The British History Podcast

128 – The End of King Oswiu’s Hegemony

The episode covers 664 to 670 and the major characters are… King Oswiu, ruler of Northumbria, son of AEthelfrith, and all around terrifying fellow King Alhfrith of Deira, Oswiu’s son and one of his probable rivals Wilfrid, abbott of Ripon, guy who argued for Rome at Whitby, and all around ambitious guy. and King Wulfhere, ruler of Mercia and son of Penda. When we last left off, it was still 664 and we just saw the end of the Synod of Whitby and despite King Oswiu’s ties and loyalties to Iona, in the end Canterbury won out… quite possibly due to the support of Oswiu’s son, King Alhfrith of Deira. And we can surmise that Oswiu didn’t appreciate it because that was the last time we hear of Alhfrith… He just vanishes from the record, as Oswiu’s family members are wont to do. Now Bede tells us that Alhfrith sought Oswiu’s permission to visit Rome, but the dating is spotty, so it’s tough to pin down. And then we have this thing in the Historia that speaks about Alhfrith leading a rebellion against his father… So what’s the deal there? Well, there’s a theory that Alhfrith might have gone to war over matters regarding who was the bishop of York. And what’s that old rule… never discuss religion or politics? I’m guessing it was hard in that family. So here’s the theory…

Dude Where’s My Episodes? Where’s My Episodes, Dude?

Alright, I didn’t think anyone would notice the changes because so far they’ve been minor, and also the World Cup is on. But it turns out that a lot of you are rather detail oriented, so you caught me! It’s true, we went from 151 regular episodes to 127 regular episodes. And that change wasn’t a bug on the site, but rather it’s phase one of a number of upgrades that I’m doing on the show. So let me bring you up to speed. First, the reason the episodes had to be renumbered is because we combined some of the cultural episodes into combination episodes. For example, all the feasting and all the wargear episodes are now compiled into their own single long form combo episodes. This means less intros and outros for you, so that’s a bonus right there, and but more importantly the feed will be a bit better organized. Now rather than listening to shorter episodes that were all covering largely the same topic, but because of how the show was released, were spread out all over the place… instead all the shows covering that topic will be in a single place. It makes the show easier to follow, and also should make it easier to share. For example, if you’re in the SCA and want to know everything about food and drink, you can now go to a single episode and download it rather than hunting through the entire feed. So fixing that was phase one… Though in doing that fix, I realized that the intros would need to be rerecorded. Which is also a good thing because I’m going to be able to go back and include important information in the intros like date ranges and major characters to watch. So instead of the intro just being music… or even worse, on some of the early episodes, music plus comments regarding hard drive crashes. Instead, I’m in the process of updating the shows so that the intros will let you know where you are in history and who to keep an eye on. Finally, I’m also re-recording (and doing minor rewrites) on the earlier episodes. Don’t worry, I’m not making Greedo fire first here. I’m just cleaning it up. The reason is that the sound quality, delivery, and writing were all a bit rough. Lets be honest, there are a lot of whatnots in those early days. And the thing is that while poor sound quality and delivery was ok three years ago, Podcasting has come a long way since then and the show needs to keep up if we’re going to keep growing and gaining access to expert interviews. Of course, as the episodes get updated, I’ll be letting everyone know on Facebook and Twitter, so keep an eye on the communities there. And if you’re a fan of the Whatnot drinking game, or if you’re just studying the History of the British History Podcast and you want to know what this “whatnot” business is all about, worry not… I’ve compiled ALL 151 episodes prior to this change into a single zip file and I’ll be making available to the members. So there you go… that’s an overview of what changed last night and of some of the changes going forward. Thanks for listening and for being patient!

The major players for today will be Hild (who was the daughter of King Edwin’s nephew, Hereric), King Oswiu of Bernicia, Bishop Colman of Lindisfarne, Wilfred the abbot of Ripon, and Bishop Cedd. And they will be, ostensibly, arguing over Easter. See? Once again, we’ve got Easter causing trouble in Britain. Cadburys chocolate can’t come soon enough. This is getting out of hand. Support the Show

The major players for today will be Hild (who was the daughter of King Edwin’s nephew, Hereric), King Oswiu of Bernicia, Bishop Colman of Lindisfarne, Wilfred the abbot of Ripon, and Bishop Cedd. And they will be, ostensibly, arguing over the date of Easter. See? Once again, we’ve got Easter causing trouble in Britain. Cadburys chocolate can’t come soon enough. This is getting out of hand. But honestly, the computation of Easter is just too complex to get into on a podcast, and so I’m just going offer a quote or two. The thing they were discussing according to Stephen of Ripon was “whether in accordance with the British and Scottish manner and that of the whole of the northern district, Easter should be kept on the Sunday between the fourteenth day of the moon and the twenty-second, or whether the plan of the apostolic see was better, namely to celebrate Easter Sunday between the fifteenth day of the moon and the twenty-first.” Do you see the difference between the two? Not much, right? At least according to Stephen, the Celtic method was basically the Roman method, plus a couple days. I mean, sure, the Roman method is fixed to a 19 year cycle while the Celtic method was fixed to an 84 year cycle and there were some other factors that were included. But still not much. Now Bede’s account has the Celtic Church celebrating from the 14th to the 20th… so rather than an additional two days, Bede has them using the same length of time, just shifted by one day. But overall, that’s what was going on there, and getting into any more detail on these calendar issues would likely make you hit skip. And if you’re like me, you’re probably thinking several things… first, that’s a stupidly complex way to arrange a celebration. Why not just say “ Put down your protractors and graphical calculators, people. We’re doing it on the 18th, every year.” It would save people a lot of headaches. Second, why is this even an issue? The two calculations are ridiculously similar, and are calendars seriously that important when it comes to spirituality? And third, how did the Celtic church end up with a different method? Well, funny story… their method was actually even used by continental Christians until about the mid 5th century… which, coincidentally, was roughly around the time that Britannia broke from Rome. So that’s the core argument.

127 – The Synod of Whitby

Today we’re going to tackle the history from 660 right up to the lead up to the Synod of Whitby… and we’re going to have a lot of moving parts, but the theme that is developing here is one of the last gasps of Paganism in Britain and the rise of two rival imperiums: one based in Northumbria and another based in Mercia. The major players for today’s episode are King Oswiu of Northumbria as well as his chief rival, King Wulfhere of Mercia. However, into the mix will come a number of sub-kings, members of the Clergy, and some intriguing lesser nobles. However, much of the political story of this period in history really does revolve around these two characters. Alright, lets get to it. Support the Show

Today we’re going to tackle the history from 660 right up to the lead up to the Synod of Whitby… and we’re going to have a lot of moving parts, but the theme that is developing here is one of the last gasps of Paganism in Britain and the rise of two rival imperiums: one based in Northumbria and another based in Mercia. The major players for today’s episode are King Oswiu of Northumbria as well as his chief rival, King Wulfhere of Mercia. However, into the mix will come a number of sub-kings, members of the Clergy, and some intriguing lesser nobles. However, much of the political story of this period in history really does revolve around these two characters.

126 – The End of an Era: The Triumph of Christianity in Britain

So in late 655, following his victory at the Winwaed, King Oswiu occupied and ruled Northern Mercia and thus now ruled over an additional 7,000 households, according to Bede. Consider how much power that was conferring upon the King. We’re talking about 7,000 hides of land. Think of how many Ceorls and Thegns now answered to him, and how much food rent he would now command, in addition to all the holdings of Bernicia and the tributes he was collecting from sub-kings. Support the Show

So in late 655, following his victory at the Winwaed, King Oswiu occupied and ruled Northern Mercia and thus now ruled over an additional 7,000 households, according to Bede. Consider how much power that was conferring upon the King. We’re talking about 7,000 hides of land. Think of how many Ceorls and Thegns now answered to him, and how much food rent he would now command, in addition to all the holdings of Bernicia and the tributes he was collecting from sub-kings. Now, he did allow King Penda’s son (King Paeda) to rule southern Mercia and the 5,000 families who lived there. And as you might remember, King Paeda had a long history with Oswiu and his family. He was a personal friend of Oswiu’s son, he had converted at Oswiu’s (and his son’s) suggestion, and he had married one of Oswiu’s daughters. King Paeda was quite literally family. And in most families, that would be a good thing. But King Oswiu /had/ already murdered his cousin and also dethroned (and might have murdered) his nephew… This was a dodgy family to marry into. But at least his father in law let him keep the southern throne following Mercia’s catastrophic loss in battle. And given the fact that Oswiu’s son, Ecgric, was held as a hostage prior to the battle of the Winwaed, it does make me wonder if perhaps Paeda’s rule over Southern Mercia was secured in a hostage exchange. Whatever the case… the line of Penda was still ruling at least over part of Mercia. Well, for a few months. The thing is that King Paeda had married Oswiu’s daughter, and that is a blood line that you probably should keep a close eye on. Close than Paeda was, at least. Because we’re told that on Easter, King Paeda was killed through the machinations of his wife.

125 – King Oswiu: A Gathering Storm

Today we’re going to wrap up this talk that we’ve been having on the development of social classes in Anglo Saxon britain. Hopefully, once we’re done, much like our talks on other matters like food, clothing, and warfare… you’ll have a fuller understanding of who these people were, what their lives were like, and where we come from. Support the Show

Ok, so stratification… for the most part we’ve been talking about the Royals and how they’re pulling away from the peasants, but there’s another thing that’s occurring on the island with regard to status… because history is rarely black and white… and that thing is an increasing level of social mobility. And right now you might have thought you misheard me, or that I misspoke, but no… you heard right. Despite the increasing concentration of power that’s been occurring as these Dynasties solidify their hold on power, we’re also seeing increasing social mobility. Crazy, right? And that’s the real focus of what we’re going to talk about today…. and frankly, the three to four hundred year growth of social mobility is one of the most fascinating parts of this era of history and we can see beginnings of many social aspects of British life finding it’s start right here… And to a certain extent, it’s existence is somewhat self-evident. If the story of Anglo Saxon Britain is one that transitions from societies of farmers and slaves being lead by a King, to one where Kings rule over large groups of farmers that are administered by a variety of officials, tended to by men of the cloth, protected by warriors, and served by tradesmen… by definition, you’re going to have a growth of social mobility and class differentiation occurring.