HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: Home of Britain’s bestselling history magazine and award-winning podcast
date: 2026-04-22T16:47:05.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: 2,000 years ago, ancient Roman forces annihilated Jerusalem. Was its destruction inevitable?
items: The Anglo-Saxons were terrified of Vikings. But were they really so different?
items: How Alfred the Great saved the Anglo-Saxons from the Vikings
items: The Bay of Pigs Invasion: was this CIA fiasco JFK's worst embarrassment?
items: This surprising medieval medical belief still shapes how we think about wellness
items: Aud the Deep-Minded: life of the week
items: The rise of Alfred the Great
items: The Huns terrorised Rome's frontiers – but wanted to keep the ancient empire alive
items: Alfred vs the Vikings | Podcast series
items: Meet the mysterious leaders of the Vikings’ most fearsome army

2,000 years ago, ancient Roman forces annihilated Jerusalem. Was its destruction inevitable?
type: item
date: 2026-04-22T16:47:05.000Z
creator: James Osborne
subject: General ancient history
subject: Period
subject: Roman
subject: Discover / Apple News
description: The first of the Jewish-Roman wars was interrupted by one of the defining events of the 1st century, and gave birth to one of ancient Rome’s most powerful dynasties
encoded: In AD 70, Roman forces captured and destroyed Jerusalem after a brutal siege. The fall of the city was one of the defining events of the first century. It marked the crushing of a major revolt in Judea – a region roughly corresponding to parts of modern Israel and Palestine – and reshaped both Jewish and Roman history. It also cemented the power of a new ruling family in Rome, the Flavians, whose legitimacy depended in part on military success. But this outcome certainly wasn’t inevitable. The destruction of Jerusalem stemmed from a very specific chain of events; a convergence of political chaos at the heart of the Roman empire and deep internal divisions within the city of Jerusalem itself. Together, these forces turned what might have remained a contained regional rebellion into a prolonged and devastating war. Rome’s original strategy When rebellion broke out in Judea in AD 66, Rome didn’t immediately move to annihilate Jerusalem. Revolts weren’t too perturbing to the Roman emperors, who had dealt with regional uprisings before – it was, in many ways, the cost of having an empire. The task of restoring order was given to the general Vespasian, an experienced commander who had previously led campaigns in Britain and Germany. In the Roman system, such generals were expected to stabilise provinces and reassert imperial control, as well as achieving military victories. “Vespasian’s response is a strategy of going from place to place in the countryside, defeating town after town,” explains historian Barry Strauss, speaking on the HistoryExtra podcast. Some communities surrendered while those who didn’t were “massacred, or enslaved”. This was a standard Roman method of counterinsurgency. Rather than attacking the strongest position first – in this case Jerusalem, where the rebels had retreated to – the army would systematically secure the surrounding region to gain power in case of a siege and isolate the seat of the resistance. By advancing through towns and villages,…

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The Anglo-Saxons were terrified of Vikings. But were they really so different?
type: item
date: 2026-04-19T10:30:55.000Z
creator: James Osborne
subject: Anglo-Saxon
subject: Medieval
subject: Period
subject: Viking
subject: Discover / Apple News
description: They might have fought as enemies in the 9th century, but the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons shared common languages and deep cultural roots
encoded: Viking aggression against Anglo-Saxon England escalated dramatically in the 9th century, with the arrival of the Great Heathen Army. The Norse invaders were portrayed in contemporary chronicles as terrifying outsiders; they were fierce raiders who were violent, alien and, ultimately, incomprehensible. But were the differences between the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons really so stark? Beneath the violence between these two peoples were many similarities, found in a rich layer of shared history. Shared origins across the North Sea One reason for these similarities is simple: the Anglo-Saxons themselves had once come from the same broad region as the Vikings. Following the collapse of Roman rule in Britain in the 5th century, groups from what is now Denmark, northern Germany and the Low Countries migrated across the North Sea and settled in England. Read more | The fall of Roman Britain: how life changed for Britons after the empire These groups – including Angles, Saxons and Jutes – filled the post-Roman vacuum and established the foundations of what would become Anglo-Saxon England, bringing with them languages, customs and social structures rooted in Europe’s northern lands. “From the Anglo-Saxon perspective, they are very aware of their origins in what is now Denmark and the northern coastline of continental Europe,” explains historian Eleanor Barraclough, speaking on the HistoryExtra podcast about this 9th century wave of Viking invasion. “So those connections are still there.” Genealogies of Anglo-Saxon kings often traced their ancestry back to continental or even mythological Germanic figures, reinforcing this sense of shared heritage. Could they understand each other? Perhaps the clearest sign of this shared heritage was found in language. Old English (spoken by the Anglo-Saxons) and Old Norse (spoken by many Vikings) were both part of the Germanic language family. “You just have to look at the languages,” Barraclough explains. “Although they are distinct Germanic l…

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How Alfred the Great saved the Anglo-Saxons from the Vikings
type: item
date: 2026-04-19T07:53:42.000Z
creator: James Osborne
subject: Anglo-Saxon
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Tudor
subject: Viking Britain
description: Dr Eleanor Barraclough tells the story of Alfred the Great's journey from his lowest ebb, to his ascent to reclaim his throne
encoded: As the Viking Great Heathen Army advanced to the borders of Wessex, the conquest of Anglo-Saxon England appeared all but complete. In the third episode of this four-part series on the Viking invasion of Anglo-Saxon England in the latter half of the ninth century, James Osborne is joined by historian Dr Eleanor Barraclough to examine how Alfred the Great rose from the cusp of defeat, to a stunning military victory at the battle of Edington. Want to know more about the struggle between Alfred and the Vikings? James Osborne rounds up essential reading from the HistoryExtra archive that explores this pivotal moment in Viking and Anglo-Saxon history – including insights into Viking culture, the everyday experience of Anglo-Saxon communities, Alfred’s use of religion and learning as tools of political renewal, and the long legacy of the Danelaw on English identity and culture. Go beyond the podcast

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The Bay of Pigs Invasion: was this CIA fiasco JFK's worst embarrassment?
type: item
date: 2026-04-17T07:38:38.000Z
creator: James Osborne
subject: Cold War
subject: Period
subject: Evergreen
description: The botched Bay of Pigs invasion stands as one of several US failings in the 1960s as the Cold War rolled on. Why was it such a disaster?
encoded: Unfolding over three chaotic days in April 1961, the Bay of Pigs Invasion would come to symbolise the perils of Cold War brinkmanship and growing American hubris. It was the culmination of flawed assumptions, hasty decision-making, and a deep underestimation of a revolutionary regime’s resolve. But it was also a moment that transformed geopolitics in the western hemisphere. While often remembered as a military failure, the Bay of Pigs was also a diplomatic shock that reshaped US strategy, deepened Soviet ties with Cuba and set the stage for the Cuban Missile Crisis just one year later. What happened with the Bay of Pigs is a story inseparable from its Cold War context, the revolutionary fever of 1950s Cuba, the clandestine corridors of CIA planning rooms, and the charged ideological landscape of early 1960s international politics. What was the Bay of Pigs fiasco? The Bay of Pigs invasion was a failed CIA-backed operation in April 1961, in which Cuban exiles, backed by the US, attempted to overthrow Fidel Castro’s government. But the Cuban people failed to rise up to support invasion. Castro quickly repelled the assault, strengthening his grip on the island and pushing Cuba closer into an alliance with the communist Soviet Union. How powerful was Fidel Castro before the Bay of Pigs invasion? Ahead of Fidel Castro’s ascent to power, Cuba – an island to the south of Florida – in the 1950s was a paradox. Beneath a façade of prosperity in Havana’s casinos and nightclubs were vast inequalities. The island was effectively a neo-colonial economy: heavily reliant on sugar exports and deeply enmeshed in US corporate interests. American companies controlled around 70 per cent of Cuba’s arable land, as well as its electricity and telephone systems. The regime of Cuban politician Fulgencio Batista, a military strongman who had seized power in a 1952 coup, was tolerated (if not outright endorsed) by those in power in Washington, DC. However, his repressive policies and close ties…

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This surprising medieval medical belief still shapes how we think about wellness
type: item
date: 2026-04-15T10:18:38.000Z
creator: James Osborne
subject: Medieval
subject: Period
subject: Discover / Apple News
description: As familiar notions suggest, medieval medicine was influenced by herbs and humours. But these factors were part of a broader holistic system in which emotion and lifestyle were also considered essential to staying healthy
encoded: Judged against the standards of modern medicine, the Middle Ages can seem like a time of ignorance; an era when healthcare was based on crude remedies and superstitions. In reality, medieval healthcare was built on a broad – but, in its own way, sophisticated – understanding of how the body worked that placed emphasis on a combination of physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. Much of this thinking drew on ancient Greek and Roman medical traditions, particularly those associated with Hippocrates and Galen, whose works were preserved and studied throughout the medieval period. But how did the religion of the Middle Ages factor into this understanding? Indeed, as historian Katherine Harvey explains on the HistoryExtra podcast, many medieval thinkers treated religion and medicine as two parts of one system. Religion and medicine in the medieval healthcare system “I think it’s really important that although we see religion and medicine as two different things, they didn’t,” explains Katherine Harvey. “It was very much two overlapping ways of understanding the world and understanding your body.” Religious practice shaped attitudes towards behaviour – from diet and fasting to sexual intimacy and daily routines – all of which were understood to have direct consequences for physical health. For example, fasting wasn’t only a spiritual discipline, but also believed to regulate digestion and bodily balance, while sexual restraint was associated with notions of conserving vital bodily energies. Therefore, Harvey says, “it was quite usual for a physician to prescribe both medical and spiritual remedies; to give you a bottle of medicine, but also a charm to use.” Read more | Kill or cure? 10 medieval medical practices and their effectiveness In the later Middle Ages, there was also “a preoccupation with the idea that the body is God’s creation,” Harvey explains. And this had important implications. This imbued maintenance of the body with a moral responsibility, too. “You’v…

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Aud the Deep-Minded: life of the week
type: item
date: 2026-04-14T12:27:08.000Z
creator: James Osborne
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Viking
subject: Life of the week (podcast series)
subject: Viking life and culture
description: Emily Lethbridge traces the story of Aud the Deep-Minded, one of Iceland's most prominent – and fascinating – early Norse settlers
encoded: It was the Vikings of northern Europe who first settled the harsh landscapes of Iceland in the ninth century. Most of the figures leading this movement were men – powerful chieftains who claimed vast swathes of land and parcelled it out to their followers. But among these pioneers was Aud the Deep-Minded: a woman who subverted the expectations of the Viking world. In this episode, Emily Lethbridge speaks to James Osborne about Aud's incredible life and legacy.

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The rise of Alfred the Great
type: item
date: 2026-04-12T09:07:55.000Z
creator: James Osborne
subject: Anglo-Saxon
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Tudor
subject: Viking Britain
description: Dr Eleanor Barraclough follows the Great Heathen Army on its rampage across Anglo-Saxon England
encoded: As the Viking Great Heathen Army refused to leave Anglo-Saxon England, the pressure mounted on the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to respond, placing the future of the land in the hands of Alfred the Great. In this second episode of our four-part HistoryExtra podcast series on the Viking invasion of ninth-century England, James Osborne and historian Dr Eleanor Barraclough explore the regions overrun by Viking forces and the rise of Alfred the Great amid the collapse of Anglo-Saxon resistance. Want to know more about the struggle between Alfred and the Vikings? James Osborne rounds up essential reading from the HistoryExtra archive that explores this pivotal moment in Viking and Anglo-Saxon history – including insights into Viking culture, the everyday experience of Anglo-Saxon communities, Alfred’s use of religion and learning as tools of political renewal, and the long legacy of the Danelaw on English identity and culture. Go beyond the podcast

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The Huns terrorised Rome's frontiers – but wanted to keep the ancient empire alive
type: item
date: 2026-04-11T12:30:28.000Z
creator: James Osborne
subject: General ancient history
subject: Period
subject: Roman
subject: Discover / Apple News
description: Feared as savage invaders, the Huns posed a serious threat to Rome – but their goal wasn’t conquest, or Roman annihilation
encoded: To the Romans of the late 4th and 5th centuries AD, the threat posed by the Huns was akin to a nightmare made real. They were lightning fast, brutally violent, and as culturally unfamiliar as any people the Romans had ever encountered. They seemed to emerge suddenly from beyond the empire’s frontiers, bringing with them destruction and fear. Roman writers described them in vivid, unsettling terms, presenting them as the ultimate barbarians. The arrival of the Huns on the frontier of the Roman empire coincided with a period historians often describe as the ‘Migration Period’ – a time of large-scale population movements across Europe, in which multiple groups were displaced and resettled, or otherwise pushed into Roman territory. Yet for all the alarm they caused, the Huns didn’t want to destroy the Roman empire. They wanted to exploit it. The reasons why reveal as much about Rome’s internal condition, as about the Huns themselves. Who were the Huns? The Huns were part of a broader pattern of migration and movement across Eurasia in late antiquity. “They’re one of a series of non-Roman groups migrating, we assume, from Eastern Asia, possibly away from the Chinese Empire,” explains archaeologist Miles Russell, while discussing the life of Atilla the Hun on the HistoryExtra podcast. Their precise origins remain debated, but many historians link them to steppe nomadic traditions that stretched across Central Asia, where highly mobile horse-based societies had long dominated. Unlike settled agricultural societies based around static farming and protected settlements, they were very itinerant. Listen now | From the Mongols to the Huns: the nomads who dominated Eurasia “They fight predominantly on horseback,” Russell says. This fighting style was a key factor in their military effectiveness. Their speed and flexibility made them difficult for Roman forces, accustomed to more structured warfare, to counter. Hunnic warriors were particularly known for their use of composite b…

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Alfred vs the Vikings | Podcast series
type: item
date: 2026-04-10T10:26:26.000Z
creator: James Osborne
subject: Period
subject: Viking
description: In this four-part HistoryExtra podcast series, Viking expert Dr Eleanor Barraclough traces the struggle between Alfred and the Vikings
encoded: In this four-part podcast series, James Osborne is joined by Viking expert Dr Eleanor Barraclough to trace the struggle between Alfred and the Vikings, from the arrival of the Great Heathen Army in 865 to the decisive battle of Edington and its far-reaching aftermath. Across the series, they explore the story from both sides: the world of the Viking army and the realities of life within it, the collapse of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Alfred’s flight into the marshes, and the uneasy peace that subsequently reshaped England.

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Meet the mysterious leaders of the Vikings’ most fearsome army
type: item
date: 2026-04-10T09:53:10.000Z
creator: James Osborne
subject: Early medieval
subject: Medieval
subject: Period
subject: Viking
subject: Discover / Apple News
description: The Great Heathen Army wasn’t a single unified force, but rather a shifting coalition of warbands whose multi-layered leadership helped it outmanoeuvre the Anglo-Saxons
encoded: When the Great Heathen Army arrived in England in the mid-9th century, it marked a turning point in the history of Viking activity in the British Isles. Earlier Viking raids – such as the attack on the monastery at Lindisfarne in 793 – had been fast, opportunistic strikes. Viking aggression had continued like this for decades: plundering coastal regions for wealth, treasure, and people to enslave. Indeed, the Anglo-Saxons had grown accustomed to this style of attack from their Norse cousins from across the sea. That changed in the year 865, with the arrival of the Great Heathen Army. From then onwards, this force campaigned across Anglo-Saxon England, capturing kingdoms, overthrowing rulers and establishing long-term settlements. At the time, England didn’t even exist: Britain was a patchwork of rival states – including Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia and Wessex – often competing with one another as much as resisting external threats. This political fragmentation made coordinated defence difficult. The Great Heathen Army was able to make much headway: plundering, pillaging and – crucially – taking formerly Anglo-Saxon land, rather than heading back to Scandinavia. But while the label ‘Great Heathen Army’ captures two essential facts about this force of Viking invaders – its size, and its paganism – it might otherwise be misleading. Rather than a unified force under a single commander, the Great Heathen Army was a shifting alliance of warbands drawn together for a shared purpose but operating with considerable independence. It was a force with many leaders – not one. How big was the Great Heathen Army? Contemporary sources, such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, offer only limited detail as to the size of the Great Heathen Army. Modern historians have attempted to reconstruct its scale using a combination of textual and archaeological evidence. “Some historians have thought it’s around a hundred ships,” explains Dr Eleanor Barraclough, an expert on the history of the Vi…

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