Welcome to the British History Podcast. My name is Jamie and this is episode 344.

Canutes Mad Lads.

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In the year 1021, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells us two things.

A bishop died, and Thorkel the Tall was expelled from the country.

And that's all it tells us.

And we know by now that the Chronicle gets a little quiet whenever the establishment

hits the rocks, and with Canutes' right hand man being kicked out of the kingdom, we

can assume that the establishment was indeed on the rocks.

But while the official record went quiet, that doesn't mean that nothing was happening.

And the fact was, that Canute was ruling over a vast kingdom that spanned the North Sea.

And while we can't say for certain how he managed both territories at the same time during

this period, we do know that he was doing it.

And while we lack the detailed written record we prefer, Canutes policies and some of the

things that he was doing left shadows that tell us that he was still quite active.

And one set of evidence sits in London.

You see, it turns out that while Canute was dealing with courtly intrigue, potential

coups, backstabbing courtiers, and imposing exile on a couple key nobles, he was doing it

...