Welcome to the British History Podcast. My name is Jamie and this is episode 287, the

Conquest of Scotland. 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 contact, including extra

episodes and rough transcripts, and you can get instant access to all the members' extras

by signing up for membership at thepredishestreepodcast.com. And thank you very much to Martin, Terry,

and Spike for signing up already. For the last six years, Atholstan has been ruling in a manner

that hasn't been seen and written for generations. Beyond being a warlord or even a king, Atholstan

had been acting more like an emperor. All of the Anglo-Saxon territories were annexed into

his new kingdom of England. The kings of Wales were now mere members of his court and he

was receiving tributes and gifts from Scotland, Norway, and Francia. Furthermore, the next

generation of monarchs were living in his court. England and Atholstan himself had become

the center of the Western world and he was ruling over his people with a firm hand.

Emphasizing his dominion, Atholstan held a great court at Exeter and this was an audacious move.

Only years earlier, Atholstan had carried out an ethnic cleansing of the Cornish from this city

and even with the Cornish presumably still gone, Exeter still had stone monuments to its Cornish past

and in documents we see names that are clearly of Cornish origin. Atholstan may have conducted a purge

but the people still remembered. History remained. And yet here he was, running a large

English council right in the middle of all of this past. It was a risky and aggressive move.

But like his grandfather, Atholstan was a propagandist and he knew what message he wanted to send.

So he didn't hold a great court in Exeter simply to demonstrate its power. He was doing something

more. He built monuments of his own. Atholstan leveraged his incredible wealth to reshape the

perceptions of the local Anglo-Saxons who had only recently been absorbed into his newly founded

...