A Chronological History of Britain
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I’ll be talking in broad strokes today, but I want to give you a forest view of what we’ve been talking about over the last couple seasons.
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The Battle of the Winwaed is over and Penda is dead along with 30 noble warleaders who had joined him in battle… with them was King Anna’s brother, King AEthelhere of East Anglia… and as for King AEthelwald of Deira… well, I’m not sure what happened to him. But he isn’t in the histories any longer, so perhaps siding with Penda against his Uncle Oswiu didn’t end well for him.
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So when we last left off, things were going crazy in the North and in the Midlands. But the very last thing I mentioned was that Honorius, the Archbishop of Canterbury, had died. Well, his seat remained vacant for about six months until March 26, 654 (or maybe 655) when a new Archbishop was ordained. Archbishop Deusdedit… and since Deus means god in Latin, I can only assume that Deusdedit translates to God Did It.
Ok all joking aside, Deusdedit ALMOST means god did it… his name actually translates to God Has Given.
But what I’m getting at is that his name was… you know… humble.
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So where were we?
Oswiu had arranged for the murder of his cousin, which is awkward in itself… but the slain King Oswine was also related to Eanflaed, Oswiu’s wife. So… even if Oswiu wasn’t fussed about kinslaying, chances are that dinner still had suddenly become a lot more awkward following that rather underhanded victory. So perhaps to appease Eanflaed, or maybe to keep the Deirans happy… Oswiu built a monastery at the location of Oswine’s murder at Gilling.
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When we left off Cenwalh of Wessex had left his wife, irritated Penda (since his wife was Penda’s sister), and gained a fancy new wife but lost his kingdom when Penda arrived to have a little chat with him. So he did what many nobles of the time seemed to do… he fled into exile. In the case of Cenwalh (and presumably his wife) he legged it to East Anglia and the court of King Anna.
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Oswald was the King of Northumbria and son of AEthelfrith who was killed by Penda at Maserfield.
Oswiu was his brother
Osric of Deira was the King of Deira, and nephew of Edwin, who was killed by Cadwallon.
and Oswine was the son of Osric…
So to recap… Oswald and Oswiu are brothers and Bernician. Osric and Oswine are father and son, and are Deiran.
Isn’t this fun?
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It’s been about 2 years and 100 episodes since I did a recap episode to remind you where we were, what the flow of history was, and give you a forest view of the whole thing.
Seriously, 100 episodes!
And since then, we have gotten to know the Anglo Saxons and their culture really well. Even though our sources are limited, we still are getting a sense for what makes them tick. And we are also learning about the events were occurring in their political lives that shaped their home lives.