The Tudors Dynasty podcast.

Welcome back to another week of this week in Royal History.

I'm your host, Rebecca Larson, and I'm here to share with you some interesting stories

from Royal History, not just the Tudors, but most definitely a bit of English, Scottish, French, and Spanish history,

as well as much, much more. So let's get to it.

The Vikings and the Anglo-Saxons. What a time in history that was. And isn't it amazing that we know so much about that time and the people who

lived in it? On the 8th of January, in the year 871, Ethel read the first of Essex defeated the

Danes at the Battle of Ashdowne. Four days after he and his younger brother, future Alfred the Great, had been

defeated at the Battle of Reading. The defeat had become a crushing blow to the kingdoms,

since the Danes had already conquered two of the four Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and Wessex.

Wassex was the grand prize they sought to gain. But what events led to this

event? By 870, the Vikings controlled both the North and the East of England, which also

included Kent, and they were advancing towards Wessex. The Vikings, who had conquered the southeast, had come

from Denmark. Near the end of that year, the Danes sailed up the Thames in their longboats.

Their destination was Redding. They arrived around the 28th of December, 870. And at that time of year, we can assume that the Anglo-Saxons

were still enjoying their Christmas festivities. So, because of that, the heathen Danes

captured the city of Reading easily. Ultimately, both sides divided forces, and the Danes suffered heavy losses, including a

king and five earls. Ethelred and Alfred's forces enjoyed a short-lived victory, followed by two more

defeats. Ethelred died a year later, and because his sons were too young to rule,

his brother Alfred stepped up and became known as Alfred the Great. Let's jump forward to a time

period we're a bit more familiar with, the 16th century.

The early 1500s in England were some of the most joyous years under the reign of Henry

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