Welcome to the British History Podcast.

My name is Jamie and this is Episode 339.

Knute the Conqueror.

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It's been a strange few years, and the fall of the House of Wessex and the rise of Knute

looks very much like a simple story of conquest.

After all, it's right there in the title.

Virtually every book about this era has a chapter called The Conquest of England.

And for good reason, Knute was a conqueror, and conquest, at least in the popular imagination,

is a simple story of military domination.

It's a story of soldiers and Sieges, where the biggest army and the best tactics win the

day.

But here's the thing.

If that's the story you're expecting, then it must seem like the wrong guy won here.

I mean, if we're talking about military matters, King Edmund was your guy.

He wasn't just the rightful heir.

He was a warrior king.

...