Welcome to the British History Podcast.

My name is Jamie, and this is episode 467, St. Anselm.

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Okay. I know at the end of the last episode, I kind of sort of promised you a fight.

And we're definitely going to have one. But we're pausing really quick to cover some seriously good gossip and possibly a murder.

And we're doing this because we have a rare pair of letters from Anselm and they were sent to a surviving member of the family of Harold Godwinson.

And the contents of these letters are just so much worse than you think.

Now, like anyone interested in history, I firmly believe that good gossip holds value all to its own.

After all, what is history but a bunch of gossip? But there is another

reason why we're making this brief detour in the story. This situation that we're about to discuss

is actually a great example of the massive cultural shift that England and Europe are undergoing.

You see, right now, it's the end of 1093, and that means we're just over two years from the

launching of the First Crusade.

The church, and by that I mean the men who run it, have radicalized and they're emboldened.

And they have been steaming towards this moment since at least Hildebrand, later known as Pope Gregory the 7th.

And you'll remember that Hildebrand and his allies wanted to reshape all of society and all forms of leadership and government so that they served under the church.

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