AHC : England and Byzantium.

Your challenge gents and ladyfolk is

Without resurrecting the Byzantine Empire from nothing (so no ERE because England says so) have the English Kings and Byzantine Emperors co-operate so that either:

a) The English and the Greek are equally great members of a Anglo-Greco-Roman Empire (choose whom absorbs whom)

b) The Roman Empire/Byzantium and the English/British Empires are two of the pre-eminent powers of the day.

Bonus Points : PoD before 1204 (or part of the 4th Crusade). End the Great Schism. English Patriarch of similar standing to Rome or Constantinople.

The year is 1103.

Edgar Ætheling has slaughtered the last of his Komneni rivals, and stands unopposed at the head of Europe's oldest empire.

Raising his vast fleets, he now returns to the tin islands to reclaim his birthright...

The first one is ASB but the second one is definitely doable since the two empires are on the opposite sides of Europe.

JoeyB2198 said:

The year is 1103.

Edgar Ætheling has slaughtered the last of his Komneni rivals, and stands unopposed at the head of Europe's oldest empire.

Raising his vast fleets, he now returns to the tin islands to reclaim his birthright...

Click to expand...

That sounds utterly fantastic! Bwhahahaha!

What about having a Byzantium/Russian merge?

Oleg of Novgorod after the raid on Tsargrad (Constantinople) in 911, crowns himself Tsar of Rus and Byzantium.

About the only connection I can think of is that Antioch and England are both ruled by Normans.

GdwnsnHo said:

Your challenge gents and ladyfolk is

Without resurrecting the Byzantine Empire from nothing (so no ERE because England says so) have the English Kings and Byzantine Emperors co-operate so that either:

a) The English and the Greek are equally great members of a Anglo-Greco-Roman Empire (choose whom absorbs whom)

b) The Roman Empire/Byzantium and the English/British Empires are two of the pre-eminent powers of the day.

Bonus Points : PoD before 1204 (or part of the 4th Crusade). End the Great Schism. English Patriarch of similar standing to Rome or Constantinople.

Click to expand...

Something about Empress Matilda bearing an heir to Henry V, perhaps?

England decides to begin drumming up support for a Fourth Crusade in 1200 due to a Muslim gang attacking a few British patrols. Venice agrees to sign in some forty thousand soldiers in exchange for a tight Anglo-Venetian alliance. The French put up ninety thousand soldiers, while the Holy Roman Empire and the Pope get together some sixty thousand Crusaders. Alongside 110,000 British volunteers, this three hundred thousand man army sails to the Ottomans and begins attacking. They push them to (OTL)Ankara, where the Byzantines take up a siege and gain the Anatolian land. Many of the Venetian troops return home due to lack of pay, as do all of the French troops by order of the King. The British troops who do not return to Great Britain or settle the conquered Anatolian land number only fifty-five thousand. Of these, thirty-five thousand invade Jerusalem with the Holy Roman troops of forty-five thousand.

The remaining twenty thousand join the Byzantines in capturing Anatolia. Soon, they capture the town and begin spreading out. They spread out to the borders of Turkey and sign a peace treaty giving them that land. The Muslims pay their attention down south to Jerusalem, where a few suspiciously Byzantine-looking soldiers have been spotted. Eventually, the Byzantines send exactly twenty-five thousand troops south who capture Jerusalem and split the land of Israel between the three denominations. Eventually, the religions combine and by 1900, most of Eastern Europe is Byzantine, and OTL British Empire has developed; so thus it is the Great Schism ends.

JoeyB2198 said:

The year is 1103.

Edgar Ætheling has slaughtered the last of his Komneni rivals, and stands unopposed at the head of Europe's oldest empire.

Raising his vast fleets, he now returns to the tin islands to reclaim his birthright...

Click to expand...

In this scenario, does Edgar Aetheling have three dragons?

I will make my obligatory reference to the Lord Darcy series by Randall Garret.

ASB because magic exists, but otherwise fun AH. England (the Anglo-Norman Empire) and Poland are the two big powers on the Continent, but the Byzantine Empire still exists and is powerful.