Welcome to the British History Podcast.

My name is Jimmy and this is Episode 333, the Conquest of England.

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England in 1013 was a kingdom begging to be conquered.

Decades of bad decisions had eroded its foundations and now it's sat as a mere shadow of its former

glory.

It had none of the military prowess that had been established by King Athelstan.

None of the political stability that was enjoyed by King Edgar and none of the smart

planning created by King Alfred.

So now, rather than being a focal point of European politics and a well-governed island fortress,

this new England was decadent, weak and dangerously vulnerable.

And I should point out here that there are some revisionists who argue that Athelred

was actually a pretty good king.

And these revisionists tend to be mostly made up of dedicated history buffs, not trained

historians.

But they are rather prolific, and so you might run across their arguments from time to time.

And their views generally hinge on the fact that Athelred's entries in the Anglo-Saxon

...