The British History Podcast

With the Scandinavian raiders gone, and with AElfric of Hampshire defanged, England was free to get back to work. And, as we saw last episode, this meant that the King was once again redistributing wealth from the have-a-lots to the have-even-mores. The post 324 – Law and Lawlessness first appeared on The British History Podcast.

The Dowager Queen AElfthryth has returned to the King’s inner council following what looks like a political coup against AElfic of Hampshire and his faction. And just because it was political doesn’t mean it was bloodless. All of AElfric’s allies were dead.  Only AElfric himself, who appears to have been too big to fail, remained […] The post 323 – Brotherhood of the Wolf first appeared on The British History Podcast.

(We aren’t) The post PSA: Are We Dead? first appeared on The British History Podcast.

Ealdorman AElfirc of Hampshire was out… and Ealdorman AEthelweard the Chronicler was in. He would now be the King’s chief councillor… and he would be supported by his son, AEthelmaer… the King’s uncle, High Reeve Ordwulf of Devon, and the King’s mother, AEthelthryth. The post 322 – We’re Absolutely Forked first appeared on The British History Podcast.

992 was a bad year. There was treason, Vikings, the King’s closest advisor absconded with half the navy, and tipped off an enemy invasion with just enough time to let them escape. The post 321 – Course Corrections first appeared on The British History Podcast.

The Battle of Maldon was a catastrophe. The brave last stand of Ealdorman Byrhtnoth was never going to change that fact. He was the leading man of Essex and the second most powerful Ealdorman in England and now he was dead. And his Fyrd was defeated. The post 320 – Our Wooden Wall first appeared on The British History Podcast.

Battles don’t appear out of thin air, not even in honor cultures. There’s a reason, a context, that develops long before soldiers or warriors enter a field prepared to do violence. And the Battle of Maldon comes with a lot of context. We left off in 988… and on that year, Archbishop Dunstan, who had […] The post 319 – The Battle of Maldon first appeared on The British History Podcast.

By 984 the Regency council had been broken and a new inner circle of nobles had been elevated.  And this development was accompanied by a rapid series of changes at the highest levels of the kingdom. The political rivals of this new council were rapidly losing power, with titles (and even lands) of wealthy dynasties […] The post 318 – Chaos is a Ladder first appeared on The British History Podcast.

At 16 years old, King AEthelred was considered fully grown by Anglo Saxon standards. And as a bonus graduation present, the powerful Bishop AEthelwold of Winchester… who appears to have been the defacto head of state while AEthelred was a child… had died. The post 317 – A Culture of Corruption first appeared on The British History Podcast.

Before we get back to our story, I’ve been seeing your conversations online and it made me realize I need to clarify something.   Some of you took the discussion of AEthelred’s unflattering nickname, and how he caught hell for some things that were out of his control or part of the common culture, and […] The post 316 – The Old Guard first appeared on The British History Podcast.

“Under AEthelred nothing was done; or, more truly, throughout his whole reign he left undone those things which he ought to have done, and he did those things he ought not to have done.”   That is the damning conclusion of Edward Augustus Freeman, a Victorian historian, and epic beard grower. The post 315 – The Cracks in the Foundation first appeared on The British History Podcast.

King Edward, like those before him, had died under mysterious and apparently violent circumstances. And the next in line for this increasingly bloody throne of England was his 12 year old little half-brother. Æthelred. The post 314 – Æthelred: Are You Ready? first appeared on The British History Podcast.

“No man can make himself king, but the people have the choice to choose as king whom they please; but after he is consecrated as king, he then has dominion over the people, and they cannot shake his yoke from their necks.”   The post 313 – How to Make a Martyr first appeared on The British History Podcast.

King Edgar is Dead… and in his place reigned his son, King Edward of England. And you’d think that we’d be referring to him as King Edward the First.  Or, if you wanted to fudge it a bit and give Edward the Elder some credit for forming the Kingdom of the Anglo Saxons… maybe King […] The post 312 – King Edward first appeared on The British History Podcast.

King Edgar the Peaceable was buried at Glastonbury in 975. But weirdly that isn’t the end of his story. William of Malmesbury tells us that nearly a century later, in 1053, the Abbot Ailward re-opened the King’s tomb. Malmsbury doesn’t tell us WHY the monk opened the grave, so I suppose we can just assume […] The post 311 – Team Edward first appeared on The British History Podcast.

Human beings can’t really be summed up in a nickname. Usually we are more complicated than a word or two. And sometimes, the nickname just doesn’t reflect reality. If you take  Edward the Elder, for example, the name probably conjures up an image of Gandalf. But Edward was only in his early 50’s when he […] The post 310 – Political Theater first appeared on The British History Podcast.

You would think that someone named Edgar the Peaceable enjoyed a good reputation. But the closer you look, the more things start to look…off. And if you look closer than that, you start to get the sense that maybe things WERE off. The post 309 – Size Doesn’t Matter (until it does) first appeared on The British History Podcast.

Across the North Sea, in Scandinavia, a man named Harald Greycloak was struggling for dominance in the region. He wasn’t just any man, he was a son of Erik Bloodaxe and Gunnhilde. And his fight brought him into direct conflict with King Haakon. The post 308 – A Thirst for Reform first appeared on The British History Podcast.

The King is dead.  Long live the King. Eadwig, the 18 year old King known for his beauty, had died.  Somehow. The post 307 – Cleaning House first appeared on The British History Podcast.

The King is dead, long live the King. So … last episode was a bit of a shocker wasn’t it? After it launched, I got an email from a listener (who hilariously, is the daughter of a Judge that once scared the hell out of me in Court)… small world. Understandably, she was confused that […] The post 306 – King Eadwig first appeared on The British History Podcast.

History is known as a field for being a bit of a slog. Tracing events, and people, and social movements through decades and centuries is a huge task and the results are usually dense at the best of times. But once in a while, in between all the battles and the politics and the dynasties, […] The post 305 – A Very Special BHP Valentine’s Day Episode first appeared on The British History Podcast.

Northumbria was always the hot mess of the heptarchy. There are a few exceptions where they manage to pull it together long enough to produce something important, like Bede, or when Leeds United won the premiership in 1991. The post 304 – A Kingdom Divided first appeared on The British History Podcast.

We can probably assume that Harald Fairhair, the King of Norway, had fantastic hair. It was either big, or really long, or super glossy, and it was almost definitely blonde. But it wasn’t the only trait he was known for. Harald Fairhair was also known for getting around… and around… and around. According to records, […] The post 303 – Eric Bloodaxe first appeared on The British History Podcast.

Ok, where were we? With all this focus on culture, it’s been a little bit since we last talked about the political situation in Britain. So lets remind ourselves of where things were politically. The post 302 – King Eadred first appeared on The British History Podcast.

This isn’t going to end well.   The post Chapter Eight – Twilight of the Anglo Saxons first appeared on The British History Podcast.

Today, we’re going to wrap up this cultural series with a focus on my favorite group of people.  The people who rarely, if ever, get talked about. The commoners. The post 301 – Common Folk first appeared on The British History Podcast.

When we left off, we were talking about Thegns. Specifically, we were talking about King’s Thegns and how they could wield degrees of power that could rival even the formidable Ealdormen. The post 300 – Noble Lives first appeared on The British History Podcast.

Ealdormen… Thegns… Ceorls. These were the  important cogs in the machine of government. They had powerful roles, and held powerful spaces within anglo saxon culture. And it’s time we get to know these roles like the back of our hand. Support the Show The post 299 – The Shape of Power first appeared on The British History Podcast.

Links to material referenced in the show. The Achavanich Beaker Burial ‘Ava’: a Beaker-associated woman from a cist at Achavanich, Highland, and the story of her (re-)discovery and subsequent study, Published in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland The Beaker phenomenon and the genomic transformation of northwest Europe at Nature.com A summary […] The post The Achavanich Beaker Burial Project: Ancient DNA with Maya Hoole first appeared on The British History Podcast.

Long ago there was a settlement that had been occupied and farmed by the British and the Anglo Saxons for centuries. In fact, by the time that the Scandinavians arrived on the island, this village known as Wharram Percy was already well established, and had been inhabited continually for centuries. And it held strong for […] The post 298 – Uptown Ceorl first appeared on The British History Podcast.

We have spoken a lot about the life of a handful of individuals – namely the rulers that have descended from the line of Alfred. There are a couple of reasons for that. The first is the simple fact that by virtue of how limited literacy was during this era, these are the lives we […] The post 297 – The Hundreds and the Wapentakes first appeared on The British History Podcast.

I love Halloween. I think it might be my favorite holiday, and it’s not really because I like spooky things. I actually kind of hate horror movies. The reason I love Halloween is because in the pantheon of modern holidays it stands out. Most holidays in the western world have been rebranded and repackaged to […] The post The Halloween Special first appeared on The British History Podcast.

It begins in France. The struggle for power between King Louis IV and Hugh the Great had been raging for quite some time… When we last visited the continent, , Hugh the Great, King Otto of Germany, Duke William of Normandy, Count Herbert II, and various other supporting characters were allied against King Louis IV, […] The post 296 – Darkening Skies first appeared on The British History Podcast.

You know the pieces on a chessboard? There’s the knight, and the queen, and the castle….and then there’s the bishop. There’s a reason why a game that simulates medieval power strategy has a piece called the bishop. Bishops had power. And it was a power that didn’t flow from the monarchy. And in britain, it […] The post 295 – The Return of England first appeared on The British History Podcast.

The story of the last few episodes is a story about a lesson that humanity has had to re-learn again and again throughout history. When your society is ordered around a single figure it’s likely to descend into chaos the minute that figure goes away. And finding a new balance in the midst of sudden […] The post 294 – It All Comes Crashing Down first appeared on The British History Podcast.

When we left off, AEthelstan had recently died, Olaf had returned from Dublin and been crowned King of Jorvik (which meant that the Kingdom of Jorvik was back). The English Fyrd was still recovering from the bloodbath at Brunanburh. And the English Navy were currently sailing up and down the French Coast shouting “Liberte, Fraternite, […] The post 293 – The Beacons are Lit first appeared on The British History Podcast.

How we understand any event comes down to what angle we are able to view it from. And the story of AEthelstan is no exception. On the one hand, it is easy to see AEthelstan as one of the greatest kings in English history, one to place on our shelf of real-life legends along with […] The post 292 – King in the North first appeared on The British History Podcast.

When King Edward died, the plan was that his second son would take the throne. By all indications, neither Edward nor the power structures within Wessex, wanted AEthelstan. The young AEtheling had been discarded and sent to be raised in Mercia far from the halls of power. The throne of Wessex wasn’t for him. It […] The post 291 – Pandemonium first appeared on The British History Podcast.

Brunanburh had been a titanic struggle. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle speaks of how the fighting lasted from morning to night, until “the field grew dark with the blood of men.” Blood spilled from warriors of no less than four separate kingdoms. The scribes speak of how the ground was littered with men impaled upon spears. […] The post 290 – This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is My Land first appeared on The British History Podcast.

You can’t just go to war. I mean… I guess you can. But it’s not a good idea. War takes work. It takes planning. It takes preparation. War, to put it simply, is a pain in the ass. You really have to want it. And the workload only increases with the number of people involved. […] The post 289 – Brunanburh first appeared on The British History Podcast.

I wonder if King Rudolph of France resented his crown. I mean, seeking the crown probably seemed like a good idea at the time but the whole thing had been turning out to be an enormous headache. And it all started when Rudolph’s father in law (Robert) rebelled against King Charles and drove him into […] The post 288 – Extracurricular Activities first appeared on The British History Podcast.

For the last six years, AEthelstan had been ruling in a manner that hasn’t been seen in Britain for generations. Beyond being a warlord, or even a King… AEthelstan was acting more like an Emperor. All of the Anglo Saxon territories were annexed into his new Kingdom of England, the Kings of Wales were now […] The post 287 – The Conquest of Scotland first appeared on The British History Podcast.

After generations of devastating war, England has found itself at peace. Which leaves a question we haven’t had to ask in a while. What did the Anglo Saxons actually do during peacetime? Support the Show The post 286 – Noble Pursuits first appeared on The British History Podcast.

The Era of AEthelstan is one of contradictions. His behavior, his policies, his wars… pretty much everything that is happening during this period seems to have an element of duality. This man was discussed by scholars of his time in terms of his piety and his generosity both with the church and also with his […] The post 285 – Full Court Press first appeared on The British History Podcast.

Last week, we ended with King AEthelstan’s aggression towards Kingdoms of Wales and Cornwall. We don’t know precisely what occurred, or why AEthelstan demanded crippling tributes from the Welsh and then violently expelled or executed the Cornish of Exeter. Support the Show The post 284 – AEthelstan the Victorious first appeared on The British History Podcast.

Imagine that you went from being a disfavored bastard with little power, to the most powerful English king that had ever existed, in the space of just a few years. Support the Show The post 283 – The Kingdoms of the Foreigners first appeared on The British History Podcast.

AEthelstan had completed his annexation of Jorvik, and in doing so he had outperformed every last one of his predecessors, including his grandfather, Alfred the Great. But there were a few loose ends that he still needed to knot up. And as he watched the defenses of Jorvik burn and dolled out Jorvik’s wealth to […] The post 282 – How To Win Friends and Influence Jorvik first appeared on The British History Podcast.

The last couple of episodes have focused on the political tools that AEthelstan had at his disposal. Marriage alliances, fostering, dynastic cults and diplomatic entreaties were all powerful pieces moving on a huge dark age chess board. And the thing I want you to realize about these things is first, that they took time. A […] The post 281 – England first appeared on The British History Podcast.

What is a King’s most important duty? Is it the defense of the realm? Or perhaps the growth of the kingdom’s borders? What about developing the economy? Fostering strong diplomatic alliances? Shepherding the souls of his subjects to Christ? How about just keeping his subjects happy and healthy? Support the Show The post 280 – King AEthelstan’s Love Life first appeared on The British History Podcast.

Want to know something strange? When Edward died, the Irish annals said nothing. Not a mention about his death, nor the circumstances of it. And it’s not like the Irish Annals were disinterested with what was happening in the Anglo Saxon kingdoms. After all, they’re the source for our story about AEthelflaed’s defense of Chester. […] The post 279 – Dynastic Cults first appeared on The British History Podcast.