Category: Podcast Episodes

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.

206 – Did the Great Heathen Army Persecute Christians?

on By 4 Comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Last week we covered the events of 869. The situation was dire. We have at least one dead Anglo Saxon king, two Anglo Saxon kingdoms that were now under the thumb of the Danes, and as far as the record tells us, everyone else was just keeping their heads down. They may have taken comfort in the fact that at least Ivarr the Boneless was gone… and we don’t know how many warriors he would have taken with him back to Ireland (or would have left, if the one oddr eport was correct and he died in Britain) but the Danes still held East Anglia and Jorvik.

Sign up for membership to read the full transcript.

Support the Show

The playful nod at the end was the theme to Serial (bad dream) by Nick Thorburn. Please don’t sue me. I love the work you’re doing!

205 – Saint Edmund the Martyr

on By 1 Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Last episode we ended with the engagement of Prince Alfred to Ealhswith, daughter of Ealdorman AEthelred Mucel of Mercia and descendant of King Coenwulf of Merica, and I briefly mentioned political implications of such a match. But there was a personal aspect to this as well. Not the marriage itself, though that was certainly personal… so personal, in fact, that we have no real knowledge of how Alfred felt about his wife… we know how he felt about his piles, we know how he felt about hunting, we know quite a bit about his feelings for a variety of things… but not his wife. It’s entirely possible that he was desperately in love and the silence in the record was just part of the culture of the time and one didn’t speak of such things. But the fact remains that we don’t know much about how he, or Ealhswith, felt about the marriage.

Sign up for membership to read the full transcript.

Support the Show

204 – Snottingham

on By

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

At the end of last episode, the gates of Jorvik had opened and the Great Heathen Army marched forth. They were headed South, to the Kingdom of Mercia. Mercia makes sense for the Northmen. The leaders of the Great Army had already bolstered their northern border, through their puppet King Ecgberht. East Anglia had been brought to heel and economically devastated, they were unlikely to muster any sort of resistance in the future. Similarly, Greater Wessex had proven to be a paper tiger. Despite dominating the southern kingdoms, the warbands of Wessex were unable to move the Northmen even out of Thanet… nor were they capable of seeking retribution for the raids of Kent, despite the fact that those raids were a violation of the peace that had been purchased through the Danegeld. Wessex was nothing to worry about.

Sign up for membership to read the full transcript.

Support the Show

203 – Jorvik

on By

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

I’d like to start today’s episode with a poem. Not about my feelings, or about a tough breakup… but a skaldic poem from the 12th century. It’s called The Lay of Kraka, and it was probably recorded somewhere in Scotland. The reason why it’s important is that it contains what is claimed to be Ragnar Lodbrok’s death song… So according legend, this is the starting point for everything we’re been talking about.

Sign up for membership to read the full transcript.

Support the Show

202 – The Fall of Eoforwic

on By

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

When we left off last time, King Edmund of East Anglia had paid a Danegeld to the Great Heathen Army… and rather than leaving, the army had set up camp in his Kingdom. It was a situation that would have caused all manner of havoc for virtually everyone who lived in the small eastern Kingdom.

Sign up for membership to read the full transcript.

Support the Show

201 – East Anglia’s Danegeld

on By 2 Comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Here we are, with a new king in Wessex. King AEthelred, son of AEthelwulf, was now sitting the throne. He was in his 20s, and despite having a large family back when he was a child… now his only family left were his wife… Queen Wulfthryth (and good on you Wulfthryth for insisting on being given the title of Queen… other than that, we don’t know much about her, but the fact that she was listed as queen, and her name, has lead some scholars to suspect that she was Mercian. You’ll remember that the Mercians were a bit less restrictive on women in power than their southern cousins).

Sign up for membership to read the full transcript.

Support the Show

200 – The Q&A

on By 13 Comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

To celebrate the 200th episode, I took questions from the community which gave me a good excuse to complain about bad GI Joe villains, Rome, Lack of Sources, Rome, and a dearth of available female historical figures to crush on…. and Rome. (It was bad, you guys.)

Guest spots from…

Jamie Redfern of A History of the United States Podcast,
Joe Steckert of Interesting Times Podcast, and
Lucy Koger of Great Battles of History Podcast.

There’s no transcript for this one because it was just a Q&A.

Support the Show