HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: Home of Britain’s bestselling history magazine and award-winning podcast
date: 2026-03-21T00:02:05.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: One of medieval history’s biggest mysteries has just been solved – and it rewrites 1066
items: How England’s first king used an unexpected weapon to defeat the Vikings
items: Could the Queen Mother have secured the loan of the Bayeux Tapestry to the British Museum 45 years ago?
items: Æthelstan: the king who made England
items: The Bayeux Tapestry is beautiful, but what was its purpose? New research might have the answer
items: Has history’s most famous comet been misnamed for centuries? “The answer is clear,” say historians
items: In 1525, an army of revolting peasants seemed unstoppable – but a brutal end was on the horizon
items: Forget the longships: this is the overlooked story of how the Vikings dominated eastern Europe
items: Why does Putin think Ukraine should be Russian? It’s all to do with the Vikings
items: Could you survive on the Vikings’ furthest frontier? Here’s the dark reality of Norse life on the edge

One of medieval history’s biggest mysteries has just been solved – and it rewrites 1066
type: item
date: 2026-03-21T00:01:25.000Z
creator: James Osborne
subject: Anglo-Saxon
subject: Early medieval
subject: Medieval
subject: Norman
subject: Period
subject: Discover / Apple News
subject: Trends-News
description: A fresh re-reading of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle suggests that King Harold Godwinson didn’t race south by land after Stamford Bridge, but instead used a coordinated naval strategy. What does that mean for how we should understand the events of 1066?
encoded: Alongside the Roman invasion of Britain in 43 AD, 1066 stands as one of the most pivotal years in British history. It marked the end of Anglo-Saxon rule and the ascendancy of the Normans under William the Conqueror. At the centre of this story is King Harold Godwinson, the last Anglo-Saxon king. In the space of just a few weeks, he fought two major battles at opposite ends of England. In September, he defeated the Viking king Harald Hardrada at the battle of Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire. He is then said to have rushed south, covering some 200 miles to confront William, Duke of Normandy, who had landed on the Sussex coast to attempt to take the throne. According to the traditional account, Harold and his army arrived exhausted – but just in time to fight at the battle of Hastings on 14 October, where he was killed. This dramatic forced march has been used to explain both the pace of events, and Harold’s eventual defeat: his troops, worn out from the journey, were at a disadvantage against William’s forces. But what if that version of the story is wrong? New research now suggests that one of the most famous – and decisive – military marches in English history may never have happened at all. A journey by land – or sea? In new research, Professor Tom Licence of the University of East Anglia argues that Harold didn’t lead a desperate overland march from Yorkshire to Sussex. Instead, much of the journey south may have been made by sea. The idea that the march itself may be implausible is not entirely new. “There’s an argument going back to the that this great heroic march is almost impossible,” he says, speaking to HistoryExtra. He explains that even when compared with the most demanding marching rates recorded in modern warfare (for example, in the American Civil War) the speed required to cover the distance simply doesn’t hold up. “To cover that distance in that period of time on foot is just unfeasible,” he says. Crucial to Licence’s argument, he says, is the finding t…

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How England’s first king used an unexpected weapon to defeat the Vikings
type: item
date: 2026-01-31T10:30:28.000Z
creator: James Osborne
subject: Anglo-Saxon
subject: Early medieval
subject: Medieval
subject: Period
subject: Discover / Apple News
description: When England’s first true king confronted Viking power in the north, one of his most effective weapons became his manipulation of loyalty
encoded: By the early 10th century, the concept of a unified England was still an unfinished project. Despite Alfred the Great’s victories against the Vikings – and the consolidating achievements of his children Edward the Elder and Æthelflæd – the power of the Norse raiders hadn’t simply disappeared. The Vikings had adapted to this new political landscape and embedded themselves within it, remaining the greatest threat to any ruler hoping to govern a unified English kingdom. Æthelstan was forced to grip this problem when he became king of the Anglo-Saxons in AD 924. As Professor David Woodman explains, speaking on an episode of the HistoryExtra podcast, it wasn’t until AD 927 that he was able to make moves against the Vikings that proved decisive, using an unexpected weapon to his advantage. England before Æthelstan The huge Viking invasions of the late ninth century had left much of eastern and northern England under Norse control. Later writers would call this region the Danelaw, but at the time it was simply a patchwork of settlements, armies and allegiances tied into a wider Viking world across the sea. Æthelstan’s grandfather, Alfred the Great, had stopped the Vikings from conquering the Anglo-Saxons completely. But he wasn’t able to restore the land to how it had been before the arrival of the Great Heathen Army in AD 865. Instead, in the decades that followed, Anglo-Saxon rulers learned to exist uneasily alongside Viking power, albeit with frequent bouts of violence and through tribute. Edward the Elder and Æthelflæd expanded English control, but by the time of Æthelstan’s reign, Anglo-Saxon authority still depended on vigilance against the Vikings. When he took the throne, his lands were surrounded by rivals: Norse settlers in the north, the kings of the Scots, and a constellation of Welsh rulers to the west. Any one of them might ally with future Viking attackers if the balance of advantage shifted, and no place demonstrated that danger more clearly than York. How …

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Could the Queen Mother have secured the loan of the Bayeux Tapestry to the British Museum 45 years ago?
type: item
date: 2026-01-15T21:00:46.000Z
creator: Dr David Musgrove, FSA
subject: Anglo-Saxon
subject: Early medieval
subject: Medieval
subject: Period
subject: Discover / Apple News
description: After many centuries, the Bayeux Tapestry is returning to Britain in 2026. But as the loan draws closer, new information about attempts to bring forth a previous loan have come to light
encoded: A visit by the Queen Mother (Elizabeth II’s mother) to the opening of the Memorial Museum of the Battle of Normandy in 1981 might have smoothed the way to a loan of the Bayeux Tapestry to the British Museum almost 50 years ago, according to recently released files seen by HistoryExtra. The Bayeux Tapestry is being loaned to the British Museum in 2026, but attempts at a previous loan in 1980-1 have newly come to light. In early 1981, the mayor of Bayeux, Monsieur Le Carpentier, sent an invitation to the Queen Mother to attend the opening of the Memorial Museum of the Battle of Normandy, and asked her if she would agree to be a patron of the new institution. Reginald Hibbert, the British Ambassador in Paris, in February 1981 wrote a note to the Foreign Office, advising on how to react to the invitation. “I do not intend to suggest that the negotiations between the British Museum and the Musées de France should affect decisions on the invitation now being extended to Queen Elizabeth, but it is perhaps something which should be borne in mind. The British Museum might take the view that if the Queen Mother extends her patronage to the new Bayeux Museum the Bayeux Authorities ought to be ready to encourage the Musées de France to be more forthcoming over the Bayeux Tapestry. I would advise against such linkage as wholly inappropriate, but I think the point needs to be borne in mind by those who will tender advice to Queen Elizabeth.” Further, Hibbert made reference to “a minor dispute which has looked like causing difficulty between the British Museum and the authorities at Bayeux”. He explained that “The British Museum has been wanting to borrow the Bayeux Tapestry for display in London. The Musées de France recently reached a decision that the Tapestry could not be lent because it is too fragile”. Read more | The Bayeux Tapestry is beautiful, but what was its purpose? New research might have the answer The newly released file also contains a draft note by a Foreign Offi…

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Æthelstan: the king who made England
type: item
date: 2025-12-26T08:00:14.000Z
creator: Dr David Musgrove, FSA
subject: Anglo-Saxon
subject: Early medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: Æthelstan is the king who created England. That's the view of his biographer David Woodman, based on how far he managed to extend his authority beyond his powerbase of Wessex and Mercia in the 920s and 930s
encoded: Æthelstan was crowned in Kingston upon Thames 1100 years ago, in AD 925. He went on to extend his authority far beyond his initial powerbase of Wessex and Mercia to become the first king of England. David Musgrove talks to Professor David Woodman, author of The First King of England: Æthelstan and the Birth of a Kingdom, to hear why we should remember Æthelstan's reign.

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The Bayeux Tapestry is beautiful, but what was its purpose? New research might have the answer
type: item
date: 2025-12-15T16:12:18.000Z
creator: Dr David Musgrove, FSA
subject: Anglo-Saxon
subject: Early medieval
subject: Medieval
subject: Norman
subject: Period
subject: Discover / Apple News
description: A new theory proposes that the Bayeux Tapestry was designed to deliver moral messages to medieval monks over dinner
encoded: The Bayeux Tapestry is one of the most astonishing artefacts to survive from medieval Europe. It tells the story of the end of Anglo-Saxon rule at the hands of Duke William of Normandy, whose victory in 1066 ushered in the Norman Conquest – one of the most significant turning points in British history. But beyond recounting the rise of Norman supremacy, what was the Bayeux Tapestry really for? Was it only an extraordinary work of propaganda, designed as a display of righteous power? Or was it intended to have a more specific and purposeful role? The answer to that latter question is: yes, according to historian Professor Benjamin Pohl of the University of Bristol. He argues that the Bayeux Tapestry was created to be a moral aid viewed by medieval monks while they silently ate their meals in a communal refectory. What was the Bayeux Tapestry for? Professor Pohl explains his argument in a new article 'Chewing over the Norman Conquest: the Bayeux Tapestry as monastic mealtime reading', in which he makes the case that the embroidery was designed specifically to be hung in the monastic dining hall of St Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury, where it would have accompanied spoken readings and prompted moral reflection. Following the rule of St Benedict, which governed monastic life across much of medieval Europe, medieval monks were expected to maintain complete silence while eating, aside from the voice of the reader delivering the day’s text. These readings delivered moral instruction to the diners, in a setting where any visual imagery would have reinforced spoken words and offered a focus for contemplation. A tapestry made for monks The Bayeux Tapestry famously depicts the events leading up to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 through a series of cartoon-style embroidered scenes, accompanied by short Latin captions. Most scholars agree that the embroidery was probably made in, or near, Canterbury in the 11th century. That conclusion rests on similarities in its style an…

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Has history’s most famous comet been misnamed for centuries? “The answer is clear,” say historians
type: item
date: 2025-12-06T10:45:53.000Z
creator: Dr David Musgrove, FSA
subject: Anglo-Saxon
subject: Early medieval
subject: Medieval
subject: Period
subject: Discover / Apple News
description: David Musgrove reports on new research that casts light on the appearance of the comet in the 11th century, and its depiction in the Bayeux Tapestry
encoded: Halley’s Comet was last seen from Earth in 1986 and is expected to return in 2061. It’s widely taken for granted that the Stuart astronomer Edmond Halley was the first to recognise its roughly 76-year cycle, an insight he formalised in 1705 and which ultimately gave the comet his name. However, new research by professors Michael Lewis of the British Museum and Simon Portegies Zwart of Leiden University says that attribution might be wrong. Their work suggests that credit may instead belong to an English medieval monk named Elmer. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2025/12/GettyImages-514079858-a25607f-e1764931346339.jpg" width="1500" height="1000" alt="Halley’s Comet streaks across the sky in this 1986 photograph taken from the Ford Observatory, marking its most recent visit to the inner solar system. Once feared as a portent of upheaval, the comet is now a predictable visitor whose returns chart centuries of astronomical discovery." title="Halley's Comet, 1986" /> Elmer the flying monk Elmer, also known as Aethelmaer, lived in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, and is best remembered for leaping off Malmesbury Abbey attached to some homemade wings, attempting human flight, at some point between 1000-1010. In the words of chronicler William of Malmesbury, Elmer “had by some contrivance fastened to his hands and feet in order that he might fly as Daedalus, and collecting the air, on the summit of a tower, had flown for a distance of a furlong”. As well as recording Elmer’s early exploits in aviation, William also noted that – perhaps unsurprisingly – the flight did not end well. The monk ended up crashing to the ground, breaking his legs and becoming lame as a consequence. Despite this disability, he lived a long life and was still around (albeit elderly) during the Norman Conquest in 1066. Notwithstanding his very rough landing in 1005, Elmer’s legacy as the flying monk was secured, and even now, Malmesbury boasts a Flying Monk Brewery. Arguabl…

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In 1525, an army of revolting peasants seemed unstoppable – but a brutal end was on the horizon
type: item
date: 2025-10-23T10:29:58.000Z
creator: James Osborne
subject: Early medieval
subject: Medieval
subject: Period
subject: Tudor
subject: Discover / Apple News
description: Set alight by Reformation hopes and long-standing grievances, the German Peasants’ War looked like it might successfully upend the established order. Instead, it ended in catastrophe
encoded: In the spring of 1525, the German countryside erupted. Across the patchwork of states that made up the Holy Roman Empire, tens of thousands rose in arms, sacked castles and looted monasteries. For a few months the rebels looked unstoppable. Then, as summer wore on, their movement collapsed. “It was a disaster,” says historian Lyndal Roper, speaking on the HistoryExtra podcast: “a traumatic event that happens in the very middle of the Reformation.” The German Peasants’ War of 1524-1525 was the largest popular uprising in western Europe before the French Revolution. It spread at pace from the Black Forest through Swabia, Franconia, Saxony and Thuringia. What began as demands for redress turned into a continent-wide crisis that took thousands of lives. Europe in 1525 The Holy Roman Empire wasn’t a single kingdom but a mosaic of principalities, bishoprics and free cities owing loose allegiance to an emperor. Peasants shouldered rents, labour services and tithes to multiple overlords. In the 1510s prices rose sharply while wages lagged, and harvests failed in some years. Local lords tightened control over forests, rivers and game, fencing off resources that peasants had long used for food and fuel. At the same time, the Reformation was remaking Europe’s moral language. Martin Luther’s call to place scripture above church authority gave ordinary people a new set of ideas about rights and conscience. “One of the theological ideas behind it,” Roper explains, “is the really important idea that God created the world. He created the fish in the water, the birds in the air, the beasts in the forest, the wood, the water – all these resources were created by God, and therefore they should be free for mankind. “And therefore, the lords can’t go around saying: these are our ponds, these are our rivers, and you can’t fish in them, you can’t hunt animals in the forest, you aren’t allowed to hunt deer.” <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2025/10/Getty…

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Forget the longships: this is the overlooked story of how the Vikings dominated eastern Europe
type: item
date: 2025-09-30T15:29:58.000Z
creator: James Osborne
subject: Early medieval
subject: Medieval
subject: Period
subject: Viking
subject: Discover / Apple News
description: How did the Norse adventurers of the Viking Age impose themselves upon eastern Europe? Not with longships and raids, says one historian, but through canny adaptation
encoded: The Norse peoples of the Viking Age held much of western Europe tightly in their grip thanks to their imperious command of the sea. Their prowess as seafarers let them strike their targets at speed and then slip away just as swiftly, in repeated cycles of relentless raids from the fertile shores of the British Isles to the harsher coasts of Iceland that brought wealth and power. Viking longships carved with fearsome, dragon-headed prows crashed through imposing waves, delivering warriors to burn monasteries and terrorise prosperous lands. These vessels were key to their hit-and-run strategy, and to its eventual evolution into something more settled as the Norse forged enduring strongholds on hostile ground. But for the Vikings who ventured east toward the Slavic and Baltic regions, the story unfolded very differently. Conquests there weren’t defined by ocean raids, but by a remarkable capacity for canny adaptation. In the territories of today’s Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, the Norse traded the open sea for winding rivers, turning inland waterways into vital thoroughfares of commerce, conflict and state-building. “The rivers are absolutely critical,” explains historian Martyn Whittock, author of Vikings in the East, speaking on the HistoryExtra podcast. “We need to envisage them as the motorways of the early medieval world, which allow people access deep into the heart of the European continent, particularly the east.” When did the Vikings first head east? Archaeological finds from the mid-eighth century (including Scandinavian-style burials in places like Staraya Ladoga, near modern St Petersburg) show that the Norse were already present on the Baltic-Russian frontier before the famous raids on Britain had even begun. These early Norse pioneers were traders as well as warriors. They followed the Neva and Volkhov rivers into the interior, establishing bases like Ladoga and Novgorod. From there, they probed deeper, carrying boats and their cargo overland between river…

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Why does Putin think Ukraine should be Russian? It’s all to do with the Vikings
type: item
date: 2025-09-19T11:46:21.000Z
creator: James Osborne
subject: Early medieval
subject: Medieval
subject: Period
subject: Viking
subject: Discover / Apple News
description: Russian President Vladimir Putin’s narrative of a shared Russian–Ukrainian origin in the Viking-founded Kievan Rus is having dramatic implications in eastern Europe today. Here’s why the real history might be more complicated than the Russian president says
encoded: When Vladimir Putin states that Russians and Ukrainians are “one people”, he’s invoking a very specific vision of history. In essays and speeches, the Russian president has unfurled more than a thousand years of history to argue that modern Ukrainians and Russians share a single origin. “Putin’s claim is that because of a shared origin the Ukrainians and the Russians are one people, and that any division of them into two sovereign states is an artificial modern construct,” explains Martyn Whittock, speaking on the HistoryExtra podcast. Whittock is an author and historian whose recent book, Vikings in the East: From Vladimir the Great to Vladimir Putin – The Origins of a Contested Legacy in Russia and Ukraine, dissects that shared story and its connections to the medieval world of the Viking Age. Read more | Russia-Ukraine crisis: 9 milestone moments in history that explain today’s invasion At the centre of this origin story are the Rus (a particular group of Norse traders and warriors who settled in Eastern Europe and gave their name to both Russia and Belarus), and the towering 10th-century ruler Vladimir the Great, whose conversion to Christianity reshaped the destiny of the region. The Rus: the Vikings who headed east The Vikings are mostly remembered as violent raiders of the lands that lie south or west of Scandinavia: Britain, France, Ireland and Iceland. Yet from the 9th century, another branch of Norse seafarers set out east, rather than west. They navigated the great rivers of Eastern Europe – the Dnieper, the Don, the Volga – using their ships to link the Baltic to the Black Sea and the rich markets of Byzantium. These Norsemen became known as the Rus. “The Norse who came to this Slavic region are described as the Rus, and that’s a name that will run and run. It still exists in the name of Belarus and of course, Russia,” explains Whittock. The Rus were traders and warriors, dealing in furs, honey, wax and enslaved people. They established fortified towns a…

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Could you survive on the Vikings’ furthest frontier? Here’s the dark reality of Norse life on the edge
type: item
date: 2025-08-28T16:29:52.000Z
creator: James Osborne
subject: Anglo-Saxon
subject: Early medieval
subject: Medieval
subject: Period
subject: Viking
subject: Discover / Apple News
description: Historian Eleanor Barraclough reveals the brutal challenges faced by Norse settlers in Greenland – a Viking world of fragile farms and endless winters
encoded: It’s true that the Vikings were formidable raiders, warriors and explorers – storming monasteries on the coasts of Britain, sailing rivers into the depths of eastern Europe and even journeying as far as North America – all while violently snatching territories and treasure as they went. But it’s also true that this only encapsulates a small aspect of the broader Norse world. The Vikings – those raiders and warriors – were one facet of a culturally and geographically expansive people who set out from the heart of Scandinavia to find wealth and land. That objective took them from Northern Europe to the fringes of the Abbasid Caliphate in the Middle East, to the depths of what would become Russia, and – far across the Atlantic – to Greenland: the ultimate destination of the fearsome Norse chieftain and father of Leif Erikson, Erik the Red. It was late in the 10th century, just before the turn of the milenium, that Erik the Red was exiled from Iceland for his violence. Seeking a new home, he led his followers west to one of the most unforgiving environments in the Norse world: Greenland. A harsh new Norse home For the Norse, Greenland was the furthest edge of the habitable world. Life there was not measured in the frequency of plunder or military glory, but in whether communities could last through freezing winters, scarce resources and constant uncertainty. Speaking on the HistoryExtra podcast, historian Eleanor Barraclough explained how the Norse arrived there in the first place, and what daily life was really like on this harsh frontier. “After being outlawed from Iceland, Erik the Red goes west and he explores the west coast of Greenland,” explains Barraclough. “Erik spends those three years as an outlaw going up and down all the fjords on this west coast, and he names it Greenland because people are more likely to want to settle there if it’s got a good name.” Greenland’s name may have been clever marketing, but the reality was anything but green. The island’s east…

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