A Chronological History of Britain
Every episode of The British History Podcast that moves the story forward in a chronological way.
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Edith, the daughter of King Malcolm Canmore, has appeared from time to time in our story and (by this point) she was about 20 years old… and many of those years had been weird ones.
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The cart carrying the body of King Rufus eventually reached the cathedral at Winchester. And if we are to believe Malmesbury, blood had been dripping from it from the forest all the way into the Cathedral. Though, at some point it must have stopped. I mean, even if no one… ya know… sorted it out, he would have run out of blood eventually.
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It was a calm August afternoon in Winchester.
The Royal Palace (or potentially the Conqueror’s castle… our scribes aren’t precise when discussing the location, but probably the Palace)… either way, Winchester would have been full of activity, but nothing out of the ordinary. Just Royal functionaries carrying out their duties while the King was away, and townsfolk going about their business.
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Ok, when we left off, Rufus threw a big “look at me” celebration… and the prevailing response appears to have been “yeah, man. We see you.” And that wasn’t even the worst part of his year.
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The final two years of the 11th century feel like someone was trying to tie up a bunch of plotlines before the start of season 12. Things are moving fast, everybody is suddenly in different countries, and inevitably…some of these characters aren’t having their contracts renewed.
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Alright. When we left off, I mentioned that while Rufus was in Normandy, things in England had been getting interesting in his absence.
Let’s start with Bishop Walkelin.
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When we left off, Rufus and Robert of Belleme were marching upon Maine. Specifically, Count Helias’ fortress at Danguel. This fortress made military incursions and raids into Maine insanely difficult. Which Rufus and Robert found deeply inconsiderate, so it would have to be brought down or, at the very least it would have to be occupied by good honest Normans who wouldn’t interfere with the King’s god given right to raid and pillage the people of Maine.
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Alright, so when we left off Edgar (the eldest living son of Malcolm Canmore) had claimed the throne of Scotland. But, in classic medieval style, the way that Edgar had gone about that was anything but simple. Edgar had taken the throne from his Uncle, King Donald III, and to pull that off Edgar had the help of another uncle Edgar the AEtheling – who happened to be the guy he was named after – as well as King Rufus of England… and with their support, King Donald III was forced into exile.
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For years, Normandy had been wracked with internal conflict, war, and political unrest. The Duchy had nearly been the end of Duke Robert countless times… and if there was a single defining characteristic of Normandy under Robert, it would be “chaos.”