Welcome to the British History Podcast. My name is Jamie and this is Episode 386.

God's Messenger.

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William had secured his promises. Each Baron and lesser noble of Normandy had sworn to serve

him faithfully and take part in his invasion of England. And William also made sure that

the nerds wrote down every single oath on paper. Because William wasn't a trusting man

even at the best of times because he had no reason to be. And given how these promises

weren't exactly given freely, well he had best keep a record.

And the fact that he remembered to get these oaths for ships and men written down. But

for some reason had just forgotten to get somebody to write down that the King of England

had promised in the English crown is a big reason why nobody, including his own nobles,

really believed that that promise actually happened. But whatever, William had the

oaths he required and Normandy was bound to answer his call to war, even when that war

would take place across the sea. But as for the other nobles and knights and warriors

of continental Europe, well no one else really seemed all that interested. Except Eustace,

of course, possibly because he thought he could snag the crown for himself. But as a

consequence, unless something serious changed with all this, this invasion was doomed to fail.

So William, probably at Bishop Lamfranck's suggestion, decided to call him the big guns.

...