Anglo-Saxon England

Kent consists of a small spur sticking out of the south-eastern tip of England. To its north lies the mouth of the River Thames and to its south it the English Channel. As the closest point between Br...

15 Mar 202314min

As historians we thrive on the material culture of the past. You don’t need to be an historical materialist to recognize that without material culture our understanding of history is severely limited....

1 Mar 202320min

The period of West Saxon consolidation under Ine had major implications not just for Wessex but for peoples elsewhere in Britain and even on the Continent. One man who embodies the international impac...

15 Feb 202318min

Michael Lapidge called Aldhelm the first English ‘man of letters’ on account of his vast learning. Bede said of him that he was ‘most learned in every respect’ and that he was both a mast of style as ...

1 Feb 202320min

It’s probably no exaggeration to say the Alfred the Great is one of the most, if not the most, famous Anglo-Saxon of them all. The only British monarch given the epithet ‘the Great’, the traditional a...

18 Jan 202326min

Æthelwulf’s will attests to his desire that upon his death Wessex would pass into the hands of his sons. This desire was fulfilled when his eldest surviving son Æthelbald became king following his fat...

4 Jan 202325min

Æthelwulf, father of Alfred the Great, was perhaps the most innovative king Wessex had seen since the reign of Ine. Although he would dedicate much of his reign to securing the throne, through the dua...

21 Des 202222min

In 786 King Cynewulf was murdered throwing Wessex into disorder. In the midst of the feuding that followed King Offa of Mercia moved in to secure the West Saxons’ passivity by elevating a puppet to th...

7 Des 202223min