Welcome to the British History Podcast.

My name is Jamie and this is episode 276, The Bastard Rebel King.

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The story of Edward is one of contradictions.

There's something about his rule that seems complicated and requiring more nuance than

many of our earlier rulers.

I mean, here we have a king that did what seems to have been impossible.

He began his rule holding Dominion over Westix and Kent.

And portions of his kingdom were an outright rebellion against him.

But at the end of his reign, he's holding all the Anglo-Saxon land south of the Humber.

And he has the submission of all the Welsh kingdoms, Yurvik, the rest of Northumbria,

as well as Strathclyde and the Scots.

There's no way to look at that trajectory and not see an amazingly effective king.

But when we look at his rule, it also seems clear that many people around him didn't

seem to like him all that much.

Even before he became king, back when he was just Edward Aftling, his fervent abandoned

him while on campaign.

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