Category: Storyline

Every episode of The British History Podcast that moves the story forward in a chronological way.

178 – Dereliction of Duty

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When we last left off we were talking about what a big deal King Egbert of Wessex was. And for good reason. In 829, King Egbert of Wessex held virtually all of the south and even demanded the submission of Northumbria after a battle at the River Dore, an event that earned King Egbert the incredibly rare title of Bretwalda… Britain ruler. This is how rare it was… there were only nine recorded Bretwaldas in all of British history. Just /nine/ times. His conquests also gained him a tremendous amount of money because, he had seized the mint of London and began issuing coins in his own name as the King of Mercia. King Egbert’s dramatic rise in power from 825 to 829 was meteoric and he absolutely earned his title of Britain ruler. At least from 825 to 829

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177 – The Road to 830

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Last episode I gave you a forest view of where we are going and, roughly, who these Viking raiders were as well as the scale of the impact that they will have upon Europe. And it really is something to behold. The Viking Age isn’t very long, but Europe hadn’t seen this level of rapid cultural, economic, and political change since the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Not even Charlemagne had the kind of far reaching impact as the Northern kingdoms and raiders.

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176 – The Prophecy of Jeremiah

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“Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. They shall hold the bow and the lance: they are cruel, and will not show mercy: their voice shall roar like the sea.” Jeremiah 50: 41-42

This passage of the Bible, and others like it, were on the minds of the literate men of the church in the 9th century And you can see why, can’t you? The Christian nations of the west, even their monasteries and other religious houses, were being attacked by pagans. By the enemies of god himself. The vikings seemed to be the fulfillment of a dark prophecy.

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174 – CeltCast Part 3

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We start today with a few bare statements in the record. They’re easy to overlook, and most people do, but they hint at a very important aspect of Pictland in the 700s. The absolutely enormous amount of political wrangling.

Here’s what we know.

In 725, King Nechtan stepped down from the throne of Pictland and entered a monastery. The throne went to a new king named Drest, and on that same year Simul son of Drest was imprisoned.

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172 – CeltCast Part 1

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Today we’re beginning the process of creating a singular British history podcast. The side casts made sense when the story was first beginning, but now (rather than helping you understand the story better) they’re confusing it) and so today we are merging the Scotcast and Welshcast into the Celtcast. I’m eager to get the story moving forward, and I’m guessing you are too, so I’m going to give a whirlwind tour of what has been going on in scotland and Wales (since we have already most of the story in the main podcast) and /just/ give you the stuff that’s important for the Welsh and Scottish kingdoms. Sort of a forest view of what has been happening, with some added details. But if you’d like more information, the main podcast will include a lot more material that is relevant specifically for the Anglo Saxons.

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171 – The Welshcast Part Seven

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When we left off last time, we were talking about how we have a limited understanding of this area of history due to a combination of scarce resources and the victorians building a mythology of englishness. We also covered the early middle ages and the turn that was occurring in Southern Britain in the 6th century, where the Anglo Saxons (especially the West Saxons) had rebounded from their early losses and now were defeating the Britons in battle and steadily advancing towards the Severn.

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170 – The Welshcast Part Six

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It’s been two years since we checked in with the Britons of the West, and last time we spoke, a big part of our discussion was focused upon the people that Gildas hated. Which was pretty much everyone.

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169 – The Rise of Wessex

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This season we’ve seen the Anglo Saxons come incredibly close to forming an early unified English Kingdom… in fact they will continue their attempts in this episode.

Though we can guess how that will go because we have seen their culture and governmental structure hamstring their previous attempts at unity. From our vantage point of over 1000 years later, we can see the broad strokes of their societies. We can look at generations and spot flaws that would have been nearly invisible to them.

We can also see the future. For example, we know we are on the cusp of a major invasion. We also know about the famed House of Wessex.

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168 – The Fall of Mercia

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When we left off, King Beornwulf was reigning over Mercia. Beornwulf was the beginning of the creatively named B-Dynasty, due to the fact that Anglo Saxons seemed to denote their dynasties by selecting the same first letters for their kids. So Beornwulf had two kids named Berhfrith and Behrtric, a brother named Bynna, and it’s thought that Baldred was his kinsman.

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