The History of England

This is my chronological retelling of the story of the English in regular chunks. It’s been going since Christmas Day 2010, so there’s enough to keep you off the streets for a while and hanging around the local shopping precinct. But look, you can dip in and you can dip out too. There's all the great trends, events, and drama you’d expect, all set in the context and attitudes of their time; and on that same vein, as often as possible, the series takes some time to set England’s history in the context of her neighbours and the shared culture of Europe. The great and the good are there, because that’s important, but we also walk the highways and byways of ordinary lives and hear their voices - religion, culture, making a living, society and how people lived, globalisation, law - all that stuffYou can listen from start to finish; but do did in and out if you wish. Here's a guide: We start with 31 episodes on one of our foundation stories, the Anglo Saxons.Then there’s 37 episodes on the Normans and Angevins, 1066 to 1215, Hastings to Magna Carta basically. The Plantagenets are next up, to the usurpation of the throne by those dastardly or saintly Lancastrians – tick as appropriateFrom episode 134 we have a real hooley – the Wars of the Roses. We did have fun with the squabbling chaos, death and destruction, very much like a normal family gathering at Christmas really, without the drowning in a VAT of malmesy wine thing hopefully, and we devoted 62 episodes to it all - 1399 to the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 basically.From episode 196, we are then on to the Tudors, and that’s a monster, 137 episodes on the Tudors so if you are a Tudor lover fill up your boots. We then reach my personal favourite, the Stuart age at Episode 325, starting the British Revolutions at episode 369

This episode includes an introduction to Series 1, the Anglo Saxons, and then a discussion of the sources we have available for the settlement period. We then spend some time on and the way that historians and others have seen and interpreted the Anglo Saxon peiod. Series 1 on the Anglo Saxons covers the period from about 400, until 14th October 1066 in just 31 episodesEpisodes 1- 1.4 Cover Romano Britain and the settlement periodEpisodes 1.5 - 1.11 Cover the conversation, the formation of the Anglo Saxon kingdoms - and the dominance of Mercia1.12 1.18 Tell ther story of the Viking invasions, the Gteat Heathen army and the near destruction of the Anglo Saxons; until the rise of Alfred's Wessex, and the conquest of Southumbria by his son Edward1.19 - 1.21 Tell the story of the golden agre of Æthelstan and Edgar in the 10th century1.22 - 1.31 See the Æthelred, the second Viking invasions, the restoratio of the House of Cerdic and the disaster of Hasting and end of Anglo Saxon England

This is the story of late antique Britain. How in the 3rd to 5th centuries, Britain went through two waves of economic dislocation and transformation, that changed the face of British society.

The traditional story of the arrival of the Anglo Saxons is one of death and destruction, and the catastrophic and complete replacement of a British population by a new Germanic race within a generation. But there are other theories too - much more peaceful, much more gradual.

What kind of society had arrived in Roman Britain? How how did societies and communities form and become the kingdoms before the days of the Heptarchy?

It's difficult to know how much to believe of the stories relayed in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle about the formation of the early kingdoms - do they simply reflect the history they wished they'd had? Plus, was Arthur a legend or reality?

7th Century England was inherently unstable, populated by a patchwork of communities, petty kingdoms successful and less so. Into this pagan mix also comes the lure of Christianity again. Meanwhile, in central England a pagan warrior called Penda became king, probably in 626.

Through much of the 7th Century, Penda increased the power and influence of the Mercians. He built his kingdom as a traditional warrior, tribal leader - defeating the Northumbrians, and East Anglians, raiding and gathering treasure, rewarding his followers; spreading his influence by marriage, exercising control by influence where he could, by force where he could not. In the long run, Penda was part of the past, rather than the future - the role of leadership was changing for those that called themselves king; the arts of peace and prosperity based around a geographical were called for now; the time of the tribal war leader bringing tribes together under his leadership was fading. That doesn't mean Penda left no legacy; he created a consolidated, powerful Mercian state that would dominate the 8th century, and England until the Vikings arrived to shake everything up

At the start of the 7th century England was a basically pagan country; by the end of it it was officially at least Christian. While no doubt many pagans still held on, Whitred of Kent's laws began to embed Christianity into the fabric of English kingdoms.