Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

So Godwin enslaves some of the servants of Alfred, Edward the Confessor's brother, when he comes over in 1036.

There's a record of that in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which describes it as a horrible crime at the time.

And then Harold in 1052, when he's been in exile, he comes back to raid Somerset from Ireland, from Dublin perhaps, possibly with the help of Irish slave takers, because a lot of slave trading is done from Bristol into Ireland and vice versa.

And he takes slaves in Somerset.

In fact, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells us he took cattle and people and plunder, putting them all together, sort of lumped together in one group.

So Harold's involved in the slave trade.

And we know that his cousin, Sven Estresen, king of Denmark, was involved in slave-taking too.

You know, the idea of someone who wasn't of the royal blood today taking the throne would be laughed out of the water.

Actually, fun fact.

So I was looking at the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles when I was about 12 years old.

That's what I was up to.

Whoa.

Japheth.

Yeah,

in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles.

So there you go.

And obviously, as time goes on, they become more and more accurate.

It's a bit like, you know, the Chronicles, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles we're reading at the moment.

They're so much more detailed now because we've reached the first millennium where there was much more information that was not only written down, but also saved.

So similarly with this, if you don't agree with it, then write in, let me know.

After this point, contemporary Irish sources cease naming Aymar until the year 870 This gap is particularly significant because it overlaps almost exactly with one of the greatest Scandinavian offences ever launched against Anglo-Saxon England.

In the year 866, what the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle calls the Great Heathen Army entered East Anglia.

The following year, it moved north and captured York.

The Northumbrian kings, Osbert and Eile, were killed in the fighting.

Fleets arrived, settlements and monasteries were attacked, portable wealth was seized, and the raiders eventually returned to their ships.

But in the middle of the 860s, something much larger appeared in the year 866.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the arrival of what it calls the Great Heathen Army in East Anglia.

Instead of immediately ravaging the kingdom, the newcomers took winter quarters there and made peace with the East Anglians and obtained horses.

The city was obviously important politically and militarily, and leaders both native and foreign were vying for it.

But by 886, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that Alfred had reoccupied and restored London.

Yeah, and there's a plaque to this in the City of London, isn't there? And it's at this point in his reign, isn't it, where Alfred's increasingly presented as a ruler of the Anglo-Saxons rather than just a ruler of Wessex, right?

Exactly.

It's a nice thing to do.

It's just that I've had so many other jobs to do.

So what should we start with? Should we start with the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles? Should we do a few entries from that? Let's see where we were.

Also, before I start, just to let you know, I'm using my brand new microphone, so I'd be very pleased to hear any

views on how you think the sound is.

However, William II went hunting in August 1100 in the New Forest, probably near Brockenhurst, which is 15 miles from Bournemouth, by the way, and was killed by an arrow through the lung.

The earliest statement of the event in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which notes that the king was shot by an arrow by one of his own men.

oh wow yeah

the anglo-saxon chronicle yeah lovely you start there and then move to the athletic yeah what a beat that is by the way

good action i reckon oh not the tapestry don't tell me to do the fucking tapestry again uh william the third came in after the last guy was hounded out of the country william the fourth transitional interim king and not really monarch material so it could be any of them so we should give gary neville some credit charlie

I also wonder, do you reckon he was in a pub, like a King William pub quite recently, and that was maybe why it was front of mind? I mean, Prince