HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: Home of Britain’s bestselling history magazine and award-winning podcast
date: 2025-12-02T11:18:55.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: How William the Conqueror brutally secured rule of England
items: How 1066 altered England’s fate FOREVER
items: The VIKING king of England: the story of King Cnut and the Danish conquest of 1016
items: Five things to look out for when visiting a castle
items: British castles: everything you wanted to know
items: Your guide to King John, the monarch who issued Magna Carta
items: Anglo-Saxon conversion: the coming of the cross (at the point of a sword)
items: Busting myths about the Anglo-Saxons
items: Alternate history: what if William the Conqueror had lost at Hastings?
items: What the Normans did for us

How William the Conqueror brutally secured rule of England
type: item
date: 2025-12-02T10:33:49.000Z
creator: Dr David Musgrove, FSA
subject: Medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: Marc Morris discusses the long and bloody conquest of England that followed William's victory at the Battle of Hastings
encoded: William of Normandy’s victory at the battle of Hastings in October 1066 was far from the end of the Norman Conquest of England. It took many years, and putting down no small amount of rebellion, for William to fully establish control. In the final episode of our new series on 1066, Marc Morris discusses the long story of the Norman Conquest with David Musgrove. Watch now, or listen to the ad-free podcast below: View Green Video on the source website Want to hear more? Browse more episodes in our podcast series on 1066

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How 1066 altered England’s fate FOREVER
type: item
date: 2025-11-25T10:32:43.000Z
creator: Dr David Musgrove, FSA
subject: Medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: 1066 is the most famous year in English history, was marked by not just one, but three major battles, and saw three different men ruling as king of England. Marc Morris charts the events of 1066 and the fates of the key contenders in the fight for England's throne
encoded: The year 1066 is the most famous year in English history, and was marked by not just one, but three major battles, and saw three different men ruling as king of England. In the third episode of our series on 1066, Marc Morris, in conversation with David Musgrove, outlines how the tumultuous year played out and charts the fates of the key contenders in the fight for England's throne. Watch now, or listen to the ad-free podcast below: View Green Video on the source website Want to hear more? Browse more episodes in our podcast series on 1066

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The VIKING king of England: the story of King Cnut and the Danish conquest of 1016
type: item
date: 2025-11-11T12:30:29.000Z
creator: Dr David Musgrove, FSA
subject: Medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: Marc Morris explores the long roots of the Norman Conquest of 1066
encoded: The roots of the Norman Conquest of 1066 can be traced all the way back to 1016 – when England was hit by an earlier foreign invasion. This time, the assault came from Denmark and the forces of Cnut. In the first episode of our new series on 1066, Marc Morris talks to David Musgrove about how the events of the early 11th century set the scene for the Norman invasion half a century later. Watch now, or listen to the ad-free podcast below: View Green Video on the source website Want to hear more? Browse more episodes in our podcast series on 1066

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Five things to look out for when visiting a castle
type: item
date: 2023-05-12T12:11:52.000Z
creator: Dr Marc Morris
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Video shorts
description: Marc Morris highlights five features of Britain’s castles that show their development throughout the Middle Ages, from essential engineering to eye-catching decorations
encoded: Visiting one of the many castles across the British countryside offers spectacular sights and evokes centuries of history. Even if damaged, they stand as monuments of medieval architecture and engineering; as memorials to battles fought long ago; and as a markers in the advances made by rulers and their subjects. But what are some of the specific details or features that are worth knowing? Historian Marc Morris gives five highlights that will enhance any trip to Britain’s castles… Mottes If you see a great artificial mound of earth – a motte – the castle almost certainly dates from the late-11th or early 12th century, which is when castles were introduced to England on a huge scale. Mottes vary in size. They can be quite modest or they can be huge – the one at Tonbridge Castle in Kent, for example, would have taken months to build. And that's something to reflect upon if you see a motte: although it looks like – and essentially is – a large mound of earth, you can't put that up overnight. Just in terms of moving the earth, it's going to take thousands of man hours. You also can't make a motte out of one type of material. If it were all mud, it would just slip away. You have to build it with layers. You have to put a layer of clay, a layer of stone, a layer of sand, a layer of mud. So mottes are really consolidated, artificial hills. They would have to be, in order to bear the weight of the stone buildings that are later built on top. Read more | How to build a medieval castle: 9 top tips Wells Another thing you might look out for is the castle’s main well, because that's going to be essential. In the day-to-day living in a castle, it saves you having to go down to the river as your source of water. But in a siege, it becomes critical, because you can be hungry and last out a couple of weeks, but you can't be thirsty. It is one of the terrible things as a medieval historian, you do have to look into things like ‘how quickly does it take to starve to death’? I've look…

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British castles: everything you wanted to know
type: item
date: 2023-04-02T07:05:02.000Z
creator: Dr Marc Morris
subject: Medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Norman
subject: Period
subject: Everything you wanted to know about history (podcast series)
description: Marc Morris answers listener questions on the history of British castles – from the motte and bailey structures of William the Conqueror to the great stone fortresses of Edward I
encoded: What was the interior design like in medieval castles? Why were so many of these fortresses built in Wales? And what was it like to live in one? In our latest ‘Everything you wanted to know’ episode, Marc Morris answers listener questions on the history of British castles. Speaking to Charlotte Hodgman, he touches on building techniques, the architectural influence of the crusades, and England’s first fortresses.

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Your guide to King John, the monarch who issued Magna Carta
type: item
date: 2022-05-19T13:29:36.000Z
creator: Dr Marc Morris
subject: Medieval
subject: Period
subject: Medieval kings and queens
description: From killing his nephew to losing his empire to cruelly starving his enemies to death, King John was much more than the fictitious villain of the Robin hood legend. Marc Morris highlights how the king who issued Magna Carta came to be so despised…
encoded: King John is generally remembered as the villain from the tales of Robin Hood, and the man who was forced to issue Magna Carta. But was he really as bad as legend would have us believe? And what was it about his reign that provoked his subjects to demand such sweeping political reform? King John: key dates & facts Born: Around Christmas 1166, or possibly 1167 Died: 18/19 October 1216 Reigned: King of England for 17 years, from 27 May 1199 until his death Coronation: 27 May 1199, Westminster Abbey Parents: Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine Spouses: Isabella of Gloucester and Isabella of Angoulême Children: Five legitimate children, including Henry III, King of England, Richard of Cornwall and Joan, Queen of Scotland, plus several illegitimate children Succeeded by: Henry III How John became ‘John Lackland’ John was born around Christmas 1166, or possibly 1167. The uncertainty exists because he was the youngest of the eight known children of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, and consequently not regarded as all that important. His father was the most powerful ruler in Europe – King of England, Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou (all by inheritance), and Duke of Aquitaine thanks to his marriage to Eleanor. Henry’s intention was that this vast empire would be divided after his death, and he designated each of his three older sons as heirs to its different provinces. There was initially no such provision for John, which led to his contemporary nickname ‘Lackland’. A few years later, when Henry added Ireland to his domains, John was groomed to succeed him there. When the teenaged John finally visited Ireland in 1185, however, he acquitted himself badly, alienating both the native Irish and recent Anglo-Norman settlers. King John in Ireland: the making of a medieval monster "It was in Ireland that King John revealed himself as a monster," writes Nicholas Vincent, as he charts the course of the medieval king's descent into evil... Rebellion against Richard the Lionheart J…

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Anglo-Saxon conversion: the coming of the cross (at the point of a sword)
type: item
date: 2021-09-13T04:06:42.000Z
creator: Dr Marc Morris
subject: Anglo-Saxon
subject: Period
description: Although the Anglo-Saxons’ adoption of Christianity has often been labelled as peaceful, in reality many were swayed by the threat of aggression. Marc Morris investigates the violence that greased the wheels of conversion
encoded: Listen to this article: The story of how the Anglo-Saxons came to be converted to Christianity begins in Rome, at some point towards the end of the sixth century. A monk named Gregory (who in 590 became Pope Gregory I) was walking through the market when he noticed some unusual-looking boys being sold as slaves. Struck by their beauty, he asked where they were from and was told they were Angles, prompting a famous pun. “Good”, he reportedly replied. “They have the face of angels, and such men should be the fellow heirs of angels in heaven.” Such at least was the tale told by the Venerable Bede, writing around 150 years after these events, who indicated he didn’t set very much store in its credibility. But, like all good legends, it was grounded in reality. Six years into his pontificate, Gregory dispatched a mission to convert the Anglo-Saxons, headed by a monk named Augustine. Arriving in 597, Augustine was greeted by the king of Kent, Æthelberht, who was extremely hospitable. The king soon converted, along with his people, and in the decades that followed, the rulers and peoples of the various other kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England followed suit. By 686, well within a century of Augustine’s arrival, all the former pagan polities had become Christian. As you might expect, the process of bringing heathens to the light of heaven is presented to us in our earliest sources as essentially a benign and beneficial one. The heroes of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People are holy men, such as St Augustine or the Northumbrian St Cuthbert, and the good kings like Æthelberht who listened attentively and facilitated Christianity’s spread. Æthelberht, said Bede, “compelled no one to accept Christianity”, and this point was seized upon by later historians as clear evidence that the whole conversion process was voluntary. “We nowhere read of any of those persecutions at the point of sword,” said the Victorian scholar Edward Freeman, “which disgraced the proselytising…

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Busting myths about the Anglo-Saxons
type: item
date: 2021-05-22T11:41:43.000Z
creator: Dr Marc Morris
subject: Anglo-Saxon
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: Historian Marc Morris tackles some of the most common misconceptions about the Anglo-Saxon era
encoded: What do we get wrong about the Anglo-Saxon era? Marc Morris, author of The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England, busts some of the most common misconceptions about the period, from the early fifth century through to the Norman Conquest. Marc Morris is the author of The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England (Hutchinson, 2021) Buy now on Amazon Buy now on Waterstones Buy now on Bookshop.org

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Alternate history: what if William the Conqueror had lost at Hastings?
type: item
date: 2021-04-13T06:48:59.000Z
creator: Dr Marc Morris
subject: Membership
subject: Norman
subject: Period
description: There would be no Domesday Book or Bayeux Tapestry, but what else? Jonny Wilkes talks to historian Marc Morris about an England in which 1066 was not one of its most famous years
encoded: Each month BBC History Revealed asks a historical expert for their take on what might have happened if a key moment in the past had turned out differently. This time, Jonny Wilkes talks to Marc Morris about what England might have been like had Harold Godwinson triumped over William of Normandy at the battle of Hastings… So much hinged on the battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066. Victory for William, duke of Normandy, ushered in the Norman Conquest and huge political, administrative, cultural, religious and social changes. It established a new royal dynasty and aristocracy. It signalled the end of the Viking Age. It restructured both government and church. It saw England bind itself more closely to Europe. It led to the Bayeux Tapestry and Domesday Book, and made 1066 the most famous date in English history. All of that may never have happened, though, had Harold Godwinson, crowned in January 1066, bested William. Instead, Harold would have been the king who fought off two invasions in his first year. Harold had crushed the King of Norway, Harald Hardrada, at the battle of Stamford Bridge, in September 1066. “Had he gone on to defeat the Norman invasion, too, his reputation as a great warrior would have been truly legendary,” says Marc Morris, historian and author of The Norman Conquest and William I: England’s Conqueror. “He would be remembered as one of the greatest of English warrior kings, up there with Æthelstan and Henry V.” There were three pivotal moments that could have swung things for Harold. The first was that while, in May, he had been ready for William, stationing his army and fleet along the south coast, the invasion was delayed until late September. Had William sailed when intended, Harold would have been waiting, according to Morris. “The ease with which William landed at Pevensey and established his base camp at Hastings would have been denied to him. With an English fleet to oppose them, his ships might not have even made it to shore.” At the sam…

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What the Normans did for us
type: item
date: 2021-03-31T07:05:00.000Z
creator: Dr Marc Morris
subject: Membership
subject: Norman
subject: Period
description: Marc Morris explores how Duke William's defeat of Harold II at the battle of Hastings led to a seismic shift in English society, starting from the very top...
encoded: Even 950 years after the battle of Hastings, 1066 remains the most famous date in English history. It invariably marks the start or end of books about the Middle Ages, and even serves as a shorthand for English history as a whole, as in the parody book 1066 and All That. But why does this date enjoy such unrivalled celebrity? Hastings was certainly a decisive battle, and is imprinted firmly in our collective consciousness from an early age thanks to the miraculous survival of the Bayeux tapestry. Yet those who part with their money in exchange for a commemorative mug, tie or tea towel showing Norman knights charging into English soldiers, or Harold being struck in the eye with an arrow, may still be left wondering what all the fuss is about. It is, after all, just one medieval battle among many. The answer is simply that Hastings, and the Norman conquest that followed, affected England more than any other event – more so than the Reformation, more even than the Civil War of the 17th century. To quote the historian George Garnett, 1066 ushered in “change of a magnitude and at a speed unparalleled in English history”. The fundamental reason for this was the devastation of England’s old ruling class. Prior to 1066, the country had been governed by earls, ealdormen and thegns whose roots, in most cases, stretched back into the distant past. The short-lived Danish conquest of 1015 had shaken up this aristocracy and brought new families to the fore, but they remained overwhelmingly English in their ancestry and attitudes. Initially William had planned to keep these people in place. Though some had fallen at Hastings – notably Harold’s brothers and supporters – there were still many Anglo-Saxon faces at the new king’s court during the early years of his reign, as attestations to his charters testify. But those early years were also marked by constant English rebellion matched by violent Norman repression. Notoriously, after a large rebellion in 1069, William laid waste to …

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