1
00:00:01,500 --> 00:00:03,008
(Cheering)

2
00:00:06,049 --> 00:00:10,720
'To many people today, monarchy seems
to be merely a corrosive mixture

3
00:00:10,820 --> 00:00:14,490
'of snobbery, ceremony and sentiment,

4
00:00:14,580 --> 00:00:16,530
'but it's far more than that.

5
00:00:16,620 --> 00:00:20,010
'It's the natural
universal form of government.

6
00:00:20,100 --> 00:00:22,928
'Not all monarchs are kings, of course.

7
00:00:23,010 --> 00:00:25,640
'They can just as well be
presidents or dictators,

8
00:00:25,730 --> 00:00:30,559
'but almost everywhere, power comes
down to the decisions of one person,

9
00:00:30,660 --> 00:00:32,929
'which is all that monarchy means,

10
00:00:33,020 --> 00:00:37,530
'and a modern president or prime
minister is a king for the time being

11
00:00:37,609 --> 00:00:41,390
'as powerful as any medieval monarch
or Roman emperor.'

12
00:00:43,700 --> 00:00:46,728
But in Britain, or rather, in England,

13
00:00:46,820 --> 00:00:52,289
this universal fact of monarchy
takes on a special meaning,

14
00:00:52,380 --> 00:00:55,250
because we still have our real monarchy.

15
00:00:55,340 --> 00:00:58,210
It's over 1,500 years old,

16
00:00:58,289 --> 00:01:03,280
which means it's the oldest functioning
political institution in Europe.

17
00:01:03,380 --> 00:01:05,328
It's also unique,

18
00:01:05,420 --> 00:01:07,688
because right from the beginning,

19
00:01:07,780 --> 00:01:10,569
the monarchy had
a strong popular element.

20
00:01:10,650 --> 00:01:15,078
This means that its history
is more than a tale of kings and queens,

21
00:01:15,180 --> 00:01:18,688
of royal heroes like King Alfred
and Henry V

22
00:01:18,780 --> 00:01:21,209
and crowned villains like King John.

23
00:01:21,290 --> 00:01:26,040
It's also the story
of a dialogue between king and people

24
00:01:26,140 --> 00:01:29,608
in which the English learned
to rule themselves

25
00:01:29,700 --> 00:01:33,810
and became the envy
and the example of the world.

26
00:01:35,140 --> 00:01:39,608
'So this is not another picture-book story
of kings and queens.

27
00:01:39,700 --> 00:01:45,010
'Instead, it's a real, grown-up history
of how a monarchy created a nation

28
00:01:45,090 --> 00:01:49,000
'and it starts where
the monarchy and the nation did:

29
00:01:49,090 --> 00:01:52,760
'the chaos and the violence
of the Dark Ages.'

30
00:02:17,968 --> 00:02:19,919
'2,000 years ago,

31
00:02:20,020 --> 00:02:25,169
'there was only one power that counted
in the Western world - Rome.

32
00:02:25,250 --> 00:02:26,878
'Rome became the purest,

33
00:02:27,210 --> 00:02:32,120
'most absolute monarchy,
the world has ever seen

34
00:02:32,210 --> 00:02:37,639
'and Britain, the province of Britannia,
was just a tiny part of that monarchy.

35
00:02:37,740 --> 00:02:39,050
'Rome brought Britain

36
00:02:39,128 --> 00:02:43,639
'a civilisation of extraordinary
sophistication and refinement,

37
00:02:43,740 --> 00:02:48,169
'but the politics that accompanied it
were surprisingly crude.'

38
00:02:49,530 --> 00:02:53,068
All power, in theory -
and usually in practice -

39
00:02:53,180 --> 00:02:55,210
was in the hands of the emperor.

40
00:02:55,300 --> 00:02:57,250
He was a god on Earth,

41
00:02:57,340 --> 00:03:01,889
whose task it was to rule
and to defend the empire.

42
00:03:02,780 --> 00:03:05,770
'The duty of his subjects,
on the other hand

43
00:03:05,860 --> 00:03:08,568
'was to obey and to pay their taxes.'

44
00:03:09,460 --> 00:03:13,810
The idea that there might be any limit
on what the emperor could do

45
00:03:13,900 --> 00:03:17,408
or that others should have a say
in what got done

46
00:03:17,500 --> 00:03:20,449
was simply inconceivable.

47
00:03:25,060 --> 00:03:28,729
'For 400 years,
this was the bedrock of life in Britain.

48
00:03:28,810 --> 00:03:31,520
'It brought peace and prosperity,

49
00:03:31,620 --> 00:03:34,568
'but already, from about 250AD,

50
00:03:34,650 --> 00:03:37,800
'Roman power
was beginning to crumble.

51
00:03:39,460 --> 00:03:42,688
'Barbarians poured
over the imperial borders.

52
00:03:42,780 --> 00:03:46,889
'Amongst the most dangerous
were seaborne invaders from Germany,

53
00:03:46,968 --> 00:03:49,158
'which Rome had never conquered.

54
00:03:49,250 --> 00:03:53,158
'So a great ring of fortresses,
like this one, at Richborough in Kent,

55
00:03:53,250 --> 00:03:57,520
'was built along the east coast of Britain
to repel the raiders.'

56
00:03:58,300 --> 00:04:03,158
But in vain. This vast fortress
was overwhelmed and abandoned

57
00:04:03,250 --> 00:04:06,158
and its ruins mark the ruin of Britain -

58
00:04:06,250 --> 00:04:09,158
or at least the ruin, even the annihilation

59
00:04:09,250 --> 00:04:12,240
of everything that was Roman
about Britain.

60
00:04:12,340 --> 00:04:16,528
The law, the language, the literature,
the religion - all vanished,

61
00:04:16,620 --> 00:04:20,129
and all legitimate political, authority
came to an end

62
00:04:20,220 --> 00:04:22,370
for that had been vested in the emperor.

63
00:04:27,930 --> 00:04:30,120
'The collapse of Roman rule

64
00:04:30,220 --> 00:04:33,920
'opened the door to a vast influx
of German people.

65
00:04:34,009 --> 00:04:36,920
'Today, they're known as
the Anglo-Saxons

66
00:04:37,009 --> 00:04:41,000
'and we know quite a lot about them
because, 300 years later,

67
00:04:41,100 --> 00:04:46,170
'a Northumbrian monk wrote
a great book about their early history.

68
00:04:46,250 --> 00:04:52,079
'The writer's name was Bede
and he's the first great English historian.

69
00:04:52,180 --> 00:04:56,610
'Bede describes, in what's probably
a mixture of fact and legend,

70
00:04:56,689 --> 00:05:02,040
'how, in 449, Hengist and Horsa settled
with their followers in Kent.

71
00:05:02,129 --> 00:05:06,240
'Other groups under other leaders
soon settled elsewhere.'

72
00:05:06,329 --> 00:05:08,480
We rightly think

73
00:05:08,569 --> 00:05:13,399
of the Norman Conquest as a great
turning point in the history of England,

74
00:05:13,500 --> 00:05:16,730
but the Saxon conquest
was even more important,

75
00:05:16,810 --> 00:05:20,959
because it created
the very idea and reality

76
00:05:21,060 --> 00:05:23,009
of England itself.

77
00:05:23,100 --> 00:05:25,209
Indeed, it's scarcely possible

78
00:05:25,300 --> 00:05:28,610
to exaggerate the scale
of the Saxon incursions.

79
00:05:28,689 --> 00:05:31,800
Perhaps 200,000 people flooded

80
00:05:31,889 --> 00:05:36,278
into a native population
of only about two million.

81
00:05:36,370 --> 00:05:41,199
Proportionately, it's the largest
immigration England has ever known.

82
00:05:41,300 --> 00:05:44,209
Moreover, as most of
the incomers were men

83
00:05:44,300 --> 00:05:48,000
they quickly turned
from immigrants into conquerors.

84
00:05:48,100 --> 00:05:51,930
In many areas of the country,
DNA evidence shows

85
00:05:52,009 --> 00:05:56,278
that up to 900/o of the native
male population was displaced.

86
00:05:56,370 --> 00:05:58,399
They were driven out or killed,

87
00:05:58,500 --> 00:06:04,129
and their women, their villages,
their farms taken over by the incomers.

88
00:06:04,220 --> 00:06:06,449
This is ethnic cleansing

89
00:06:06,540 --> 00:06:09,209
at its most savagely effective.

90
00:06:15,060 --> 00:06:17,850
'But it wasn't only blood that changed.

91
00:06:17,930 --> 00:06:21,319
'The immigrants brought with them
a new language,

92
00:06:21,420 --> 00:06:23,329
'an early form of English.

93
00:06:23,420 --> 00:06:27,120
'They gave new names to districts,
villages and rivers -

94
00:06:27,220 --> 00:06:29,850
names that we still use today.

95
00:06:29,930 --> 00:06:32,519
'They even renamed the country itself.

96
00:06:32,620 --> 00:06:35,689
'Britannia became Aengla Land

97
00:06:35,769 --> 00:06:40,120
'and their political values
were as different as their language

98
00:06:40,220 --> 00:06:44,329
'for this was a community
without sharp social distinctions

99
00:06:44,420 --> 00:06:47,129
'and a people without kings.

100
00:06:50,620 --> 00:06:52,769
'Today, the closest we can come

101
00:06:52,860 --> 00:06:56,850
'to the world of
those early Anglo-Saxon settlers

102
00:06:56,930 --> 00:07:01,120
'is the reconstructed village
of West Stow in Suffolk.

103
00:07:01,220 --> 00:07:04,129
'It dates from about 450AD.

104
00:07:04,220 --> 00:07:07,250
'What was found here tells us
what food they ate,

105
00:07:07,329 --> 00:07:09,000
'what clothes they wore

106
00:07:09,100 --> 00:07:12,050
'and what jewellery
they took with them to the grave.

107
00:07:12,129 --> 00:07:14,759
'Above all, nothing here suggests

108
00:07:14,860 --> 00:07:19,009
'that anyone was much more important
than anyone else.'

109
00:07:21,769 --> 00:07:26,519
We're a long way here from the exalted
autocracy of the Roman Empire

110
00:07:26,620 --> 00:07:29,930
with its huge gap between rich and poor.

111
00:07:30,009 --> 00:07:33,040
Instead, the folk of West Stow here

112
00:07:33,129 --> 00:07:36,319
seem to have been
an essentially egalitarian people,

113
00:07:36,420 --> 00:07:40,040
and this egalitarianism
was their great legacy

114
00:07:40,129 --> 00:07:43,040
to the development of kingship
in England.

115
00:07:45,449 --> 00:07:49,319
'Nevertheless
such communities still needed leaders -

116
00:07:49,420 --> 00:07:52,088
'especially in times of war.

117
00:07:52,180 --> 00:07:54,129
'But how did they arise?

118
00:07:54,220 --> 00:07:58,170
'Our earliest sources
on the German peoples, Bede himself,

119
00:07:58,250 --> 00:08:01,639
'and the Roman historian Tacitus
have the answer.

120
00:08:04,620 --> 00:08:07,050
(Translator) 'They choose their kings.

121
00:08:07,129 --> 00:08:10,959
'The power, even of the kings,
is not absolute or arbitrary.'

122
00:08:12,689 --> 00:08:16,879
This is the idea
of government by consent,

123
00:08:16,980 --> 00:08:20,170
in which the leader is chosen
by the people -

124
00:08:20,250 --> 00:08:23,560
or, at least, is answerable to them.

125
00:08:24,449 --> 00:08:29,310
It was an idea taken by the Anglo-Saxons
from their homeland in Germany

126
00:08:29,420 --> 00:08:32,370
and transplanted
to their new home in England.

127
00:08:32,460 --> 00:08:34,408
Here, it flourished

128
00:08:34,500 --> 00:08:38,649
and became a central part
of the English political experience,

129
00:08:38,740 --> 00:08:42,850
with powerful echoes in Magna Carta,
The Glorious Revolution

130
00:08:42,940 --> 00:08:46,558
and the insistence
of those Englishmen abroad,

131
00:08:46,649 --> 00:08:49,158
the American Revolutionaries

132
00:08:49,250 --> 00:08:53,918
that they would pay,
"No taxation without representation."

133
00:08:58,288 --> 00:09:01,519
'This was the beginning
of kingship in England -

134
00:09:01,620 --> 00:09:05,320
'local war leaders
chosen by the people of the district,

135
00:09:05,408 --> 00:09:07,519
'war leaders like Beowulf

136
00:09:07,620 --> 00:09:10,178
'hero of the Anglo-Saxon epic poem,

137
00:09:10,250 --> 00:09:13,870
'who, thanks to his prowess,
eventually became king,

138
00:09:13,980 --> 00:09:16,360
'reigned gloriously for 50 winters

139
00:09:16,460 --> 00:09:19,370
'and was given a magnificent funeral.'

140
00:09:25,580 --> 00:09:27,850
(Man reciting Beowulf in Old English)

141
00:09:27,940 --> 00:09:31,250
(Translator) 'The Geat people
built a pyre for Beowulf,

142
00:09:31,340 --> 00:09:34,808
'Stacked it and decked it
till it stood foursquare.

143
00:09:34,889 --> 00:09:37,519
'Hung with helmets, heavy war shields,

144
00:09:37,620 --> 00:09:41,490
'On a height, they kindled
the hugest of all funeral fires.

145
00:09:41,580 --> 00:09:44,490
'Flames wrought havoc,
in the hot bone house

146
00:09:44,580 --> 00:09:46,450
'Burning it to the core.

147
00:09:46,528 --> 00:09:48,600
'Heaven swallowed the smoke.'

148
00:10:03,580 --> 00:10:07,850
(David Starkey) 'Beowulf's treasures
were burned with Beowulf's body.

149
00:10:07,940 --> 00:10:13,168
'Luckily, other war leaders-cum-kings
were not cremated, but buried.

150
00:10:13,250 --> 00:10:16,788
'It is those burials
which provide the best evidence

151
00:10:16,889 --> 00:10:19,558
'for the origins of monarchy in England.

152
00:10:20,980 --> 00:10:26,330
'The burials are often clustered round
even older, prehistoric monuments.

153
00:10:26,408 --> 00:10:28,759
'By reusing these older sites,

154
00:10:28,860 --> 00:10:32,730
'it seems the new men were
demonstrating their importance

155
00:10:32,820 --> 00:10:36,519
'to all their people,
Briton and Saxon alike.

156
00:10:37,580 --> 00:10:41,278
'None of these cemeteries
is more impressive than Sutton Hoo

157
00:10:41,370 --> 00:10:45,240
'in East Anglia,
where the mounds crown a ridge

158
00:10:45,340 --> 00:10:47,899
'by the estuary of the River Deben.

159
00:10:49,370 --> 00:10:53,070
'In 1939, attracted by some chance finds,

160
00:10:53,168 --> 00:10:57,200
'archaeologists investigated
one of the mounds here.

161
00:10:57,288 --> 00:10:59,558
'What they found was spectacular.

162
00:10:59,649 --> 00:11:03,320
'An entire ship had been buried
in a barrow. The body had gone,

163
00:11:03,408 --> 00:11:05,399
'eaten away by the acid soil,

164
00:11:05,500 --> 00:11:08,250
'but the archaeologists
were able to make out

165
00:11:08,340 --> 00:11:13,009
'the detail of the Dark Age ship,
timbers, rivets and all.

166
00:11:13,100 --> 00:11:15,288
'The grave goods were astonishing.'

167
00:11:17,500 --> 00:11:20,808
There's been intense debate
about who is buried here

168
00:11:20,889 --> 00:11:24,840
but most are now agreed that
these mounds are the burial site

169
00:11:24,940 --> 00:11:28,288
of a family called the Wuffingers,

170
00:11:28,370 --> 00:11:31,038
the royal dynasty of the East Angles,

171
00:11:31,129 --> 00:11:35,360
and this, the biggest mound,
is probably the burial site

172
00:11:35,460 --> 00:11:37,970
of the most important member
of the dynasty,

173
00:11:38,048 --> 00:11:40,120
a man called Raedwald.

174
00:11:41,460 --> 00:11:45,330
'Bede's history tells us
that Raedwald ruled in East Anglia

175
00:11:45,408 --> 00:11:49,840
'as one of several regional leaders
in the new England.

176
00:11:49,940 --> 00:11:52,808
'His power as a warrior
and his legendary wealth

177
00:11:52,889 --> 00:11:57,038
'made him stand out
as a first amongst equals.

178
00:11:57,129 --> 00:12:03,200
'But was he a true king,
sanctified by rituals like coronation?

179
00:12:03,288 --> 00:12:05,639
'He was certainly a very rich man,

180
00:12:05,740 --> 00:12:08,298
'as his grave goods testify.

181
00:12:12,769 --> 00:12:16,470
'The gold and garnet jewellery
is unequalled in Europe

182
00:12:16,580 --> 00:12:20,200
'and the shoulder clasps
and belt buckles are unique.

183
00:12:28,460 --> 00:12:30,970
'From the shores
of the Mediterranean Sea

184
00:12:31,048 --> 00:12:36,840
'came richly engraved silverware
from the far-off Byzantine Empire,

185
00:12:36,940 --> 00:12:39,690
'classical and even Christian.

186
00:12:39,769 --> 00:12:44,678
'But the barrow also contained objects
which are even more intriguing.

187
00:12:46,740 --> 00:12:49,730
'A pattern-welded sword
of the finest steel

188
00:12:49,820 --> 00:12:55,528
'of the kind we find named and
celebrated in the epic poetry of the time.

189
00:13:05,129 --> 00:13:10,399
'The ceremonial helmet was far more
than a piece of military hardware,

190
00:13:11,250 --> 00:13:17,759
'for in later times, the Saxon word
for crown was cyne-helm,

191
00:13:17,860 --> 00:13:19,808
'or helmet of the king.

192
00:13:23,700 --> 00:13:28,129
'Most intriguingly, the burial included
a decorated whetstone

193
00:13:28,220 --> 00:13:30,408
'polished from the hardest rock.

194
00:13:30,500 --> 00:13:34,610
'Was this perhaps
a kind of royal sceptre?'

195
00:13:36,009 --> 00:13:39,360
These are more than the grave goods
of just a rich man.

196
00:13:39,460 --> 00:13:42,850
They're regalia,
the symbols of a ritualised monarchy,

197
00:13:42,940 --> 00:13:46,850
and they include many objects,
the sceptre there, if that's what it is,

198
00:13:46,940 --> 00:13:52,730
the sword and the helmet, that were later
to figure in real coronation rituals.

199
00:13:52,820 --> 00:13:55,200
'It's clear that Raedwald here

200
00:13:55,288 --> 00:13:58,798
'is much more
than just an elected war leader.'

201
00:13:58,889 --> 00:14:02,480
He's a real king, like Henry VIII, even.

202
00:14:02,580 --> 00:14:06,490
Like Henry, he's fond of music
and he's buried with a lyre.

203
00:14:06,580 --> 00:14:09,928
'Like Henry,
he's a discerning patron of the arts

204
00:14:10,009 --> 00:14:12,000
'and he's got a court craftsman

205
00:14:12,100 --> 00:14:15,048
'who's able to make
the finest jewellery in Europe.

206
00:14:15,129 --> 00:14:18,038
'And, like Henry,
he delights in the weaponry

207
00:14:18,129 --> 00:14:21,038
'and the accoutrements
of the warrior world.'

208
00:14:21,129 --> 00:14:24,720
But Raedwald's grave goods
also show something else.

209
00:14:24,820 --> 00:14:28,649
He had contacts
beyond just the world of the North Sea.

210
00:14:28,740 --> 00:14:31,168
He reached out into Christian France

211
00:14:31,250 --> 00:14:34,320
and beyond that,
to the surviving Roman Empire

212
00:14:34,408 --> 00:14:36,639
in Byzantium.

213
00:14:36,740 --> 00:14:42,129
Raedwald here is an English king
on the cusp of a new world,

214
00:14:42,220 --> 00:14:45,450
the world of Christian monarchy.

215
00:14:54,769 --> 00:14:57,519
'England at the turn of the sixth century,

216
00:14:57,620 --> 00:15:01,240
'the world of Raedwald
and his fellow regional kings,

217
00:15:01,340 --> 00:15:03,370
'was rich, strange and bloody.

218
00:15:03,460 --> 00:15:06,370
'It was peopled
with monsters and dragons,

219
00:15:06,460 --> 00:15:08,408
'miracle-working swords

220
00:15:08,500 --> 00:15:11,408
'and kings all claimed,
descent from Woden

221
00:15:11,500 --> 00:15:15,120
'chief of the Anglo-Saxon pagan gods.

222
00:15:15,220 --> 00:15:18,370
'Periodically,
by guile or military prowess,

223
00:15:18,460 --> 00:15:22,610
'one of these petty kings
would make himself first amongst equals

224
00:15:22,700 --> 00:15:26,129
'or even overlord of most of England.

225
00:15:26,220 --> 00:15:31,210
'One of the most successful
was Ethelbert, King of Kent.

226
00:15:31,288 --> 00:15:33,720
'Ethelbert's prestige derived

227
00:15:33,820 --> 00:15:38,730
'from his access to the material
and cultural riches across the channel

228
00:15:38,820 --> 00:15:40,450
'for there, unlike here

229
00:15:40,528 --> 00:15:46,200
'Roman institutions had not disappeared
with the political collapse of the empire.

230
00:15:46,288 --> 00:15:50,759
'The territory had been conquered
by another Germanic people, the Franks,

231
00:15:50,860 --> 00:15:52,808
'who gave their name to France.

232
00:15:52,889 --> 00:15:57,720
'But, under Frankish rule
Roman society, language and literature

233
00:15:57,820 --> 00:15:59,730
'and Roman Christianity

234
00:15:59,820 --> 00:16:01,570
'had all survived.'

235
00:16:03,100 --> 00:16:05,480
The result was a glittering prospect

236
00:16:05,580 --> 00:16:09,009
for an ambitious Anglo-Saxon king
like Ethelbert

237
00:16:09,100 --> 00:16:11,450
and he determined to grab a share of it

238
00:16:11,528 --> 00:16:14,720
by marrying a Frankish princess.

239
00:16:14,820 --> 00:16:18,850
In that marriage,
two different, contrasting worlds,

240
00:16:18,940 --> 00:16:22,690
the Anglo-Saxon and the Roman,
were to meet.

241
00:16:27,940 --> 00:16:30,129
'The princess's name was Bertha,

242
00:16:30,220 --> 00:16:34,210
'and she came to England
in about 580AD.

243
00:16:34,288 --> 00:16:40,360
'Her arrival began a process which would
transform the nature of English kingship,

244
00:16:40,460 --> 00:16:45,129
'because Bertha was a Christian
brought up in a Christian court.

245
00:16:45,220 --> 00:16:47,330
'Her husband Ethelbert gave her

246
00:16:47,408 --> 00:16:53,440
'the little Romano-British church of
St Martin's at Canterbury to worship in.

247
00:16:53,528 --> 00:16:57,149
'It wasn't long before Bertha's
Frankish family got a letter

248
00:16:57,250 --> 00:16:59,710
'telling them
that the people of England

249
00:16:59,820 --> 00:17:02,690
'wished to be converted
to the Christian faith.'

250
00:17:04,980 --> 00:17:07,048
The man who wrote the letter

251
00:17:07,140 --> 00:17:10,920
was Gregory,
Bishop - or Pope - of Rome.

252
00:17:11,009 --> 00:17:14,548
He was a great man in a great office,

253
00:17:14,660 --> 00:17:20,210
for the popes were already claiming
to be heirs not only to St Peter,

254
00:17:20,288 --> 00:17:23,240
but of the Roman emperors as well.

255
00:17:23,328 --> 00:17:25,759
Gregory's power was different,
of course.

256
00:17:25,848 --> 00:17:28,640
It consisted, not of legions of soldiers,

257
00:17:28,740 --> 00:17:31,769
but of regiments of priests and monks.

258
00:17:31,848 --> 00:17:33,400
But they were organised

259
00:17:33,500 --> 00:17:38,650
with all the old Roman respect
for discipline, hierarchy,

260
00:17:38,740 --> 00:17:41,118
efficiency and law.

261
00:17:42,009 --> 00:17:46,358
Now, Bertha's marriage to Ethelbert
presented Gregory with the opportunity

262
00:17:46,460 --> 00:17:52,288
to launch a new Roman conquest
of England for Christianity.

263
00:17:52,380 --> 00:17:54,940
His chosen general in the campaign

264
00:17:55,009 --> 00:17:59,640
was an Italian monk of good family
named Augustine.

265
00:18:02,980 --> 00:18:06,680
'The party landed in 597AD.

266
00:18:06,769 --> 00:18:11,160
'Bede tells us that Augustine approached
the king singing a litany

267
00:18:11,250 --> 00:18:14,519
'and bearing a silver cross
as his standard.

268
00:18:14,608 --> 00:18:18,308
'Fearing that Augustine might possess
magical powers,

269
00:18:18,420 --> 00:18:22,848
'Ethelbert insisted that the encounter
take place in the open air,

270
00:18:22,940 --> 00:18:27,650
'but the meeting itself
was all courteousness on both sides.

271
00:18:28,328 --> 00:18:32,108
'The pagan King Ethelbert
wasn't immediately convinced.

272
00:18:32,220 --> 00:18:37,078
'Even so, he allowed the mission to stay
and start its work in Kent.'

273
00:18:39,140 --> 00:18:42,920
Ethelbert was playing
a subtle political game.

274
00:18:43,009 --> 00:18:46,710
He was well aware of the advantages
which had accrued to the Franks

275
00:18:46,808 --> 00:18:49,480
after their conversion to Christianity

276
00:18:49,568 --> 00:18:53,269
but he needed to be convinced
that it would work for him

277
00:18:53,380 --> 00:18:57,650
for the political risks of conversion
Were enormous.

278
00:18:57,740 --> 00:19:03,890
So, in effect, he was inviting Augustine
to market-test Christianity.

279
00:19:04,660 --> 00:19:07,170
Augustine got to work right away

280
00:19:07,250 --> 00:19:08,880
with a mission based here

281
00:19:08,980 --> 00:19:12,490
in Bertha's little church
of St Martin's, Canterbury.

282
00:19:15,288 --> 00:19:18,910
'Within a few months
Augustine was claiming success

283
00:19:19,009 --> 00:19:21,278
'with a mass baptism at Christmas.

284
00:19:21,380 --> 00:19:26,808
'The mission built itself a new, much
grander church as its headquarters,

285
00:19:26,900 --> 00:19:29,490
'here at St Augustine's, Canterbury.

286
00:19:29,568 --> 00:19:32,640
'Soon, even Ethelbert himself
was convinced

287
00:19:32,740 --> 00:19:34,528
'and he was to be buried here

288
00:19:34,608 --> 00:19:38,880
'with all the pomp
that the Roman Church could muster.

289
00:19:38,980 --> 00:19:41,690
'The king had been converted,

290
00:19:41,769 --> 00:19:45,548
'but it was not the fear of hell
that convinced Ethelbert.

291
00:19:45,660 --> 00:19:47,608
'It was politics,

292
00:19:47,700 --> 00:19:51,318
'for Christianity enhanced his kingship
with two things

293
00:19:51,420 --> 00:19:54,288
'which were very attractive
to Dark Age rule:

294
00:19:54,380 --> 00:19:57,009
'Roman ideas about power

295
00:19:57,088 --> 00:19:59,920
'and Roman ways of doing things.'

296
00:20:02,288 --> 00:20:05,880
But the Roman Church borrowed
much more from the Roman Empire

297
00:20:05,980 --> 00:20:07,650
than just ceremony.

298
00:20:07,740 --> 00:20:09,690
Like Rome, it used Latin

299
00:20:09,769 --> 00:20:13,308
it had an elaborate system of
law and administration

300
00:20:13,420 --> 00:20:15,798
and it built in stone.

301
00:20:15,900 --> 00:20:19,210
But, above all, it was ruled by
a monarch - the Pope,

302
00:20:19,288 --> 00:20:21,400
who claimed, like the emperors,

303
00:20:21,500 --> 00:20:24,410
absolute and divinely ordained authority.

304
00:20:24,500 --> 00:20:28,278
He even used one of the imperial titles:
Supreme Pontiff.

305
00:20:28,380 --> 00:20:32,000
Now, all this
the Church made available to Ethelbert

306
00:20:32,088 --> 00:20:34,838
now that he'd converted to Christianity.

307
00:20:35,288 --> 00:20:39,960
Could the old English idea
of elective kingship survive

308
00:20:40,048 --> 00:20:43,670
these new trappings
of imperial and divine authority

309
00:20:43,769 --> 00:20:45,960
and the power that went with them?

310
00:20:49,500 --> 00:20:54,410
'From now on, English kings presented
themselves not as pagan warlords,

311
00:20:54,500 --> 00:20:58,848
'but as the successors of the emperors
and the new kings of Israel,

312
00:20:58,940 --> 00:21:02,250
'literate, godly and divinely ordained.

313
00:21:02,328 --> 00:21:06,960
'But, despite this new, elevated rhetoric
of Christian kingship,

314
00:21:07,048 --> 00:21:13,519
'the life of the typical Anglo-Saxon king
remained nasty, brutish and short.

315
00:21:14,769 --> 00:21:19,358
'England was still divided
into a clutch of regional monarchies.

316
00:21:19,460 --> 00:21:22,930
'To the north
lay the kingdom of Northumbria.

317
00:21:23,009 --> 00:21:27,278
'To the south were the kingdoms
of Wessex, Sussex and Kent.

318
00:21:27,380 --> 00:21:30,368
'Sprawling across the, midlands
was Mercia

319
00:21:30,460 --> 00:21:33,368
'which was the stage
for the next power play

320
00:21:33,460 --> 00:21:36,048
'in the story of the English monarchy.'

321
00:21:40,088 --> 00:21:43,038
'In the year of Our Lord 757,

322
00:21:43,140 --> 00:21:47,170
'the king of Mercia was murdered
at Seckington,

323
00:21:47,250 --> 00:21:49,880
'near Tamworth in Staffordshire.

324
00:21:50,940 --> 00:21:53,368
'The chronicle tells us that he was

325
00:21:53,460 --> 00:21:58,130
'"treacherously killed
by his own household at night

326
00:21:58,220 --> 00:22:00,250
'"in shocking fashion."'

327
00:22:13,380 --> 00:22:17,000
The king's remains
were brought to Repton here

328
00:22:17,088 --> 00:22:21,000
and buried in this mausoleum
of the Mercian kings.

329
00:22:21,088 --> 00:22:23,960
It was another spectacular royal funeral,

330
00:22:24,048 --> 00:22:27,828
like those at Sutton Hoo
or St Augustine's, Canterbury.

331
00:22:27,940 --> 00:22:30,930
You can still see behind me here

332
00:22:31,009 --> 00:22:36,200
one of the alcoves where the
richly-jewelled reliquaries once stood.

333
00:22:36,288 --> 00:22:39,598
But there's a wicked twist to this story,

334
00:22:39,700 --> 00:22:43,240
because the man
who organised this splendid funeral

335
00:22:43,328 --> 00:22:46,160
was perhaps also
the man behind the murder.

336
00:22:46,250 --> 00:22:49,720
Certainly, he was the one
who profited from it.

337
00:22:49,808 --> 00:22:53,759
He's one of the forgotten heroes
of English history,

338
00:22:53,848 --> 00:22:56,358
a man who operated on a European scale

339
00:22:56,460 --> 00:22:59,568
and dominated the England of his day.

340
00:22:59,660 --> 00:23:03,848
His name is Offa, King of Mercia.

341
00:23:07,769 --> 00:23:11,000
'The kingdom of Mercia
had formed in the Marches

342
00:23:11,088 --> 00:23:16,160
'a frontier district of England
where the Saxons fought with the Welsh.

343
00:23:16,250 --> 00:23:21,160
'From here, Offa's predecessors had
pushed their influence south and east,

344
00:23:21,250 --> 00:23:23,318
'right down Watling Street to London

345
00:23:23,420 --> 00:23:26,088
'and the rich pickings of Kent and Essex.

346
00:23:27,140 --> 00:23:32,608
'Effectively, they were the lords
of the cross-England highway, the A5.

347
00:23:33,288 --> 00:23:35,400
'Like other Anglo-Saxon kings,

348
00:23:35,500 --> 00:23:40,130
'Offa had to exert control
through brute military power,

349
00:23:40,220 --> 00:23:42,130
'but he also aimed to recreate

350
00:23:42,220 --> 00:23:46,730
'the absolute autocratic authority
of the Christian Roman Empire,

351
00:23:46,808 --> 00:23:50,200
'and here, at Bricksworth Church
in Northamptonshire,

352
00:23:50,288 --> 00:23:52,798
'which Offa enlarged and beautified,

353
00:23:52,900 --> 00:23:56,368
'we have a spectacular
insight into Offa's vision,

354
00:23:56,460 --> 00:24:00,160
'for although the church is Anglo Saxon,
it looks Roman

355
00:24:00,250 --> 00:24:02,680
'with its round arches of Roman brick

356
00:24:02,769 --> 00:24:06,240
'and its lofty wall
crowning a prominent hill.

357
00:24:06,328 --> 00:24:10,000
'Bricksworth is an appropriately
bombastic monument

358
00:24:10,088 --> 00:24:12,278
'to the zenith of Mercian power.'

359
00:24:28,528 --> 00:24:32,798
'Offa's Roman-style autocracy
brooked no opposition.

360
00:24:32,900 --> 00:24:37,568
'He was determined to extend his power
over the other English kingdoms

361
00:24:37,660 --> 00:24:40,009
'and he was ruthless in his methods.

362
00:24:43,180 --> 00:24:47,328
'Dynasties which had lasted for centuries
disappeared.

363
00:24:51,460 --> 00:24:56,769
'Sussex, which had held sway across
southern England, was swept away.

364
00:25:00,180 --> 00:25:01,890
'Even the kingdom of Kent,

365
00:25:01,980 --> 00:25:06,490
'where Ethelbert had established the
English tradition of Christian monarchy,

366
00:25:06,568 --> 00:25:08,480
'was abolished.

367
00:25:17,288 --> 00:25:21,068
'Nothing impressed a king's image
on his subjects

368
00:25:21,180 --> 00:25:25,970
'more than the coins
with which they bought their daily bread.

369
00:25:29,220 --> 00:25:34,769
'Offa was the first English king
to stamp his name on his currency.

370
00:25:38,500 --> 00:25:41,088
'Here it is, with a portrait of the king,

371
00:25:41,180 --> 00:25:46,170
'which echoes manuscript images
of the biblical King David.

372
00:25:48,250 --> 00:25:50,278
'And, most astonishing of all,

373
00:25:50,380 --> 00:25:53,769
'here is his name on a new gold coinage,

374
00:25:53,848 --> 00:25:56,759
'modelled on coins
from the fabulous East

375
00:25:56,848 --> 00:25:58,880
'the fount of all wealth

376
00:25:58,980 --> 00:26:03,920
'but with Offa's name stamped in the
middle of the copied Arabic inscription.

377
00:26:07,088 --> 00:26:10,868
'The greatest symbol
of the king's imperial power is this,

378
00:26:10,980 --> 00:26:12,038
'Offa's Dyke.

379
00:26:12,140 --> 00:26:16,009
'64 miles long
and a continuous earthwork barrier

380
00:26:16,088 --> 00:26:18,200
'along his frontier with Wales,

381
00:26:18,288 --> 00:26:21,828
'it is a work of almost studied contempt
for the Welsh.

382
00:26:23,380 --> 00:26:27,450
'This was the largest civil engineering
project since the Romans,

383
00:26:27,528 --> 00:26:30,440
'fully comparable in scale
to Hadrian's Wall.

384
00:26:30,528 --> 00:26:32,519
'The dyke is more than a monument.

385
00:26:32,608 --> 00:26:37,759
'It's evidence, proof that Offa could
mobilise enough manpower to build it.

386
00:26:37,848 --> 00:26:40,480
'Offa was bidding for imperial status

387
00:26:40,568 --> 00:26:44,480
'with a fortification of an imperial kind.

388
00:26:47,250 --> 00:26:49,358
'Finally, in 787,

389
00:26:49,460 --> 00:26:53,930
'Offa attempted to ensure
the survival of his magnificent vision

390
00:26:54,009 --> 00:26:56,440
'by having his son anointed king.

391
00:26:56,528 --> 00:26:58,880
'Offa was creating a dynasty,

392
00:26:58,980 --> 00:27:02,088
'which could inherit
his power and status.

393
00:27:03,740 --> 00:27:07,808
'And, in line
with Offa's imperial pretensions,

394
00:27:07,900 --> 00:27:12,568
'this was the first Christian royal
consecration we know of in England

395
00:27:12,660 --> 00:27:16,278
'in which the whole panoply
of the Church was deployed

396
00:27:16,380 --> 00:27:19,288
'to declare
that the boy was God's anointed

397
00:27:19,380 --> 00:27:22,528
'and his father's
unchallengeable successor.

398
00:27:23,608 --> 00:27:26,598
'But, it was also an English ceremony,

399
00:27:26,700 --> 00:27:29,078
'invoking older royal traditions

400
00:27:29,180 --> 00:27:32,130
'that went back
to Sutton Hoo and beyond.

401
00:27:33,940 --> 00:27:38,798
'For the boy was invested not with
a crown but with a royal helmet.

402
00:27:44,048 --> 00:27:49,038
'With this consecration and investiture
of his son, Offa was confident.

403
00:27:49,140 --> 00:27:54,490
'The future, both of his house
and of Mercian power seemed secure.'

404
00:28:00,528 --> 00:28:02,480
'But it was not to be

405
00:28:02,568 --> 00:28:07,240
'for Offa seems to have behaved
more like the godfather of a mafia family

406
00:28:07,328 --> 00:28:09,838
'than the ruler of a legitimate state.

407
00:28:09,940 --> 00:28:14,769
'Indeed, the English were to remember
him more for the kings that he murdered

408
00:28:14,848 --> 00:28:17,440
'than for the kingdom that he built.

409
00:28:17,528 --> 00:28:22,318
The result was that within 20 years
of his death in 796

410
00:28:22,420 --> 00:28:26,608
the Greater Mercian dominion
that he'd created had dissolved

411
00:28:26,700 --> 00:28:30,088
back into what was then
the usual state of England -

412
00:28:30,180 --> 00:28:34,170
a patchwork of smaller, rival kingdoms -

413
00:28:34,250 --> 00:28:39,519
kingdoms that were about to undergo
the severest of ordeals -

414
00:28:39,608 --> 00:28:41,078
invasion.

415
00:28:46,769 --> 00:28:48,720
'Four and a half centuries

416
00:28:48,808 --> 00:28:52,720
'after the Angles and Saxons had begun
to raid the English coast,

417
00:28:52,808 --> 00:28:57,640
'they found themselves in turn
invaded by pirates from further north -

418
00:28:57,740 --> 00:28:59,690
'the Vikings.

419
00:28:59,769 --> 00:29:02,200
'The Vikings came from Scandinavia

420
00:29:02,288 --> 00:29:05,440
'and their effect on England
was devastating.

421
00:29:12,140 --> 00:29:13,730
'Drawn by plunder,

422
00:29:13,808 --> 00:29:16,759
'for three generations
their warriors had attacked

423
00:29:16,848 --> 00:29:19,759
'the courts and monasteries of England,

424
00:29:19,848 --> 00:29:23,078
'almost destroying the English
in the process.

425
00:29:26,528 --> 00:29:28,519
'But by the 860s,

426
00:29:28,608 --> 00:29:33,440
'their success had suggested
new opportunities to the Viking leaders.

427
00:29:33,528 --> 00:29:38,278
'Once mere raiders, they now determined
on permanent conquest.

428
00:29:38,380 --> 00:29:42,160
'One by one,
the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms fell,

429
00:29:42,250 --> 00:29:45,358
'until only one remained - Wessex.

430
00:29:45,460 --> 00:29:50,578
'Now, the Viking leader, Guthrum,
aimed to make Wessex his own.

431
00:29:52,808 --> 00:29:57,200
'His opponent was,
like all successful Anglo-Saxon kings,

432
00:29:57,288 --> 00:29:59,519
'a man of action and a warrior

433
00:29:59,608 --> 00:30:02,118
'but this king of Wessex was more -

434
00:30:02,220 --> 00:30:05,528
'indeed, he's just about unique
in medieval history.

435
00:30:05,608 --> 00:30:10,358
'He was an intellectual, a writer, a man
whose words have come down to us.

436
00:30:10,460 --> 00:30:12,730
'For the first time in our history,

437
00:30:12,808 --> 00:30:16,118
'we can hear the genuine voice
of an English king.

438
00:30:16,220 --> 00:30:18,568
'His name was Alfred.'

439
00:30:18,660 --> 00:30:21,088
(Man reading in Old English)

440
00:30:38,250 --> 00:30:42,200
(Starkey) 'Guthrum the Viking's assault
on Alfred's kingdom

441
00:30:42,288 --> 00:30:45,990
'reached a climax in the winter of 878.

442
00:30:46,088 --> 00:30:47,838
'Guthrum surprised Alfred

443
00:30:47,940 --> 00:30:51,528
'and drove him from his hall
at Chippenham in Wiltshire.

444
00:30:51,608 --> 00:30:54,318
'The Saxon king was forced to flee

445
00:30:54,420 --> 00:30:57,410
'to the marshlands of Somerset
to Athelney.

446
00:30:57,500 --> 00:31:00,690
'It was the nadir of his fortunes.

447
00:31:00,769 --> 00:31:02,920
'Later, in one of his writings,

448
00:31:03,009 --> 00:31:06,160
'Alfred probably recalled
his predicament.'

449
00:31:06,250 --> 00:31:08,200
(Man reading in Old English)

450
00:31:12,900 --> 00:31:16,730
(Translator) 'In the midst of prosperity,
the mind is elated

451
00:31:16,808 --> 00:31:19,798
'and in prosperity,
a man forgets himself.'

452
00:31:23,848 --> 00:31:27,078
'In hardship,
he is forced to reflect on himself

453
00:31:27,180 --> 00:31:29,210
'even though he be unwilling.'

454
00:31:34,380 --> 00:31:36,940
(Starkey) 'Athelney means "royal island",

455
00:31:37,009 --> 00:31:39,960
'and Alfred fled here
because it was an island.

456
00:31:40,048 --> 00:31:43,519
'It's difficult to find
in the middle of the marshes

457
00:31:43,608 --> 00:31:48,598
'and the water which floods the fenland
in winter makes it difficult to attack.

458
00:31:48,700 --> 00:31:50,650
'But at the same time

459
00:31:50,740 --> 00:31:55,170
'it allows for easy communication
by boat with the rest of Wessex.

460
00:31:55,250 --> 00:31:58,950
'We should imagine Alfred
sending out such messengers

461
00:31:59,048 --> 00:32:03,558
'as he planned the counterattack,
as the winter turned into spring.

462
00:32:03,660 --> 00:32:05,769
'At last, after several months

463
00:32:05,848 --> 00:32:08,920
'he was ready
and he sent out the call to arms.'

464
00:32:21,808 --> 00:32:24,960
'Across the shires of Wessex
the message ran,

465
00:32:25,048 --> 00:32:29,078
'calling the people
to their traditional assembly points.

466
00:32:29,180 --> 00:32:33,608
'One of them was here in the district
of Swanborough in the Vale of Pewsey.'

467
00:32:36,460 --> 00:32:39,450
Beneath my feet
is the prehistoric burial mound

468
00:32:39,528 --> 00:32:42,318
known locally as Swanborough Tump.

469
00:32:42,420 --> 00:32:46,650
It doesn't look much, but it's got
its own place in the history of England,

470
00:32:46,740 --> 00:32:51,890
because this for centuries was actually
the centre of the local community.

471
00:32:51,980 --> 00:32:56,568
'It was here that the people came
once a month for the moot or assembly

472
00:32:56,660 --> 00:32:59,970
'of what was known
as the hundred of Swanborough.

473
00:33:00,048 --> 00:33:04,200
'Here, in the presence
of the king's reeve, or bailiff,

474
00:33:04,288 --> 00:33:09,410
'the people received the king's justice
out in the open air.

475
00:33:10,808 --> 00:33:13,400
'The king's reeve was a royal official,

476
00:33:13,500 --> 00:33:16,250
'responsible for law and order, taxation

477
00:33:16,328 --> 00:33:18,838
'and the administration of justice.'

478
00:33:18,940 --> 00:33:21,210
'Its hundred court relied

479
00:33:21,288 --> 00:33:24,519
'as English government would do
for the next 1,000 years,

480
00:33:24,608 --> 00:33:28,358
'on the distinctively English idea,
the jury -

481
00:33:28,460 --> 00:33:31,808
'a collection of local people,
some quite humble,

482
00:33:31,900 --> 00:33:33,970
'who took part as a matter of course

483
00:33:34,048 --> 00:33:37,480
'in the local administration
of justice and government.

484
00:33:40,900 --> 00:33:44,598
'Above the level of the hundred
Wessex was divided into shires

485
00:33:44,700 --> 00:33:47,450
'Hampshire, Wiltshire,
Somerset and Dorset.

486
00:33:47,528 --> 00:33:51,230
'They were run by royal officials,
not local magnates,

487
00:33:51,328 --> 00:33:53,440
'in the same way as the hundreds.

488
00:33:53,528 --> 00:33:58,240
'So twice a year, the people would come
to receive the king's justice on one hand

489
00:33:58,328 --> 00:34:02,400
'and to make their concerns known
to the king's officers on the other.

490
00:34:03,980 --> 00:34:08,170
'In Wessex, the rough and ready
egalitarianism of the earliest settlers

491
00:34:08,260 --> 00:34:12,690
'had developed into a kind of partnership
between the king and people.'

492
00:34:12,780 --> 00:34:16,289
This partnership, unlike what happened
in the rest of Europe,

493
00:34:16,380 --> 00:34:19,210
hadn't been hijacked
by the leading landowners

494
00:34:19,300 --> 00:34:22,289
and Alfred was well aware
of its importance,

495
00:34:22,380 --> 00:34:26,730
because this partnership,
the sense of all being in it together,

496
00:34:26,820 --> 00:34:30,809
made it easier for Alfred
to make heavy demands on his people

497
00:34:30,900 --> 00:34:33,090
as the invasion crisis deepened.

498
00:34:34,570 --> 00:34:36,599
'In contrast to Offa of Mercia

499
00:34:36,690 --> 00:34:40,469
'Alfred's kingship combined
Christian Roman authority

500
00:34:40,570 --> 00:34:44,920
'with the traditional participation
of the Anglo-Saxon folk.'

501
00:34:45,010 --> 00:34:46,960
(Man reading in Old English)

502
00:34:47,050 --> 00:34:51,159
(Translator) 'A man cannot work
on any enterprise without resources.

503
00:34:51,260 --> 00:34:56,010
'In the case of the king, the resources
and tools with which he has to rule

504
00:34:56,090 --> 00:34:58,599
'are that he have his land fully manned.

505
00:35:02,860 --> 00:35:06,929
'Without these tools
no king may make his ability known.'

506
00:35:15,420 --> 00:35:17,719
(Starkey)
'Alfred's call to arms went out.

507
00:35:17,820 --> 00:35:21,210
'It was the test of his style of kingship

508
00:35:21,300 --> 00:35:24,650
'and across Wessex
in their shire and hundred courts

509
00:35:24,730 --> 00:35:26,760
'his people responded.

510
00:35:26,860 --> 00:35:30,610
'Alfred's army assembled
at a prehistoric barrow in Wiltshire

511
00:35:30,690 --> 00:35:33,070
'where his grandfather had celebrated

512
00:35:33,170 --> 00:35:36,949
'the final victory
over the British people of Cornwall.

513
00:35:37,050 --> 00:35:40,920
'But the muster didn't just evoke
Wessex's glorious past.

514
00:35:41,010 --> 00:35:44,159
'Alfred's campaign
was also a kind of crusade

515
00:35:44,260 --> 00:35:49,250
'for his call to arms coincided with
Easter, the feast of the resurrection

516
00:35:49,340 --> 00:35:52,809
'and the parallel between
Alfred's recovery from defeat

517
00:35:52,900 --> 00:35:54,929
'and Christ's victory over death

518
00:35:55,010 --> 00:35:57,309
'wasn't lost on his troops.'

519
00:35:58,500 --> 00:36:02,449
(Reader) 'When they saw the king,
receiving him, not surprisingly,

520
00:36:02,530 --> 00:36:06,719
'as one restored to life
after suffering such great tribulations,

521
00:36:06,820 --> 00:36:09,250
'they were filled with immense joy.'

522
00:36:12,610 --> 00:36:16,440
(Starkey) 'From there, the army advanced
to a place called Iley Oak,

523
00:36:16,530 --> 00:36:20,309
'the traditional site
of another Wessex hundred court.

524
00:36:22,650 --> 00:36:25,079
'There, in the woods, they made camp.

525
00:36:28,130 --> 00:36:32,800
'In the morning they would march out
to meet Guthrum and his Vikings.'

526
00:36:37,730 --> 00:36:41,920
Military experts have calculated that this
was probably the site of the battle.

527
00:36:42,010 --> 00:36:43,960
We can't know for certain

528
00:36:44,050 --> 00:36:46,800
as there have been
no systematic excavations,

529
00:36:46,900 --> 00:36:50,518
but chance finds have turned up remains
of the right period,

530
00:36:50,610 --> 00:36:52,719
some of them heavily mutilated.

531
00:36:52,820 --> 00:36:57,650
This isn't surprising
as the battle was savage and bloody.

532
00:36:57,730 --> 00:37:01,920
Both sides had too much at stake
for it to be anything else.

533
00:37:02,010 --> 00:37:06,719
Guthrum knew that for his takeover
of the Kingdom of Wessex to succeed,

534
00:37:06,820 --> 00:37:09,380
he had to kill Alfred outright.

535
00:37:09,460 --> 00:37:11,730
As for Alfred and the men of Wessex

536
00:37:11,820 --> 00:37:16,489
they knew that this was probably
their last chance of independence.

537
00:37:16,570 --> 00:37:21,159
If Guthrum won, the Viking takeover
of England would be complete.

538
00:37:26,650 --> 00:37:29,159
'On the brow of the hill above Edington,

539
00:37:29,260 --> 00:37:32,880
'Guthrum stationed the front rank
of his shield wall.

540
00:37:34,860 --> 00:37:37,449
'Alfred's men were forced to attack.

541
00:37:46,610 --> 00:37:50,000
(Reader) 'Fighting fiercely
with a compact shield wall

542
00:37:50,090 --> 00:37:52,039
'against the entire Viking army,

543
00:37:52,130 --> 00:37:55,039
'he persevered resolutely
for a long time.'

544
00:38:10,500 --> 00:38:13,530
'At length, he gained
the victory through God's will.

545
00:38:13,610 --> 00:38:17,000
'He destroyed the Vikings
with great slaughter.'

546
00:38:34,260 --> 00:38:38,289
(Starkey) 'Alfred had established himself
as a great war leader

547
00:38:38,380 --> 00:38:43,369
'at the head of the shires, and Wessex
was saved - for the time being at least.

548
00:38:45,130 --> 00:38:49,679
'But the future of the rest of England
still hung in the balance.

549
00:39:01,130 --> 00:39:06,039
'At Edington in 878,
King Alfred had vanquished an enemy

550
00:39:06,130 --> 00:39:09,559
'who had threatened the very existence
of his kingdom,

551
00:39:09,650 --> 00:39:13,429
'but winning the battle
wasn't the same as winning the war.

552
00:39:13,530 --> 00:39:15,518
'To do that

553
00:39:15,610 --> 00:39:19,599
'Alfred had to put all Wessex
on a full-time war footing.

554
00:39:19,690 --> 00:39:22,840
'He created a navy
with bigger and better ships

555
00:39:22,940 --> 00:39:25,010
'and he reorganised the army

556
00:39:25,090 --> 00:39:29,800
'to enable him to put troops into the field
at almost any time.

557
00:39:32,380 --> 00:39:35,889
'Most effective of all
was the chain of fortresses

558
00:39:35,980 --> 00:39:40,250
'he built across his kingdom
to deny the Vikings a free passage.

559
00:39:40,340 --> 00:39:43,570
'Winchester, the capital,
was one of the first

560
00:39:43,650 --> 00:39:49,039
'and their true significance was much
greater than their defensive capability.

561
00:39:51,730 --> 00:39:55,960
'These burh fortresses
weren't private castles

562
00:39:56,050 --> 00:39:58,119
'owned by some lord or bishop

563
00:39:58,210 --> 00:40:00,159
'and manned by his retainers.'

564
00:40:00,260 --> 00:40:03,489
Instead, they were fortified communities

565
00:40:03,570 --> 00:40:07,320
founded by the king
and defended by his people.

566
00:40:07,420 --> 00:40:11,409
'And, as Alfred had intended
from the beginning,

567
00:40:11,500 --> 00:40:13,650
'they quickly became real towns,

568
00:40:13,730 --> 00:40:16,000
'boosting trade,

569
00:40:16,090 --> 00:40:18,039
'and, with it, taxes.'

570
00:40:18,130 --> 00:40:22,760
As a result, the king got rich
and his people grew prosperous,

571
00:40:22,860 --> 00:40:26,250
whilst the word borough,
as we pronounce it today,

572
00:40:26,340 --> 00:40:29,409
started to assume
its modern meaning as well,

573
00:40:29,500 --> 00:40:31,929
of a self-governing urban community

574
00:40:32,010 --> 00:40:33,960
under royal patronage.

575
00:40:34,050 --> 00:40:37,559
The first and greatest
of those royal patrons

576
00:40:37,650 --> 00:40:40,000
was Alfred himself.

577
00:40:44,570 --> 00:40:47,320
'The burhs were so important to Alfred

578
00:40:47,420 --> 00:40:53,050
'that their names often replace the
moneyers on the reverse of his coins.

579
00:40:53,130 --> 00:40:57,599
'This one displays
the monogram of the mint at London.

580
00:40:58,460 --> 00:41:01,050
'For London was the burh of burhs.

581
00:41:01,130 --> 00:41:03,360
'As the Viking tide ebbed in England,

582
00:41:03,460 --> 00:41:07,768
'Alfred pushed forward beyond
his kingdom's traditional frontiers

583
00:41:07,860 --> 00:41:12,130
'but it was his capture and refortification
of the city of London

584
00:41:12,210 --> 00:41:15,829
'that marked a new direction
in his kingship.'

585
00:41:19,050 --> 00:41:24,880
London was already the largest town
and commercial powerhouse of England

586
00:41:24,980 --> 00:41:28,449
and it had been the jewel
in King Offa's crown.

587
00:41:28,530 --> 00:41:32,639
Now the jewel was Alfred's
and the prestige that went with it.

588
00:41:32,730 --> 00:41:35,760
So, following his capture of the city

589
00:41:35,860 --> 00:41:38,929
and its refortification in 886

590
00:41:39,010 --> 00:41:41,920
Alfred inflated his title

591
00:41:42,010 --> 00:41:43,559
and his ambition.

592
00:41:43,650 --> 00:41:47,960
Hitherto, he'd only been king
of the west Saxons.

593
00:41:48,050 --> 00:41:53,039
Now he called himself
king of the Angles and the Saxons.

594
00:41:54,210 --> 00:42:00,440
'Could a claim for Alfred to be king
of all the English be far behind?

595
00:42:03,260 --> 00:42:07,039
'For that's how he's described
in this vital document.'

596
00:42:07,940 --> 00:42:09,889
(Man reading in Old English)

597
00:42:12,690 --> 00:42:16,000
'It's the peace treaty
Alfred made with Guthrum

598
00:42:16,090 --> 00:42:19,789
'which formalised
Viking control of eastern England.

599
00:42:19,900 --> 00:42:22,610
'But in the treaty,
Alfred described himself as

600
00:42:22,690 --> 00:42:27,360
'"king of all the English
not ruled over by the Danes."'

601
00:42:27,460 --> 00:42:30,650
Alfred, in fact, ruled only part of England

602
00:42:30,730 --> 00:42:35,480
but already, there's the beginning here
of a national political idea

603
00:42:35,570 --> 00:42:38,239
and Alfred's books tell the same story.

604
00:42:39,420 --> 00:42:42,960
'It was Alfred who commissioned
the national book of record

605
00:42:43,050 --> 00:42:45,000
'the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

606
00:42:45,090 --> 00:42:49,199
'It's called Anglo-Saxon
not only because of its subject matter

607
00:42:49,300 --> 00:42:50,809
'but because of its language.

608
00:42:50,900 --> 00:42:53,929
'For unlike the chronicles produced
elsewhere in Europe,

609
00:42:54,010 --> 00:42:58,840
'it's written not in Latin
but in the vernacular, Anglo-Saxon.

610
00:43:00,010 --> 00:43:04,599
'This means that it's not written
by churchmen for churchmen.

611
00:43:04,690 --> 00:43:08,119
'Instead, it's a king talking to his people

612
00:43:08,210 --> 00:43:12,840
'in the language that they understand
and his people talking to themselves.'

613
00:43:12,940 --> 00:43:16,090
There's no doubt
that this use of Anglo-Saxon,

614
00:43:16,170 --> 00:43:19,159
the vernacular
the language of the people,

615
00:43:19,260 --> 00:43:23,690
is a deliberate policy of consciousness
raising on Alfred's part.

616
00:43:23,780 --> 00:43:28,849
Not only does Alfred himself make many
such translations into Anglo-Saxon,

617
00:43:28,940 --> 00:43:33,489
he also, in the letter
which introduces the Pastoral Care

618
00:43:33,570 --> 00:43:35,518
tells us why.

619
00:43:36,300 --> 00:43:38,289
(Man reading in Old English)

620
00:43:39,340 --> 00:43:43,449
(Translator) 'We too should turn into
the language that we can all understand

621
00:43:43,530 --> 00:43:47,719
'certain books which are the most
necessary for all men to know,

622
00:43:47,820 --> 00:43:51,090
'so that all the freeborn young men
now in England,

623
00:43:51,170 --> 00:43:55,039
'who have the means to apply
themselves to it, may be set to learning

624
00:43:55,130 --> 00:43:59,199
'until the time that they can read
English writings properly.'

625
00:44:02,420 --> 00:44:05,090
When Alfred died in 899

626
00:44:05,170 --> 00:44:08,119
he still ruled over only part of England,

627
00:44:08,210 --> 00:44:13,199
but his legacy was to be
the permanent unification of the country.

628
00:44:13,300 --> 00:44:17,329
The actual work was the task
of his sons and grandsons,

629
00:44:17,420 --> 00:44:21,369
but it was Alfred who
in the crucible of the Viking invasions,

630
00:44:21,460 --> 00:44:23,840
had forged an idea of England

631
00:44:23,940 --> 00:44:27,329
that was more than simply cultural
or linguistic.

632
00:44:28,340 --> 00:44:32,119
It was political or, rather,
uniquely in Europe at the time,

633
00:44:32,210 --> 00:44:34,719
it was a combination of all three.

634
00:44:37,500 --> 00:44:42,170
'In the years after his death,
his successors pushed back the Vikings,

635
00:44:42,260 --> 00:44:45,010
'taking over all the land they had settled,

636
00:44:45,090 --> 00:44:49,119
'and, as they did so, they created shires
on the Wessex pattern

637
00:44:49,210 --> 00:44:52,199
'across the whole of England
up to the Humber.

638
00:44:52,300 --> 00:44:55,369
'This political geography
is with us today.

639
00:44:55,460 --> 00:44:58,610
'The creation of England
was almost complete.

640
00:44:59,570 --> 00:45:02,360
'But the house of Wessex
did not stop there.

641
00:45:02,460 --> 00:45:07,170
'In two generations, English kings
had established their lordship

642
00:45:07,260 --> 00:45:12,119
'over the whole of Britain, over Wales
Scotland and the Western Isles.

643
00:45:12,980 --> 00:45:15,539
'It was time for them to celebrate.'

644
00:45:19,820 --> 00:45:21,768
(Man reading in Old English)

645
00:45:21,860 --> 00:45:27,130
(Translator) 'Here was Edgar,
Lord of the English, hallowed to king,

646
00:45:27,210 --> 00:45:29,719
'at Akemanchester, the ancient city,

647
00:45:31,260 --> 00:45:34,610
'whose modern sons
the island dwellers, have called Bath.'

648
00:45:45,530 --> 00:45:47,960
About 70 years after Alfred's death,

649
00:45:48,050 --> 00:45:51,590
his great grandson Edgar
came here to Bath

650
00:45:51,690 --> 00:45:54,760
for what was probably
his second coronation.

651
00:45:54,860 --> 00:45:58,170
He'd already been crowned
as King of the English,

652
00:45:58,260 --> 00:46:02,610
but meantime, he'd established
his authority over all Britain -

653
00:46:02,690 --> 00:46:07,000
hence the choice of Bath
for another, bigger ceremony,

654
00:46:07,090 --> 00:46:11,280
for in Bath, there was a unique
combination of a Christian abbey

655
00:46:11,380 --> 00:46:16,500
next door to the largest,
most impressive ruins of Roman Britain.

656
00:46:16,570 --> 00:46:20,349
'It was an incomparable setting
for Edgar's coronation

657
00:46:20,460 --> 00:46:23,889
'as king of the first British Empire,

658
00:46:23,980 --> 00:46:25,929
'10th century style.'

659
00:46:43,820 --> 00:46:46,849
(Reader) 'Let thy most sacred unction
flow upon his head

660
00:46:46,940 --> 00:46:49,849
'and descend into his heart
and enter his soul

661
00:46:49,940 --> 00:46:53,849
'and let him, by the grace,
be worthy of the promises

662
00:46:53,940 --> 00:46:56,239
'which the victorious kings
have obtained

663
00:46:56,340 --> 00:46:59,170
'that in this present life,
he may reign with happiness

664
00:46:59,260 --> 00:47:03,329
'and finally attain to their fellowship
in the kingdom of heaven.'

665
00:47:06,210 --> 00:47:08,960
'Receive this ring,
the seal of the holy faith,

666
00:47:09,050 --> 00:47:12,590
'the strength of thy kingdom
and the increase of thy power,

667
00:47:12,690 --> 00:47:16,800
'whereby thou mayest learn to drive back
thy foes with triumph,

668
00:47:16,900 --> 00:47:20,768
'destroy heresies,
unite those whom thou hast conquered

669
00:47:20,860 --> 00:47:23,929
'and bind them firmly
to the Catholic faith.'

670
00:47:28,460 --> 00:47:31,489
(Starkey)
'Unlike Saxon kings of an earlier age,

671
00:47:31,570 --> 00:47:34,960
'Edgar was invested with a crown,
not a helmet

672
00:47:35,050 --> 00:47:38,119
'and the service
conducted by his archbishop

673
00:47:38,210 --> 00:47:41,679
'deliberately compared the king to Christ.

674
00:47:43,210 --> 00:47:45,719
'This coronation was so spectacular,

675
00:47:45,820 --> 00:47:50,010
'that when in 1910
more than 1,000 years later,

676
00:47:50,090 --> 00:47:55,210
'King-Emperor George V was eager
to emphasise his imperial status,

677
00:47:55,300 --> 00:48:00,239
'he turned to Edgar's coronation service
as one of his models.

678
00:48:01,530 --> 00:48:03,480
'And he was right to do so,

679
00:48:03,570 --> 00:48:06,320
'for his kingship
was the lineal descendent

680
00:48:06,420 --> 00:48:08,449
'of Edgar's and of Alfred's

681
00:48:08,530 --> 00:48:11,039
'and of that participatory monarchy

682
00:48:11,130 --> 00:48:16,119
'which had been first pioneered
in England over a millennium before.'

683
00:48:16,210 --> 00:48:20,360
Out of the chaos of
post-Roman Dark Age Britain,

684
00:48:20,460 --> 00:48:25,369
the English had created
the world's first nation state -

685
00:48:25,460 --> 00:48:27,409
one king, one country,

686
00:48:27,500 --> 00:48:30,369
one church, one currency, one language

687
00:48:30,460 --> 00:48:35,929
and a single, unified, representative
national administration.

688
00:48:36,010 --> 00:48:38,920
Never again in England would
sovereignty descend

689
00:48:39,010 --> 00:48:41,309
to the merely regional level.

690
00:48:41,420 --> 00:48:44,730
Never again,
despite disagreements and troubles,

691
00:48:44,820 --> 00:48:47,530
wars and even revolutions

692
00:48:47,610 --> 00:48:50,239
would the idea of England

693
00:48:50,340 --> 00:48:52,289
and the unity of England

694
00:48:52,380 --> 00:48:54,250
ever be challenged.