HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: Home of Britain’s bestselling history magazine and award-winning podcast
date: 2025-12-11T15:50:14.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: Everything you think you know about Vikings is WRONG
items: News stories from the HistoryExtra podcast
items: Beyond the Podcast
items: Recent HistoryExtra videos
items: Toilets through time
items: Nellie Bly: life of the week
items: King and Conqueror’s most gruesome death should never have happened and would be “totally out of character”
items: Emma of Normandy: not just a two-time queen consort of England
items: How historically accurate is King and Conqueror? Here’s the real history that should have happened
items: How well did Harold Godwinson and William the Conqueror know each other prior to the battle of Hastings?

Everything you think you know about Vikings is WRONG
type: item
date: 2025-12-11T15:50:14.000Z
creator: Kev Lochun
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Viking
subject: Viking life and culture
description: You KNOW who the Vikings are – bearded, brutish, spoiling for a fight, and ever ready to raid an Anglo-Saxon monastery near you. Or do you?
encoded: The Vikings were bearded, brutish, spoiling for a fight, and ever ready to raid an Anglo-Saxon monastery near you. How true is that, really? It is a stereotype beloved across pop culture – most visibly in TV and film – but it’s also an oversimplified fiction. HistoryExtra’s Kev Lochun braves the ire of a sword-wielding colleague to break down what we get wrong about the Vikings – not least, that they didn’t even exist. Confused? It’s all downhill from the horned helmets. View Green Video on the source website

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News stories from the HistoryExtra podcast
type: item
date: 2025-12-09T12:21:50.000Z
subject: Membership
subject: Period

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Beyond the Podcast
type: item
date: 2025-12-09T11:57:36.000Z
creator: Kev Lochun
subject: General History
subject: Period
description: Go beyond our Sunday Series podcasts with these curated selections of essential reading from the HistoryExtra and BBC History Magazine archive

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Recent HistoryExtra videos
type: item
date: 2025-11-28T10:24:11.000Z
creator: Kev Lochun
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: Explore the latest video explainers from HistoryExtra

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Toilets through time
type: item
date: 2025-11-19T11:00:11.000Z
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: What can we learn from the most universal of all experiences: going to the loo?
encoded: What was it like to do your business in a Roman communal toilet? Why was the devil thought to lurk in medieval privies? Did constipation turn Henry VIII into a tyrant? And how did Victorian sewers revolutionise Britain’s cities? In this seven-part mini-series, HistoryExtra’s David Musgrove heads down the u-bend in the company of leading historical experts to see what we can learn from the most universal of all experiences: going to the loo.

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Nellie Bly: life of the week
type: item
date: 2025-11-11T08:00:57.000Z
creator: Kev Lochun
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: Life of the week (podcast series)
description: Trailblazing and fearless, Nellie Bly broke every rule in Victorian journalism. Bob Nicholson unpacks the life of a woman whose headline-grabbing exploits made her a household name
encoded: In the late 19th century, when female reporters were largely confined to newspapers' society pages, Nellie Bly's daring investigations and headline-grabbing exploits made her a household name. From her audacious exposé from inside a New York asylum – after convincing doctors she was insane – to becoming the 'real Phileas Fogg' by racing around the globe, Bly’s adventures captivated the world. Historian Bob Nicholson tells Kev Lochun more about her audacious brand of stunt journalism.

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King and Conqueror’s most gruesome death should never have happened and would be “totally out of character”
type: item
date: 2025-08-31T19:58:29.000Z
creator: Kev Lochun
subject: Anglo-Saxon
subject: Medieval
subject: Norman
subject: Period
subject: Trends-Entertainment
description: Historian Tom Licence takes issue with one of King and Conqueror’s most egregious historical liberties
encoded: Bringing the Norman Conquest of 1066 to the small screen, King and Conqueror plays fast and loose with real history to tell the story of how Duke William of Normandy became King William I of England. The eight-part drama begins with the coronation of King Edward the Confessor and ends exactly where you think it would, with King Harold Godwinson, the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king of England, dead on the field at Hastings with an arrow in his eye. That’s a span of more than 20 years – and as such there is a lot of editing of the historical record going on. Some important characters are missing, and not just Edgar Aetheling, the claimant many overlook in the 1066 story. Events happen out of order. And a lot of real historical figures die in times, places and ways that raise eyebrows. But one particular plot point is so shocking, so unexpected, that we put it to medieval historian Tom Licence to get his reaction. And it’s such a massive spoiler that we’ve hidden it after these two images of the show's leads, James Norton as Harold and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as William the Conqueror. Edward the Confessor is portrayed in King and Conqueror as a weak and ineffectual man, touched even – he believes he hears the voice of God whispering to him. If there is anyone whispering in his ear, it is his mother, Emma of Normandy. The real Emma was queen consort to both Aethelred the Unready and Cnut the Great, the only woman to have married two English kings. Two of her sons were also kings, first Harthacnut, and then Edward the Confessor. For her whole life, she had been an able political player. In King and Conqueror, she is vicious and manipulative, a woman who dominates Edward and goads him for his failures. She is the power behind his throne. When Edward finally snaps, he does so totally and utterly. In a moment of red mist worthy of Game of Thrones, he beats his mother to death with his crown. Did Edward the Confessor beat his mother Emma of Normandy to death with this crown? “Be…

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Emma of Normandy: not just a two-time queen consort of England
type: item
date: 2025-08-24T20:02:16.000Z
subject: Anglo-Saxon
subject: Early medieval
subject: Period
subject: Viking
subject: Historical people
subject: Trends-Entertainment
subject: Viking Britain
description: Emma of Normandy was queen consort to two of England’s best known pre-Conquest kings, Æthelred the Unready and Cnut the Great. But she was also a savvy political player who came into her own as queen mother, writes Dr Cat Jarman
encoded: Emma of Normandy is best-known as being queen consort to two kings – Æthelred the Unready and Cnut the Great – and the mother of two more, Harthacnut and Edward the Confessor. She was the daughter of Richard I (the Fearless) of Normandy and the Danish-descended Gunnor. She is also a pivotal character in King and Conqueror, the BBC's Norman Conquest drama, which paints Emma as a dominating force over her son King Edward – which leads to a very ahistorical demise – and in Netflix's Vikings: Valhalla, where she is portrayed as a politically-savvy queen wielding quiet power in the English court, often working to subvert the machinations of the ever-grasping Earl Godwin. Who was Emma of Normandy? Emma was one of nine children and most likely born in the AD 980s. A daughter of the Norman dukes, she was the great-granddaughter of the Viking warrior Rollo, the founder of Normandy who hailed from either Norway or Denmark. This made her of Scandinavian ancestry on both sides of the family. She was also the great-aunt of William the Conqueror. In the words of Godfrey, prior of Winchester’s cathedral monastery, writing in the 11th century: “She had kings as sons and kings as husbands; she shone forth in the glory of her progeny of kings; she excelled in virtue even the ranks of her glorious ancestors.” Emma of Normandy's first marriage: Æthelred the Unready In 1002, probably aged in her late teens or early 20s, Emma was sent to England to marry King Æthelred, as his second wife. The marriage was clearly a strategic one, aiming to strengthen an alliance between England and Normandy in light of harrowing attacks on both English and Norman shores by Scandinavian raiders. Æthelred had apparently accused Emma’s brother, Duke Richard II, of harbouring the Vikings and enabling their attacks, and the marriage was designed to ensure his allegiance. Read more | Aethelflaed: who was the warrior queen who crushed the Vikings? Their union was an unusual one, as although several English prin…

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How historically accurate is King and Conqueror? Here’s the real history that should have happened
type: item
date: 2025-08-24T20:01:15.000Z
creator: Kev Lochun
subject: Anglo-Saxon
subject: Medieval
subject: Norman
subject: Period
subject: Trends-Entertainment
description: The BBC’s Norman Conquest drama starring James Norton and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau brings 1066 to the small screen. Here’s what King and Conqueror gets right about the build-up to the battle of Hastings – and where history takes a backseat to the drama
encoded: In a decade in which Vikings have been incredibly vogue – how else to explain the small-screen invasion posed by Vikings, Vikings: Valhalla and The Last Kingdom in recent years – it’s surprising that it’s taken this long to get to a dramatisation of the Viking Age’s purported end in 1066. The BBC’s King and Conqueror steps into that breach, taking us back to 11th-century England and the Norman Conquest, to the story told in the Bayeux Tapestry – which you may have heard will be loaned back to the UK from France in 2026. King and Conqueror is the story of how Duke William of Normandy, a man descended from Vikings, won the English throne and became William the Conqueror. But it’s also the story of the rise and fall of Harold Godwinson, the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king of England, and a man who had to die for William to succeed. And it’s the story of an unlikely bromance between these two men, underscored by an almost-certainly ahistorical heart-to-heart in a bathtub. Who are the king and conqueror of King and Conqueror? James Norton (Happy Valley) stars as Harold Godwinson and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones) plays his nemesis, William of Normandy, aka the Conqueror. The eight-part drama begins with the coronation of Harold’s predecessor, Edward the Confessor, in 1043, and takes us through to exactly where you’d think it would (and if this is a spoiler, apologies, but you’ve had nearly 1,000 years to catch up): with Harold dead at the battle of Hastings, with an arrow in his eye. Whether Harold really was felled by an arrow is a point of scholarly debate (tied to the Bayeux Tapestry, which confusingly, isn’t even a tapestry) but the show does a nifty job of explaining the arrow away. Also neatly handled in a story dominated by three men are the women behind the Norman Conquest: Matilda of Flanders (William’s wife), Emma of Normandy (Edward’s mother), Edith the Fair (Harold’s wife) and Edith of Wessex (Harold’s sister and Edward’s wife, who is named Gunhild in …

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How well did Harold Godwinson and William the Conqueror know each other prior to the battle of Hastings?
type: item
date: 2025-08-24T18:58:25.000Z
subject: Anglo-Saxon
subject: Medieval
subject: Norman
subject: Period
subject: Historical people
subject: Trends-Entertainment
description: Their fabled clash at hastings in 1066 changed England and Europe, but how well did Harold and William know each other prior to that fateful day? While King and Conqueror paints them as having something of a bromance, the truth is less clear cut, as historian Tom Licence explains
encoded: Everyone loves a good story, and the clash between Harold Godwinson and William the Conqueror on 14 October 1066 has been a starting point for storytellers ever since – not least the creators of new BBC drama King and Conqueror. How did the two men meet? Why did they come to blows, and why did England’s king die at the hands of a foreign invader? Few people knew the answers to those questions, and those who did were not impartial. A backstory was therefore invented, to suit the tastes of William’s supporters. Or is that Harold’s? In fact, there are multiple overlapping backstories, stitched together from legends, guesswork, and propaganda. The historian’s task is to sift through all the stories and pick out what might be of use. When did Harold Godwinson and William the Conqueror first meet? We know that Harold and William met late in Edward the Confessor’s reign, most likely in the summer of 1065. But is this when they first met? In the absence of detailed records, this question is difficult to answer. Harold isn’t mentioned in the chronicles before 1049, well into his twenties, so an early meeting with William can’t be ruled out. And it’s likely that Harold knew who William was. As a son of the Earl of Wessex, he should have known something of the neighbouring princes who, through trade and peacekeeping, had dealings with his father. Normandy was just across the Channel – a neighbour of Wessex in effect. He would have known that the king, Edward the Confessor, had recently lived in Normandy and attended William’s court. But the early 1050s brought trouble for Harold: There was a powerful party of Normans at Edward’s court, vying with Harold’s family to dominate the king’s counsel. Matters came to a head in 1051 – Harold’s family lost, and were driven into exile. In late 1051, William visited Edward in England, but Harold was in Ireland and would not have met him then. At some point, probably in 1052, William also got hold of two of Harold’s close relatives – a bro…

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