Before we start, just a quick warning that this episode contains descriptions of violence

or sexual content that may not be suitable for all listeners.

We're on some windswept grassland on the edge of tall rocky cliffs. A small group of

nights and archers have been digging for days. It feels like forever since they landed

their two small ships at the foot of those cliffs and pick their way up to the high ground

at the top. They've been working with spades and shovels, hammers and timber to build

a makeshift coastal fort right at the very end of a rugged spit of land that sticks out

into the sea. Below them waves crash against the jagged rocks, but the swell and roar of

the sea is drowned out by the sound of metal cutting through wood and soil and the grunt

of men working fast to dig trenches and build up earthen ridges. They're making a double

embankment, two huge parallel walls of stone and clay, two hundred feet long with a deep

ditch between them. These walls cut off the tip of the spit from the mainland. They

form the forward line of defence. Behind the men and on their flanks, they're protected

by the sheer drop of the treacherous cliffs. Once their defenses are finally built, there

comes another noise. It's a low, almost musical groan, accompanied by the slow tramp of heavy

feet. Cows, dozens of them. The warriors have rustled some cattle from the pastures in

land. The cows are strong and healthy in this part of the world. They'll provide milk

and meat for weeks or even months. The man in charge of all these soldiers is a Welshman

known as Raymond the Fat. He hopes they won't be holed up behind their walls for too long,

but better to be safe than sorry. It's late spring 1169 on the southern coast of Ireland

at Baggenbund Bay to be precise. Raymond the Fat and his men are spearheading a full-blown

plantagenet invasion of Ireland. Their invasion will come to shape the world as we know it,

...