Welcome to the British History Podcast. My name is Jamie and this is Episode 310, Political

Theater. This show is ad-free due to member support. In a way of thanking members for

keeping the show independent, I offer members only content, including extra episodes and

rough transcripts. And you can get instant access to all the members extras by signing

up for membership at theBritishStoryPodcast.com for about the price of a latte per month.

Thank you very much to Lee, Philip, and Parent for signing up already.

Human beings can't really be summed up in a nickname. Usually we're much more complicated

than a word or two, and sometimes a nickname just doesn't reflect reality. If you take

Edward the Elder as an example, the name probably conjures up the image of Gandalf, but Edward

was only in his early 50s when he died. And you might have noticed that quite a few of

these 10th century kings had nicknames that just didn't seem to fit. King Charles the

Bald wasn't actually bald. He was actually famously hairy. The nickname was a joke. And

as for Edward the Elder, well that name took nearly 300 years to form, likely because

the Normans wanted Edward Longshanks to be Edward the First, and that made a previous

Anglo-Saxon king Edward a little awkward. So he became Edward the Elder, which made him

sound a lot less like a real king and almost like a legendary king. And that right there

is the other point of a nickname. It can convey a message that you want to send. It's

a type of branding. And it's possible that branding is why Edgar was called the Peaceable.

You see, nicknames were a handy way for figures or institutions to present a certain image.

Sometimes they might want to tie themselves to some sort of power, or maybe they're

looking to downplay an inconvenient association. Other times there's a more specific personal

or political goal, which is either being reinforced by themselves or by someone else. And these

...