Hardrada Brings Back Siege Machines

Alternate history

The POD is after the Norweigan king Harold Hardrada (1015 - 1066 (OTL)) joined the varangian guard (he was essentialy a mercenary for the byzantine empire). (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harald_Hardrada#In_Byzantine_service).

He left the varangian guard earlier than in canon (OTL). He came to the famous house of wisdom library (source: "what the ancients did for us", islamic empire episode). He would have at least looked at the roman siege machines (ballista and "half torsion catapult" (as seen in the siege of gondor in ROTK by the orcs)) or even the plate armour ([...] segmentata) or even the tortoise formation (shields on top of infantry to protect from arrows). He may have been interested in aqeuducts or the theory of clean war camps (i.e. digging latrines and foraging water uphilll from camps) and maybe even toilets. If so, all battles he took command of as king may have improved in his favour. Since more of his soldiers survived than in canon (OTL) history inevitably changed because that would have enabled a better fit of men and jobs. He may have even brought back the number zero.

When he returned to Norway he brought relevant books with him and that triggered better fortress techniques (because the imbalance by his new knowledge trigerred an arms race).

If stories of where he found those books survived his death more people may have heard of the islamic translated knowledge and that may have triggered an earlier translation movement and earlier renaissance (since that only happened after the first crusade in canon (OTL)).

The attle of stamford bridge would perhaps have resulted in a minniscule amount of more causalties for the saxons because of the more hygienic army than in canon if he read those books on army hygiene. Some more normans thus  survived the battle of hastings because of that. That norman ruled differently than the norman that ruled the same domain in canon (OTL). For example, a war may have been different because of the child-raising style of those normans were different. Their sons lived better lives than in canon (OTL). THey may have been less paranoid and indirectly lost more battles than in OTL. Or they may have been less insecure and thus had fewer rebellions than in OTL.

He died in the battle of stamford bridge that preceeded the battle of hastings just as in canon (OTL).

Please add more text to this wiki article!

From a swede.