Welcome to the British History Podcast.

My name is Jamie and this is episode 294.

It all comes crashing down.

This show is ad-free due to member support, and it's a way of thanking members for keeping

the show independent.

I offer members only content, including extra episodes and rough transcripts.

This week, members are listening to the next installment on our members-only series

on Slavery, where we talk about how slavery exploded on the British Isles during the

rise of the Viking Age.

We delve deeper into questions about who slavery impacted and how the lives of British slaves

suddenly became much, much worse.

And you can get instant access to that and all the other members extras by signing up for

membership at theBritishHistoryPotcast.com for about the price of a lot tape per month.

And thank you very much to Samantha, Deborah, and Miguel for signing up already.

The story of the last few episodes is a story about a lesson that humanity has had

to relearn again and again throughout history.

When your society is ordered around a single figure, it's likely to descend into chaos

the moment that that figure goes away.

And finding a new balance in the midst of sudden cascading failures is a difficult task

that many people in history have failed to do.

And so as you listen to this episode, keep that in mind.

The rare entries that we have from this era only cover major political events, and even

...