Welcome to the British History Podcast.

My name is Jamie and this is episode 406.

Kings Rook Takes Pond.

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In early 1068, as William was preparing for his tactical coronation of Matilda, the three

sons of Harold Godwin's son were in Ireland.

They'd gone there to meet with King Diarmad of Dublin and to prepare an invasion force

to retake England.

These sons were named Godwin, Magnus and Edmund.

They're all young men, probably all teenagers at this point.

But their work had been going pretty well.

They had secured the support of the King of Dublin and to that end, they'd gathered

over 50 ships for their campaign.

And when you look at the situation of England and the news that was likely to have been trickling

into Irish ports, there was a lot to make the boys feel optimistic.

Not the least of which was that Norman England was looking pretty shaky at this point.

By now, it's likely that Godwin and his brothers had heard about the rebels gathering

...