Welcome to the British History Podcast.

My name is Jamie and this is Episode 382.

Brows Before Thrones

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It was 1065, and King Edward of England was falling ever more ill.

To the north, King Harold Hadratta rained over Norway.

His war with King Swain of Denmark was over, and now he found himself with some free time

to look into other territories he liked to rule, and England made that list.

King Malcolm III was reigning in Scotland, and Big Head was one of the most powerful kings

that Scotland had seen in generations.

And only recently, he'd raided Northern England, an action that appears to have been a retaliation

for the English crown breaking the betrothal between Malcolm and Princess Margaret.

But now he was married to Ingeborg, a highborn and well-connected Scandinavian noblewoman,

and in doing so, he further tied himself not to England, but to his continental allies.

Across the channel, in Normandy, Duke William the Bastard was starting to come into his

own.

His early Dukeal reign had been a bit of a sh** show, and honestly, the mid-Dukeal reign

...