Category: The Dark Ages

Learn about the rise of England, Scotland, and Wales in episodes of the British History Podcast that cover the so-called Dark Ages.

349 – AElfgifu’s Tale

on By 1 Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Successful Kings don’t rule alone. This is especially true for Kings with as much going on as Cnut.

And one of Cnut’s most influential right-hand men was actually his Queen. And Emma was more than just an advisor. She was wielding considerable power in her own right, power that likely expanded every time Cnut journeyed out of England.

But Queen Emma wasn’t Cnut’s only wife.

348 – Ruling Hard or Hardly Ruling

on By 4 Comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Europe was in chaos in the 1020s. Crises just kept coming, and the powerful were trying to capitalize on disorder. And in times like these, actions can have outsized impact, even the smaller ones.

For example, if you sat in Leicester during the 1020s, the last thing you would have been paying attention to would have been the spat between dukes in Northern France. And even further below the things your list of interests would have been one of those Dukes taking a mistress and having a bastard boy.

347 – Aggressive Diplomacy

on By

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

What we call history was, at one point, just current events. And world affairs never happen in a vacuum. It’s never just one thing happening after another… it’s a whole mesh of events that, while they might happen in their own sequences that look very much like just one thing happening after another, they’re actually interwoven with a massive web of other events (some seen and some unseen) that affect the outcomes of whatever was happening currently, and what could happen in the future.

345 – Building Blocks

on By

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

In the early 11th century, the English were crushed by the Scots in the Battle of Carham. We are told that King Malcolm of Scotland, supported by King Owain of Strathclyde, brought their combined armies to bear against the forces of Ealdorman Uhtred of Bernicia in 1018… and there, they slaughtered the English.

But there’s a problem with that story.

342 – King Cnut of Denmark and England

on By 5 Comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

If you have heard of King Cnut, what you probably heard was the story of Cnut and the Tides. The most common version of it goes like this.

“Canute, the greatest and most powerful monarch of his time, sovereign of Denmark and Norway, as well as of England, could not fail of meeting with adulation from his courtiers; a tribute which is literally paid even to the meanest and weakest princes. Some of his flatterers breaking out, one day, in admiration of his grandeur, exclaimed that every thing was possible for him: Upon which the monarch, it is said, ordered his chair to be set on the sea-shore, while the tide was rising, and as the waters approached, he commanded them to retire, and to obey the voice who was lord of the ocean. He feigned to sit some time in expectation of their submission; but when the sea still advanced towards him, and began to wash him with its billows, he turned to his courtiers, and remarked to them, that every creature in the universe was feeble and impotent, and that power resided with one Being alone, in whose hands were all the elements of nature; who could say to ocean, ‘Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther’; and who could level with his nod the most towering piles of human pride and ambition.”

Login to view the full transcript

341 – King Cnut of England

on By

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Cnut made a lot of smart moves in a very short amount of time. He outlawed much of the corruption that had plagued the courts of AEthelred. He scrubbed his new kingdom of the loyalists to Edmund Ironsides. He granted key lands to key followers. Executed the main claimant to the throne, Eadwig. He executed Eadric Streona.

340 – A Bit of a Cnut

on By

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

When we left off, Cnut had managed to get Eadric to go on the record calling for the execution of the English claimants to the throne… and then Cnut rejected the suggestion, and instead outlawed Eadwig, and exiled the sons of Edmund to Sweden.

What the public likely didn’t know was the fact that Cnut had quietly hired an assassin to finish the job with Eadwig, and he had given orders to King Olaf of Sweden to execute Edmund’s sons, once they reached his shores.

Members can login to view the full transcript.