The British History Podcast

Episodes page 2 of 6

1. 294 – It All Comes Crashing Down

   5 Oct 2018 · 26 min · S7 E294

   The story of the last few episodes is a story about a lesson that humanity has had to re-learn again and again throughout history. When your society is ordered around a single figure it’s likely to descend into chaos…

2. 295 – The Return of England

   11 Oct 2018 · 25 min · S7 E295

   You know the pieces on a chessboard? There’s the knight, and the queen, and the castle….and then there’s the bishop. There’s a reason why a game that simulates medieval power strategy has a piece called the bishop.…

3. 296 – Darkening Skies

   19 Oct 2018 · 34 min · S7 E296

   It begins in France. The struggle for power between King Louis IV and Hugh the Great had been raging for quite some time… When we last visited the continent, , Hugh the Great, King Otto of Germany, Duke William of…

4. The Halloween Special

   26 Oct 2018 · 25 min

   I love Halloween. I think it might be my favorite holiday, and it’s not really because I like spooky things. I actually kind of hate horror movies. The reason I love Halloween is because in the pantheon of modern…

5. 297 – The Hundreds and the Wapentakes

   10 Nov 2018 · 26 min · S7 E297

   We have spoken a lot about the life of a handful of individuals – namely the rulers that have descended from the line of Alfred. There are a couple of reasons for that. The first is the simple fact that by virtue of…

6. 298 – Uptown Ceorl

   16 Nov 2018 · 37 min · S7 E298

   Long ago there was a settlement that had been occupied and farmed by the British and the Anglo Saxons for centuries. In fact, by the time that the Scandinavians arrived on the island, this village known as Wharram…

7. The Achavanich Beaker Burial Project: Ancient DNA with Maya Hoole

   3 Dec 2018 · 43 min

   Links to material referenced in the show. The Achavanich Beaker Burial ‘Ava’: a Beaker-associated woman from a cist at Achavanich, Highland, and the story of her (re-)discovery and subsequent study, Published in the…

8. 299 – The Shape of Power

   7 Dec 2018 · 37 min · S7 E299

   Ealdormen… Thegns… Ceorls. These were the important cogs in the machine of government. They had powerful roles, and held powerful spaces within anglo saxon culture. And it’s time we get to know these roles like the…

9. 300 – Noble Lives

   18 Dec 2018 · 25 min · S7 E300

   When we left off, we were talking about Thegns. Specifically, we were talking about King’s Thegns and how they could wield degrees of power that could rival even the formidable Ealdormen. The post 300 – Noble Lives…

10. 301 – Common Folk

    11 Jan 2019 · 26 min · S7 E301

    Today, we’re going to wrap up this cultural series with a focus on my favorite group of people. The people who rarely, if ever, get talked about. The commoners. The post 301 – Common Folk first appeared on The British…

11. Chapter Eight – Twilight of the Anglo Saxons

    17 Jan 2019 · 3:26 · S8 E301

    This isn’t going to end well. The post Chapter Eight – Twilight of the Anglo Saxons first appeared on The British History Podcast.

12. 302 – King Eadred

    25 Jan 2019 · 22 min · S8 E302

    Ok, where were we? With all this focus on culture, it’s been a little bit since we last talked about the political situation in Britain. So lets remind ourselves of where things were politically. The post 302 – King…

13. 303 – Eric Bloodaxe

    1 Feb 2019 · 25 min · S8 E303

    We can probably assume that Harald Fairhair, the King of Norway, had fantastic hair. It was either big, or really long, or super glossy, and it was almost definitely blonde. But it wasn’t the only trait he was known…

14. 304 – A Kingdom Divided

    12 Feb 2019 · 34 min · S8 E304

    Northumbria was always the hot mess of the heptarchy. There are a few exceptions where they manage to pull it together long enough to produce something important, like Bede, or when Leeds United won the premiership in…

15. 305 – A Very Special BHP Valentine’s Day Episode

    14 Feb 2019 · 17 min · S8 E305

    History is known as a field for being a bit of a slog. Tracing events, and people, and social movements through decades and centuries is a huge task and the results are usually dense at the best of times. But once in a…

16. 306 – King Eadwig

    1 Mar 2019 · 31 min · S8 E306

    The King is dead, long live the King. So … last episode was a bit of a shocker wasn’t it? After it launched, I got an email from a listener (who hilariously, is the daughter of a Judge that once scared the hell out of…

17. 307 – Cleaning House

    8 Mar 2019 · 27 min · S8 E307

    The King is dead. Long live the King. Eadwig, the 18 year old King known for his beauty, had died. Somehow. The post 307 – Cleaning House first appeared on The British History Podcast.

18. 308 – A Thirst for Reform

    14 Mar 2019 · 32 min · S8 E308

    Across the North Sea, in Scandinavia, a man named Harald Greycloak was struggling for dominance in the region. He wasn’t just any man, he was a son of Erik Bloodaxe and Gunnhilde. And his fight brought him into direct…

19. 309 – Size Doesn’t Matter (until it does)

    22 Mar 2019 · 31 min · S8 E309

    You would think that someone named Edgar the Peaceable enjoyed a good reputation. But the closer you look, the more things start to look…off. And if you look closer than that, you start to get the sense that maybe…

20. 310 – Political Theater

    29 Mar 2019 · 33 min · S8 E310

    Human beings can’t really be summed up in a nickname. Usually we are more complicated than a word or two. And sometimes, the nickname just doesn’t reflect reality. If you take Edward the Elder, for example, the name…

21. 311 – Team Edward

    11 Apr 2019 · 42 min · S8 E311

    King Edgar the Peaceable was buried at Glastonbury in 975. But weirdly that isn’t the end of his story. William of Malmesbury tells us that nearly a century later, in 1053, the Abbot Ailward re-opened the King’s tomb.…

22. 312 – King Edward

    20 Apr 2019 · 23 min · S8 E312

    King Edgar is Dead… and in his place reigned his son, King Edward of England. And you’d think that we’d be referring to him as King Edward the First. Or, if you wanted to fudge it a bit and give Edward the Elder some…

23. 313 – How to Make a Martyr

    25 Apr 2019 · 39 min · S8 E313

    “No man can make himself king, but the people have the choice to choose as king whom they please; but after he is consecrated as king, he then has dominion over the people, and they cannot shake his yoke from their…

24. 314 – Æthelred: Are You Ready?

    3 May 2019 · 26 min · S8 E314

    King Edward, like those before him, had died under mysterious and apparently violent circumstances. And the next in line for this increasingly bloody throne of England was his 12 year old little half-brother. Æthelred.…

25. 315 – The Cracks in the Foundation

    16 May 2019 · 30 min · S8 E315

    “Under AEthelred nothing was done; or, more truly, throughout his whole reign he left undone those things which he ought to have done, and he did those things he ought not to have done.” That is the damning conclusion…

26. 316 – The Old Guard

    23 May 2019 · 26 min · S8 E316

    Before we get back to our story, I’ve been seeing your conversations online and it made me realize I need to clarify something. Some of you took the discussion of AEthelred’s unflattering nickname, and how he caught…

27. 317 – A Culture of Corruption

    30 May 2019 · 27 min · S8 E317

    At 16 years old, King AEthelred was considered fully grown by Anglo Saxon standards. And as a bonus graduation present, the powerful Bishop AEthelwold of Winchester… who appears to have been the defacto head of state…

28. 318 – Chaos is a Ladder

    13 Jun 2019 · 29 min · S8 E318

    By 984 the Regency council had been broken and a new inner circle of nobles had been elevated. And this development was accompanied by a rapid series of changes at the highest levels of the kingdom. The political…

29. 319 – The Battle of Maldon

    21 Jun 2019 · 32 min · S8 E319

    Battles don’t appear out of thin air, not even in honor cultures. There’s a reason, a context, that develops long before soldiers or warriors enter a field prepared to do violence. And the Battle of Maldon comes with a…

30. 320 – Our Wooden Wall

    27 Jun 2019 · 21 min · S8 E320

    The Battle of Maldon was a catastrophe. The brave last stand of Ealdorman Byrhtnoth was never going to change that fact. He was the leading man of Essex and the second most powerful Ealdorman in England and now he was…

31. 321 – Course Corrections

    6 Jul 2019 · 25 min · S8 E321

    992 was a bad year. There was treason, Vikings, the King’s closest advisor absconded with half the navy, and tipped off an enemy invasion with just enough time to let them escape. The post 321 – Course Corrections…

32. 322 – We’re Absolutely Forked

    12 Jul 2019 · 31 min · S8 E322

    Ealdorman AElfirc of Hampshire was out… and Ealdorman AEthelweard the Chronicler was in. He would now be the King’s chief councillor… and he would be supported by his son, AEthelmaer… the King’s uncle, High Reeve…

33. PSA: Are We Dead?

    3 Aug 2019 · 1:51

    (We aren’t) The post PSA: Are We Dead? first appeared on The British History Podcast.

34. 323 – Brotherhood of the Wolf

    10 Aug 2019 · 27 min · S8 E323

    The Dowager Queen AElfthryth has returned to the King’s inner council following what looks like a political coup against AElfic of Hampshire and his faction. And just because it was political doesn’t mean it was…

35. 324 – Law and Lawlessness

    21 Aug 2019 · 22 min · S8 E324

    With the Scandinavian raiders gone, and with AElfric of Hampshire defanged, England was free to get back to work. And, as we saw last episode, this meant that the King was once again redistributing wealth from the…

36. 325 – From Bad to Worse

    24 Aug 2019 · 22 min · S8 E325

    When we left off, England was reforming its legal structure. Now, law isn’t known for being a sexy subject…neither are lawyers for that matter. But law shapes our societies in ways that are so fundamental that they are…

37. 326 – The Year 1000

    8 Sep 2019 · 36 min · S8 E326

    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…

38. 327 – Sail Away Sail Away Sail Away

    14 Sep 2019 · 31 min · S8 E327

    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…

39. 328 – The St Brice’s Day Massacre

    20 Sep 2019 · 24 min · S8 E328

    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…

40. 329 – Forkbeard

    27 Sep 2019 · 32 min · S8 E329

    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…

41. 330 – The Purge

    7 Oct 2019 · 27 min · S8 E330

    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…

42. 331 – Thoughts and Prayers

    17 Oct 2019 · 25 min · S8 E331

    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.

43. 332 – The Jomsvikings

    25 Oct 2019 · 29 min · S8 E332

    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…

44. Teig O’Kane and the Corpse

    31 Oct 2019 · 23 min

    Happy Halloween

45. 333 – The Conquest of England

    8 Nov 2019 · 34 min · S8 E333

    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…

46. 334 – No Cnut November

    14 Nov 2019 · 33 min · S8 E334

    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.

47. 335 – Acts of Spasmodic Violence

    26 Nov 2019 · 23 min · S8 E335

    Morcar and Sigeferth were under a lot of stress.

48. 336 – The End Is The Beginning Is The End

    10 Dec 2019 · 39 min · S8 E336

    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,…

49. 337 – The Rise of King Edmund Ironside

    22 Dec 2019 · 32 min · S8 E337

    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.

50. 338 – The Fall of King Edmund Ironsides

    27 Dec 2019 · 38 min · S8 E338

    Edmund hadn’t lost, and for now that was enough.