Welcome to the British History Podcast. My name is Jamie and this is episode 282. How

to win friends and influence your evic. This show is ad free due to member support and

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Athol Stan had completed his annexation of Yorvik and in doing so he had outperformed every last

one of his predecessors, including his grandfather, Alfred the Great. But there were a few loose ends

that he still needed to nod up. And as he watched the defenses of Yorvik burn and doldown

Yorvik's wealth to his loyal men, two of those loose ends, namely his former rivals,

Guthrath and Turfrid, slunk away with little more than their lives. They had managed to escape the

stronghold in a lewd capture, but merely escaping wasn't exactly the plan for people who'd earlier

sought to establish their own rule over the North. Furthermore, their escape wasn't Athol Stan's

plan either. I mean he'd nearly had all of his careful diplomacy undone by just these two men.

And Guthrath was a king of Dublin and Turfrid was a local noble of note. Either one of these

men could re-root themselves and foment a rebellion if they were allowed to safely return to their homes.

Athol Stan would be a fool to just allow them to escape and ignore whatever they were up to once

they fled their fortress. And he wasn't a fool. So once Athol Stan realized that his enemies had made

their escape, he sent his forces out to pursue them. We don't know how long a head start Guthrath

and Turfrid had, but they had at least long enough to acquire ships somehow and set sail in them.

It was a clever move, because the pursuing forces would then have to acquire their own ships

and figure out which way Guthrath and Turfrid were going. And the sea is pretty big. They could

...