What has been up with my luck lately?

If there's a Venn diagram for having an immutable disorder in the middle of a respiratory pandemic,

while also having a child in daycare, I am right in the center of it.

But hey, my voice is back, and I'm on a bunch of dayquills, so buckle up!

Welcome to the British History Podcast. My name is Jamie, and this is episode 430.

Is it good to be king?

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

show independent, I offer members only 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 bag of cough drops per month.

And thank you very much to Roger, Jenny, and Karen for signing up already.

We've been spending a lot of time with England lately.

And there's a good reason for that. England was the main target of the Norman invasion,

and everything changed for the kingdom when William arrived.

Furthermore, the nature of our sources is that they were more likely to survive if they were

Norman sources. So I was able to give details on the conquest and the many rebellions against it

because I finally had some details to give. And ultimately, this attention on Norman affairs

becomes attention on English affairs, and this bias in the record snowballs as time goes on,

and England goes on to have an outsized impact upon the world stage.

It is, and it will be, impossible to fully escape the gravity well of England as it relates to

the other kingdoms of Britain. But there are other kingdoms. Scotland is its own land with its own

stories. And so is Wales. And the story of Wales in the late 11th century is, well honestly,

...