Welcome to the British History Podcast.

My name is Jamie and this is Episode 325, Athera from Bad to Worse.

This show is ad-free due to member support and as a way of thanking members for keeping

the show independent, I offer members on the content, including extra episodes and rough

transcripts and you can get instant access to all the members extras by signing up for

membership at the British History Podcast.com for about the price of a latte per month.

And thank you very much to Omri, Barney and James for signing up already.

When we left off, England was reforming its legal structure.

And I know, law is not known for being a sexy subject.

Neither lawyers for that matter.

But law shapes our societies in ways that are so fundamental that they're often invisible

to us.

And these reforms are no exception.

These codes would go on to transform English life.

Because what Athol Redd and his court were doing was binding the kingdom together under

one body of law.

And they were even including the powerful but rebellious area of the day-in-law.

But amidst this move towards order and organization, the Vikings were once again throwing the countryside

into chaos.

In 998, the giant fleet of Viking raiders that had been harrying the west of England turned

east.

They rode their ships into the mouth of the river from.

...