Welcome to the British History Podcast. My name is Jamie and this is episode 497. That's me in the spot, light. This show is ad-free due to member support. And as a way of thanking members for keeping the show independent, offer members-only content, including extra episodes and rough transcripts, and you can get instant access to all the members' extras by signing up

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And thank you very much to Misty, Amelia, and Melissa for signing up already.

Okay, so we're only a few episodes away from episode 500. And Z and I were thinking

that to celebrate, we would answer your questions, like any of your questions. Just ask us

whatever you want about whatever you want. And you can email your questions to the British History Podcast at

gmail.com. And we'll answer them, or at least we'll answer as much as we can. So send those

questions quick. Episode 500 is nearly here. It was 1103, and things were a mess.

Now, granted, when were they not?

But a major reason for this mess was oddly William of Bratwee.

Now, you might recall that William of Bertouille was the firstborn son of the conqueror's

close friend, William Fitz Osborne.

And thanks to this proximity to power, Fitzosborne was one of the most wealthy and powerful

magnates in Normandy. And then he died, which made Brettwee one of the most wealthy and powerful magnates in Normandy.

You might also recall that Bratwee was the man who had tried to stop Henry from seizing the treasury at Winchester.

And he'd actually nearly ended up in a sword fight over that.

So it probably won't shock you to learn that he was one of Duke Roberts' most important

allies. And was, is the operative term here, because Bertouille had recently died. Making matters worse,

he had died without a legitimate son, which meant that Bratwee's vast estates now had multiple claimants. And because this was the

12th century, that meant war. Now, the man who had the best claim was a Breton lord by the name of

William of Gale. And he was Bertuiz nephew. And because of the type of claim he had and the degree of power

he held, he had a really good chance of being able to resolve this conflict quickly, or at least

...