Month: August 2018

291 – Pandemonium

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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 was for AEthelstan’s younger half brother, AElfweard. But he died soon after Edward (under questionable circumstances) and so the path opened up for AEthelstan.

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290 – This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is My Land

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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.

This was human devastation on a scale that hadn’t been on the island in living memory.

And now the Scots, Northmen, and Strathclyde Britons were fleeing the field… but this wasn’t over.

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289 – Brunanburh

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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. You would think that bringing the biggest army would make the task easier… and I’m sure it does make certain things easier, like flanking, reinforcements, enveloping, and that sort of thing.

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288 – Extracurricular Activities

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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 Lorraine. Pretty soon thereafter, Robert got himself crowned as King of the Franks. And that’s not too bad… a father in law who was King of the Franks? Sounds great.

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