Welcome to the British History Podcast.

My name is Jamie and this is episode 169, The Rise of Wessex.

This show is free and independent to remember support and as thanks for helping keep the

community going, I offer members only contents such as extra episodes and rough transcripts.

If you're interested in supporting the show and helping us out, you can do so over at

the British History Podcast.com and thank you very much to Vincent, Leanne and Anthony

for contributing already.

This season we've seen the Anglo-Saxons come incredibly close to forming an early unified

English kingdom.

In fact, they will continue their attempts in this episode.

Though we can guess how it will go, because we've seen their culture and governmental

structure hamstring their previous attempts at unity.

From our vantage point of over a thousand years later, we can see the broad strokes of

their societies.

We can look at generations and spot flaws that would have been nearly invisible to them.

We can also see the future.

For example, we know that we're on the cusp of a major invasion.

We also know about the famed House of Wessex.

But the Anglo-Saxons didn't have the benefit of our perspective.

They didn't know what was coming.

We couldn't see the arc of history stretching back across time.

For them, it wasn't the House of Wessex that would have been famous.

...