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The King is dead. Long live the King.
Eadwig, the 18 year old King known for his beauty, had died. Somehow.
307 – Cleaning House
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.
305 – A Very Special BHP Valentine’s Day Episode
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History is known as a field for being a bit of a slog. Tracing events, and people, and social movements through decades and centuries is a huge task and the results are usually dense at the best of times.
But once in a while, in between all the battles and the politics and the dynasties, the record cradles a story so short, and sweet, and perfect that it deserves to stand alone.
And this very special BHP Valentine’s Day episode is just this sort of story.
303 – Eric Bloodaxe
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We can probably assume that Harald Fairhair, the King of Norway, had fantastic hair. It was either big, or really long, or super glossy, and it was almost definitely blonde. But it wasn’t the only trait he was known for. Harald Fairhair was also known for getting around… and around… and around. According to records, he had as many as 20 sons. Twenty!
298 – Uptown Ceorl
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Long ago there was a settlement that had been occupied and farmed by the British and the Anglo Saxons for centuries. In fact, by the time that the Scandinavians arrived on the island, this village known as Wharram Percy was already well established, and had been inhabited continually for centuries. And it held strong for centuries more, even though it was located perilously close to the Scandinavian stronghold of Jorvik, and even after the arrival of the Great Heathen Army. In fact, this little village could well have been part of the very same lands that were shared out by Halfdan himself. Wharram Percy survived it all.
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297 – The Hundreds and the Wapentakes
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We have spoken a lot about the life of a handful of individuals – namely the rulers that have descended from the line of Alfred. There are a couple of reasons for that. The first is the simple fact that by virtue of how limited literacy was during this era, these are the lives we know the most about. The other reason is that the formation of England is very much a story of politics. It was battles, and treaties, and allegiances.
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296 – Darkening Skies
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It begins in France.
The struggle for power between King Louis IV and Hugh the Great had been raging for quite some time…
When we last visited the continent, , Hugh the Great, King Otto of Germany, Duke William of Normandy, Count Herbert II, and various other supporting characters were allied against King Louis IV, the Archbishop of Rheims, and Count Arnulf of Flanders. In response, King AEthelstan tried to intervene by sending a fleet to support the embattled king… Suddenly King AEthelstan died, and rather than supporting the young French King, the English fleet instead opted to raid the French coast.
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295 – The Return of England
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You know the pieces on a chessboard? There’s the knight, and the queen, and the castle….and then there’s the bishop.
There’s a reason why a game that simulates medieval power strategy has a piece called the bishop. Bishops had power.
And it was a power that didn’t flow from the monarchy. And in britain, it wasn’t a power that necessarily had to be aligned with the monarchy either. We’re going to see this over and over again on the island – if you were trying to rule Britain, holy men were often a wildcard in your hand of ambitions. And the more powerful the holy man, the bigger the potential upset.
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294 – It All Comes Crashing Down
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The story of the last few episodes is a story about a lesson that humanity has had to re-learn again and again throughout history. When your society is ordered around a single figure it’s likely to descend into chaos the minute that figure goes away. And finding a new balance in the midst of sudden cascading failures is a difficult task that many peoples in history have failed to do.
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293 – The Beacons are Lit
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When we left off, AEthelstan had recently died, Olaf had returned from Dublin and been crowned King of Jorvik (which meant that the Kingdom of Jorvik was back). The English Fyrd was still recovering from the bloodbath at Brunanburh. And the English Navy were currently sailing up and down the French Coast shouting “Liberte, Fraternite, Piracy”
And for the new 18 year old King Edmund, the political problems were only the tip of the iceberg. There were also the personal struggles. The preceding few years had resulted in all of his foster brothers leaving the Court. Which wouldn’t have been so bad were it not for the fact that AEthelstan had died, and now the young king was without a father figure and mentor… and all that now remained of his childhood Court was Edmund’s 16 year old brother Eadred. Which meant that, much like Alfred, Edmund was coming into his reign under a cloud of tragedy and abandonment.
Basically, 939 was a tough year.
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292 – King in the North
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How we understand any event comes down to what angle we are able to view it from. And the story of AEthelstan is no exception.
On the one hand, it is easy to see AEthelstan as one of the greatest kings in English history, one to place on our shelf of real-life legends along with his grandfather.
And for good reason… much like Alfred, AEthelstan wasn’t content to just hold his throne and maintain the status quo. He strived to restructure the very foundations of his kingdom.
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