Anglo-Saxon England

The Viking looms large over the early medieval period as a whole, despite only erupting onto the scene in the late eighth century, several centuries after the period is usually thought to have begun. They were such a disruptive force that inspired such profound spiritual and cultural shock among the states of Europe that they are even given their own sub-period – the Viking Age – within the larger...

After just under 70 episodes, we come to a point that I have always imagined as the dividing line in this series: the Norse invasions. What is coming is a huge undertaking, so I wanted to take the opportunity to look back on where we have been; to highlight key themes and to clarify my stance on the term ‘Anglo-Saxon’. Credits –  Music: 'Wælheall' by Hrōðmund Wōdening https://www.youtube.com/watch...

Surrey, much like Hwicce and Lindsey, has a history that can only be told by looking askance at sources. What emerges, though, is a frontier kingdom that was often subject to the vicissitudes of fate. Credits –  Music: 'Wælheall' by Hrōðmund Wōdening https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQfdqIyqJ4g&list=LL&index=5&ab_channel=Hr%C5%8D%C3%B0mundW%C5%8Ddening Social Media -  Patreon: https://www.patreon....

Everything, Everywhere Daily talks about the Dark Ages and whether they really were all that dark. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The great professor of Anglo-Saxon history, Simon Keynes, once called Lindsey a ‘kingdom without a history’. This is because there is no written evidence from the kingdom itself and only a tiny amount written about it from contemporaries. However, there is some evidence in the form of archaeology which has shed valuable light on aspects of Lindsey’s history. In today’s episode, we will ask how acc...

This episode we will be looking at one of the most elusive of the small kingdoms which proliferated in early Anglo-Saxon England. The Hwicce were located mainly in what is today Worcestershire, Warwickshire, and Gloucestershire. Their history is extremely patchy, but from what can be said they offer a unique view of the emergence and downfall of a tribal kingdom caught between the worlds of the Br...

With the death of Sighere in 688, Essex’s tendency for pagan reaction came to an end. This did not mean that the kingdom was left in peace, however. Credits –  Music: 'Wælheall' by Hrōðmund Wōdening https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQfdqIyqJ4g&list=LL&index=5&ab_channel=Hr%C5%8D%C3%B0mundW%C5%8Ddening Social Media -  Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/anglosaxonengland Facebook: https://www.facebook....

The kingdom of the East Saxons was one of the mid-sized early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and the last in our survey of the construct made by later historians called the ‘Heptarchy’. A kingdom repeatedly wracked by pagan reaction, Essex's early history is one filled with religious upheaval and intrigue making it an explosive send-off to the Heptarchy. Credits –  Music: 'Wælheall' by Hrōðmund Wōdening htt...

Following Cædwalla’s death in 688 Sussex seemingly did not regain its independence. As with the early history of Sussex, the kingdom’s history post-688 is again one of long stretches of obscurity occasionally broken by flashes of insight.  Credits –  Music: 'Wælheall' by Hrōðmund Wōdening https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQfdqIyqJ4g&list=LL&index=5&ab_channel=Hr%C5%8D%C3%B0mundW%C5%8Ddening Social...

Last time I discussed the origin myth of Sussex and how this compares to the archaeological record for early Saxon presence in the southeast of England. According to legend, the final notable date of early South Saxon history was 491 with Ælle’s and Cissa’s victory over the Britons of Andredes cester. We saw how these later legends do not line up with the archaeological record which indicates that...

Let us turn south from East Anglia and head back towards the English Channel. Down here, to the southwest of Kent, lies the region of Sussex. Among the oldest Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Sussex nevertheless has a storied history. This episode we will begin with the legend of its founder and the archaeological evidence which casts light on the shadows cast by myth. Credits – Music: 'Wælheall' by Hrōðmund...

In 869, when the Norse killed Edmund, East Anglia was left prostrate before them. Later legend tells us that they had demanded Edmund yield half of his kingdom to them, a demand the king obviously refused, for which he paid with his life. Precisely what the Norse did in East Anglia after killing Edmund is shrouded in mystery, as it is in all of what would become known as the Danelaw.  Credits –  M...

(Apologies that this episode is a bit late. I recently started a new job and have been forced to rework my recording schedule. Going forward the episodes will be back to their usual schedule.) Following the major shifts in international power that occurred in the late 820s following the fall of Beornwulf and the ascendency of Ecgberht of Wessex, East Anglia entered its final period of independence...

Following the execution of Æthelberht II, Offa did in East Anglia what he had already done to the Hwicce: he assumed direct control. Thus began a period of Merican control in East Anglia. This is a period that is poorly served by primary evidence but it is nevertheless possible to reconstruct a loose history of this turbulent period. Credits –  Music: 'Wælheall' by Hrōðmund Wōdening https://www.yo...

Following the fall of the Wuffingas dynasty in 749, East Anglia entered a period of political uncertainty. Such uncertainty often breeds instability, but in the case of East Anglia it became significantly more perilous with the ascendency of Offa of Mercia, a king who if you will recall sought to establish a Mercian empire through seizing unprecedented levels of control over his subject kingdoms....

The rule of the Wuffingas dynasty in East Anglia came to an end in 749. Despite this, though, the end of the Wuffingas’ monopoly on power was not characterized by disruption or upheaval. Instead, the final two kings of the Wuffingas line, Ealdwulf and Ælfwald, presided over an extended period of relative stability and prosperity, a fact marked by both kings reigns lasting for multiple decades. Bes...

Following Anna’s death at the hands of Mercian invaders in 653, East Anglia was left entirely at the mercy of King Penda and his forces. Having been put on the back foot by the dramatic events of the Mercian invasion, the East Anglians scrambled for any stability in the storm. They turned, hopeful for respite, to Æthelhere, brother of the slain king. Credits –  Music: 'Wælheall' by Hrōðmund Wōdeni...

Following Penda’s attack in 635, East Anglia became a pawn in the emerging cold war between Mercia and Northumbria. Keen to check the growing power of the midland kingdom, Oswald of Northumbria was eager to support a new ruler in East Anglia who might manage to check Penda’s obvious ambitions to overlordship of southern England. His gaze soon settled on a nephew of Raedwald by the name of Anna. Cr...

A common feature of early Anglo-Saxon history, at least as presented by Bede, is what is called ‘pagan reaction’. Since Bede was writing an ecclesiastical history, that is a history of the Church, reactions against the spread of Christianity of course greatly disturbed him. Usually, these reactions took the form of kings who aggressively reversed the policies of their Christian predecessors by end...

The burial at Sutton Hoo is one of the enduring symbols of Anglo-Saxon England, but who is the man that is often said to be buried there? In this episode we take a look at the life of one King Raedwald and the famous burial that may be he enduring legacy. Credits –  Music: 'Wælheall' by Hrōðmund Wōdening https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQfdqIyqJ4g&list=LL&index=5&ab_channel=Hr%C5%8D%C3%B0mundW%C5%...

Of all the early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, East Anglia has probably the richest legendary history. While the historicity of this history is of course questionable, I believe that it is important to discuss it since it serves to situate the East Anglians (as well as their heirs the Mercians) in a larger North Sea cultural zone, but also because it links some of the most famous works of Old English lite...

East Anglian history poses a particular problem for historians of Anglo-Saxon England. The Kingdom of East Anglia was one of just four kingdoms still in existence when the Great Heathen Army landed in England in 865, but hardly anything written records have survived from its time as an independent kingdom, most likely due to its having suffered the bulk of the Army’s initial onslaught which seemin...

With Kent wrapped up, and while I’m working on the next part of the podcast, I wanted to do another patron request episode. I have been asked to talk a bit about good books and resources for studying Anglo-Saxon history. This episode will be more free form than others, I just going to go through what for me are some of my go to resources. Some of these are academic books, so when they are likely t...

The history of Kent as a kingdom ends in the year 825. In one sense it was the result of Mercia's destruction of its native dynasty, but in another it saw the return of a legitimate Kentish dynasty to Canterbury. Credits –  Music: 'Wælheall' by Hrōðmund Wōdening https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQfdqIyqJ4g&list=LL&index=5&ab_channel=Hr%C5%8D%C3%B0mundW%C5%8Ddening Social Media -  Patreon: https://w...

Following the death of Wihtred Kent entered a period of instability which left it open to the expanding ambitions of Mercia. What followed was almost 50 years of on and off Mercian overlordship which saw Kent invaded and restructured several times. In that time, the once great kingdom was brought to its knees. Credits –  Music: 'Wælheall' by Hrōðmund Wōdening https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQfdqI...