The British History Podcast

92 – WelshCast Part Five: More People that Gildas Hated

on July 15, 2013April 21, 2021 By Jamie 4 Comments

Alright, so we have two more kings of Wales before we leave Gildas and his spittle flecked rantings. And something that you might notice as we go forward is that we don’t haven’t been provided a Tyrant of Powys nor are any of the Eastern Kingdoms listed. Sure, we don’t know where Aurelias Conanus ruled, but there’s not affirmative statement of a king of Powys, Rheged, or other kingdom by Gildas. He was just an unknown ruler (or maybe just a failed usurper).

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91 – WelshCast Part Four: Three Kings of Wales Who Really Annoyed Gildas

on July 9, 2013April 21, 2021 By Jamie 7 Comments

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Today, we’re going to talk about some of the people who were really pissing Gildas off. People that drove him so batty that he just couldn’t contain his rage. And since Gildas was Welsh, he was predictably focusing his ire upon the Welsh kings. Though, like I mentioned earlier, the term “Wales” isn’t something that would be used at this time. Right now, they’re British… and saw themselves as part of the various kingdoms that populated Wales but not of any singular political body that we’d recognize as “Wales.” But regardless, all the action takes place in the Celtic West. So needless to say, this fits right in with the WelshCast.

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90 – WelshCast Part Three: The Silent Treatment

on July 2, 2013April 21, 2021 By Jamie 3 Comments

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As you probably remember from the main podcast, before we had the appearance of major Anglo Saxon kingdoms, there was an initial migration and invasion in the sub-Roman period, with famous Germanic leaders like Hengest, Horsa, and Aelle appearing in Kent and Sussex. But there was also a staunch British resistance to these incursions lead, in part, by a man by the name of Ambrosius Aurelianus (who might have also been known as Riothamus and might have even been the inspiration for Arthur… but only maybe, because Arthur is a bit of a mystery).

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89 – WelshCast Part Two: All The Comforts of Rome (well… some of them)

on June 24, 2013April 21, 2021 By Jamie 1 Comment

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We’re now at the point where Rome has withdrawn from Britannia (and more important to our story, from Wales), and today we’re going to talk about the impact that had upon the people.

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88 – WelshCast Part One: From the Stone Ages to the Withdrawal of Rome

on June 11, 2013April 21, 2021 By Jamie 10 Comments

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Ever since I did the Scotcast I’ve been receiving messages on facebook, on twitter, on the forums, and I’ve even been getting personal emails asking for more about Wales. And my response has always been the same, I’ll do it but not yet.

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86 – The Fall of Ceawlin… and others

on May 30, 2013April 21, 2021 By Jamie 4 Comments

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Ok, from the title you might have gathered that we’re going to be talking about Ceawlin today. Now from all this discussion of various anglo saxon leaders, you might have noticed that while I’ve been saying Cynric, Cerdic, and Ceawlin… with C being a CH sound… we also have this Cutha fellow in Wessex, and Creoda in Mercia. And there the C is being pronounced with a hard C sound rather than a CH. So what’s the deal there?

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85 – Ceawlin and the Sons of Ida

on April 29, 2013April 21, 2021 By Jamie 6 Comments

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So it’s 568. And things in what will someday become England are still chaotic. Remember what was going on up north in Bernicia? Where Ida, who was probably part of some sort of Anglian group, had taken control of Bamburgh, then he died, and then his sons started taking over for him? Well, that’s still going on. It looks like Adda is probably dead. Maybe. It’s really muddy. And like I mentioned earlier, he probably was the king who was fighting with the Brits and killed a number of their kings… maybe… But sometime around now, Adda is no longer king of Bernicia and the throne is held by his brother: Aethelric. We think.

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79 – Saint Patrick’s Day Special

on March 11, 2013April 21, 2021 By Jamie 3 Comments

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We begin our story in Bannaventa Berniae, a small town somewhere in the West of Britain, probably along the coast. This was probably a small typical Roman style settlement laid out on a grid with small Roman houses and a villa, or villas, for prominent families in the area. Though it’s doubtful it would have been too impressive of a Villa, especially when compared to those of Rome or even those of the major British cities. But for a small town in Britannia, it was probably fairly decent. Given the time period, we can assume it had some level of fortification, possibly a small turf wall or maybe even something larger with guard towers. After all, raids were rather common at this point.

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75 – Cerdic and Cynric: A Story of… well… Probably Farmers

on February 11, 2013April 21, 2021 By Jamie 5 Comments

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Alright, so when we left off, Cerdic and his son had recently arrived on the island and the Battle of Mons Badonicus had just taken place. So that’s exciting. And Gildas says that it was followed by peace, and procopius tells us that Germans were fleeing from Britannia as late as about 30 years later. And from the archaeological record, and the scattered references in written texts, it doesn’t seem like there were a lot of military warbands invading… but rather, as we will discuss in this episode, this looks more like farmers who were migrating. And this might have been happening for quite some time, since we’re told the Saxons had been landing on British shores for at least 100 years.

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74 – When Neighbors Attack: A Story of “Kings”

on February 4, 2013April 21, 2021 By Jamie 1 Comment

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Right, so here we are right in the middle of all the drama and bloodshed that has been called the Anglo Saxon invasion. We have famous names such as Hengest and Aelle showing up.

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