King Harold found at Waltham Abbey

No not really. Check the date.

Happy Easter!

Bookbound Interview

Here's me talking about the Norman Conquest on Dublin City FM earlier this month.

From the archive...

Sifting through my hard drive, I've rediscovered an unpublished interview I did for the release of A Great and Terrible King back in 2008. You can read it here.

The Norman Conquest - out in paperback!

Podcast: The Normans and the Slave Trade

Last week I recorded a podcast for History Today magazine about how the Normans did away with Anglo-Saxon slavery. You can listen to it here.

Anglo-Saxon democracy: some initial thoughts

I’m reading a lot of popular books on the Norman Conquest, and keep reading that Anglo-Saxon kingship was elective (and therefore good), and quite unlike Norman kingship, which was hereditary (therefore bad).

Let’s have a quick look at the two centuries before 1066 to see how Anglo-Saxon election worked in practice.

Alfred the Great (871-99) is succeeded by his son, Edward the Elder (899-924), who is succeeded by his son, Athelstan (924-39), who has no children, and so is succeeded by his younger brother, Edmund (939-46). Edmund is murdered in 946, and his two sons are only small boys, so the succession passes to his younger brother, Eadred (946-55) – who dies without issue, allowing Edmund’s eldest son, Eadwig, to inherit – sorry, succeed. Eadwig (955-59) also dies childless, so is succeeded by his younger brother, Edgar (959-75), who is succeeded by his son Edward the Martyr (975-78), who, being martyred before he has a chance to procreate, is succeeded by his brother Athelred the Unready (978-1016). The succession then becomes somewhat messy because late in Aethelred’s reign England is conquered by the Danish king, Swein Forkbeard (1013-14), but the principle for choosing a king remains unaltered: Aethelred is succeeded by his son, Edmund Ironside (d. 1016) and Swein by his son Cnut (1016-35). Cnut is succeeded first by his son Harold Harefoot (1035-40) and then by his second son Harthacnut (1040-42). Both die without sons of their own, so the succession passes to Aethelred the Unready’s only surviving son, Edward the Confessor (1042-66).

Hooray for Anglo-Saxon democracy! Boo the Norman hereditary principle!