By the year 1016, the English (Anglo-Saxons) found themselves in danger of once again falling under the yoke of the Norse after enjoying a century of freedom and security thanks to the victories of Alfred the Great and his children. A number of internal conflicts (including the temporary division of England between brothers Edwy and Edgar the Peaceable until the former's death in 959 and the assassination of Edgar's eldest son Edward the Martyr by his second wife Ælfthryth in 978) and the reign of a weak king in Æthelred the Unready, son of Ælfthryth and Edward the Martyr's younger half-brother, made the kingdom much easier pickings for the Norse, particularly the Danish. Æthelred at first paid the Danes tribute ('Danegeld') to stay away from his shores, but when he tried to renege on this agreement and massacre Danish settlers in England on St. Brice's Day in 1002, the Danish king Sweyn Forkbeard invaded England several times and finally succeeded in overrunning the country in 1013, forcing Æthelred to flee abroad.
When Sweyn died in 1014, Æthelred was able to engineer his own restoration to the English throne with the aid of loyal nobles. He died two years later and was succeeded by his second son Edmund Ironside, who had established himself as a formidable warrior and had even previously revolted against Æthelred. Sweyn's son Canute battled Edmund for control of England and eventually scored a decisive victory over the English at the Battle of Ashingdon ('Assandun'), 18 October 1016, thanks in no small part to the treachery of one of Edmund's vassals: Eadric Streona, ealdorman of Mercia. The two kings divided England, with Edmund controlling only Wessex, and promised that whoever lived longer would inherit the other's kingdom; conveniently for Canute, Edmund died on 30 November that year, allowing him to take over all of England for his 'North Sea Empire'.
Due to the Battle of Ashingdon the House of Wessex or 'Cerdicings', as England's first dynasty was known, lost its grip on the English throne and never quite recovered: Edmund's younger brother Edward the Confessor regained his family's crown after the deaths of Canute and his heirs, but was unable to keep it in the family - after his death, Harold Godwinson (whose father Godwin had benefited tremendously from his opportunistic loyalty to Canute and arranged the death of Alfred Æþeling, another of Edmund and Edward's brothers, in 1037) was elected King ahead of the young Cerdicing heir, Edmund Ironside's grandson Edgar Æþeling. Godwinson went on to lose the Battle of Hastings in 1066, bringing the Anglo-Saxon period to an end.
But what if...Edmund Ironside had prevailed at the Battle of Ashingdon? Say that Eadric Streona never gets a chance to betray his overlord. Perhaps his treachery is discovered in time and Edmund relieves him of his head before the battle begins, or he changes his mind and stays loyal, or he is simply thrown from his horse in an accident and dies while en route to the battlefield. The important thing is that, without his betrayal, Edmund manages to decisively defeat Canute: historically, Ashingdon was an extremely close and hard-fought battle, and could have gone either way if not for Streona's ill-timed change of allegiance.
If Edmund were to emerge triumphant, he would be left not only master of the battlefield around Ashingdon, but undisputed ruler of England as well. The Danes certainly would not be in a position to try invading England again any time soon: Canute may even die in this battle and thus leave Denmark in the hands of his newborn sons Sweyn and Harald, but even if he survives it will take many years for him to rebuild his forces for a second try at the British Isles - if he even bothers with such an expedition, instead of refocusing his gaze on much nearer potential conquests in Norway and Sweden.
So what are the long-term effects? Firstly, without the Danish conquest and resulting instability, the House of Wessex would have renewed the security of its hold on the English crown. Edmund Ironside could reasonably expect to enjoy a long and prosperous reign: as a renowned warrior and commander, he would have been of a strong physical constitution, and his father Æthelred and brother Edward lived into their 50s and 60s, respectively, before dying of natural causes. Moreover, with the Danish threat neutralized and no domestic enemies with the strength to seriously oppose him left (not even Eadric Streona), he would be able to preside over England's peaceful recovery from the past decades of turmoil and invasion for at least a few years, perhaps a decade or two if Canute is either dead or loses all interest in attacking England.
Without the reign of Edward the Confessor (who was half-Norman and invited many Normans to fill prominent offices all around England), the Normans do not gain a significant foothold in England. Moreover, without the Confessor's pro-Norman policy and supposed favoring of William of Normandy (the historical Conqueror) as his rightful heir, the Normans would have no justification to attack an England ruled by Edmund Ironside's descendants. Therefore, the Norman Conquest as we know it could not happen.
Godwin, the father of the historical King Harold and his brothers, would not have aligned himself with the Danes in a world where Edmund Ironside won Ashingdon, but instead remained loyal to the House of Wessex. A consummate opportunist and intriguer of boundless ambition who historically managed to elevate himself from a minor thane to 'most powerful man in England' (arguably more-so than his overlord, Edward the Confessor) by the end of his life, this timeline's Godwin would have played up his adherence to Edmund's eldest brother Athelstan as a sign of his loyalty to the Cerdicings. If Eadric Streona's treachery was undone in a way that resulted in Streona's death and/or disgrace, Godwin may be in a position to snap up the earldom of Mercia, especially if the rest of the Saxon high nobility takes as bad a beating at Ashingdon as it did historically. Furthermore, Godwin would not marry Canute's sister-in-law Gyda Thorkilsdottir, but instead go for one of Edmund's widowed sisters if their noble husbands died their historical deaths in 1016; either Ælfgifu, widow of Earl Uhtred of Northumbria, or Wulfhild, widow of Earl Ulfcytel Snilingr of East Anglia. Either way, he has a chance at becoming one of the most powerful men in England as he did historically (just without Wessex itself, which would surely remain a royal demesne in this timeline), and his children or grandchildren could then have the power to make their own play for the throne down the road.
Without a Norse or Norman conquest, Anglo-Saxon culture and administration would survive for much longer. The English aristocracy was already gaining power during the infighting of the 10th century and the weak reign of Æthelred, and while they were historically suppressed and kept in check by Canute, none of that happens without his conquest. As Edmund Ironside will require their support in warding off future Norse threats in the middle to long term and thus not want to 'rock the boat' domestically, the surviving Saxon high nobility would gain even more importance, and we may see the ealdormanries (earldoms) of England become hereditary, autonomous lordships of significant power similar to the French and German peerages on the continent. Trade and political contact with France and the Holy Roman Empire would mean foreign influence on the development of Anglo-Saxon feudalism, but with far more native characteristics being retained due to a lack of a Norman Conquest to completely uproot Anglo-Saxon nobles and traditions: this likely means a longer survival of slavery in England and the emergence of 'bordar' and 'cottarii' (cottager) sub-classes of serfs.
Finally, the Old English language would not have come under Norman or (well, even more) Norse influence, and remained the most widely spoken language in the kingdom with Latin being retained for ecclesiastical and aristocratic usage.
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Thank you for reading all the way to the conclusion! If you like what you've just read, then by all means, please leave a comment. For that matter, if you don't like what you read, leave a comment anyway. I would be happy to receive any questions, suggestions or (civil) criticism you might have.
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