What if Harold won the Battle of Hastings

After destroying Hardraada's Viking army good King Harold leads the English to victory against William the Bastard. How would this affect history?

The survivial of Vinland would be interesting. I wonder who'd win in a fight between an Americanised Viking berserker and a Spanish Conquistador?

my thinking is that it would end up in a loose commonwealth includind scandinavia, england, wales scotland and ireland, plus iceland and new world colonies

I'd go as far as to say, no Britain, no Hundred Years War, no English Revolution, no venture capitalism, no 13 colonies, no Australia, no Industrial Revolution and no British Empire. Half the world would speak French, feudalism would only have finished a century ago and most countries on earth would be dictatorships, royal or non-royal.

Edited by Drachenfire - 24-Nov-2012 at 03:34

Since the Normans were considered to be Norsemen, then a defeated "bastard", assuming he was not killed, would have returned to his estates in Normandy, and resumed his desire to conquer some other place. If, indeed, he had died in England, then others of his type including his sons would have fought over these same lands, I would expect.

The entire thing though is an exercise in futility since we can merely speculate about future events in Europe. Things could have ended up about the same if the "Bastard" had survived and attacked England at a later day.

But certainly the very ugly death of William (the Bastard) might well have been averted! If it is even true!

Have you ever read the story? supposedly he was injured internally while on his horse, and finally "blew up" from the gasses released by his internal injuries.   

Regards, Ron

Edited by opuslola - 14-Dec-2013 at 19:14