Welcome to the British History Podcast.

My name is Jamie and this is episode 420, The Wake and The Earl.

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Hero word was returning to Ealy with his men.

And the upside was they were taking literal boatloads of treasure with them.

The downside though was that they were a little light on matches, as the Danes had just

lit Peterborough on fire.

In their defense, while the army had burned down the homes in the town and they destroyed

the gate, they had shown some degree of restraint and stopped short of burning down the abbey

itself. They looted it, of course, but it was still totally there.

However, as Hero word looked across the boat deck and surveyed the captured monks sitting

there, he may have wondered if this one had gotten away from him a little bit.

Because yeah, the Danes hadn't just looted Peterborough. They decided to take a few

captives while they were at it. And I have to wonder how tense that boat ride back to

Ealy was, because this doesn't seem to have been what Hero word had in mind at all.

Now of course, we can't be 100% certain what Hero word intended for Peterborough, because

the records about this incident are confused. We have contradictory accounts of both the motivations

and the timing of the attack. But it's likely that the attack took place right at about

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