HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: The official website for BBC History Magazine
date: 2025-08-24T21:18:04.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: Emma of Normandy: not just a two-time queen consort of England
items: The St Brice’s Day Massacre: what really happened?
items: Reading the runes: uncovering the everyday lives of the Vikings
items: Vikings quiz - week two
items: Viking raiders, with Professor Ryan Lavelle
items: Alternate history: what if Alfred the Great lost to the Vikings at the battle of Edington?
items: Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians: the warrior queen who crushed the Vikings
items: Vikings: Valhalla – the real history behind Netflix’s successor to Vikings
items: How Sweyn Forkbeard became the first Viking king of England
items: The Danelaw: is the ‘realm’ of the Vikings in Anglo-Saxon-era England a place or an idea?

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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The St Brice’s Day Massacre: what really happened?
type: item
date: 2025-03-25T06:00:35.000Z
creator: Dr David Musgrove
subject: Anglo-Saxon
subject: Period
subject: Viking
subject: Death
subject: Viking Britain
description: David Musgrove talks to Dr Ben Savill about the violence of 13 November 1002, when Danes in England were attacked, known as the St Brice's Day Massacre
encoded: The 11th century of English history features more than its fair share of bloodshed in battles, but right at the start of the new millennium, before 1066, one event that has always seemed to especially stand out for the brutality of its violence: the St Brice’s Day Massacre of 13 November 1002. “It continues to exercise a curious allure over successive generations of undergraduate essay-writers and their lecturers, whose own occasionally lurid interest follows a historiographical tradition going back almost a millennium, beginning with the Norman observers who sought to depict the event as one of the great, gory English national sins justifying the conquest of 1066.” That’s a quote from Dr Benjamin Savill, of Trinity College, Dublin, in his article Remembering St Brictius: Conspiracy, Violence and Liturgical Time in the Danish Massacre of 1002, published in the Journal of Ecclesiastical History - and it hints at a much broader story. What was the St Brice's Day Massacre? The massacre is a striking incident, but one for which we have only limited evidence (in common with most of the events of the period). There is a reference to it in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which notes that “in this year the king ordered to be slain all the Danish men who were in England”, and a further more detailed comment in a diploma of King Æthelred the Unready (the reigning monarch at the time) for the monastery of St Frideswide, Oxford, of 1004. That diploma describes how the Danes in that city sought sanctuary in a church, which was set upon and burnt down by “all the people in pursuit”. Archaeological evidence has recently supplemented those sources, with discovery and excavation of mass graves in Oxford and Dorset. Both excavations, but particularly the Oxford one, have been linked to the events of November 1002 as possible mass execution sites. How many were killed in the St Brice's Day Massacre? With that limited dataset, the question of how widespread the violence was, and whether it …

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Reading the runes: uncovering the everyday lives of the Vikings
type: item
date: 2024-11-04T07:00:55.000Z
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Viking
subject: Long reads (podcast series)
subject: Viking Britain
description: Eleanor Barraclough reads the runes to find out more about day-to-day life during the age of the Vikings
encoded: Mysterious characters inscribed on stone, wood and bone have revealed little-known details of everyday Viking life. This Long Read, written by historian Eleanor Barraclough, deciphers the runes to recount tales of love, lust, travel and tragedy from a millennium ago. HistoryExtra Long Reads brings you the best articles from BBC History Magazine, direct to your ears. Today’s feature originally appeared in the October 2024 issue, and has been voiced in partnership with the RNIB.

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Vikings quiz - week two
type: item
date: 2024-02-12T12:04:20.000Z
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Quiz
subject: Viking
subject: HistoryExtra Academy
subject: HistoryExtra Academy Vikings Course
subject: Viking Britain
subject: Viking life and culture
subject: Viking warfare
description: How much have you learned about the Vikings so far? Test your knowledge of your learnings in week two with our HistoryExtra quiz
encoded: View Riddle on the source website

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Viking raiders, with Professor Ryan Lavelle
type: item
date: 2024-02-01T16:43:58.000Z
creator: Professor Ryan Lavelle
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Viking
subject: Viking Britain
subject: Viking warfare
description: In the first mini-lecture of the HistoryExtra Academy Vikings course, Professor Ryan Lavelle introduces us to the Viking age, and explores the Vikings' reputation as fearsome raiders
encoded: In the first mini-lecture of the HistoryExtra Academy Vikings course, Professor Ryan Lavelle introduces us to the Viking Age, and explores the Vikings' reputation as fearsome raiders View Green Video on the source website More content from week one of the HistoryExtra Academy Vikings course: Fighting the Vikings – read time 13 mins History explorer: Alfred and the Vikings – read time 13 mins Your guide to the Viking raid of Lindisfarne – read time 3 mins The great Viking terror: how Norse warriors conquered the Anglo-Saxons – read time 12 mins Slaves in the Viking Age: how prevalent were enslaved people in Viking societies – read time 3 mins Why did the Vikings' violent raids begin? – read time 12 mins Viking ships: 5 lesser-known facts – read time 6 mins

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Alternate history: what if Alfred the Great lost to the Vikings at the battle of Edington?
type: item
date: 2022-11-17T10:36:18.000Z
subject: Anglo-Saxon
subject: Early medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Medieval battles
subject: Viking Britain
subject: Viking life and culture
description: Professor Ryan Lavelle and Nige Tassell consider the future shape and make-up of England had the revered king of Wessex lost a crucial battle to the Vikings in AD 878
encoded: King Alfred was far from successful in his early battles against the Danes. Shortly after succeeding his brother Æthelred as ruler of Wessex in AD 871, he was forced to make a fragile peace by paying the invaders to leave the kingdom, only to suffer further incursions over the next few years. But by AD 878 and the battle of Edington, Alfred was sufficiently powerful to be able to force the Danes, led by the future king of East Anglia, Guthrum, into a modest retreat across the border into neighbouring Mercia. In the process, Alfred regained the stronghold of Chippenham, and a subsequent programme of fortress building managed to keep future Danish aggression at bay. These were tactics that would come to influence later Saxon leaders, including his children Edward the Elder and Æthelflæd, ‘Lady of the Mercians’. Read more | Alfred the Great and Edington: how the King of Wessex became great Whether a different Wessex king could have achieved this success is up for scrutiny. Ryan Lavelle – professor of early medieval history at the University of Winchester and the author of Alfred’s Wars: Sources and Interpretations of Anglo-Saxon Warfare in the Viking Age (Boydell, 2010) – suggests that “perhaps Alfred had more drive than other rulers at this point in his life, but we don’t know if another ruler in the same position would have done better.” “Perhaps he had skills as a negotiator. The peace in AD 871 was bought with money, and knowing when to purchase peace and how it could be negotiated was an important thing. Any ruler could buy peace if they had the wealth, but I suppose the thing here might be that Alfred knew it was a good time to do so in AD 871 and to regroup.” In context: the aftermath of Edington Seven years into his rule as king of Wessex, during which he suffered frequent Viking incursions, Alfred’s troops met the forces of the Danish leader Guthrum at the battle of Edington. His victory was highly significant, not least because Wessex was the only Saxon kingd…

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Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians: the warrior queen who crushed the Vikings
type: item
date: 2022-03-11T16:58:00.000Z
creator: Dr Janina Ramirez
subject: Anglo-Saxon
subject: Period
subject: Viking
subject: British queens
subject: Historical people
subject: TV interest
subject: Viking Britain
description: She is a medieval marvel, but – as the daughter of Alfred the Great, and ultimately succeeded by her nephew Æthelstan – Æthelflæd has been overshadowed by the men in her life. Janina Ramirez reveals how the wife, mother, diplomat – and, above all, warrior-queen – left an indelible mark on Anglo-Saxon England in the 10th century
encoded: Listen to a version of this article: There are only a handful of warrior women from the past who have captured imaginations for centuries. The most famous are Boudicca, her chariot complete with spiked wheels, and the armoured teenager, Joan of Arc. These were the exceptions – women in a man’s world who men followed into battle. But there is one warrior woman who is less celebrated. Eleven centuries ago, Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, died and was buried in Gloucester. She was exceptional for many reasons. She is one of the few known women who not only held a role within the household as mother and lady – and within the court, as daughter and wife to kings – but also wielded power on the battlefield. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2020/04/1120TLK4_208ep_2019sc_22sc_20Adrienn20Szabo_201408201920108-fdc5d06.jpg" width="1024" height="694" alt="Millie Brady as Aethelflaed in series four of 'The Last Kingdom'. (Image by Carnival/adrienn szabo/Netflix)" title="Millie Brady as Aethelflaed in series four of 'The Last Kingdom'. (Image by Carnival/adrienn szabo/Netflix)" /> What’s more, she is the only queen in English history to have passed her reign directly to her daughter. She is a medieval marvel, but she has been overshadowed by the men who surrounded her in life – her father, Alfred the Great; her husband, Æthelred of Mercia (a kingdom in what is now central England); and her ultimate successor, her nephew, Æthelstan, ‘the king of the whole of Britain’. Yet Michael Wood has argued that “without her England might never have happened”. In the 12th century, the historian Henry of Huntingdon declared Æthelflæd to be “so powerful that in praise and exaltation of her wonderful gifts, some call her not only lady, but even king”. He praised her as “worthy of a man’s name” and “more illustrious than Caesar”. So why do we not know more about the Lady of the Mercians, and is it finally her time to shine? The Last Kingdom: everything you nee…

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Vikings: Valhalla – the real history behind Netflix’s successor to Vikings
type: item
date: 2022-02-25T17:59:52.000Z
creator: Kev Lochun
subject: Period
subject: Viking
subject: TV interest
subject: Viking Britain
description: Vikings: Valhalla is available to stream on Netflix, bringing a new generation of Viking schemers and dreamers to the screen, from explorers Leif Erikson and Freydís Eiríksdóttir to warrior Harald Sigurdsson and empire-builder King Cnut. Here’s what’s what to expect from the show, plus the real history that underpins the story…
encoded: If Netflix’s new historical drama Vikings: Valhalla looks and feels familiar, that’s because it is. It’s the successor to the History Channel’s hugely popular Vikings, the six-season epic that told the story of the semi-mythical Ragnar Lothbrok and his sons. Read on for the real history of Vikings: Valhalla – from the true stories of the historical characters depicted on screen to the liberties taken by the show in the name of creative licence… Vikings: Valhalla plot – what should we expect? ** This section contains no major spoilers for Vikings: Valhalla season 1** Vikings: Valhalla is set approximately a hundred years after the final season of Vikings concludes bringing us a new generation of Norse warriors and rulers, dreamers and schemers. At the centre of the action are three historical figures for whom we have records in varying degrees: Nordic prince Harald Sigurdsson (played by Leo Suter), whom we know better today as Harald Hardrada; legendary explorer Leif Eriksson (Sam Corlett), and his sister Freydís Eiríksdóttir (Frida Gustavsson). But while the show feels and looks familiar, the Viking world we see this time around is not the same. If Vikings showed us the glory days of Norse expansion from Scandinavia, the raid on Lindisfarne and the Great Heathen Army, Vikings: Valhalla brings with it a sense of lingering finality. Read more | Viking gods, goddesses & tricksters: 12 figures from Norse mythology This is the Viking Age at the beginning of the end, where the Viking world is riven by religious tension within – pitting Christian Vikings against ‘pagan’ Vikings – as well as more traditional enemies without. The lynchpin moment that kicks off the plot is the St Brice’s Day Massacre of 1002, in which king Æthelred II of England orders the extermination of all Vikings in his realm, many of whom live within the Danelaw [a region under Danish law in Anglo-Saxon England]. It’s in the aftermath of this slaughter that Harald, Leif and Freydís are brought together,…

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How Sweyn Forkbeard became the first Viking king of England
type: item
date: 2022-02-03T16:25:00.000Z
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Viking
subject: Historical people
subject: HistoryExtra Academy
subject: HistoryExtra Academy Vikings Course
subject: TV interest
subject: Viking Britain
description: In 1013, Sweyn Forkbeard employed superior military strength and tactical ability to supplant the descendants of Alfred the Great. Sarah Foot traces his journey from foreign adventurer to first Viking king of England...
encoded: Who was Sweyn Forkbeard? Sweyn Forkbeard (also Swein or Svein) was the son of Harold Bluetooth, the first Christian king of Denmark, who had substantially enlarged the Danish kingdom and been accepted as overlord in Norway. Eager to wield power himself, Sweyn rebelled against his father in AD 987, and drove him into exile. Such was the stability of the realm that Harold had created that Sweyn was free to lead raids on England himself, without having to worry about his security at home. And his campaign enjoyed the support not only of his own retainers but also of other leading men from Denmark and elsewhere in Scandinavia, who hoped to profit from the treasures he would win. Famous Vikings | Ivar the Boneless, Aud the Deep-Minded and 6 more famous Vikings you should know about Sweyn’s nickname, Forkbeard, is first recorded in a chronicle from Roskilde, compiled about 1140. Most medieval accounts of his career followed the lead given by a German chronicler, Adam of Bremen, who denigrated Sweyn for failing to recognise the authority of the German emperor and not acknowledging the ecclesiastical authority of the archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen. A more positive picture is offered in a text in praise of Emma of Normandy, widow of Æthelred the Unready, who went on to marry Cnut, Sweyn’s son. There Sweyn is praised as a fortunate, generous and religious king. How did Sweyn Forkbeard become king of England? Around one thousand years ago, the king of Denmark (and lord also over Norway and Sweden) invaded England with a large fleet. After a brief campaign, he secured the submission of all the English people apart from the inhabitants of London. When, as a near-contemporary English chronicler reported, “all the nation regarded him as full king”, the citizens of London finally capitulated and submitted, giving the Dane hostages, “for fear that he would destroy them”. That king was Sweyn Forkbeard. His swift conquest sent the Anglo-Saxons’ native ruler, Æthelred (nicknamed ‘the Unr…

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The Danelaw: is the ‘realm’ of the Vikings in Anglo-Saxon-era England a place or an idea?
type: item
date: 2021-11-16T13:15:53.000Z
subject: Anglo-Saxon
subject: Period
subject: Viking
subject: Viking Britain
description: The Danelaw is a term used to describe both a region under Danish law and a physical place – but which is most accurate? Dr Ben Raffield of the University of Uppsala unpicks the myths surrounding this Viking ‘realm’ in England…
encoded: Today, the ‘Danelaw’ is a term used to refer to the area controlled by the Vikings encompassing the north and east of England, between the ninth and 11th centuries, but this hasn’t always been the case. Speaking on the HistoryExtra podcast, Dr Ben Raffield explained what the Danelaw really was and what this meant for the Danes and Anglo-Saxons living on either side of its ‘boundary’. What do we mean by the term Danelaw? The modern understanding of this term is that it’s an area of eastern and northern England, including York, East Anglia and the Midlands, that was conquered and settled by Scandinavian groups during the late ninth century. It’s a term that has been used to define this area culturally since the 10th century, when the English king Edgar decreed that the Danes living in England could exercise their rights according to their own legal frameworks, unlike those living under English law. Listen | Dr Ben Raffield explains how in the ninth and tenth centuries, Scandinavian laws and customs prevailed across a swathe of what’s now northern and eastern England Later in the 11th century, this appears as the written term Dena lage, meaning “areas under Danish law”. But by the 12th century, it becomes an almost geopolitical term in that the Danelaw is perceived more generally as the northern and eastern part of England, which exists in contrast to Wessex and English Mercia in the south and west. Over the course of a couple of centuries, what was originally a descriptive term used to describe a cultural and legal differentiation in England morphs into one used to denote a geographical place. This makes it quite difficult to define what the Danelaw actually is. Perhaps instead we should say that it’s a concept that reflects different ideas held by different people at different times. How many people came to the Danelaw from Scandinavia? The scale of Scandinavian invasions and settlements has been much debated. In the latter part of the 20th century, it was suggested …

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