"Viscount Russell, have you heard clearly, how many Varangian guards are around Harald the Heartless?" William asked with a serious face.

"We were assassinating Harald the Ruthless at night, and it was too dark for us to tell the exact number of the Varangian Guard, but judging by the momentum of the battle, he was accompanied by at least thirty Varangian Guards." Viscount Russell shook his head slightly, speculating.

"I already know the situation very well, you can go down first and recuperate for a while, rest assured that I will take your credit to heart." William kindly picked up Viscount Russell and said with a smile.

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Viscount Russell's eyes moistened slightly, and he thanked him.

William smiled and ordered the guards to escort Viscount Russell before sitting back in place, the smile on his face had completely disappeared at this time, although the number of Varangian Guards found by Viscount Russell was small, but this does not mean that Harald, who had been the commander of the Varangian Guard, did not have more elite Varangian Guards, with the warlike Vikings and elite Varangian Guards joining the war, it would add many unpredictable variables to this war.

Now that the other side has hired Vikings from Norway and Denmark as foreign aid, plus the uncertainty of the Varangian Guard, William has to make two preparations.

In order to defeat his opponents and secure the victory before the Norwegian and Danish reinforcements arrived in England, William decided to lead his army tomorrow to attack the combined forces of the northern princes of Warwick and Leicester, and break them before they could assemble.

In addition, he could not sit idly by now that the coalition of northern princes had contacted reinforcements from Norway and Denmark, and for the sake of safety, he decided to seek help from King Ferdinand I of Castile of Spain, his only ally.

Internationally, William had only one ally, Casstill, León and King Ferdinand I of Garcia, who was William's father-in-law and close associate, and would not refuse William's request to send troops, but he could not find any other important allies other than Ferdinand I.

As far as the eye can see, important countries such as the Kingdom of England, with which William is engaged in a war for the throne, the Kingdom of Norway and Denmark are also William's enemies, and King Henry I of the Kingdom of France and the princes are also very hostile to William.

As for the other countries, because William had supported the immorality of Benedict IX and Gregory VI who bought and sold the priesthood, Henry III, the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, naturally did not have a good opinion of him, let alone look at William, the Norman king.

Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, he was the most powerful monarch of the Franconian dynasty, possessed many territories within the empire, subdued the princes, deposed the pope, and his exploits were enough to make him despise William, who was still roaming the English Channel.

Eastern European countries such as the Kingdom of Poland, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Kingdom of Croatia, and the Rus' States were strong, but they were too far away from William's territory to send troops to effectively support William.

Caesar in the Italian region. Morality. Altwell had no ambitions, his mind was completely focused on the city of Rome and the church, and he would not send troops to support him at all, and William did not expect him to send a single soldier.

Counting these countries, the only one that could help this war was the Kingdom of Sweden, apart from Spain.

If you can form an alliance with the Kingdom of Sweden and urge them to send troops to Denmark and the Kingdom of Norway, you can at least contain the Norwegian army of Harald the Ruthless and the Danish army of Magnus.

But after thinking about it, William felt that this possibility was too low, and it was impossible for the Swedish king to send troops to help William at the risk of being caught between the Kingdom of Norway and the Kingdom of Denmark.

Most importantly, William and the Normandy family had no relationship with the Swedish king, and without a marriage, William and Sweden refused to conclude an alliance.

In the Middle Ages, Europe practiced a feudal system, the feudal lord had the right to control the fief and property, and could inherit or transfer it through marriage, and in the turbulent era, royal marriage became the main form of alliance and anti-alliance, but this relationship was very fragile, and the alliance relationship would collapse with the collapse of the alliance relationship, thus causing a series of changes in the international pattern.

Even in the mid-to-late Middle Ages, when European nation-states began to take shape, dynastic marriages adapted to the social development requirements of strengthening centralization and opposing feudal divisions. During this period, there were a number of united monarchies in Europe, which, despite retaining different national cultural identities and serious differences, came together due to common interests, such as the Scandinavian Union of Kalmar, Poland and Lithuania, Hungary and the Czech Republic, and the Spanish Union of Castius and Aragon.

A network of international relations in Europe has gradually formed, and marriage diplomacy has been widely used in international relations.

Rivals who have been fighting for many years often use political marriages to achieve reconciliation, and kinship is often used as a means to find allies and divide enemies, and the heiress of the king has become the object of competition among the princes and nobles of various countries, and has become the link between them to achieve the royal business.

Although William was well aware of the importance of marriage, and hoped that through marriage and alliances with European countries, the new Norman kingdom would be freed from isolation and helplessness, and European countries would recognize the Norman kingdom, but the reality was that the Norman family was not prosperous, and William was left with only him and his uneasy sister Adelaide. Morality. Normandy.

Adelaide's unconscious sister William is not worried about letting her marry the princes of other countries, and if Adelaide puts a forgiveness hat on the other party, the two countries, which were originally allies, are likely to become enemies.

Of the other two branches, the line of the Count of Örbourg was imprisoned by William for his rebellion a few years earlier, including the Count of Öburg and his two brothers, who were imprisoned by William in Rouen's prison.

The last was William's eponymous uncle, the younger brother of Robert I, Duke of Normandy, but William's uncle seems to have been a celibate, and he has never been married or had children.

Faced with such a situation, William had no choice but to exchange his marriage for allies in other countries, and his alliance with the Kingdom of Castile in Spain was premised on his marriage to Princess Ularca of Castile.