Welcome to the British History Podcast.

My name is Jimmy and this is Episode 307, Cleaning House.

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The King is dead.

Long live the King.

Edwig, the 18-year-old king known for his beauty, had died.

Somehow.

His reign had been a difficult one, and his actions hinted a story of a weak king who

was overwhelmed by internal political crises.

And actually, Edwig's troubled reign is kind of strange, because he was the first

English king in a very long time to have reigned over a kingdom which was technically at peace.

Edwig faced no Scandinavian pirates.

No armies from Dublin.

Nothing.

All things being equal, you'd actually expect Edwig to be regarded as one of the great kings

of England, simply due to the fact that the kingdom was free from external threats and

finally had a chance to rebuild.

But rebuilding wasn't on his agenda, because even though the raids had halted, the kingdom

...