Welcome to the British History Podcast. My name is Jamie and this is episode 174, the

KELPcast, part 3.

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We start today with a few bear statements in the record. They're easy to overlook and

most people do, but they hint at a very important aspect of Pickland in the 700s. The absolutely

enormous amount of political wrangling that was going on. Here's what we know. In 725,

King Nectin stepped down from the throne of Pickland and entered a monastery. The throne

went to a new king named Dressed and on that same year, Simul's son of Dressed was imprisoned.

The following year, in 726, King Dressed imprisoned Nectin. Those are the facts. And

they're strange. They lack context or explanation and predictably many people just ignore them,

but they're actually really important for illuminating what was going on in Pickland,

how their society was organized, and what was to come. So let's break it down.

Nectin stepping down is something that we talked about last episode. King Nectin, upon entering

a monastery, had become brother Nectin. There were several reasons for why he might have

done this. It might have been out of piety. He had shown a great deal of faith during

his reign, so this could have been a true calling for him. Or it could have been out of grief,

as his two sons had died. Or it might have been due to politics. That last point is important.

Nectin might have been in a tight spot politically. As mentioned in the previous episode,

...