Storyline | The British History Podcast

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 […] The post 366 – Move, or You Will Be Moved: Part 1 first appeared on The Brit...

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 […] The post 364 – Reconciliation first appeared on The Br...

King Edward came to England with a political migraine. The post 361 – W A Poet first appeared on The British History Podcast .

In 1040, England once again had a new King. But England was finding Harthacnut a tough pill to swallow. The post 359 – Play Autocrat Games; Win Autocrat Prizes first appeared on The British History Podcast .

Today’s story starts in 1039. It’s a big year, and a lot has happened to get us here. So let’s recap very quickly. The death of Cnut caused a cascade of consequences that reached up to the tip of Scotland and even into the continent. It was an empire crumbling just as it had been […] The post 358 – King Harthacnut first appeared on The British History Podcast .

The early 11th century was an unlikely time of heroes. By heroes I unfortunately don’t mean people of good character and brave deeds, but just people who perform extraordinary feats for their time. One of these was the very first King of Wales, Gruffudd ap Llewelyn. The post 357 – Walter Map’s Courtly Trifles first appeared on The British History Podcast .

Here is the story of Macbeth. If you have just tuned into this episode because of the title, know that it is the second episode in a two-part series. You will want to go to the previous episode, Double Double Toil and Trouble, and listen to that first. There you will learn about the peculiar region that spawned this shadowy highland King. The post 356 – Macbeth first appeared on The British Histor...

The Medieval chronicler, Adam of Bremen, was writing at around this point in history and among the many things he tells us he also includes how Cnut planned his almost empire. And Adam tells us that Cnut intended Sweyn to rule Norway, Harthacnut to rule Denmark, and Harold Harefoot to rule England. And that might […] The post 353 – Mother of the Year first appeared on The British History Pod...

It was November 11 of 1035 and King Cnut was dead. He was buried at Winchester Cathedral. Cnut, and likely the Court, seemed to anticipate his death. Possibly because he had been ill for some time. But the ruling classes of Europe were still completely unprepared for the chaos that followed. The post 352 – Chaos first appeared on The British History Podcast .

We have another mystery on our hands. We have a missing year. And I don’t think it was because nothing was happening. The post 350 – A Tough Cnut to Crack first appeared on The British History Podcast .

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 […] The post 348 – Ruling Hard or Hardly Ruling first appeared on The British His...

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 […] The post 347 – Aggressive Diplomacy first appeared on The British Histo...

It’s 1025 Cnut had a problem on his hands. Barely a year after putting down Thorkell’s rebellion, Cnut was sailing for Denmark… again. To war, again. The post 346 – Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Drakkars first appeared on The British History Podcast .

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 […] The post 345 – Building Blocks first appeared on The British Histo...

In the year of 1021, the Anglo Saxon Chronicle tells us two things. A Bishop died. And Thorkell the Tall was expelled from the country. And that’s all it tells us. The post 344 – Cnut’s Mad Lads first appeared on The British History Podcast .

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 […] The post 342 – King Cnut of Denmark and England first appeared on The British History Podcast...

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 […] The post 340 – A Bit of a Cnut first appeared on The British History Podcast .

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. […] The post 339 – Cnut the Conqueror first appeared on The British History Podcast .

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 […] The post 335 – Acts of Spasmodic Violence first appeared on The Britis...

There are worse things than spending a holiday in Normandy. And one of those things is spending a holiday in Normandy because you just lost your entire Kingdom to the Danes. Support the Show The post 334 – No Cnut November first appeared on The British History Podcast .

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 […] The post 333 – The Conquest of England first appeared on The British History Podc...

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 […] The post 332 – The Jomsvikings first appeared on The Briti...

AEthelred, for the first time in quite a while, had a chance for a breather.  King Sweyn Forkbeard, having been paid a king’s ransom, had withdrawn his forces with a promise never to return. The post 331 – Thoughts and Prayers first appeared on The British History Podcast .

When you go to your local grocery store there’s a pattern. You go down your usual aisles, grab your bread, your tea, that thing you know you’re not supposed to eat but do anyway because it is delicious and you have no self control.  And then, when you head to the register, something happens. You […] The post 329 – Forkbeard first appeared on The British History Podcast .

The year 1002 was still 64 years away from 1066, but The House of Normandy had already begun a coup upon the Kingdom of England. The dynasty held only a minor Duchy, and for a fairly short amount of time, as it was only Duke Richard’s great grandfather Rollo who had established it. And in […] The post 328 – The St Brice’s Day Massacre first appeared on The British History Podcast .