY OF THE FALL

OF ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex, and, with his brothers, effective ruler of Southern England

Edwin Aelfgarson, Earl of Mercia, and his brother Morcar, Earl of Northumbria. Effective rulers of Northern England

Malcolm Canmore, King of Scotland

Harald ‘Hardraada’ Sigurdsson, King of Norway

Swein Estridsson, King of Denmark

Paul & Erland Thorfinsson, jointly Earls of Orkney

Bleddyn ap Gruffyd, King of Wales

Turlough Ua’Brian, King of Munster and effective ruler of Ireland

Gofraid, King of Dublin and effective ruler of the Norse Kingdoms of Dublin & Man

Baldwin V, Count of Flanders, and his son Baldwin, Count of Hainault

William II ‘the Bastard’, Duke of Normandy

Alain Fergant, Count of Brittany

Philip I, King of France

1066
Jan 5	King Edward of England dies without an heir. The following day, and with the support of the Northern Earls, Harold Godwinson is crowned King of England.
April	Sweeping aside local resistance, an Orcadian fleet occupies the Faroe Isles.
	A “Great hairy star” is seen in the sky all across Northern Europe. All men marvel, and fear.
May	Duke William defeats Count Fulk of Anjou in battle, then besieges the city of Angers. Fulk dies during the siege, the city surrenders, and William adds Anjou to the Norman Empire.
	King Harold sails to Dyfed with a large fleet and meets with King Bleddyn at St Davids. After receiving hostages and pledges of vasseldom from Bleddyn, he returns home.
June	On midsummers day, King Turlough is proclaimed High King of Ireland at Tara in Leinster, the first to hold this title without dissent since 1022. King Gofraid of Dublin is not present himself but sends a pledge of loyalty.
August	Baldwin V of Flanders dies peacefully in his sleep & is succeeded by his son, Baldwin VI.
Sept	King Harold invades Scotland, but meets with an early reverse when his army is defeated by the Scots at Peebles. A second English army from Northumbria meets with less resistance & ravages Strathclyde.

  

1067
March	In retaliation for English invasion, the Scots & Orcadians ravage Northumbria
April	King Harold & Earl Edwin lead their armies back into Scotland & capture Edinburgh
June	The Orcadians land in force in East Anglia, looting & pillaging.
	A combined Danish- Norwegian army invades Saxony, and defeats the army of Duke Arnulf of Saxony at Hamburg.
August	After occupying Saxony the Norse allies divide. King Svein & the Danes march east into Wendland. King Harald’s Norwegian army remain in Saxony where they are defeated by Arnulf, now reinforced by Imperial troops.
Sept	The Danes capture Wollin & subjugate the Wends. The Norwegians continue to hold out in Saxony.
	Edwin of Mercia captures Galloway. King Harold drives the Orcadians from East Anglia.
Oct	Irish armies land in both the north and south of Wales. King Turlough defeats Bleddyn of Wales in battle in Gwent.
Nov	Political pressure and lack of supplies forces the Irish to withdraw from Wales.
Dec	At Christmas, the exiled brother of the late Count Fulk of Angou is murdered in Poitiers, by unknown assassins.

 

1068
Feb	Fearing an imminent invasion from France, King Harold launches a pre-emptive naval attack on the buildup of shipping at Boulogne. The attack is only partly successful, but he manages to burn part of the Norman-French fleet at anchor. Duke William lands at Pevensey
March	King Philip of France invades England, in support of the claim of his kinsman, Duke William of Normandy, to the English throne. He lands at Pevensey with a huge army, including both William and Count Alain of Brittany, and marches to Hastings, but Harold contests the crossing of the R.Brede outside Hastings. In the ensuing battle, William is thrown from his horse while trying to ford the river and drowned. Philip withdraws his demoralised army to their ships and returns to France.
April	Under King Gofraid of Dublin, the Irish renew their invasion of Wales and capture Rhuddlan. Gofraid declares himself “Prince of Gwynedd”.
	Sustained military pressure forces the Norse to withdraw from Saxony, although the Danes continue to hold Wendland.
June	Edwin of Mercia captures Dumbarton. He proclaims his ally Earl Maelswegen of Cumbria to be King of a restored Kingdom of Strathclyde, the first to claim this title since Strathclyde’s annexation by Scotland 60 years before.
August	A combined Norwegian/Danish fleet occupies the Channel Isles.
Sept	Count Alain of Brittany invades Maine, pledging to restore its independence from Normandy.
	Kings Swein of Denmark & Harald of Norway land peacefully at Caen for talks with the new Duke of Normandy, Robert II. But on learning that Robert has ridden south to confront Alain, the Vikings treacherously pillage the town.
Oct	After holding the title for barely a year, Count Baldwin VI of Flanders dies and is succeeded by his brother Arnulf. Arnulfs first act is to pay the Norse a large ransom for the surrender of the Channel Isles.

 

1069
March	Duke Robert pays off the Vikings and they sail from Normandy to Dumnonia, where they are confronted by the English royal fleet. Although the Vikings are victorious in the ensuing battle, their casualties are such that they are forced to withdraw.
	Earl Edwin of Mercia and Earl Gyrth of East Anglia, the Kings brother, meet at Coventry and publicly reaffirm that the Kingdom of England is united behind King Harold.
April	Having come to a deal with Alain, Duke Robert lands in the Channel Isles and reclaims them for Normandy.
May	Sporadic fighting continues in Wales, but only Gwent remains firmly under King Bleddyn’s control. A fresh Irish army under King Cuchulain of Connaught lands in Dyfed. However the Mercians decide to intervene on Bleddyn’s side, and a Mercian army marches into Gwynedd.
	A small Norman army lands in Wessex and attempts to capture Winchester, but is defeated by Earl Gyrth. Meanwhile a Breton army lands in Dumnonia and attacks Exeter.
June	King Swein of Denmark, with assistance from the Orcadians, imposes his rule over Iceland.
July	Earl Edwin of Mercia meets the Irish army under King Cuchulain in battle near Rhuddlan and defeats them, driving the Irish from Gwynedd. Meanwhile King Bleddyn restores his rule in Dyfed
August	Although Exeter falls to the Bretons, King Harold’s fleet manages to surprise their fleet at anchor and drive it off.
	Count Arnulf lands in East Anglia with a Flemish army. Unfortunately Harald Haardrada’s Norwegian Vikings also attack East Anglia and the two armies face each other in battle at Yarmouth. Although Arnulf is victorious on land, his fleet is scattered by the Norwegians and he finds himself cut off.
Sept	Taking advantage of political discord in the Holy Roman Empire, King Philip attempts to seize Metz. However an outbreak of plague in his siege camp decimates his army and he is forced to withdraw.

 

1070
March	The Flemish renew their offensive from East Anglia, and after 4 days of fierce fighting, they capture London. Harold’s exiled brother Tostig, who is Arnulf’s brother-in-law, is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey by a papal legate. Pope Alexander II declares Harold’s coronation void because it was by the “false archbishop” Stigand of Canterbury. Tostig immediately swears fealty to Count Arnulf. Tostig crowned King of England
May	Arnulf is defeated at Northampton by the armies of Harold and Edwin, and retreats back towards London.
	King Malcolm declares that Scotland will “regain its freedom”, and vows to drive the English out. His army recaptures Edinburgh. Alain advances with his Breton army into Wessex and besieges Winchester.
June	Faced with an alliance between Edwin & Bleddyn, and threatened that Edwin will withdraw his support, King Harold abdicates the English throne in favour of Edwin. Bleddyn defeats the Bretons and raises the siege of Winchester, killing Alain. Edwin secures his claim to the throne by marrying Princess Margaret, granddaughter of King Edmund Ironside. He then marches on London. Arnulf surrenders it in return for Edwin appointing a Fleming, Robert, as Earl of East Anglia. Tostig flees to Norwich.
July	King Harald Hardraada sails from Norway for England with a large fleet, but only two days out he suffers a fatal heart attack and falls overboard. Stunned & disheartened by this, the Norwegian army turns back.
August	A Danish army under Earl Cnut, apparently in league with the Flemish, lands in Kent and marches inland, sacking Dover & Oxford, then withdraws.
	In retaliation for the French attack on his Dukedom, Godfrey of Lorraine invades Hainault, claiming that it is rightfully his.
Sept	Arnulf hastens back to Flanders in response to the Lotharingian invasion, leaving Robert & Tostig in command of the Flemish army in England. Edwin of Mercia calls a High Witan at Christmas to confirm his claim to the throne. He offers £2000 in gold for the head of Tostig Godwinson. Tostig attempts to retake London, but it is successfully defended by Harold’s brother Earl Leofwine of Kent. Gyrth defeats the Flemish in a cavalry skirmish near Newbury.
	Orcadian forces occupy the Lothians.
Oct	Olaf, the new King of Norway, arrives in the Humber with the great fleet assembled by his father. Earl Edwin rushes to defend York. The Norwegians decide not to risk battle and withdraw north to Edinburgh to join their allies the Earls of Orkney.
Nov	While travelling south to the High Witan, Earl Cospatric of Bernicia is waylaid by brigands and murdered.
	Earl Leofwin surrenders London to Tostig and withdraws the survivors of his army to Winchester.
	Archbishop Stigand of Canterbury is arrested, defrocked & exiled to France on Tostig’s orders. Pope Alexander appoints a Fleming, Bishop Adelmar of Bruge, as the new archbishop.
Dec	A French army lead by King Philip lands in Kent in support of the Flemish.
	THE HIGH WITAN OF CHRISTMAS 1070 – At Coventry, a High Witan of the English Kingdom is held, attended by Harold, Leofwin, Gyrth, Edwin, Morcar, Robert & all the major nobility of the land. In a surprise move, and thanks largely to the influence of thegns from the Flemish occupied earldoms, it declines to confirm Edwin as king and votes to affirm Harold of Wessex as King of England. All present swear fealty to Harold, who in turn rescinds the outlawing & exile of his “beloved brother” Tostig and makes him Earl of Kent.

 

1071
Feb	Reneging on his oath of fealty to King Harold at Coventry, Earl Edwin declares Northern England to be the independent Kingdom of Mercia, and his young brother-in-law, Edgar the Aetheling, as king.
March	Earl Cnut of Denmark (the son of King Swein) lands in East Anglia with a large army as an ally of Flanders. Meanwhile, Robert, the Flemish Earl of East Anglia, is attending King Harold’s court at Oxford and is wounded in an assassination attempt.
	King Swein himself leads a Danish army back into Saxony, but is defeated by the Saxons at the Battle of Uelzen and compelled to withdraw.
April	Duke Arnulf of Flanders, aided by Robert of Normandy, defeats Godfrey of Lorraine at the Battle of Maubeuge and recaptures Hainault.
	The Norwegian army marches north into Atholl and occupies Dunkeld.
May	King Malcolm invites Earls Paul and Erland to a parley at Edinburgh to ask them to intercede with King Olaf. He then treacherously tries to murder the, but fails and is forced to flee from the town. Appalled and fearful, the Scottish nobles later send the Earls of Orkney Malcolm’s head. The Norwegians continue their advance northward and burn Inverness, the last town loyal to Malcolm. The ancient Kingdom of Scotland is effectively no more, partitioned between Orkney, Norway and the breakaway Kingdom of Strathclyde.
Summer	The situation in England degenerates into a three-sided civil war between Harold, Edwin and Tostig, the latter backed by the Flemish and their Danish and French allies.
	The Irish again land in Gwynedd.
Oct	Coventry falls to a French army supporting Tostig, and York to the Danes.
	The Channel Isles are occupied by King Olaf of Norway, who uses them to launch an invasion of Brittany.
Dec	In a last desperate gamble, Edwin launches a mid-winter attack to try and re-take Coventry, but is defeated. In increasingly harsh weather, he retreats south into Wessex, harried by Flemish cavalry, and he reaches Winchester with only a remnant of his army, where he begs forgiveness from King Harold and promises to be his vassal. With the surrender of Chester to the Franco-Flemish alliance, the brief independence of Mercia is at an end and all of northern England has fallen.
	Christmas 1071 – the fall of Mercia

 

1072
Feb	King Bleddyn of Wales renounces his fealty to King Harold and instead recognises King Turlough of Ireland as his overlord. Turlough sails to Cardiff to accept his fealty. Bleddyn recognises Irish rule of northern Wales.
	Count Arnulf leads a Franco-Flemish-Norman army into Brittany to expel the Vikings.
March	His army bolstered by angry Mercians and Scots mercenaries, King Harold rides north to Oxford, and at the Battle of Abingdon defeats and kills Earl Robert. Tostig is besieged in Oxford.
April	King Maelswegen of Strathclyde is murdered and replaced by Maelmuir, a brother of the late King Malcolm, who claims the title ‘King of the Scots’.
May	Sympathisers within Oxford open the gates to King Harold. The town falls and Tostig is captured. Oxford besieged
June	In a lightning campaign, and with the apparent collusion of the French crown, Duke Robert conquers Brittany. From its base in the Channel Isles, the Norwegians destroy the Breton fleet, and in Dumnonia King Harold advances west, recapturing Exeter and forcing the capitulation of the Breton army there. Arnulf quits the alliance in disgust at such perfidiousness and sails to England.
July	An army of Irish, Norse and Welsh attacks Franco-Flemish-occupied Mercia from Gwynedd.
August	Under pressure from the Welsh-Irish army, the French withdraw their forces from Mercia. Harold marches north from Wessex in an attempt to regain his Edwin’s Earldom for him and manages to retake Coventry, but King Bleddyn arrives with Welsh re-inforcements and Edwin is killed in the ensuing battle.
Sept	Harold and Arnulf come to a deal. Tostig is released on a promise of Flemish support against the Welsh and a large but unspecified ransom. The first is delivered when Harold and Arnulf attack Bleddyn as he is marching back to Cardiff with his booty. The Welsh army is annihilated and Bleddyn is killed. Also among the dead however are Harold’s brothers Gyrth and Leofwin, and the English army takes the brunt of the casualties.
	In a carefully timed combined land-sea operation, Danish forces under Earl Cnut and his brother Harald invade Norway, capturing Oslofjord and Agdar. However King Maelmuir takes advantage of the absence of any significant Danish forces in Northumbria to invade, capturing York.
	Continuing Viking raids from the Channel Isles plague the English Channel.
Oct	Fearing betrayal, Harold leads his army back to Winchester. He is attacked by Breton and French cavalry, but beats them off.
Nov	The exiled Count of Brittany, Conan, assumes command of the Breton forces serving Flanders and leads them against King Harold at the Battle of Kenilworth. With his army collapsing around him, King Harold refuses to flee, but stands his ground to the last with the last handful of his Royal Huscarls, and is killed.
Dec	Oxford & Winchester surrender to the forces of Count Arnulf, and on Christmas Day, Arnulf’s brother Baldwin is declared ‘Duke of England’ at Westminster Abbey.

 

1073
Jan	Count Arnulf reaches a settlement with King Turlough.
	King Philip recognises Duke Robert’s rule in Brittany, in return for control of Anjou. Duke Robert also persuades Norway to return the Channel Isles.
March	Spring brings renewed fighting in Norway, and a Norwegian attack on Strathclyde.
	Count Conan leads his Breton army north into Northumbria and captures York.
June	King Maelmuir defeats the Norwegians at the battle of Lanark and drives them from Strathclyde.
July	Rule of Iceland is ceded to the Earls of Orkney by Denmark.
Sept	Baldwin summons a High Witan at Oxford, but as the Anglo-Flemish nobility gather word reaches them that King Cuchulain of Gwynedd is leading a huge Irish army south from Coventry. Baldwin & Arnulf ride to meet it at the Battle of Deddington, and are victorious. On their return to Oxford in triumph, Baldwin is elected King of England. Deddington - the Flemish ride to battle
Dec	The Irish army retreats westward in an attempt to reach the sea, but the Flemish catch up with them and inflict heavy casualties, including Cuchulain.

 

1074
March	Despite bad weather and attack from Irish ships, Duke Robert of Normandy lands with his army in Munster and occupies Cork.
	Arnulf & Baldwin advance north into Mercia, capturing Coventry. Irish vikings harass shipping in the Channel.
April	The Danes continue to advance north in Norway, but Norwegian armies counterattack by sea, landing in Ranrike, and in Jutland. King Olaf, commanding the landing in Jutland, defeats Earl Harald near Ribe. On hearing the news of his son’s defeat, King Swein has a seizure and dies.
May	King Turlough defeats an attempt by Duke Robert to break out from Cork.
June	Taking advantage of Duke Robert’s absence, King Philip launches a lightning invasion which overruns Maine and besieges the Norman garrison in Rouen.
	At the Battle of Ribe, King Olaf of Norway defeats and kills Harald of Denmark. But word reaches him that his brother Magnus has been killed in battle against King Olaf of Denmark in Hedemark.
July	Arnulf & Baldwin drive west into north Wales, occupying Powys and Gwyndd.
August	Duke Robert of Normandy is killed in a skirmish near Cork
	Fighting continues in Norway, while King Cnut returns to Jutland to lead the defence against the Norwegian invasion.
	In Normandy Rouen falls to King Philip. Chester falls to the Anglo-Flemish.
Sept	Caen falls to the French, and Bernicia submits to the rule of King Baldwin.
Oct	Earl Wulfnoth of Dumnonia and Count Conan of Brittany are exiled from England
Dec	King Baldwin marries Princess Christina, grand-daughter of King Edmund, securing his claim to the English throne.

 

1075
Feb	At Ribe, a peace agreement is reached between King Olaf of Norway and King Cnut of Denmark. Olaf retains Bergen, Trondheim and the western seaboard, in return for recognising Cnut’s claim to Oslo and the east.
March	Earl Erland occupies Argyll
	The late Duke Robert’s brother William ‘the Red’ flees from Brittany to join the Norman army, which is expelled from Ireland. Unable to return from their homeland, they attempt to land in Galloway but are repulsed. Duke Godfrey advances with the French army to Nantes.
May	Count Conan returns home to Rennes, restoring Brittany to his rule.
June	The Norman army again lands in Strathclyde, this time in alliance with a Flemish attack into Cumbria. Maelmuir responds with raids into Northumbria.
	Earl Tostig occupies the Channel Isles in the name of King Baldwin
August	King Baldwin captures Dumbarton, and grants it to Duke William in return for an oath of fealty to rule the ‘Duchy of Strathclyde’ as a vassal of Baldwin’s. Maelmuir flees into exile in Ireland.

 

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