Great Briton

Ireland

Ireland's history in this timeline is rather tame. They stayed out of the affairs of the Britons, Scots and Welsh, focusing on developing their own kingdoms and fiefdoms until their final unification.

Ireland's state has remained the same as in our timeline until 976. As a final last ditch attempt to flee the Anglo Saxons invading Scandinavia, the kingdom of Norway attempted to conquer and settle in Ireland. However, this attack failed bitterly. The Norwegians have a cripplingly low population due to Anglo Saxon conquer of their southern cities plus a lack of organization of their army caused the Norwegians to fail in their conquests of Ireland. Ontop of that, a man named Brian Boru managed to become the first king of Ireland and repel the Norwegians.

When Brian Boru managed to become high king of Ireland, only a handful of kingdoms agreed to join this new Irish nation. Munster, Tyrconnel, Ulster and Pale refused to join, meaning that the title of; "king of Ireland" was a fallacy at this point in time.

Ireland managed to completely repel the Norwegians in 977. This gave the Irish time to develop their own nation. The Britons and Scottish were in very frequent wars with each other, and Wales and Cornwall were not yet independent, so Ireland had no fear of foreign invaders. Because of this, they put alot of funds that would of gone into the army into projects that increase health, population and most of all, loyalty to the king. However, Ireland got a sudden awakening. In 1021, Scottish ships began to approach Dublin, which was then under control of the kingdom of Meath, which refused to join the Irish kingdom. King Adair Boru, the Irish king at the time, acted on this. He knew that if the Scottish took control of Dublin, they'd have a staging point on the island to easily strike anywhere and probably reach the capital of Cork. As a response to this, before the Scottish ships arrived in Dublin, the Adair sent troops to the walls of Dublin and offered the Meathean king an ultimatum. He said that Ireland had 23,000 troops outside the city, and to submit to Irish rule or else the troops would storm in. This was not true, as Ireland only managed to muster of 9,000 troops for the Seige. But Meath complied, and Irish troops entered the city. At the same time, 12,000 Irish troops invaded Ulster, which did not comply to the Irish ultimatum. Upon arriving on the shores of Dublin, the Scottish army was caught off guard by the change of ownership of the city and was decided to return back to Scotland, in fear of starting a war with Ireland so soon after a war with Sassan.

The Irish conquest of Ulster and Meath was to stop the Scottish from gaining lands on the island. But the stories of Tyrconnel and Munster are different. You see, these two kingdoms were never unified with the rest of Ireland. Since nationalism never appeared until the 1800's, the idea of a unified Irish state and Irish nationalism never appeared until the 1800's. Instead, there was loyalty to your king. However, Ireland still had a reason to conquer these lands. Conquering the kingdoms would mean more people who pay taxes to the crown. And Ireland, which feilds an army of  23,000 men and 23 ships could easilily crush Tyrconnel's 9,000 men and Munsters 11,000 men. So what's stopping them? Scotland.

The kingdom of Scotland had a big interest in Tyrconnel and Munster, but they didn't have the spare manpower to invade them yet. So they began to, instead, work with them. Scotland guaranteed the independence of Munster and Tyrconnel, meaning that if Ireland were to attack either one, Scotland would be dragged into the war, which could trample Ireland. If Ireland wishes to attack Tyrconnel or Munster, they'd have to bet on Sassan taking the opportunity of Scotland's war and attacking Scotland at the same time. However, Ireland didn't want to take this gamble.

In 1370, Ireland came under attack from Sassan. 23,000 Sassan soldiers landed in Dublin. This attack was a big surprise to Ireland, so the initial garrison was overrun. However, king Aeldwyn Boru assembled an army in the capital of Cork and began to march towards Dublin with 19,000 men. When Ireland reached the Seige, they offered peace to the Britons. The offer stated that they go back to England and the borders remain the same as before the war. Sassan denied, so Ireland began the Seige of the city.
Soon after a big section of the wall finally broke, Irish troops began to charge the wall. At first they were being repelled, until the local populace rebelled against the Britons. Being attacked from both outside the city by the Irish army and from the inside by Irish rebels, the 29,000 Briton soldiers lost the battle. 1,435 Briton soldiers were taken prisoner, and given back to Sassan when a peace was signed, having the borders return to normal, and after having a prisoner exchange, since Irish soldiers were sent to England and put into slavery.

Its 1492. The irish hear of this new place called America to the far west. Looking at its own position, they notice they are the closest to this new place in all of Europe. At the same time, Ireland is about to go through the same problem as Sassan once did; over population. Ireland put two and two together, and alot of these extra citizens began to pack their bags, and head to a new colony which the kingdom of Ireland called; "Ceanada".