A Chronological History of Britain
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Imagine that you went from being a disfavored bastard with little power, to the most powerful English king that had ever existed, in the space of just a few years.
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AEthelstan had completed his annexation of Jorvik, and in doing so he had outperformed every last one of his predecessors, including his grandfather, Alfred the Great. But there were a few loose ends that he still needed to knot up. And as he watched the defenses of Jorvik burn and dolled out Jorvik’s wealth to his loyal men – two of those loose ends, namely his former rivals Guthfrith and Turfrid, slunk away with little more than their lives.
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The last couple of episodes have focused on the political tools that AEthelstan had at his disposal. Marriage alliances, fostering, dynastic cults and diplomatic entreaties were all powerful pieces moving on a huge dark age chess board. And the thing I want you to realize about these things is first, that they took time. A strategic mind – a mind like AEthelstan’s – would see the long game and set his moves accordingly knowing they wouldn’t fully materialize for years to come. The second is that these tools were highly cultural. There’s nothing inherently political about marriage or fostering until a people make it so. By examining the tools that political actors wield we learn something important about the culture and society that underlies it. What it values, and how it prioritizes people and things.
And all of these slow, important tools are working constantly in the background throughout AEthelstan’s reign.
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What is a King’s most important duty?
Is it the defense of the realm? Or perhaps the growth of the kingdom’s borders? What about developing the economy? Fostering strong diplomatic alliances? Shepherding the souls of his subjects to Christ? How about just keeping his subjects happy and healthy?
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Want to know something strange?
When Edward died, the Irish annals said nothing. Not a mention about his death, nor the circumstances of it. And it’s not like the Irish Annals were disinterested with what was happening in the Anglo Saxon kingdoms. After all, they’re the source for our story about AEthelflaed’s defense of Chester. They were so interested that they told us about the bees. And it’s not like the Irish annals didn’t bother to record deaths of Anglo Saxon figures. For example, they recorded the death of Eadwulf of Bamburgh, a man whose biggest accomplishment in the record seems to be that he was the father of Ealdred (the guy who allied with Scotland and fought against Ragnald… and lost).
But the Irish mention his death, and ignore the King of the Anglo Saxons…
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There’s a dirty secret to history podcasts, and it only becomes clear when you actually start one. The truth is that many people will SAY that they want to learn something new, and hear new stories and hear new facts. But every time, without fail, the most popular episodes – and the most popular history shows – are about stories and figures that people already know.
Now, this isn’t because the people who say they want to hear something new are lying. It’s just because they’ve forgotten what else they are looking for – they want to know more about stories that are important.
Which is reasonable. But the problem is that this creates a self-defeating loop, because we often judge whether someone or something is important based upon whether or not we have heard about it before. If you have already heard about something, there’s a good chance you’re going to assume it was significant. Similarly, if you haven’t heard about something, you very well may assume that it’s unimportant.
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It’s important to hit the ground running when you start a new job. Especially if it is one that carries a lot of responsibility. When you’re new, people are often trying to work out who you are and how you’ll fit into the system, and the best way to put people at ease is to work diligently to get up to speed as quick as possible.
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The story of Edward is one of contradictions. There’s something about his rule that seems … complicated and requiring more nuance than many of our earlier rulers. Here we have a King that did what must have seemed impossible… he began his rule holding dominion over Wessex and Kent. Huge portions of his kingdom were in outright rebellion against him. Now at the end of his reign he holds all the Anglo Saxon land south of the humber, and has the submission of all the Welsh Kingdoms, Jorvik, the rest of Northumbria, Strathclyde, and the Scots.
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The story of Edward is undeniably odd. There are events that are at best, unexplained and at worst look potentially horrible. But he’s also a man of contradiction, because the one thing we haven’t talked about is the one thing you’re probably not expecting.
He was an effective king.
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In the last several episodes I’ve been breaking down the weird evidence that surrounds Edward towards the end of his reign. It’s been a deep dive and has been focused on some pretty granular details, and the reason why I’ve done that is because I can’t conclusively make a statement on what he did… it’s shrouded. All I can do is give you the evidence, and then give you the context in which that evidence took place, and provide a few thoughts and theories on what it might mean.
That’s why the BHP has felt a bit like Serial over the last month or so. That’s coming to an end, and we’re going to return to the usual tone very soon, but I hope you have enjoyed this foray into the questions that Edward’s reign has raised. Because questions like this… questions without answers… and questions that require a thorough look not just into the written record, but also into the archaeology and cultural matters, is what makes the study of history come alive. The questions, and the digging, is what the study of history is all about.
So let’s get into one of the last big questions about the end of Edward’s reign.