Synopsis

Part two of the run up to the arrival of Queen Matilda and that other guy…what was his name…William the Conqueror. Yeah. Him. Includes Danelaw, Danegeld, surprising connections to Hamlet, an explanation of whether Aethelred the Unready was really unready, and of course a discussion of Eric the Viking!

Annotations

1/ We have obviously linked to this clip before, but whatever. It brings much joy: What have the Romans ever done for us?

2/ Graham Chapman is Arthur, King of the Britons! https://youtu.be/ITJFfUptaGo Also here (with the political discussion!): https://youtu.be/KN9c2TAWMlg

3/ Patrick Stewart as Claudius. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCrq7UhVUK0 (this is not the scene Em describes, but it’s good.)

4/ It was illegal to marry your brother’s widow in England until quite recently. This was ecclesiastical law, then codified in civil law when the British decided they needed a civil marriage system in 1835 (see the Marriage Act of 1835). It became legal in 1907 with the passage of the Marriage to a Deceased Wife’s Sister Bill, and in 1921 the Deceased Brother’s Widow’s Marriage Act. Notwithstanding, it happened. People either got married abroad or no one challenged the marriage (they were considered “voidable” rather than “void”). Among others, Jane Austen’s brother married his dead wife’s sister.

THE MORE YOU KNOW.

Hamlet: “He that hath killed my king and whored my mother,/Popped in between th’ election and my hopes” (V.ii). Interestingly, in I.ii, Claudius says that the nobles also agreed that he should marry his sister-in-law This is the part I quote:

“Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
Th’ imperial jointress to this warlike state,
Have we (as ’twere with a defeated joy,
With an auspicious and a dropping eye,
With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,
In equal scale weighing delight and dole)
Taken to wife. Nor have we herein barred
Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone
With this affair along. For all, our thanks.”

5/ The pope didn’t want to piss off Aragon: not the guy from Lord of the Rings. There was a country called Aragon. [Now it’s part of Spain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aragon ]

6/ Danelaw! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danelaw

7/ Battle of Edington (878 CE) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Edington
Offa (king of Mercia, d.796 CE) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offa_of_Mercia
Alfred the Great (starts as king of Wessex; c.848/849–899 CE) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_the_Great

Alfred’s main kids are Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians (c. 870–918 CE) and Edward the Elder (c. 874–924 CE)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Æthelflæd
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_the_Elder

Eric the Viking (actually Eric Bloodaxe, died 954 CE) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Bloodaxe

(There’s a line in Angels in America where the Rabbi reads a list of grandchildren of a Jewish woman who died: “…beloved grandmother of Max, Mark, Louis, Lisa, Maria…uh…Leslie, Angela, Doris, Luke and Eric. (Looks more closely at paper) Eric? This is a Jewish name? (Shrugs) Eric.” It’s page 16. Anyway.)

Aethelred the Unready (c966–1016 CE) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Æthelred_the_Unready

8/ Battle of Maldon, 991 CE. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Maldon

9/ Danegeld https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danegeld

10/ Sweyn/Sven Forkbeard (963–1014 CE) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweyn_Forkbeard
Son of HARALD BLUETOOTH (d. c. 985/86 CE). Who is THAT GUY. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harald_Bluetooth

11/ Cnut the Great!! (d. 1035)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cnut

12/ Edward the Confessor (c.1003–1066) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_the_Confessor

Before you @ us about St Edmund being another king of England who was canonized–-St Edmund (d869 CE) was King of East Anglia, not England. 🙂 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_the_Martyr

Edward the Martyr might count (962–978 CE) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_the_Martyr

13/ Harold Godwinson (c.1022–1066 CE) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Godwinson

William the Conqueror/Bastard (c.1028–1087 CE) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_the_Conqueror

14/ “Thou never shalt hear herald any more.” It’s from Henry V (IV.iii).

15/ Check out the Bayeux Tapestry close up! https://www.bayeuxmuseum.com/en/the-bayeux-tapestry/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayeux_Tapestry

16/ Beowulf! Trans. Maria Headley https://www.amazon.com/Beowulf-Translation-Maria-Dahvana-Headley/dp/0374110034

For a performance, check out Beowulf: The Epic in Performance–Benjamin Bagby, voice and medieval harp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WcIK_8f7oQ

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