A Chronological History of Britain
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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.
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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, he had as many as 20 sons. Twenty!
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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.
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This isn’t going to end well.
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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.
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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.
At this point in this short series, the hope is that you have a sense of what incentives the economic structure created, the way that power flowed in this era, and what these titles meant in action.
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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.
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Links to material referenced in the show.
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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 centuries more, even though it was located perilously close to the Scandinavian stronghold of Jorvik, and even after the arrival of the Great Heathen Army. In fact, this little village could well have been part of the very same lands that were shared out by Halfdan himself. Wharram Percy survived it all.