The British History Podcast

We start today with a few bare statements in the record. They’re easy to overlook, and most people do, but they hint at a very important aspect of Pictland in the 700s. The absolutely enormous amount of political wrangling. Here’s what we know. In 725, King Nechtan stepped down from the throne of Pictland and […] The post 174 – CeltCast Part 3 first appeared on The British History Podcast.

I’m continuing my quest to organize and bring all the stories back together and so today we’re going to move the timeline forward (to get us closer to the Vikings) and we will also be talking more about the kingdoms that were active in the region that would later become scotland. There were several of […] The post 173 – The CeltCast Part 2 first appeared on The British History Podcast.

Today we’re beginning the process of creating a singular British history podcast. The side casts made sense when the story was first beginning, but now (rather than helping you understand the story better) they’re confusing it) and so today we are merging the Scotcast and Welshcast into the Celtcast. I’m eager to get the story […] The post 172 – CeltCast Part 1 first appeared on The British History Podcast.

When we left off last time, we were talking about how we have a limited understanding of this area of history due to a combination of scarce resources and the victorians building a mythology of englishness. We also covered the early middle ages and the turn that was occurring in Southern Britain in the 6th […] The post 171 – The Welshcast Part Seven first appeared on The British History Podcast.

It’s been two years since we checked in with the Britons of the West, and last time we spoke, a big part of our discussion was focused upon the people that Gildas hated. Which was pretty much everyone. Support the Show The post 170 – The Welshcast Part Six first appeared on The British History Podcast.

This season we’ve seen the Anglo Saxons come incredibly close to forming an early unified English Kingdom… in fact they will continue their attempts in this episode. Though we can guess how that will go because we have seen their culture and governmental structure hamstring their previous attempts at unity. From our vantage point of […] The post 169 – The Rise of Wessex first appeared on The British History Podcast.

When we left off, King Beornwulf was reigning over Mercia. Beornwulf was the beginning of the creatively named B-Dynasty, due to the fact that Anglo Saxons seemed to denote their dynasties by selecting the same first letters for their kids. So Beornwulf had two kids named Berhfrith and Behrtric, a brother named Bynna, and it’s […] The post 168 – The Fall of Mercia first appeared on The British History Podcast.

Season Four is called Anglo Saxon Ascendancy because we have been seeing mighty kings like Offa, AEthelbald, and Coenwulf acquire vast amounts of power in Britain that enable them to nearly become the first kings of England. Their hegemonies were so big and impressive that we have one Mercian leader getting into arguments with Charlemagne […] The post 167 – The Beginning of the End first appeared on The British History Podcast.

We start today with a death. On the 28th of January, 814, Charlemagne died and the throne passed to Louis the Pious. The death of Charlemagne was a big deal for early medieval europe, not just because it meant that we wouldn’t have anymore passive aggressive comments about the quality of British wool, or weird […] The post 166 – Wulfred: The Rogue Archbishop first appeared on The British History Podcast.

Last week we talked about the impact that the Church was having on internal politics within the Anglo Saxon kingdoms, and that is something we will continue to talk about today. However, before we begin, let’s talk about something strange that’s happening on the continent. Support the Show The post 165 – Did Archbishop Wulfred Just Kill a Guy? first appeared on The British History Podcast.

When we last left off, King Egbert was ruling over Wessex, King Cuthred (Coenwulf’s brother) was ruling over Kent… and Emperor Coenwulf held Mercia. I call him Emperor, by the way, because that’s what he called himself. And also because he does seem like he was a king of kings. His brother answered to him, […] The post 164 – Shadow Governments in Britain first appeared on The British History Podcast.

There’s a shift that’s happening in Anglo Saxon politics that’s occurring… we’ve had powerful queens in the Anglo Saxon kingdoms (especially in Mercia, where Queens were more powerful than most). But something is happening in Wessex that will impact around the next several hundred years. West Saxon Queens were getting demoted. Women on the throne, […] The post 163 – The South of Britain Grows Restless first appeared on The British History Podcast.

So today, lets briefly talk about the world context since we’ve largely just focused on our main character. No not Coenwulf, or Offa… the main character is and has been Britain… but sometimes it feels like it’s an island adrift and alone, when in actual fact there’s a whole world out there that’s been going […] The post 162 – Emperor Coenwulf, Emperor Charlemagne, and The World first appeared on The British History Podcast.

I’ve gotten this question a lot over the years and after quite a lot of thought, I’ve come up with a few basic pieces of advice. I talked it over with some fellow podcasters and they gave it the thumbs up, so hopefully it will help you out if you’re looking to launch your own […] The post Q&A: How to Start a Podcast first appeared on The British History Podcast.

While Offa was an effective leader in Mercia during his life, his dynastic purge was a disaster. Looking at what followed, it appears that he heavily targeted extended members of his own family. Now this placed his immediate family in a very good position to pursue power… and we did see a seamless transfer of […] The post 161 – King Ceonwulf’s Rise in Power first appeared on The British History Podcast.

King Offa of Mercia has died after a surprisingly long and productive reign. The degree of power he had gathered for himself was truly something to behold. While his reach didn’t stretch into Mercia’s ancient enemies beyond the Humber, Northumbria, he had a stunning degree of influence over the English Kingdoms in the south. Throughout […] The post 160 – An Offa Inheritance first appeared on The British History Podcast.

Lets start with Christmas Day 795. That’s the day Pope Hadrian died… so uh… Merry Christmas? Hadrian was actually a pretty decent Pope… not Pope Francis level of awesome, though really who is? But he was still pretty good, and upon hearing of his death, Charlemagne commissioned Alcuin to write a poem that was carved […] The post 159 – An Offa End first appeared on The British History Podcast.

Last week was dark, wasn’t it? Not only that, but it only covered the first half of 793. The end of the 8th century was an eventful period so lets pick up right where we left off and talk about what else was happening in the other half of 793… and specifically with King Offa […] The post 158 – Offa With His Head first appeared on The British History Podcast.

Northumbria was no stranger to problems… blood feuds, regicide, and kinslaying… they really have it all up there. But as 793 began, it was clear that things were taking an even darker turn. As the new year dawned, a massive whirlwind slammed into the northeastern coast. The sky was ignited with flashes of lightning and […] The post 157 – Lindisfarne first appeared on The British History Podcast.

When we left off things were looking pretty good for Mercia. Wessex was now acting as a subkingdom, with their King (Beohtric) married to Offa’s daughter… Kent was thoroughly dominated, East Anglia appears to have been brought fully under Offa’s control. Really, Offa’s only neighbors that he didn’t have command over, appear to have been […] The post 156 – An Offa Marriage first appeared on The British History Podcast.