Welcome to the British History Podcast.

My name is Jamie.

Okay, so next week is our 100th episode.

Can't believe it's come up so fast.

So that means if you have any questions, for example, if you've been wondering who would

cheap first in a marriage between Henry VIII and Isabella of France, you need to send

me an email immediately.

And that email, of course, is the British History Podcast at gmail.com.

And naturally, that means that next week will not be a regular episode, but rather is

going to be the Q&A episode, and then we'll pick up our story the following week.

All right, speaking of that story, let's get going.

So the year is 586, and Charlene is the leader of the men of Wessex.

Wessex has been expanding their holdings to the north and west, and they've been growing

in power substantially.

Conversely, in the east are the men of Kent, under the leadership of Athlbert, who were

told has been ruling since he was 8 years old.

But the dates are a bit dodgy, and now Athlbert is 16 years old, maybe.

And he's growing in power.

We know this because Kent is growing in wealth, and Athlbert is of sufficiently high status

to be marrying the daughter of the king of Francia.

Furthermore, he's a member of the Oyskengos, the ruling family of Kent, said to have been

descended from Hengist himself.

...