1
00:00:07,089 --> 00:00:09,358
'In the year of Our Lord 991,

2
00:00:09,460 --> 00:00:13,210
'a menacing fleet
approached the coast at East Anglia.

3
00:00:19,980 --> 00:00:24,329
'Nearly a century after
King Alfred's victory over the Vikings,

4
00:00:24,420 --> 00:00:26,370
'the Northmen were back.

5
00:00:29,500 --> 00:00:33,689
'The Viking fleet sacked Ipswich
and then made landfall

6
00:00:33,780 --> 00:00:39,570
'here on an island in the Blackwater
estuary near Maldon in Essex.'

7
00:00:43,060 --> 00:00:47,728
There then took place one of
the great battles of English history.

8
00:00:47,820 --> 00:00:50,810
On the seaward side
there were the hordes

9
00:00:50,890 --> 00:00:54,840
of the most dangerous invader
yet faced by an English king.

10
00:00:54,929 --> 00:00:58,439
On the landward side
there were the forces

11
00:00:58,530 --> 00:01:02,228
of the most sophisticated monarchy
in Western Europe.

12
00:01:02,340 --> 00:01:07,769
For England in 991
was the first nation-state.

13
00:01:07,849 --> 00:01:10,200
It wasn't a modern state, of course

14
00:01:10,290 --> 00:01:13,200
but it did have
representative institutions.

15
00:01:13,290 --> 00:01:18,640
It was ordered, it was united
and, above all, it was rich.

16
00:01:18,730 --> 00:01:22,480
But now that wealth
and political sophistication

17
00:01:22,569 --> 00:01:27,920
was up against the most viciously
effective contemporary fighting machine.

18
00:01:28,010 --> 00:01:30,358
Could it survive?

19
00:01:52,810 --> 00:01:57,239
'Our story begins nearly 20 years
before the battle of Maldon.

20
00:01:57,340 --> 00:02:02,608
'In 973 King Edgar of England,
great-grandson of Alfred the Great,

21
00:02:02,700 --> 00:02:06,530
'came to Bath to be crowned
for the second time.'

22
00:02:06,620 --> 00:02:08,568
(Majestic organ music)

23
00:02:19,688 --> 00:02:22,639
'His second coronation
celebrated the fact

24
00:02:22,740 --> 00:02:26,210
'that Edgar had managed to
establish his leadership

25
00:02:26,300 --> 00:02:28,860
'over the whole island of Britain.

26
00:02:31,250 --> 00:02:36,158
'But the heartland of his power was
a country then called Aengla Land.

27
00:02:36,250 --> 00:02:40,030
'It was England's wealth and stability
that had enabled Edgar

28
00:02:40,128 --> 00:02:43,240
'to establish the first British Empire.

29
00:02:44,300 --> 00:02:46,330
'England's stability was founded

30
00:02:46,408 --> 00:02:49,949
'on the close relationship
between monarch and people.

31
00:02:50,060 --> 00:02:53,370
'He could not rule
without their participation.

32
00:02:53,460 --> 00:02:59,250
'His power and laws protected them
from exploitation by local warlords.

33
00:03:02,460 --> 00:03:05,288
'As a result
the country was experiencing

34
00:03:05,370 --> 00:03:08,038
'an age of unusual prosperity.

35
00:03:08,128 --> 00:03:13,520
'And, under royal patronage,
English art and literature flourished.

36
00:03:16,340 --> 00:03:23,090
'This is how the king liked to be seen -
not as a warlord, but as a Christian ruler.

37
00:03:24,860 --> 00:03:29,800
'Here, Edgar is making a gift of land
to a Winchester monastery.

38
00:03:29,900 --> 00:03:34,169
'But the gift was more than
just an act of Christian piety.'

39
00:03:35,740 --> 00:03:39,090
,
By gifts such as those
recorded in this charter

40
00:03:39,180 --> 00:03:41,688
Edgar was serving another god:

41
00:03:41,780 --> 00:03:46,968
the idea of a united Aengla Land,
as it was then known.

42
00:03:47,060 --> 00:03:52,330
'Because monasteries like Winchester
were national institutions.

43
00:03:52,408 --> 00:03:54,710
'They held land all over the country.

44
00:03:54,810 --> 00:03:58,318
'They were centres of
a self-consciously English culture.'

45
00:03:58,408 --> 00:04:01,479
And above all, they were royal.

46
00:04:01,580 --> 00:04:06,810
All this was good PR,
but it was also vital practical politics,

47
00:04:06,900 --> 00:04:13,128
because Edgar's England, the unified
England, was only a few decades old.

48
00:04:13,210 --> 00:04:18,040
There was always the possibility that
it could be destroyed by enemies abroad

49
00:04:18,129 --> 00:04:20,920
or, still more dangerously, at home.

50
00:04:28,540 --> 00:04:32,290
'Only two years
after the ceremony at Bath, Edgar died,

51
00:04:32,370 --> 00:04:35,278
'and immediately there was trouble.

52
00:04:37,300 --> 00:04:41,490
'At that time, for all the political
sophistication of England,

53
00:04:41,569 --> 00:04:44,319
'there were no fixed rules of succession.

54
00:04:45,660 --> 00:04:50,850
'Fatally, Edgar had two surviving sons.
The elder was crowned king.

55
00:04:50,930 --> 00:04:55,560
'But just three years later
he was attacked and killed

56
00:04:55,660 --> 00:04:59,528
'by his own brother's henchmen,
here at Corfe.'

57
00:05:02,129 --> 00:05:03,240
(Screams)

58
00:05:07,620 --> 00:05:11,290
'This herringbone stonework
once adorned the first floor

59
00:05:11,370 --> 00:05:14,519
'of the royal hall
where the crime was planned.

60
00:05:16,420 --> 00:05:20,490
'The murder brought to the throne
the dead man's half-brother

61
00:05:20,569 --> 00:05:26,959
'a man who is remembered as one of
the worst kings ever to wear the crown.'

62
00:05:27,060 --> 00:05:29,850
His name was Ethelred

63
00:05:29,930 --> 00:05:33,399
still known today as "the Unready".

64
00:05:33,500 --> 00:05:37,250
His real nickname, though,
was "Unread" -

65
00:05:37,329 --> 00:05:40,560
that is, badly advised or counselled.

66
00:05:40,660 --> 00:05:45,889
It's a pun on his own name of Ethelred,
meaning "noble counsel".

67
00:05:45,980 --> 00:05:51,370
And it's a product of hindsight,
first appearing almost a century later.

68
00:05:51,449 --> 00:05:56,120
'It's also, at least for the earlier decades
of the reign, unfair.

69
00:05:56,980 --> 00:06:00,730
'England in the 990s enjoyed
something of a golden age

70
00:06:00,810 --> 00:06:05,199
'of church-building
and of legal and administrative reform.'

71
00:06:05,300 --> 00:06:09,170
And this despite
the reappearance of the Danish raiders.

72
00:06:09,250 --> 00:06:13,519
They'd been almost too much
for Alfred the Great himself.

73
00:06:13,620 --> 00:06:17,240
How would Ethelred the Unread fare?

74
00:06:30,689 --> 00:06:34,439
'Ethelred's task
had recently got much harder.

75
00:06:34,540 --> 00:06:39,050
'These banks and ditches are
the remains of a Viking barracks.

76
00:06:39,129 --> 00:06:43,990
'They're laid out
with geometrical military precision.

77
00:06:45,220 --> 00:06:51,088
'The barracks were built by the Danish
king, to impose his will on his people

78
00:06:51,180 --> 00:06:55,569
'and they are a potent symbol
of a tough new professionalism

79
00:06:55,660 --> 00:06:59,199
'which now characterised
the Viking world.

80
00:07:04,009 --> 00:07:08,360
'Englishmen a century before
had beaten off the Scandinavians

81
00:07:08,449 --> 00:07:13,360
'but now a far greater storm
was about to break over their heads.

82
00:07:14,660 --> 00:07:19,250
'First, refugees from the Danish rulers
would seek to restore their fortunes

83
00:07:19,329 --> 00:07:22,439
'by raiding in England.'

84
00:07:22,540 --> 00:07:28,720
And then the Danish kings themselves
turned the full force of Trelleborg,

85
00:07:28,810 --> 00:07:34,278
the formidable military machine, and
the organisational and engineering skills

86
00:07:34,370 --> 00:07:36,319
on England.

87
00:07:36,420 --> 00:07:42,009
It was...Blitzkrieg, Shock And Awe,

88
00:07:42,100 --> 00:07:47,889
as the English troops assembling
at Maldon were soon to find out.

89
00:08:14,740 --> 00:08:17,490
'From their base
on the island near Maldon

90
00:08:17,569 --> 00:08:22,079
'the Viking fleet threatened
the whole of Eastern England.

91
00:08:22,180 --> 00:08:25,959
'The Danes' first move was to send
a messenger to the English,

92
00:08:26,060 --> 00:08:28,649
'demanding money with menaces.

93
00:08:28,740 --> 00:08:33,408
'Ethelred's commander retorted that
they should come across the causeway

94
00:08:33,500 --> 00:08:35,450
'and fight it out like men.'

95
00:08:36,460 --> 00:08:39,090
(Men roaring)

96
00:08:39,168 --> 00:08:42,678
'The English were defeated
but, not for the last time

97
00:08:42,769 --> 00:08:45,960
'the defeat became the stuff of legend
and of literature

98
00:08:46,048 --> 00:08:49,399
'the subject of
a famous Anglo-Saxon war poem,

99
00:08:49,500 --> 00:08:56,129
'which encapsulates exactly
the Dunkirk spirit of the English warriors.

100
00:08:56,220 --> 00:08:58,808
'But it also tells
about the men who fought,

101
00:08:58,889 --> 00:09:03,158
'describing the soldiers as hailing
from all over the country.

102
00:09:05,250 --> 00:09:07,879
'There's an aristocrat
so the poem tells us,

103
00:09:07,980 --> 00:09:10,490
'from the Midlands, called Aelfwine

104
00:09:10,620 --> 00:09:15,370
'then a local man, an Essex yeoman,
called Dunnere.

105
00:09:17,500 --> 00:09:23,330
'And from far-off Northumbria
a warrior called Aescferth.

106
00:09:24,500 --> 00:09:28,889
'In short, it was an English army,
not an Essex army.

107
00:09:28,980 --> 00:09:31,610
'which went down to defeat that day.'

108
00:09:37,220 --> 00:09:42,850
So every region of England is
represented in this roll call of the army,

109
00:09:42,940 --> 00:09:48,009
and each rank of society,
from the top almost to the bottom.

110
00:09:48,100 --> 00:09:51,690
The result is to emphasise
the unity of England,

111
00:09:51,769 --> 00:09:55,080
as a country in which
a common sense of nationhood

112
00:09:55,168 --> 00:09:59,918
overrode distinctions of locality or class.

113
00:10:00,009 --> 00:10:05,320
Now, the poem is propaganda of course
but it's unusual propaganda

114
00:10:05,408 --> 00:10:09,918
at a time when, in most of Europe,
horizons were much narrower

115
00:10:10,009 --> 00:10:14,558
and loyalty to a local warlord
came first and last.

116
00:10:27,048 --> 00:10:29,879
'The English defeat at Maldon
was just the beginning.

117
00:10:29,980 --> 00:10:34,490
'For the next ten years it seemed
that nothing would stop the Danes.

118
00:10:41,009 --> 00:10:45,320
'After the battle at Maldon
the English paid tribute to the Vikings

119
00:10:45,408 --> 00:10:48,080
'in the hope of persuading them to leave,

120
00:10:48,220 --> 00:10:51,889
'and the word Danegeld
entered the language.

121
00:10:51,980 --> 00:10:55,759
'The wealth of Aengla Land,
built up in the years of peace,

122
00:10:55,860 --> 00:10:59,009
'began to drain across the North Sea.

123
00:11:04,370 --> 00:11:08,480
'For deliverance, King Ethelred
looked across the Channel.

124
00:11:12,168 --> 00:11:17,639
'In 1002 the King married Emma,
sister of the Duke of Normandy.

125
00:11:20,740 --> 00:11:24,408
'Normandy was named after
its conquerors, the Northmen.

126
00:11:24,500 --> 00:11:27,850
'It was, in effect
a Viking province in France.

127
00:11:27,940 --> 00:11:32,250
'Ethelred hoped that this alliance
would stop the people of Normandy

128
00:11:32,340 --> 00:11:34,798
'from helping their Danish cousins.

129
00:11:36,528 --> 00:11:38,440
'But, in his new queen,

130
00:11:38,528 --> 00:11:42,360
'Ethelred may have been getting
more than he bargained for.'

131
00:11:43,288 --> 00:11:49,278
Emma is the first English queen to
emerge fully into the light of history.

132
00:11:49,370 --> 00:11:53,960
She was "handsome, astute, and fertile".

133
00:11:54,048 --> 00:11:56,639
And she knew
how to use a woman's power,

134
00:11:56,740 --> 00:12:00,808
which consisted largely
in marriage and child-bearing.

135
00:12:00,889 --> 00:12:04,278
The result was that from the moment
she married Ethelred

136
00:12:04,370 --> 00:12:07,278
and took up residence
here at Winchester

137
00:12:07,370 --> 00:12:12,389
she became the axis
round which English politics turned.

138
00:12:12,500 --> 00:12:15,889
For Emma was determined that
let who will be king,

139
00:12:15,980 --> 00:12:20,048
it should be her children
who sat on the throne of England.

140
00:12:30,129 --> 00:12:35,360
'But Ethelred would need more than
a marriage alliance to survive.

141
00:12:35,460 --> 00:12:38,330
'Under the stress of the Danish invasion

142
00:12:38,408 --> 00:12:42,918
'Ethelred's kingdom dissolved
into vicious factional disputes.

143
00:12:45,100 --> 00:12:47,730
'In the course of the struggle for power,

144
00:12:47,820 --> 00:12:50,649
'many of the ablest men in England
perished.

145
00:12:50,740 --> 00:12:53,889
'The fragile unity of Maldon
was shattered.

146
00:12:59,460 --> 00:13:04,850
'As Danish fleet followed Danish fleet
into a bitterly divided England,

147
00:13:04,940 --> 00:13:08,370
'resistance against the invaders
crumbled.

148
00:13:10,740 --> 00:13:15,889
'By 1014, King Ethelred had been driven
into exile in France

149
00:13:15,980 --> 00:13:20,168
'just 40 years
after the glory days of King Edgar.

150
00:13:20,250 --> 00:13:24,600
'It seemed that all hope
for the House of Wessex was gone.

151
00:13:25,940 --> 00:13:30,250
'Now the Danish king, Sweyn,
had taken the throne of England.

152
00:13:39,769 --> 00:13:42,639
'But then there was
a lucky reprieve for the English

153
00:13:42,740 --> 00:13:46,850
'and King Sweyn died
just a few months after his victory.

154
00:13:46,940 --> 00:13:51,490
'The crisis that followed highlights
the resilience and sophistication

155
00:13:51,580 --> 00:13:53,850
'of the English political system.

156
00:13:55,620 --> 00:14:00,210
'The surviving English leaders
invited Ethelred to return as king,

157
00:14:00,288 --> 00:14:02,240
'on certain conditions.

158
00:14:02,340 --> 00:14:06,009
'As a pledge of good faith,
he sent his young son Edward

159
00:14:06,100 --> 00:14:09,250
'as a hostage to London,
to begin negotiations.

160
00:14:09,340 --> 00:14:14,090
'The complaints against Ethelred
included high taxation, extortion,

161
00:14:14,168 --> 00:14:16,548
'and the enslavement of free men.

162
00:14:16,649 --> 00:14:20,120
'By the end of the talks,
Ethelred was forced to agree

163
00:14:20,220 --> 00:14:24,330
'to govern within the rules
established by his predecessor.

164
00:14:24,408 --> 00:14:28,190
'And we can reconstruct
the broad terms of the agreement

165
00:14:28,288 --> 00:14:31,320
'because they were copied
into the national book of record

166
00:14:31,408 --> 00:14:33,918
'the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.'

167
00:14:34,009 --> 00:14:37,120
This is the passage
in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

168
00:14:37,220 --> 00:14:41,610
which tells us
about those events in 1014.

169
00:14:41,700 --> 00:14:45,320
It says that Ethelred would be
their faithful lord

170
00:14:45,408 --> 00:14:48,918
would better
each of those things that they disliked,

171
00:14:49,009 --> 00:14:51,600
and that each of the things
would be forgiven

172
00:14:51,700 --> 00:14:54,288
which had been done
or said against him.

173
00:14:54,370 --> 00:14:57,158
Then was full friendship established,

174
00:14:57,250 --> 00:15:03,080
in word, and in deed
and in compact, on either side.

175
00:15:04,129 --> 00:15:07,960
Embedded here, in the prose
of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,

176
00:15:08,048 --> 00:15:11,668
is the text of
the formal, written agreement

177
00:15:11,769 --> 00:15:13,759
between the king and his people.

178
00:15:13,860 --> 00:15:17,168
It is the Anglo-Saxon Magna Carta.

179
00:15:17,250 --> 00:15:24,320
But as it's 200 years earlier, it's the
true foundation of our political liberties.

180
00:15:37,220 --> 00:15:40,759
'It was probably here
that the negotiations took place,

181
00:15:40,860 --> 00:15:45,649
'in the Anglo-Saxon predecessor
to London's Guildhall

182
00:15:45,740 --> 00:15:51,330
'which today is festooned with
monuments to parliamentary heroes.

183
00:15:56,980 --> 00:16:02,048
'The agreement of 1014
was the first constitutional settlement

184
00:16:02,129 --> 00:16:03,798
'in English history.

185
00:16:03,889 --> 00:16:07,480
'It began a tradition
which descends through Magna Carta,

186
00:16:07,580 --> 00:16:12,288
'the Petition of Right, and the
Reform Acts, right down to the present.'

187
00:16:12,370 --> 00:16:17,720
But in 1014, of course, there was no
guarantee that those constitutional ideas

188
00:16:17,820 --> 00:16:20,330
would survive and flourish.

189
00:16:20,408 --> 00:16:24,519
There was no guarantee, even,
that England would survive.

190
00:16:24,620 --> 00:16:30,798
Indeed, it seemed rather unlikely,
for Sweyn of Denmark had a son.

191
00:16:30,889 --> 00:16:34,759
His name was Canute
and Canute was determined to win back

192
00:16:34,860 --> 00:16:39,129
what he thought of
as his inheritance, of England.

193
00:16:39,220 --> 00:16:42,048
So the struggle
with the Danes would continue.

194
00:16:42,129 --> 00:16:48,519
Would English freedoms, as well as
English independence, be lost?

195
00:16:49,460 --> 00:16:51,408
(Man screaming)

196
00:16:55,168 --> 00:16:59,600
'Within months of the agreement
which had restored him to his kingdom,

197
00:16:59,700 --> 00:17:01,490
'the old king, Ethelred, was dead,

198
00:17:01,580 --> 00:17:05,250
'and the war with the Danes continued
with renewed ferocity.

199
00:17:05,328 --> 00:17:12,318
'In 1016, Sweyn's son Canute smashed
the English army and took the crown.

200
00:17:18,660 --> 00:17:24,568
'In later years, Canute was to build
this church as a memorial to the slain

201
00:17:24,660 --> 00:17:27,170
'on the site of the battlefield.

202
00:17:33,048 --> 00:17:35,920
'It was a pious Christian gesture.

203
00:17:36,009 --> 00:17:40,318
'Even so, the English
had good cause to fear him.'

204
00:17:42,608 --> 00:17:45,598
There was another side to Canute.

205
00:17:45,700 --> 00:17:49,730
In the months following the battle
he launched a bloody purge

206
00:17:49,808 --> 00:17:53,430
which struck at the very top
of the Anglo-Saxon elite.

207
00:17:53,528 --> 00:17:55,880
The leading earls were executed

208
00:17:55,980 --> 00:17:58,848
and the surviving members
of the English royal family

209
00:17:58,940 --> 00:18:02,288
were either murdered or fled into exile.

210
00:18:02,380 --> 00:18:07,368
Just who, the English would have
wondered, was their new ruler?

211
00:18:07,460 --> 00:18:13,210
A Christian king,
or a usurping, barbarian tyrant?

212
00:18:24,140 --> 00:18:29,410
'Canute's background was in the
now alien world across the North Sea

213
00:18:29,500 --> 00:18:33,890
'amongst the longships and sagas
of his Viking ancestors.

214
00:18:43,009 --> 00:18:45,640
'This was a fiercely energetic society,

215
00:18:45,740 --> 00:18:49,490
'which had despatched Viking fleets
across the north hemisphere,

216
00:18:49,568 --> 00:18:52,000
'from Russia perhaps to America.

217
00:18:52,088 --> 00:18:56,200
'But no Viking career had been
as astonishing as Canute's.'

218
00:18:59,660 --> 00:19:03,200
Canute was
the most successful Viking ever.

219
00:19:03,288 --> 00:19:06,278
His ancestors had raided England.

220
00:19:06,380 --> 00:19:08,328
He conquered it.

221
00:19:08,420 --> 00:19:11,730
They had exacted tribute,
but, as King of England,

222
00:19:11,808 --> 00:19:16,640
he controlled English taxes, the
English mints and the English treasury,

223
00:19:16,740 --> 00:19:20,250
and he poured out their wealth
on his Danish followers.

224
00:19:20,328 --> 00:19:24,278
And he did all this
whilst he was still a teenager.

225
00:19:24,380 --> 00:19:29,318
No wonder his skalds hailed him
as the true heir of Ivar the Boneless

226
00:19:29,420 --> 00:19:34,250
the master of the longships,
and the greatest Dane of them all.

227
00:19:34,328 --> 00:19:39,078
And yet, strange to tell,
in England Canute went native,

228
00:19:39,180 --> 00:19:43,410
and became
more English than the English.

229
00:19:43,500 --> 00:19:45,328
Why?

230
00:19:51,980 --> 00:19:56,890
'Back in England, no one
was more worried for the future

231
00:19:56,980 --> 00:19:59,009
'than Ethelred's widow, Emma.

232
00:20:02,420 --> 00:20:06,200
'Her children were in exile.
Her power, status and wealth

233
00:20:06,288 --> 00:20:08,240
'were in jeopardy.

234
00:20:12,048 --> 00:20:16,880
'What would she do, now that
there was a new king in England?'

235
00:20:19,180 --> 00:20:21,640
Well, she married him.

236
00:20:22,848 --> 00:20:25,200
Canute might have conquered England,

237
00:20:25,288 --> 00:20:29,200
but Emma, it seemed
had conquered Canute.

238
00:20:29,288 --> 00:20:32,400
It might even have been a love-marriage:

239
00:20:32,500 --> 00:20:36,808
the elegant Norman queen,
and her bit of Danish rough.

240
00:20:36,900 --> 00:20:39,568
But, as usual with royal marriages,

241
00:20:39,660 --> 00:20:43,088
the political was more important
than the personal.

242
00:20:43,180 --> 00:20:47,490
For their marriage symbolised
the reconciliation of the English

243
00:20:47,568 --> 00:20:49,358
with their Danish conquerors.

244
00:20:49,460 --> 00:20:53,568
It helped to neutralise
the possible rival claims to the throne

245
00:20:53,660 --> 00:20:56,288
of Emma's children by Ethelred.

246
00:20:56,380 --> 00:21:01,808
And above all, it marked
the seduction and the transformation

247
00:21:01,900 --> 00:21:04,200
of Canute himself.

248
00:21:07,288 --> 00:21:12,278
'Both outsiders, Canute and Emma
found themselves adapting

249
00:21:12,380 --> 00:21:14,808
'to the English tradition of kingship.

250
00:21:14,900 --> 00:21:19,250
'This drawing records
the gift of a giant gold cross

251
00:21:19,328 --> 00:21:21,598
'to the new minster in Winchester -

252
00:21:21,700 --> 00:21:27,009
'that is, to the very same abbey
whose charter King Edgar had granted

253
00:21:27,088 --> 00:21:29,440
'nearly half a century before.

254
00:21:30,420 --> 00:21:36,009
'Canute is obviously emulating Edgar,
and this wasn't just for show.

255
00:21:36,088 --> 00:21:38,118
'Within two years of his victory,

256
00:21:38,220 --> 00:21:42,210
'Canute had endorsed
Ethelred's agreement of 1014

257
00:21:42,288 --> 00:21:46,838
'and even his Viking court poets
followed the pattern,

258
00:21:46,940 --> 00:21:53,278
'hailing him as "Canute under heaven,
the foremost great lord".

259
00:21:53,380 --> 00:21:58,500
'This is an exact literal representation
of the picture here.

260
00:22:06,608 --> 00:22:10,000
'Nothing better illustrates
this transformation

261
00:22:10,088 --> 00:22:13,200
'than the famous story
about Canute and the waves.

262
00:22:13,288 --> 00:22:17,440
'Canute's courtiers claimed
that his power was so vast

263
00:22:17,528 --> 00:22:19,440
'that he could command the tide.

264
00:22:19,528 --> 00:22:21,400
'To Canute, this was blasphemy,

265
00:22:21,500 --> 00:22:25,118
'and to prove it, he told them
to carry his throne to the seashore,

266
00:22:25,220 --> 00:22:27,650
'where he ordered the waves to retreat.

267
00:22:27,740 --> 00:22:30,170
'As he expected, Canute got his feet wet.'

268
00:22:32,380 --> 00:22:37,848
The story, if it's true, was
a consummate piece of political theatre.

269
00:22:37,940 --> 00:22:41,970
But what really matters
is that the story is only to be found

270
00:22:42,048 --> 00:22:44,000
in the English sources.

271
00:22:44,088 --> 00:22:48,558
For this is Canute
as the English wanted to remember him -

272
00:22:48,660 --> 00:22:53,730
the king that they'd severed
from his harsher Nordic roots

273
00:22:53,808 --> 00:22:59,880
and remade in their own image,
as a Christian and a gentleman.

274
00:23:06,980 --> 00:23:10,808
'Canute's rule extended wider
than any previous king of England,

275
00:23:10,900 --> 00:23:14,650
'to Denmark, Norway,
and even to part of Sweden.

276
00:23:14,740 --> 00:23:18,278
'So he needed to delegate power
to trusted Englishmen,

277
00:23:18,380 --> 00:23:21,288
'who ruled whole provinces
in his absence.

278
00:23:23,769 --> 00:23:28,318
'The powers Canute passed down
to these "earls", as they were called,

279
00:23:28,420 --> 00:23:31,690
were immense
and of course the earls themselves

280
00:23:31,769 --> 00:23:34,400
'had their own plans and ambitions.

281
00:23:34,500 --> 00:23:37,250
'Here at Bosham on the Sussex coast

282
00:23:37,328 --> 00:23:40,640
'lay the headquarters of
the most resourceful of these men

283
00:23:40,740 --> 00:23:43,410
'Godwin, Earl of Wessex.

284
00:23:46,660 --> 00:23:49,970
'Godwin was quick to attach himself
to Canute.'

285
00:23:50,048 --> 00:23:54,720
Canute, in turn, was impressed
with his abilities and connections.

286
00:23:54,808 --> 00:23:58,640
The result was that
Canute made him not only an earl

287
00:23:58,740 --> 00:24:01,298
but the virtual viceroy of the kingdom.

288
00:24:01,380 --> 00:24:05,328
He was even married to
one of Canute's remote relations.

289
00:24:05,420 --> 00:24:10,440
'Godwin had reached
the headiest heights of English politics.'

290
00:24:10,528 --> 00:24:14,200
He would not lightly give up
what he'd won.

291
00:24:19,848 --> 00:24:24,118
'But Canute's death in 1035
threatened everything.

292
00:24:24,220 --> 00:24:27,048
'Godwin was forced
to make a new alliance

293
00:24:27,180 --> 00:24:31,450
'this time with the woman who'd pulled
the strings behind the scenes

294
00:24:31,528 --> 00:24:34,118
'for the past 30 years - Queen Emma.

295
00:24:36,808 --> 00:24:39,480
'Emma was determined
that her son by Canute

296
00:24:39,568 --> 00:24:43,798
'should succeed
rather than her children by Ethelred.

297
00:24:43,900 --> 00:24:47,048
'As Canute's right-hand man,
Godwin agreed.

298
00:24:47,140 --> 00:24:50,920
'So when Ethelred's sons
did try for the throne,

299
00:24:51,009 --> 00:24:53,519
'Godwin's troops moved against them.

300
00:24:54,769 --> 00:25:00,038
'Little did Godwin imagine that, after
six years of intense political infighting,

301
00:25:00,140 --> 00:25:05,528
'the elder of Ethelred's sons would be
the only claimant to the throne left alive.

302
00:25:05,608 --> 00:25:10,200
'He would be known to history
as King Edward the Confessor.'

303
00:25:11,250 --> 00:25:19,680
(Male choir) # Gloria #

304
00:25:19,769 --> 00:25:24,890
'The coronation of Ethelred's son
Edward at Winchester in 1043

305
00:25:24,980 --> 00:25:30,250
'seemed to draw a line at last under
the turmoil of the Danish invasions.'

306
00:25:33,009 --> 00:25:34,720
#music# Gloria... #music#

307
00:25:34,808 --> 00:25:37,640
'It marked the return
of the House of Wessex

308
00:25:37,740 --> 00:25:41,519
'who had ruled in England
for more than three centuries.

309
00:25:45,220 --> 00:25:48,838
'In later times
the king would be deemed a royal saint.

310
00:25:48,940 --> 00:25:52,048
'Having no children,
he was thought to have been celibate,

311
00:25:52,140 --> 00:25:56,368
'and the image grew up of King Edward,
the saintly confessor.

312
00:25:59,500 --> 00:26:02,490
'But in his own time
things were rather different.'

313
00:26:04,288 --> 00:26:07,558
The real Edward, far from being a saint,

314
00:26:07,660 --> 00:26:11,170
was a man and a king of his own times,

315
00:26:11,250 --> 00:26:15,920
and he did everything that
an 11th-century king was expected to do.

316
00:26:16,009 --> 00:26:19,788
He was often seen at
the head of his troops and his navy.

317
00:26:19,900 --> 00:26:22,460
He was an enthusiastic hunter

318
00:26:22,528 --> 00:26:25,118
and, of an evening, when he relaxed,

319
00:26:25,220 --> 00:26:29,288
he liked to listen
to bloodthirsty Norse sagas.

320
00:26:29,380 --> 00:26:34,130
Of course, like most Christian kings,
he was a supporter of the Church,

321
00:26:34,220 --> 00:26:37,890
and particularly showy in his devotions.

322
00:26:37,980 --> 00:26:43,288
But his childlessness, it seems certain
was a result of mere ill luck

323
00:26:43,380 --> 00:26:49,640
and not of a dedication to celibacy,
as his later monkish admirers claimed.

324
00:26:53,568 --> 00:26:56,240
'His coronation put Edward at the head

325
00:26:56,328 --> 00:26:58,920
'of the most prosperous kingdom
in Europe.

326
00:26:59,009 --> 00:27:01,880
'But he faced one serious obstacle:

327
00:27:01,980 --> 00:27:05,650
'the political power
of Earl Godwin of Wessex.

328
00:27:08,769 --> 00:27:14,078
'Edward had personal as well as
political reasons for hating Godwin.

329
00:27:14,180 --> 00:27:18,288
'Not only had Godwin kept him
from the throne six years before,

330
00:27:18,380 --> 00:27:21,920
'Godwin also stood accused
of a dreadful crime.

331
00:27:22,009 --> 00:27:25,630
'When Edward and his brother
had first bid for the throne

332
00:27:25,740 --> 00:27:29,440
'Edward's brother was captured
and imprisoned at Ely.

333
00:27:29,528 --> 00:27:32,440
'There, a gruesome fate befell him -

334
00:27:34,288 --> 00:27:38,440
'his eyes were gouged out
and, as a result

335
00:27:38,528 --> 00:27:40,480
'he died.

336
00:27:41,528 --> 00:27:46,960
'Now Godwin swore that he was
not responsible but few believed him.'

337
00:27:47,048 --> 00:27:52,640
Edward's attitude to this over-mighty
earl was anything but saintly.

338
00:27:52,740 --> 00:27:56,608
Instead, his reign was to be
dominated by the struggle

339
00:27:56,700 --> 00:27:59,450
between the king and Godwin's family.

340
00:28:00,180 --> 00:28:03,568
The prize was England itself.

341
00:28:13,848 --> 00:28:16,308
'Here, at Deerhurst, near Gloucester

342
00:28:16,410 --> 00:28:20,190
'was once one of
the most important churches in England.

343
00:28:20,288 --> 00:28:24,038
'It was probably founded
in the 8th century,

344
00:28:25,130 --> 00:28:29,598
'but during the reign of the Confessor
the king gave all its lands away

345
00:28:29,690 --> 00:28:31,920
'to two other monasteries.

346
00:28:32,009 --> 00:28:35,358
'One was his great new abbey
at Westminster.

347
00:28:35,450 --> 00:28:39,230
'That perhaps, we can understand.
But the other was in France.'

348
00:28:41,730 --> 00:28:46,038
What was Edward doing, giving
the lands of an English monastery

349
00:28:46,130 --> 00:28:48,318
to a French abbey?

350
00:28:48,410 --> 00:28:51,880
The answer lies
in his struggle with Godwin.

351
00:28:51,970 --> 00:28:56,720
Edward had decided that the solution
to Godwin's dominance in England

352
00:28:56,808 --> 00:29:02,440
was to look abroad for supporters
in Northern France and Normandy.

353
00:29:02,528 --> 00:29:05,240
They were his mother Emma's people.

354
00:29:05,328 --> 00:29:10,640
He spoke their language, and he'd spent
his long years of exile amongst them.

355
00:29:10,730 --> 00:29:12,680
So soon after he became king,

356
00:29:12,769 --> 00:29:18,078
he started to grant English lands,
like Deerhurst here, and English offices,

357
00:29:18,170 --> 00:29:20,278
to Frenchmen and to Normans.

358
00:29:20,368 --> 00:29:23,200
They were his party
and, in time, he hoped

359
00:29:23,288 --> 00:29:27,838
they would make him strong enough
to turn the tables on Earl Godwin.

360
00:29:29,130 --> 00:29:34,960
Soon his pro-French policy culminated
in the offer to a Norman

361
00:29:35,048 --> 00:29:38,558
of the greatest plum of patronage
of them all.

362
00:29:43,730 --> 00:29:47,200
'In 1051, Edward sent
a messenger to France

363
00:29:47,288 --> 00:29:50,828
'to his cousin, William
the young Duke of Normandy.

364
00:29:53,608 --> 00:29:57,278
'The message was an offer of
the crown of England itself.

365
00:29:57,368 --> 00:29:59,440
'In retrospect, it looks as though

366
00:29:59,528 --> 00:30:03,798
'Edward was taking a decision
of huge political significance,

367
00:30:03,890 --> 00:30:09,118
'and deciding, no less, that the future
of England should be Norman,

368
00:30:09,210 --> 00:30:11,160
'not Anglo-Saxon.'

369
00:30:15,170 --> 00:30:18,078
But at the time, it looked very different

370
00:30:18,170 --> 00:30:21,680
for Edward's offer to William
was not irrevocable.

371
00:30:21,769 --> 00:30:24,068
He might yet have children of his own.

372
00:30:24,170 --> 00:30:29,318
And even if he didn't, he could always
change his mind about his eventual heir.

373
00:30:29,410 --> 00:30:33,880
Wisely, Edward used
the great expectations of the succession

374
00:30:33,970 --> 00:30:38,000
as a device to manage
the politics of the reign.

375
00:30:38,730 --> 00:30:42,798
And it was this tactic
not geopolitical strategy,

376
00:30:42,890 --> 00:30:46,038
which was behind the offer of 1051.

377
00:30:46,130 --> 00:30:50,880
Godwin was too strong,
so talking up William as his heir

378
00:30:50,970 --> 00:30:55,240
might yet bring down
the over-mighty earl a peg or two.

379
00:30:55,328 --> 00:30:57,710
And so it proved.

380
00:31:01,368 --> 00:31:03,930
'The flashpoint came later in the year.

381
00:31:04,009 --> 00:31:09,130
'After a visit to the king, one of Edward's
French followers, Eustace of Boulogne,

382
00:31:09,210 --> 00:31:11,720
'was returning to France.

383
00:31:11,808 --> 00:31:14,720
'On reaching Dover,
his men put on their armour

384
00:31:14,808 --> 00:31:17,838
'and roughly demanded
food and lodging from the townsfolk.

385
00:31:17,930 --> 00:31:20,598
'There was uproar.

386
00:31:31,288 --> 00:31:35,640
'By the end of the night, 19 Frenchmen
were dead, and 20 English,

387
00:31:35,730 --> 00:31:37,640
'with many more injured.

388
00:31:37,730 --> 00:31:40,720
'Enraged, Eustace complained
to the king.'

389
00:31:44,328 --> 00:31:48,480
He immediately adjudged
Eustace to be the aggrieved party

390
00:31:48,568 --> 00:31:54,640
and ordered Godwin to go and punish
the men, his own men, of Dover.

391
00:31:55,568 --> 00:32:00,000
It was a calculated insult
and Godwin refused.

392
00:32:06,528 --> 00:32:10,480
'The refusal was a direct challenge
to the king's authority.

393
00:32:10,568 --> 00:32:14,348
'Edward pounced, summoning troops
from all over the kingdom.

394
00:32:14,450 --> 00:32:18,880
'He demanded that Godwin come
to Gloucester, to stand trial.

395
00:32:18,970 --> 00:32:23,118
'Here, at his estate at Beverstone
just a few miles away,

396
00:32:23,210 --> 00:32:25,670
'Godwin prepared for the showdown.

397
00:32:29,288 --> 00:32:33,068
'He knew that in Gloucester
Edward was assembling his army.

398
00:32:33,170 --> 00:32:35,118
'Now Godwin did the same.'

399
00:32:39,250 --> 00:32:43,920
It was to his stronghold here
that Godwin summoned his troops.

400
00:32:44,009 --> 00:32:48,440
The site was strategically important,
hence the later castle.

401
00:32:48,528 --> 00:32:53,240
It was also on the borders of
Godwin's great earldom of Wessex.

402
00:32:53,328 --> 00:32:59,038
So, as Godwin's troops assembled,
the stage seemed set for civil war.

403
00:32:59,130 --> 00:33:01,920
Englishmen against Englishmen.

404
00:33:02,009 --> 00:33:05,548
Because both the leaders
Godwin here at Beverstone

405
00:33:05,650 --> 00:33:10,400
and Edward ten miles away
at Gloucester, were spoiling for a fight.

406
00:33:10,490 --> 00:33:14,680
Godwin, because victory was
his only chance of escaping ruin,

407
00:33:14,769 --> 00:33:20,640
and Edward, because he thought that
at last he had his enemy on the ropes.

408
00:33:21,528 --> 00:33:24,640
But the followers of
both the king and the earl

409
00:33:24,730 --> 00:33:28,200
saw the situation very differently.

410
00:33:32,528 --> 00:33:36,400
'What happened next is
one of the most astonishing episodes

411
00:33:36,490 --> 00:33:38,440
'in all of medieval history.

412
00:33:40,769 --> 00:33:46,000
'Faced with the prospect of civil war,
Edward's supporters held off

413
00:33:46,088 --> 00:33:49,400
'and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
tells us why.'

414
00:33:50,328 --> 00:33:54,400
(Reader) 'The two armies contained
almost all that was noblest in England.

415
00:33:54,490 --> 00:33:56,440
'They therefore prevented the battle,

416
00:33:56,528 --> 00:34:00,038
'so that the country would not be
at the mercy of our foes

417
00:34:00,130 --> 00:34:03,960
'whilst engaged in a destructive conflict
between ourselves.'

418
00:34:04,970 --> 00:34:08,840
Here again, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
gives us clear evidence

419
00:34:08,929 --> 00:34:13,840
of the extraordinary political
sophistication of Anglo-Saxon England.

420
00:34:13,929 --> 00:34:17,630
This account here
of the agreement of 1051,

421
00:34:17,730 --> 00:34:22,159
shows that the lessons of Ethelred's
reign had been fully learned.

422
00:34:22,250 --> 00:34:26,679
For in 1051, the sense of
common, collective nationhood

423
00:34:26,768 --> 00:34:30,199
was strong enough to bind
the political elite together

424
00:34:30,289 --> 00:34:35,800
to face down the disruptive,
destructive behaviour of any one man,

425
00:34:35,889 --> 00:34:40,559
however powerful and whoever he was.

426
00:34:48,929 --> 00:34:53,789
'After the stand-off at Gloucester
both sides agreed to meet in London.

427
00:34:53,889 --> 00:34:56,760
'When they got there,
it was Godwin's turn

428
00:34:56,849 --> 00:34:59,920
'to find that his support had evaporated.

429
00:35:00,969 --> 00:35:04,000
'The two sides faced each other
across the river.

430
00:35:04,090 --> 00:35:07,760
'Godwin in his borough of Southwark
on the Surrey side,

431
00:35:07,849 --> 00:35:11,440
'the king ensconced
in the Roman city of London itself,

432
00:35:11,530 --> 00:35:15,960
'the city refortified by his ancestor,
Alfred the Great.

433
00:35:17,210 --> 00:35:20,960
'As the messengers came and went
across the Thames

434
00:35:21,050 --> 00:35:24,440
'Godwin began to realise
that the game was up.'

435
00:35:24,530 --> 00:35:29,440
He'd nowhere to go politically and
he'd nowhere to hide in England either.

436
00:35:29,530 --> 00:35:35,869
At last, as his remaining soldiers
melted away, Godwin fled into exile.

437
00:35:35,969 --> 00:35:38,639
His family went with him.

438
00:35:38,730 --> 00:35:40,679
Edward was triumphant.

439
00:35:40,768 --> 00:35:44,679
With his people's support,
his policy had been successful.

440
00:35:44,768 --> 00:35:48,550
'He was master in his own house, he felt

441
00:35:48,650 --> 00:35:53,960
'able to put into place the final plank
of his pro-French policy.

442
00:35:58,210 --> 00:36:00,320
'It was then, Norman sources tell us

443
00:36:00,409 --> 00:36:04,280
'that Duke William of Normandy
crossed to England.

444
00:36:05,409 --> 00:36:08,199
'There he did homage to Edward,

445
00:36:08,289 --> 00:36:12,320
'a Norman potentate pledging his loyalty
to an English king.

446
00:36:12,409 --> 00:36:15,840
'It was a public display
of their close relationship.

447
00:36:15,929 --> 00:36:19,360
'To William, it confirmed
the promise of the crown.

448
00:36:19,449 --> 00:36:23,599
'But to Edward it must have seemed
that his dominion now spanned

449
00:36:23,690 --> 00:36:27,469
'not only England,
but across the Channel to France as well.

450
00:36:27,570 --> 00:36:32,280
'But Edward little knew that
within months Godwin would return.

451
00:36:39,409 --> 00:36:43,639
'In 1051, King Edward of England
had established his power

452
00:36:43,730 --> 00:36:45,679
'over the whole of his kingdom,

453
00:36:45,768 --> 00:36:49,840
'and especially over his enemy,
Earl Godwin of Wessex.

454
00:36:49,929 --> 00:36:55,840
'When, the next year, Godwin returned
to the Thames with a new army and fleet,

455
00:36:55,929 --> 00:36:59,710
'the king discovered
that there were limits to his power.

456
00:36:59,809 --> 00:37:04,039
'Godwin's aim was the restoration
of his Earldom of Wessex.

457
00:37:06,369 --> 00:37:08,960
'Wary of Edward's
new-found dominance

458
00:37:09,050 --> 00:37:12,440
'the English political community
changed sides.

459
00:37:14,570 --> 00:37:19,400
'The very people who, in 1051,
had first prevented the fighting

460
00:37:19,489 --> 00:37:23,239
'and then ensured
that Godwin lost the political contest

461
00:37:23,329 --> 00:37:25,280
'now took his part.

462
00:37:26,849 --> 00:37:31,599
'As a result, Edward was persuaded
to reinstate Godwin

463
00:37:31,690 --> 00:37:35,440
'and to banish many of
his French and Norman supporters.

464
00:37:35,530 --> 00:37:39,840
'Not for the last time
the political notion had made it clear

465
00:37:39,929 --> 00:37:46,110
'that the idea of "England" was greater
than any individual, even than the king.'

466
00:37:48,170 --> 00:37:53,000
None of the big players in 1052 much
liked the terms of this compromise.

467
00:37:53,090 --> 00:37:56,119
But the broader political community did

468
00:37:56,210 --> 00:38:01,559
because it guaranteed
their peace, prosperity and freedom.

469
00:38:01,650 --> 00:38:07,880
And they, not Godwin or Edward,
were the real victors of the crisis.

470
00:38:12,329 --> 00:38:16,360
'The new political settlement
lasted for more than a decade

471
00:38:16,449 --> 00:38:19,840
'after Godwin himself died in 1055.

472
00:38:19,929 --> 00:38:23,400
'His place in the kingdom
was taken by his children.

473
00:38:23,489 --> 00:38:28,610
'Harold, his eldest son, inherited
his richest lands, the Earldom of Wessex.

474
00:38:28,690 --> 00:38:33,480
'Another son, called Tostig,
was made Earl of Northumbria

475
00:38:33,570 --> 00:38:37,920
'but his behaviour there
was harsh, grasping, and incompetent.

476
00:38:40,969 --> 00:38:45,159
'After ten years of Tostig, the people
of Northumbria had had enough,

477
00:38:45,250 --> 00:38:48,360
'and they rebelled in 1065.

478
00:38:54,650 --> 00:38:59,119
'As the revolt reached its climax,
Harold abandoned his brother

479
00:38:59,210 --> 00:39:02,440
'and Tostig was driven into exile.'

480
00:39:13,409 --> 00:39:16,159
The Northumbrian revolt
was the beginning

481
00:39:16,250 --> 00:39:20,400
of the final and unexpected crisis
of Edward's reign

482
00:39:20,489 --> 00:39:22,518
and of Anglo-Saxon England.

483
00:39:22,610 --> 00:39:28,920
The House of Godwin which, united, had
dominated England for the last 50 years

484
00:39:29,010 --> 00:39:31,518
was irretrievably split

485
00:39:31,610 --> 00:39:37,119
and Harold's own brother Tostig had
become his most dangerous enemy.

486
00:39:43,610 --> 00:39:46,480
'This beautiful embroidery,
made in England,

487
00:39:46,570 --> 00:39:50,190
'but preserved in the cathedral
at Bayeux in Normandy,

488
00:39:50,289 --> 00:39:53,199
'is a contemporary record
of the momentous events

489
00:39:53,289 --> 00:39:57,070
'which unfolded
in the wake of the Northumbrian revolt.

490
00:40:01,610 --> 00:40:06,360
'Here is Bosham Church, its chancel arch
apparently drawn from life.

491
00:40:12,650 --> 00:40:15,679
'It was from Bosham that Harold
apparently embarked

492
00:40:15,768 --> 00:40:17,719
'on a voyage to France.

493
00:40:25,489 --> 00:40:29,518
'We don't exactly know
what the purpose of his voyage was.

494
00:40:29,610 --> 00:40:32,360
'But we do know
that it ended in shipwreck

495
00:40:32,449 --> 00:40:34,800
'and his arrest on the French coast.

496
00:40:41,130 --> 00:40:45,559
'According to the embroiderer's
designer, as a result of this arrest,

497
00:40:45,650 --> 00:40:50,039
'Earl Harold found himself swearing
on two holy relics

498
00:40:50,130 --> 00:40:54,239
'to help Duke William inherit
the crown of England

499
00:40:54,329 --> 00:40:56,280
'after King Edward's death.'

500
00:41:01,969 --> 00:41:03,559
Harold's oath to William

501
00:41:03,650 --> 00:41:07,320
is one of the most controversial events
of English history

502
00:41:07,409 --> 00:41:09,159
and it always has been.

503
00:41:09,250 --> 00:41:11,199
Did it really happen?

504
00:41:11,289 --> 00:41:13,239
If so, why?

505
00:41:13,329 --> 00:41:18,760
The Norman chroniclers tell us Harold
swore the oath of his own free will

506
00:41:18,849 --> 00:41:23,039
after he had been rescued by William,
following the shipwreck.

507
00:41:23,130 --> 00:41:27,000
Later English chroniclers admit
that the oath took place

508
00:41:27,090 --> 00:41:32,239
but suggest that it was void anyway,
because it had been sworn under duress.

509
00:41:32,329 --> 00:41:34,840
And most contemporary English sources

510
00:41:34,929 --> 00:41:39,480
don't even mention
Harold's visit to Normandy at all.

511
00:41:39,570 --> 00:41:44,920
Nevertheless, an event like this
is difficult to invent from scratch.

512
00:41:45,010 --> 00:41:49,079
'So the likelihood is
that Harold did swear the oath.

513
00:41:49,170 --> 00:41:53,280
'But to what
and how seriously, is unclear.

514
00:41:53,369 --> 00:41:59,159
'Nor does it seem that William took
Harold's oath very seriously at the time.'

515
00:41:59,250 --> 00:42:01,920
For neither man
can possibly have guessed

516
00:42:02,010 --> 00:42:05,000
how swiftly events would overtake them.

517
00:42:16,250 --> 00:42:18,199
'At the end of 1065

518
00:42:18,289 --> 00:42:22,280
'just after the consecration of
his new abbey at Westminster,

519
00:42:22,369 --> 00:42:24,320
'King Edward was taken ill.

520
00:42:25,210 --> 00:42:30,360
'As he lay on his deathbed,
Edward had a prophetic nightmare.'

521
00:42:30,449 --> 00:42:34,400
The troubles of England,
Edward was told in his dream

522
00:42:34,489 --> 00:42:38,800
would continue until
the trunk of a green tree

523
00:42:38,889 --> 00:42:43,480
which had been cut in two
reunited and bore leaf again.

524
00:42:43,570 --> 00:42:47,880
The trunk of the green tree
is the House of Wessex

525
00:42:47,969 --> 00:42:52,199
and clearly,
England was in for a bad time.

526
00:42:54,090 --> 00:42:56,840
'The story comes from
a biography of Edward

527
00:42:56,929 --> 00:42:59,840
'commissioned by his queen, Edith.

528
00:42:59,929 --> 00:43:04,400
'Like many such works,
the book is bitterly partisan

529
00:43:04,489 --> 00:43:07,400
'and it's particularly hostile to Harold.'

530
00:43:08,489 --> 00:43:11,320
This hostility makes the Life's account

531
00:43:11,409 --> 00:43:14,440
of Edward's deathbed
all the more remarkable.

532
00:43:14,530 --> 00:43:19,360
For it says Edward, as he lay dying,
summoned Harold and asked him

533
00:43:19,449 --> 00:43:22,800
to look after his queen
when he was dead.

534
00:43:23,489 --> 00:43:26,199
Did Edward regret
his promise to William,

535
00:43:26,289 --> 00:43:29,360
and was he giving the crown to Harold?

536
00:43:31,570 --> 00:43:34,518
'Certainly, that seems
to be the implication.

537
00:43:37,969 --> 00:43:43,039
'15 years on, the difficulties with Godwin,
which had prompted Edward's promise,

538
00:43:43,130 --> 00:43:46,670
'must have seemed
very remote to the old king.

539
00:43:47,409 --> 00:43:52,039
'After Edward's death
Harold claimed the crown for himself.

540
00:43:53,369 --> 00:43:57,960
'His move was widely popular and
no one in England opposed his claim.

541
00:43:58,969 --> 00:44:03,559
'So it was that Harold, Earl of Wessex
was elected and crowned

542
00:44:03,650 --> 00:44:07,559
'the last Anglo-Saxon King of England.

543
00:44:08,690 --> 00:44:12,469
'But from the start
Harold was assailed from overseas

544
00:44:12,570 --> 00:44:14,599
'and from several directions.

545
00:44:14,690 --> 00:44:17,679
'The King of Norway declared himself
rightful king,

546
00:44:17,768 --> 00:44:21,000
'aided by the exiled and vengeful Tostig.

547
00:44:21,090 --> 00:44:24,559
'In Denmark
a descendant of Canute did, too.

548
00:44:24,650 --> 00:44:28,679
'And in the south, Duke William
began preparations for invasion.

549
00:44:30,690 --> 00:44:34,599
'The first army to arrive was
that of Tostig and the King of Norway.

550
00:44:34,690 --> 00:44:38,920
'Harold had to abandon his watch
against William on the South Coast

551
00:44:39,010 --> 00:44:43,440
'to march north to Yorkshire, where
he soundly defeated his brother's forces.

552
00:44:46,449 --> 00:44:49,010
'But at the moment
of the English triumph,

553
00:44:49,090 --> 00:44:51,469
news came
of William's landing in England -

554
00:44:51,570 --> 00:44:54,719
'in Sussex
the heartland of Harold's family.

555
00:44:54,809 --> 00:44:56,400
'Harold had to act fast.

556
00:44:56,489 --> 00:45:00,190
'He forced his exhausted soldiers
back down the Roman road

557
00:45:00,289 --> 00:45:03,909
'to face the other intruder at Hastings.'

558
00:45:15,730 --> 00:45:20,849
This is where the encounter
between William and Harold took place.

559
00:45:20,929 --> 00:45:23,800
It lasted all day.

560
00:45:23,889 --> 00:45:27,239
The wise men of 1051 were proved right.

561
00:45:27,329 --> 00:45:33,239
Disunity was dangerous and
it had fatally weakened English strength.

562
00:45:33,329 --> 00:45:36,719
Nevertheless, on the hill behind me here

563
00:45:36,809 --> 00:45:39,719
the English soldiers
lined up their shield wall

564
00:45:39,809 --> 00:45:44,670
with the same sombre, dogged
determination as the men of Maldon.

565
00:45:44,768 --> 00:45:51,599
'And they withstood assault after assault
of William's cavalry and archers.

566
00:45:53,050 --> 00:45:56,670
'Until finally...they broke.'

567
00:46:29,130 --> 00:46:32,880
'The issue was in doubt
right to the end of the battle.

568
00:46:32,969 --> 00:46:38,039
'But by nightfall King Harold
and many of the English army were dead.

569
00:46:38,130 --> 00:46:42,000
'And with them went a whole world.

570
00:46:43,409 --> 00:46:48,119
'The slaughter of the English elite
on the battlefields of 1066

571
00:46:48,210 --> 00:46:52,599
'meant that England became
a very different country.

572
00:46:52,690 --> 00:46:56,000
'The Danish invasions
had been absorbed.

573
00:46:56,090 --> 00:46:58,760
'Not so Duke William's conquest.

574
00:46:58,849 --> 00:47:01,840
'Even the language of politics changed.

575
00:47:01,929 --> 00:47:07,679
'Power in England would be wielded
henceforth in French, not English,

576
00:47:07,768 --> 00:47:11,119
'and history would be written in Latin.'

577
00:47:14,170 --> 00:47:18,518
The Battle of Hastings brought an end,
after 600 years,

578
00:47:18,610 --> 00:47:21,320
to the Anglo-Saxon adventure.

579
00:47:21,409 --> 00:47:25,639
It had been an adventure which laid
the foundations of our freedom

580
00:47:25,730 --> 00:47:28,159
and gave legitimacy to our monarchy.

581
00:47:28,250 --> 00:47:31,599
For the cataclysm of the conquest,
and its aftermath

582
00:47:31,690 --> 00:47:36,840
has obscured the astonishing political
success of the Confessor's England.

583
00:47:36,929 --> 00:47:39,389
Brought low in Ethelred's reign,

584
00:47:39,489 --> 00:47:42,639
the nation had survived
like Edward himself.

585
00:47:42,730 --> 00:47:48,960
with a national spirit which continued
to animate its people right to the end.

586
00:47:49,050 --> 00:47:54,440
The unexpected, unforeseeable end,
here, on this hill.

587
00:47:54,530 --> 00:47:59,719
Now the ideas and institutions
of the Anglo-Saxon state

588
00:47:59,809 --> 00:48:02,800
would be tested
more harshly than ever before

589
00:48:02,889 --> 00:48:08,010
under new rulers
with a new language and new values.

590
00:48:09,050 --> 00:48:15,039
Would they vanish
or would they transmute and survive?