A Chronological History of Britain
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“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.”
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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 Edward II.
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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 Ailward was going through a goth phase.
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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 died.
And you may have noticed that quite a few of these 10th century kings have nicknames that don’t seem to fit.
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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.
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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.
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The King is dead. Long live the King.
Eadwig, the 18 year old King known for his beauty, had died. Somehow.
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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 while we are lacking key details on major political events, battles, and just about everything going on in Scotland and Wales….we still manage to have this crazy story of a new King’s precocious sex life.
I think her exact phrase was “how did THAT story get recorded?”
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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 record cradles a story so short, and sweet, and perfect that it deserves to stand alone.
And this very special BHP Valentine’s Day episode is just this sort of story.