Welcome to the British History Podcast. My name is Jamie and this is Episode 347, Aggressive

Diplomacy. This show is ad-free due to member support and is 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

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Thank you very much to Linda, Corey, and Dean for signing up already.

What we call history was at one point just current events. And world affairs never happen

in a vacuum. It's never just one thing happening after another. It's a whole mesh of events

that while they might happen in their own sequences that look very much like one thing

happening after another, they're actually interwoven with a massive web of other events,

some scene and some unseen that affect the outcomes of whatever was happening currently

and what could happen in the future. And so, as a consequence, leaders are almost always

juggling multiple matters at the same time, or at least if they're a good leader, they

should be, because the world keeps turning and a lot of things need to be managed. Lots

and lots of things. And I feel like after the last three or four months, most of us have

learned this the hard way. And the fact is that the 1020s were a bit like the 2020s,

where everything feels like it's happening all at once. And for King Knute, he was dealing

with at least one war, not to mention scheming advisors, a treasonous son, very likely one

or two other wars, and on top of all of that, Knute was also staring down the barrel of

a succession crisis in the Holy Roman Empire. You see, Emperor Henry II, the great-great-grandson

of Otto the Great, had died in 1024, which was just one year before the rebellion in Scandinavia

kicked off. And he had died childless. As a consequence, European stability was tilting

...