Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History

magazine. Five years ago, while the UK was in coronavirus lockdown, we here at History

Extra embarked on what we described as what might become a short,

regular series, our Sunday everything you wanted to know episodes.

More than 200 installments later, we've covered everything from the Assyrians to Alcatraz,

offering insights from some of the world's leading experts.

We wanted to bring you even more of this expertise, so from next week we're going to be

starting a new series of multi-part explorations of some of history's most fascinating topics,

including the gunpowder plot, the life and work of Jane Austen, and more. Check back next Sunday

for that. But for today's episode, we thought we'd mark the end of this chapter by revisiting the very first

Everything You Wanted to Know episode, featuring Mark Morris discussing the Normans with Dave Musgrove.

First question, and this comes from my friend G. Ugel.

Who on the Battle of Hastings and why?

Oh, this is an easy one because we're still fairly confident about the answer.

The winner of the Battle of Hastings were still reasonably satisfied was William,

Duke William of Normandy, later known as the conqueror.

Why?

I mean, the contemporary answer would have been because God favoured him.

You know, when you went to battle in the Middle Ages, you're putting your dispute to the judgment of God.

Men don't decide battles. God decides the outcome of battles. So God had decided,

according to contemporary minds, that his claim to the throne of England was the greater one.

Why, in terms of, you know, the way we would analyze it now, superior generalship, in that

...