Welcome to the British History Podcast. My name is Jamie and this is episode 257. Political accommodation within the day and

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Things in Britain are changing rapidly. In Scotland the Macalpin Dynasty is rising and with it comes the merging of the Scottish and

Picked-Dish cultures. A similar blending is happening in the Anglo-Saxon regions. As we've seen in the last few episodes, cities are changing,

economies are emerging. And the sudden appearance of the new place names, some of which are Danish and others are a blend of Danish and old English,

well those tell us that cultures are changing too. And all of this, the changing approach to land, the movement towards

birds, the reoccupation of Linda Burr, the flourishing of trade, these things are all bringing about an enormous shift in the way life

is being lived on the island. And that in turn is having an impact upon politics. So if you're a big fan of the Alfred series, if you love kings and queens and battles and all that sort of stuff,

the engine that drives much of what's been happening and what will continue to happen are the things that we've been talking about recently.

This isn't the Lord of the Rings. War doesn't happen just because Sauron is a dick. Armies aren't mobilized just because Sauron is possessed someone in Rohan.

Dark Ages Britain was a real place and the events that took place there have real causes. These changes to land, economics, culture and everything else help inform us about why the armies are marching and why policies are being enacted and why dynasties are clashing.

But the battles and the treaties and the major infrastructure projects, that's all big politics.

The reason why we spoke about place names is because it's one of our windows into small politics, subtle politics. The sort of political moves that won't make it into something like the chronicle, but shape the day-to-day lives of the British people just as much, if not more so than those marching armies.

When we see the Danish place names appear, it tells us something. And when we see Grimmston hybrids appear, that confirms it. This is all evidence of political accommodation.

And we've encountered this process before in our story. The tale of the occupation and development of Orkney, the eventual peace and subsequent treaties with Guthram, mercy as interactions with Half-Dan, well over half of the actions taken by Alfred,

there are all sorts of examples where we can see the local nobility working to stabilize relations with the Danes through, you guessed it, political accommodation.

And actually we've seen this sort of thing prior to the coming of the Danes. The stories of Edwin, the sons of Athelfrith, the short-lived sons of Ida, the Mercian Supremacy, the aftermath of Pentecostal wars, all that kind of stuff.

History is replete with tales of leaders seeking political accommodation with outside forces, and even inside forces.

Sometimes this occurs as the result of war. Sometimes it's out of fear. Other times we've seen them happen for economic or dynastic reasons. And sometimes it's just because nobles often tend to stick together, at least until they don't.

So today, we're going to shed some light on the incredibly murky world of the Anglo-Skandinavian territories of the early 10th century.

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