The British History Podcast

This is a story of palace intrigue, murder, and atypical alopecia… and it all begins where these things usually do… with a real estate transaction. The post 343 – By Thorkell’s Beard first appeared on The British History Podcast.

Today is Shrove Tuesday. And if you’re not in Britain, you might be wondering what Shrove Tuesday is, and even if you are British, you might be wondering why you’re celebrating it. The post Bonus Episode: Shrove Tuesday 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.

Cnut made a lot of smart moves in a very short amount of time. He outlawed much of the corruption that had plagued the courts of AEthelred. He scrubbed his new kingdom of the loyalists to Edmund Ironsides. He granted key lands to key followers. Executed the main claimant to the throne, Eadwig. He executed […] The post 341 – King Cnut of 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.

Edmund hadn’t lost, and for now that was enough. He had shown himself to be a contender. So Ironside took his remaining men and marched East… but the accounts are careful to point out that he stayed north of the Thames…. And this decision has lead scholars to believe that Mercia may have already been […] The post 338 – The Fall of King Edmund Ironsides first appeared on The British History Podcast.

Can you feel it? It feels like there is a lull before the storm. AEthelred Unread is now gone, and Normandy is now officially on the board. 1066 is on the doorstep. But the lull is an illusion you experience because you know what is coming next. For the people living it, things are heating […] The post 337 – The Rise of King Edmund Ironside first appeared on The British History Podcast.

Christmas is old. Older than Christianity, in fact. As a consequence, there’s a lot to it. Symbols and traditions that come from all over the world, and from all across time. It’s a complex event that, predictably, can provoke a complex set of emotions from people. But when you look past the trees, and the […] The post 336 – The End Is The Beginning Is The End 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 British History Podcast.

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 Podcast.

Happy Halloween The post Teig O’Kane and the Corpse first appeared on The British History Podcast.

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 British History Podcast.

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.

The Court of AEthelred had turned over three times during his reign. First, there was his regency council.  Then, when he took full power he replaced his regency council with his young friends and corrupt enablers. Then the old guard reasserted itself, along with the powerful Wulf dynasty of the midlands in the 990s.  And […] The post 330 – The Purge 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.

Now that we’ve checked in with the rest of the world, let’s get back to our story…which lately hasn’t been going so well. In the space of 70 years the Kingdom went from a preeminent power in the West to little more than a viking hunting preserve. By the year 1000, things had become so […] The post 327 – Sail Away Sail Away Sail Away first appeared on The British History Podcast.

It’s so easy to lose the forest for the trees. This show is a show about one small island which, even at this part of the story, is still at the edge of civilization. It is very easy to forget that there is a whole other world out there… and, it is a world that […] The post 326 – The Year 1000 first appeared on The British History Podcast.