Welcome to the British History Podcast.

My name is Jamie and this is episode 292, King in the North.

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Perspective

How we understand any event comes down to what angle we're able to view it from.

And the story of Atholstan has been no exception.

On the one hand, it's easy to see Atholstan as one of the greatest kings in English history.

One to place on our shelf of real life legends along with his grandfather.

And that's for good reason.

Much like Alfred, Atholstan was a larger than life figure.

He wasn't content just to hold his throne and maintain the status quo.

He strived to restructure the very foundations of his kingdom.

And as luck would have it, his ambitions aligned with the cultural and political circumstances

of his society.

And that's critical.

Because if Atholstan had taken the throne of Wessex in the middle of the 7th century,

there really would have been no way for him to build an Imperium over the island,

...