Welcome to the British History Podcast. My name is Jamie and this is episode 275, King Edward

the Almost First King of England. Almost. So close.

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The story of Edward is undeniably odd. There are events that are at best unexplained and

at worst look potentially horrible. But he's also a man of contradictions because the

one thing that we haven't talked about is the one thing that you're probably not expecting.

Edward was a really effective king. In fact, historians like Stanton argue that he waged

quote, one of the best sustained and most decisive campaigns in the whole of the dark ages

end quote. And I think you might be right about that, even though I would add that large

parts of Edward's successes are owed at least in part to Atholflad. Because many of

these wars, as well as the expansion of Alfred's plan for Fortress West six, were successful

...