Members Only 107 – The Dig


A Chronological History of Britain


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Swegn Godwinson was exiled….again. Only this time it was for life.
As that judgment came down, the Godwins must have realized they had been maneuvered into blind dependence on the King’s mercy.

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The summer of 1051 must have felt like some sort of nightmare.
A French aristocrat rode into Dover, picked a fight and then slaughtered the townsfolk. And that man’s cousin, the King of England, told the townsfolk’s lord (Earl Godwin of Wessex) to go back and finish the job…by butchering his own people on behalf of that French aristocrat.

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In 1050, Thorrfinn the Jarl of Orkney went to Rome.
And no trip to Rome is complete without a visit with the Pope. And when Thorrfin had his meeting, we’re told that Pope personally absolved the Jarl’s sins.

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Complex societies are able to do incredible things. By having an interconnected civilization, with people from all over the place contributing to it, people are able to specialize… and that specialization allows for entire classes of people who can do things that would be impossible if they had to meet their own basic needs all by themselves.
Scientists, engineers, artists, and even us podcasters… we are all possibly thanks to living in a complex society.

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Piece by piece, the board was being set for a comeback. The Godwin family had been thrown from power decades ago. But Godwin knew how to be patient and grind it out. And now he was back on top, the second most powerful person in England.

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History is just the story of humans across time. Therefore, like humanity, history is varied, it’s emotional, it’s complex.
And often it’s just f*cking messy.



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In 1040, while England was dealing with the chaos of Harthacnut’s reign and the threat of yet another succession mess, Scotland was dealing with its own set of problems.
The northern Kingdom just lost its king. And that wasn’t anything new for Scotland… their Kings rarely lasted long.