The British History Podcast

Ok, we have a battle coming up but things are still changing rather rapidly and there's some interesting stuff to cover regarding that, such as language, religion, culture, warfare, and that question that's probably nagging you at the back of your head... if we have wealthy powerful kings in England, why don't we have anything resembling a Roman empire... or at least a mini Roman empire? And besides, if I just listed what was said about the battle between Ceawlin and Aethelberht, this episode would be less than 20 seconds long. And that sucks since it was the first outbreak of violence between two Anglo Saxon kingdoms... which is huge! So today I’m going you foundational background for what’s going on in England. And hopefully, that will make things easier to understand when we get to the warfare.

Ok, we have a battle coming up but things are still changing rather rapidly and there's some interesting stuff to cover regarding that, such as language, religion, culture, warfare, and that question that's probably nagging you at the back of your head... if we have wealthy powerful kings in England, why don't we have anything resembling a Roman empire... or at least a mini Roman empire? Support the Show

Ok, when we left off, Ida had become king of Bernicia and we had the beginnings of regional cultural groups. These groups were the result of a whole host of influences including everything from geographical features, to political decisions, to things as simple as wealth and a sense of cool. But the point is that we have gone from an island that saw itself as essentially Roman, to post-Roman (or sub-Roman, depending on which terminology you choose to use) where the system had broken down and (while you had communities moving to hillforts) you still had a continuation of the local culture... then we went to the early migration period where you had a blend of different cultural groupings all over the eastern part of the island, and now finally we’re getting to the point where those disparate pockets were starting to take the shape of larger communities with cultures that were distinct and separate from the sub-Roman culture as well as the cultures of the Germanic tribes where the settlers would have come from. And within that melting pot, we’ve seen the rise of the West Saxons, with Cerdic and his son, Cynric, engaging in sporadic outbursts of violence. We have seen a massive year and a half long dust cloud from unknown origins, maybe volcanic or maybe the result of an impact from space, followed by a cold spell that lasted for about a decade. And to make matters worse, it was followed by the spread of a plague, that was probably the bubonic plague. And of course, those events occurred right around the time of the end of the so-called Gildasian peace.

80 – Bloodletting

Ok, when we left off, Ida had become king of Bernicia and we had the beginnings of regional cultural groups. These groups were the result of a whole host of influences including everything from geographical features, to political decisions, to things as simple as wealth and a sense of cool. But the point is that we have gone from an island that saw itself as essentially Roman, to post-Roman (or sub-Roman, depending on which terminology you choose to use) where the system had broken down and (while you had communities moving to hillforts) you still had a continuation of the local culture... then we went to the early migration period where you had a blend of different cultural groupings all over the eastern part of the island, and now finally we’re getting to the point where those disparate pockets were starting to take the shape of larger communities with cultures that were distinct and separate from the sub-Roman culture as well as the cultures of the Germanic tribes where the settlers would have come from. Support the Show

79 – Saint Patrick’s Day Special

Saint Patrick's Day is coming up and I thought you might want to know a bit about the man (or at least the myth of the man) behind the holiday. I hope you all have a fun and safe Saint Patrick's Day!

We begin our story in Bannaventa Berniae, a small town somewhere in the West of Britain, probably along the coast. This was probably a small typical Roman style settlement laid out on a grid with small Roman houses and a villa, or villas, for prominent families in the area. Though it’s doubtful it would have been too impressive of a Villa, especially when compared to those of Rome or even those of the major British cities. But for a small town in Britannia, it was probably fairly decent. Given the time period, we can assume it had some level of fortification, possibly a small turf wall or maybe even something larger with guard towers. After all, raids were rather common at this point. Support the Show

Ok, so I'm going to wrap up the discussion of the development of regional cultures with a talk on an omnipresent (yet often ignored) influence on all of human development. This subject is often ignored in most disciplines, and it is definitely undervalued (unfairly) in many treatises on history. I speak, of course, of Nature. Sure, you can push back against the forests with the axe and the plough. You can create farmland and settlements. You can eliminate local vegetation and create grazing lands for your herds. But the environment is there... waiting... and will come racing right back to retake it the second that you let your guard down. In the Roman period we saw some fair extensive economic exploitation of the environment, with roads, large industrialized farmlands, Roman style towns, quarries, mines, and all manner of necessities for Roman life. The land, which was already transformed into an agrarian landscape under the Celts and the prehistoric britons, had pushed even farther towards the human end of the spectrum.

78 – It’s Only Natural

I'm going to wrap up the discussion of the development of regional cultures with a talk on an omnipresent (yet often ignored) influence on all of human development. This subject is often ignored in most disciplines, and it is definitely undervalued (unfairly) in many treatises on history. I speak, of course, of Nature. Support the Show

Ok, when we last left off, we were talking about a new class of elites in sub-roman Britain. A group of individuals we identify as anglo saxons and kings, and we also mentioned the class of nobles that was growing up around them. We also talked about how that change, the increase in social stratification, might have come about. This week, we are going to talk about the impact that the stratification would have had on the culture that was growing in Eastern Britain. And as a way of opening this discussion, I thought we could talk about what we've been speaking about on Facebook. I posed to the community a question that I was certain would result in a pretty large debate. Essentially, "do the wealthy members of our society have a disproportionately large impact on our culture, relative to their numbers?" To my surprise, there wasn't much debate. A lot of people responded, but the vast majority of them seemed to agree that yes, the wealthy have a disproportionate impact. Now naturally, I agreed... but I'm a dirty Portland hippy so of course I think that the cultural influence of the wealthy is supersized. What surprised me, though, was the level of broad agreement from people from all over the place.

77 – Cliques: How the In Crowd Created Our Culture

Ok, when we last left off, we were talking about a new class of elites in sub-roman britain. A group of individuals we identify as anglo saxons and kings, and we also mentioned the class of nobles that was growing up around them. We also talked about how that change, the increase in social stratification, might have come about. Support the Show

Just a heads up, next week's episode will be delayed.  Sorry!