Welcome to the British History Podcast.

My name is Jamie and this is episode 413, The D. This show is ad-free due to members

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It was fall of 1069 and the Danes were coming.

William had tried to head this off by sending an English bishop, Athosiga, to plead his

case and dissuade King Swain of Denmark from trying to invade.

But clearly, the bishop hadn't been that persuasive.

Swain had launched no less than 240 ships, each one loaded down with warriors.

And the fleet itself was led by Swain's brother, Osbeorn, as well as two of Swain's

sons, Harold and Knute.

Now truth be told, it would be hard to assemble a fleet without including some of Swain's

sons.

This guy was prolific and in order to count Swain's kids, you have to use all your fingers

and toes.

And that only accounts for the ones that they bothered to write down.

And given how many concubines Swain had, I suspect that there were at least a couple

kids out there who didn't make it into the record.

But putting any of your sons on an invasion fleet was still a pretty big personal risk.

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