Posts about Anglo-Saxon England
As historians we thrive on the material culture of the past. You don’t need to be an historical materialist to recognize that without material culture our understanding of history is severely limited. Objects are the raw material from which we make history. What then do objects tell us about the early development of Anglo-Saxon history and society? When we look at this we can chart the material evolution of Anglo-Saxon England from a migrant society of farmers to a kingdom with towns and villages. At the centre of this development lies trade.
https://www.podpage.com/anglo-saxon-england/trade-and-towns-in-anglo-saxon-england/
It’s probably no exaggeration to say the Alfred the Great is one of the most, if not the most, famous Anglo-Saxon of them all. The only British monarch given the epithet ‘the Great’, the traditional account of his life is one of a scholar forced into the role of a war leader who defied the odds to save and unite not just his people, but all the English. Indeed, Alfred is usually cast as the man who saved England, without whom all of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms would have fallen to Scandinavian invasion. However, it is not just for his military successes that Alfred is remembered. He was also celebrated as a wise king who cared deeply for law, religion, and learning. The revival of Latin and Old English learning that is called by scholars the ‘Alfredian Renaissance’ is usually attributed to Alfred’s vision of a just and pious English nation which he sought to realise by gathering to himself the learned man of Britain, Ireland, and the Continent. It is important to be wary, though, of mythmaking and the ‘great man’ interpretation of history. While Alfred was without question a great leader, we must take a step back and look at his life with dispassionate eyes so that we can cut through the layers of legend to reach the core of the man who saved England.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1fUpYwUixary95HDxEGu7Q?si=eaf3a3ba02e24442
Æthelwulf’s will attests to his desire that upon his death Wessex would pass into the hands of his sons. This desire was fulfilled when his eldest surviving son Æthelbald became king following his father’s death in 858. The years that passed between this accession and the rise of the youngest son, Alfred, to the throne in 871 would see a complex detente form between the four brothers as Wessex rapidly passed from one to another. Histories of Wessex tend to overlook the years between Æthelwulf and Alfred, preferring to focus instead of Alfred, his father, and his grandfather to give the sense of a simple progression of a united Wessex developing into a united kingdom of England. However the reigns of Alfred’s three older brothers deserve to be discussed in detail since it is under them that several key factors in Alfred’s reign fully emerge into West Saxon history such as the transition from Scandinavian raiding into Scandinavian conquest and the alliance with Mercia, both of which would bear fruit in Alfred’s reign and shape the earliest form of the kingdom of England.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6d8ol5ALvQfVG7becs6HCl?si=f6733d4788ee4cbf