Welcome to the British History Podcast.

My name is Jamie and this is Episode 180, The Cracks in the Shield Wall.

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It's 838.

Only two years earlier, the West Saxons were defeated by a fleet of Viking herbs and they

responded to this loss the way you would expect them to.

By completely ignoring the loss and instead focusing on dynastic politics and making endowments

to the church at Canterbury.

And now another fleet of Vikingers was sailing south towards their allies in Cornwall.

The first question you're probably asking is how did the Vikingers get Cornish allies?

Well, we aren't entirely sure, but here are a few things for you to ponder over.

The Scandinavians weren't just Vikingers, not even the ones who sailed on their longships.

They're also traders, and to trade, you need contact with other communities.

It's entirely possible that they had links with the Cornish through trade long before 838.

Another point of interest is the fact that the Cornish and the West Saxons weren't exactly

buddies.

The Cornish were culturally aligned with many of the kingdoms and whales.

In fact, one of the reasons we think the West Saxons pushed so hard into their western

...