Welcome to the British History Podcast. My name is Jamie and this is episode 206.

Did the Great Heathen Army persecute Christians? This show is ad-free due to member support.

And as a way of thanking members for keeping the show independent, I offer members only

content including extra episodes and rough transcripts. You can get instant access to all

the members extras by signing up for membership at the British History Podcast.com. And thank

you to new members Avey, 11 year old Anna, who's celebrating her birthday, Happy Birthday

Anna, and Kindergartner Gunech Khan. I can't believe how many kids we have listening

to a show that goes into graduate level detail on the Anglo-Saxons. Your kids must be

a force to be reckoned with at school. Nicely done.

Okay, so last week we covered the events of 869. And just like listening to Brian Adams,

it was pretty dire. We have at least one dead Anglo-Saxon king, two Anglo-Saxon kingdoms

that are now under the thumb of the Danes, and as far as the record tells us, everyone

else seems to have just been keeping their heads down.

You may have taken comfort in the fact that at least Iver the boneless was gone. We don't

know how many warriors who would have taken with him back to Ireland, or would have left

if that one odd report was correct and he died in Britain. But, despite Iver being gone,

the Danes still held East Anglia and Yorvik. Now, there's a well-known story about what

comes next for anybody who's studied this period. And it goes like this. The Scandinavians,

now secure in Yorvik, started to systematically dismantle the institutions of Christendom.

In the names of Odin and Thor, driven by pagan fervor, they set about all of Britain's

monasteries, nunneries and churches. Monks were targeted and slaughtered, and the Christianity

of Britain faced near extinction. It's a terrifying picture, and it would have been salt

...