Welcome to the British History Podcast.

My name is Jamie, and this is episode 501, Bishop Serlo's Popup Hair Salon.

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For months, messengers have been arriving from Normandy, carrying news of

the disorder and chaos that was gripping the duchy. Now, normally, this would have been good

news for King Henry. It was no secret that the king wanted to reunite his father's cross-channel

empire under himself, nor was it any secret that the king wanted to reunite his father's cross-channel empire under himself,

nor was it any secret that he had no respect for his older brother.

So naturally, under normal circumstances, having Normandy in chaos would suit Henry's interests

quite nicely since it would provide him with a pretext for regime change.

The problem, though, was that this particular chaos was happening on lands that were technically

his.

Baleem and Mortain had been launching repeated attacks upon the troops that the king had stationed in Normandy.

And when they weren't doing that, they were just attacking anything that was vaguely associated with Henry,

lands and forces alike. And Bilem and Mortain running amok was bad news for Henry, but it was

absolutely terrible for the common folk of Normandy.

And things were getting so bad that entire families began to uproot and seek shelter from the chaos.

The lucky ones found space within religious buildings, the hope being that a sense of piety would keep the knights

and their violence outside of those walls. The less lucky people were forced to try and hide in

...