A Chronological History of Britain
Every episode of The British History Podcast. This category includes cultural history, storyline episodes, English history, Welsh history, Scottish history, and even some Irish history and Roman history thrown in.
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In 1050, Thorrfinn the Jarl of Orkney went to Rome.
And no trip to Rome is complete without a visit with the Pope. And when Thorrfin had his meeting, we’re told that Pope personally absolved the Jarl’s sins.
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Complex societies are able to do incredible things. By having an interconnected civilization, with people from all over the place contributing to it, people are able to specialize… and that specialization allows for entire classes of people who can do things that would be impossible if they had to meet their own basic needs all by themselves.
Scientists, engineers, artists, and even us podcasters… we are all possibly thanks to living in a complex society.
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Piece by piece, the board was being set for a comeback. The Godwin family had been thrown from power decades ago. But Godwin knew how to be patient and grind it out. And now he was back on top, the second most powerful person in England.
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History is just the story of humans across time. Therefore, like humanity, history is varied, it’s emotional, it’s complex.
And often it’s just f*cking messy.
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In 1040, while England was dealing with the chaos of Harthacnut’s reign and the threat of yet another succession mess, Scotland was dealing with its own set of problems.
The northern Kingdom just lost its king. And that wasn’t anything new for Scotland… their Kings rarely lasted long.
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In 1040, England once again had a new King. But England was finding Harthacnut a tough pill to swallow.
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Today’s story starts in 1039. It’s a big year, and a lot has happened to get us here. So let’s recap very quickly.
The death of Cnut caused a cascade of consequences that reached up to the tip of Scotland and even into the continent. It was an empire crumbling just as it had been born, and the kingdoms with in it (and neighboring it) were undergoing a rapid series of changes as Cnut’s empire came crashing down.
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The early 11th century was an unlikely time of heroes. By heroes I unfortunately don’t mean people of good character and brave deeds, but just people who perform extraordinary feats for their time. One of these was the very first King of Wales, Gruffudd ap Llewelyn.