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.

339 – Cnut the Conqueror

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It’s been a strange few years.

The fall of the House of Wessex and the rise of Cnut looks like a simple story of conquest. After all, it’s right there in the title. Virtually every book on this era has a chapter called “The Conquest of England.” And for good reason… Cnut /was/ a conqueror. And conquest, at least in the popular imagination, is a simple story of military domination. Of soldiers and sieges, where the biggest army and the best tactics win the day.

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338 – The Fall of King Edmund Ironsides

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Edmund hadn’t lost, and for now that was enough.

He had shown himself to be a contender. So Ironside took his remaining men and marched East… but the accounts are careful to point out that he stayed north of the Thames…. And this decision has lead scholars to believe that Mercia may have already been on Edmund’s side, or was quickly coming around to it.

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337 – The Rise of King Edmund Ironside

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Can you feel it? It feels like there is a lull before the storm. AEthelred Unread is now gone, and Normandy is now officially on the board. 1066 is on the doorstep.

But the lull is an illusion you experience because you know what is coming next. For the people living it, things are heating up on the island at the dawn of the millennium. And what you’re about to hear is part one of a two part series on one of England’s best stories that you’ve likely never heard. It’s the story of the Rise and Fall of Edmund Ironsides. This is a story of a forgotten civil war, a legendary warrior, and the fall of the line of Alfred the Great.

And the story starts in the North.

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336 – The End Is The Beginning Is The End

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Christmas is old. Older than Christianity, in fact.

As a consequence, there’s a lot to it. Symbols and traditions that come from all over the world, and from all across time. It’s a complex event that, predictably, can provoke a complex set of emotions from people.

But when you look past the trees, and the logs, and the stockings, and the manger, and the guy in red, and the scary monsters punishing kids, and all the other things that have been added to it… when you boil it down to it’s essence what you find is that ancient root of the holiday. A very simple and clear root.

It’s a winter feast. And like any good feast, we don’t just eat and drink. We celebrate our lives and we celebrate each other.

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335 – Acts of Spasmodic Violence

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Morcar and Sigeferth were under a lot of stress.

These two noble brothers from the North had only just managed to join the Wulf dynasty through Sigeferht’s marriage to Ealdgyth, the niece of the powerful Ealdorman AElfhelm of York and Wulfric Spot. And that really should have been a smart move, given how powerful that family was.

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333 – The Conquest of England

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England in 1013 was a Kingdom begging to be conquered. Decades of bad decisions have eroded its foundations and now it sat as a mere shadow of its former glory. It had none of the military prowess established by King AEthelstan. None of the political stability enjoyed under King Edgar. And none of the smart planning created by King Alfred.

Rather than being a focal point of European politics and a well governed island fortress this new England was decadent, weak, and dangerously vulnerable.

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332 – The Jomsvikings

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So here we are.  With two full companies of Jomsvikings laying waste to southern England… and in response, the nobility… the people tasked with defending the population and the Kingdom… decided that this was an excellent chance to fight among themselves, do a bit of pirating, and arrange a political marriage.

And at the same time, King AEthelred was seizing Wulfnoth Cild’s lands for himself.  Because of course he was.

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330 – The Purge

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The Court of AEthelred had turned over three times during his reign. First, there was his regency council.  Then, when he took full power he replaced his regency council with his young friends and corrupt enablers. Then the old guard reasserted itself, along with the powerful Wulf dynasty of the midlands in the 990s.  And now, at 1006 it was turning over for a forth time. The old guard, having returned in what looks like an attempt to get the kingdom back on track, was now …legitimately really old. Queen AElfthryth’s faction was now dying out, and Uncle Ordwulf, Cousin AEthelweard, even Wulfric Spot are now dead and gone.

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