Month: September 2019

329 – Forkbeard

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When you go to your local grocery store there’s a pattern. You go down your usual aisles, grab your bread, your tea, that thing you know you’re not supposed to eat but do anyway because it is delicious and you have no self control. 

And then, when you head to the register, something happens. You get in line. Right behind the person who was at the register right before you. You don’t know them, you don’t technically owe them anything. But you let them check out before you because they got in line first. And you can assume, most of the time, that the stranger behind you will do the same for you.

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328 – The St Brice’s Day Massacre

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The year 1002 was still 64 years away from 1066, but The House of Normandy had already begun a coup upon the Kingdom of England. The dynasty held only a minor Duchy, and for a fairly short amount of time, as it was only Duke Richard’s great grandfather Rollo who had established it. And in that time, there had been multiple points where it looked like the family would be ousted from even these comparatively minor holdings. Over the generations, the dynasty faced off with numerous powerful enemies: Flanders, England, and even the throne of France beefed with the Dukes of Normandy. And with such formidable enemies, it wouldn’t have been surprising if the Normans had faded into a footnote in history.

But they didn’t. And part of the reason for that is that they didn’t just have powerful enemies. They also had powerful allies. Scandinavain allies. And the Dukes knew how to wield them.

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327 – Sail Away Sail Away Sail Away

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Now that we’ve checked in with the rest of the world, let’s get back to our story…which lately hasn’t been going so well. In the space of 70 years the Kingdom went from a preeminent power in the West to little more than a viking hunting preserve.

By the year 1000, things had become so bad that the Viking armies were now just wintering on the island. The English nobles, unable to oust them, were essentially paying for the invader’s room and board via danegelds. Which were pulled from local peasantry. Essentially, the English rulers were so incompetent, they were pillaging their own countryside.

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326 – The Year 1000

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It’s so easy to lose the forest for the trees. This show is a show about one small island which, even at this part of the story, is still at the edge of civilization. It is very easy to forget that there is a whole other world out there… and, it is a world that keeps turning and the events that are happening at this point in history all over the world shaped who we are today.

It’s the year 1000. And before we return to our story, we are going to check in briefly with the rest of the world. What follows isn’t comprehensive, but it is intended to help place the events of our story in the context of the bigger, human, story.

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