Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchThe Heirs of Penda
Episode 20
After Penda's death in 655, Mercia faced a grim future. Cowed by a dominant Northumbria and ruled by a puppet king there seemed to be little hope for…
4 years ago
King Penda
Episode 19
Penda's career is one of the most dramatic in Anglo-Saxon history yet very little is known about him apart from what others tell us about him. In thi…
4 years, 1 month ago
The Origins of Mercia
Episode 18
Mercia, the kingdom which grew out of the English Midlands, dominated England south of the Humber from the 620s until its final fall in the late 800s…
4 years, 1 month ago
Northumbrian Collapse
Episode 17
The collapse of Northumbria in the ninth century was a result of long standing crises being compacted by the sudden arrival of a new threat the likes…
4 years, 2 months ago
Alcuin of York
Episode 16
Even as its glory days slipped into the past, Northumbria was still able to produce one last great mind who would have a profound impact on the rest …
4 years, 2 months ago
The Lindisfarne Gospels
Episode 15
This episode, ahead of the big episode on the Northumbrian collapse, we take a break from politics to look at one of the most important artefacts fr…
4 years, 2 months ago
The Rise and Fall of the Leodwaldings
Episode 14
After Osred's death in 716, Northumbria entered a period of political upheaval which eventually saw the emergence of a new dynasty to claim the thron…
4 years, 3 months ago
Aldfrith and the Fall of the Aethelfrithings
Episode 13
This week we look at fallout of Nechtansmere and the end of Athelfrithing domination of Northumbrian politics. Ironically, this coincided with one of…
4 years, 4 months ago
The Venerable Bede
Episode 12
This week we meet the single most important Anglo-Saxon scholar of them all. Bede lived an extremely quiet life, but his intellectual world was fanta…
4 years, 5 months ago
Saints of Northumbria
Episode 11
This week we step back from royal politics to look at some of the main saints to emerge from Northumbria in the 7th C. We also look at how the distin…
4 years, 5 months ago