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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.
321 – Course Corrections
Author: Jamie
320 – Our Wooden Wall
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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.
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Members Only 99 – The Battle of Maldon
319 – The Battle of Maldon
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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 been on the forefront of some pretty momentous changes in both ecclesiastical and secular English life, had died.
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318 – Chaos is a Ladder
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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 being systematically funnelled to the King. During this surge of political consolidation, no one was safe. Even the powerful Ealdorman of Mercia was exiled on charges of treason.
317 – A Culture of Corruption
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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.
316 – The Old Guard
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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 took that to mean that the BHP argues that AEthelred was a good king.
315 – The Cracks in the Foundation
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“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.
314 – Æthelred: Are You Ready?
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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.