Death of King Harold Godwinson Last of the Saxon-English Kings, What would happen if William fought fair?

All is fair in love and war; or so the story goes.

Any tactician worth a grain of salt would Never allow a weary enemy to recuperate, that is simply unfathomable.

Duke William did exactly what King Harold would have done if their roles had been reversed.

England has continued to be an unconquered country, from last time it was conquered in 1066. The French influence was great up until the Welsh Tudors took over in 1485 with the Battle of Bosworth Field (Richard III being the last monarch to die in battle). It was then the Scottish Stuarts in 1603 and then the German Saxe-Coburgs in 1714 that is the direct lineage of todays monarch.

I truly love the ideology of Saxon life and style, but without someone as ruthless, decisive, militarily intelligent and capable of William the B*st*rd, it wouldn't have been Norman/ French, it would have been Norwegian/Swedish. He pretty much stopped them from screwing with England once he took it.

Imagine if someone like him was ruling when Caesar stopped by in 55ad, now damn, that would have truly been the sh*t!!!

And he was at least 38yrs old when his hairy butt came and took what wasn't his. It was the conquest of England that took him from being known as William the B*st*rd to William the Conquerer (of England) he wasn't ever known as William the Inheritor.

But once in awhile, lol, the Universe knows what to do. And I believe it gave England the best of the barbarians that could and would have taken it from the beautiful and amazing Saxons.

Edit:

Its the mannerisms and shameful pompous remarks of ppl like the one below me that makes the Royalty section my least favourite in Yahoo answers.

For one thing, Stamford/Stanford could have easily been a typo seeing that the letters M & N are side by side on the keyboard. Instead of self-righteously jumping on that error, I assumed it was a typing mistake because Im not a pompous *** that talks down to ppl who are at least bright enough to think of something more than who is winning the Celebrity Apprentice, etc.

Also, even William I's biographer, William of Poitiers admits that it was Harold that Edward named as HIS HEIR on his deathbed. Before that Edward had chosen Edgar Ætheling to succeed him, but since Egdar was only 14 when Edward lay dying, Edward then decided on Harold instead. There were rumours (that are still only rumours to this day) that Edward had told William some years before that he would name him as the successor, but there was no one besides William that witnessed this promise.

As per the aggravatingly snotty comment about the knowledge of warfare. If you sir/madam knew more about that particular battle, you would also know that if Harold's brothers Leofwyne and Gyrthe hadn't gotten over-excited by the initial routing of William's troops and kept rank keeping the shield wall intact instead of laying chase to the retreating army, Harold's battle weary infantry would probably have held their own and won on Oct 14th 1066 against the 20,000 intruders.

Wiiliam I happens to be my fave monarch, I respect him on many different levels and have done since I've been 14.

But I think the way some ppl write to other decent ppl about decent subjects (that are even in the right category) with such nasty, superior attitudes STINKS!! And maybe a little self assessment is duly in order......grrrrrrrr:(

if you'd done any research at all then you'd realise that Harolds battle in Yorkshire was at Stamford Bridge, not Stanford. Also, Edward the Confessor made William his heir, so as to stop the Vikings trying to form an alliance with the Normans. On his deathbed, Edward asked Harold to take care of his queen, Edith but he did not make him King. Harold seized the throne, after it was offered to him by the Earls and the people.

Also, you obviously know nothing of warfare, else you'd understand that Harold had the best strategic position, and his archers were able to fire down into the Norman ranks. However, Harold had no cavalry and this gave William a huge advantage. And "William won the day by not letting his enemy rest and reform". What are you on? What commander wouldn't press his advantage? William wasn't cheating, he played by the rules of War.

The Throne of Brittania as you called it, was actually the throne of England.

It's a good question. What if the Anglo Saxon's had established a stable rule in England and gone on to protect themselves from Invasion. What would the language have sounded like 500 years later?

And all of the queen consorts from Aquitane, Flander, and Provence. Would the Anglo Saxons have married to women from Briton or would they have married across the continent.

By the time Shakespeare was born huge numbers of Latin words had been "shoehorned" into the English language. What if he grew up speaking a language that was still derived from Anglo Saxon and old Norse. Would shakespeare have invented a dozen more ways to say "wolf".