to many people today monarchy seems to so this is not another picture book

be merely a corrosive mixture of story of kings and queens instead it's a

snobbery ceremony and sentiment but it's real grown-up history of how a monarchy
far more than that created a nation it starts where the
it's a natural universal form of monarchy in the nation did the chaos and
government the violence of the dark ages
not all monning's of course they can two thousand years ago there was only
just as well be presidents or dictators one power that counted in the Western
but almost everywhere power comes down world Rome and Rome became the purest
to the decisions of one person which is most absolute monarchy the world has
all that monarchy means and a modern ever seen and Britain the province of
president or prime minister is a king Britannia was just a tiny part of that
for the time being as powerful as any monarchy room brought Britnie
medieval monarch or Roman civilization of extraordinary
but in Britain or rather in England this sophistication and refinement of the
universal fact of monarchy takes on a politics that accompanied it was
special meaning because we still have surprisingly crude all power theory and
our real monarchy it's over 1,500 years usually in practice was in the hands of
old which means that it's the oldest the Emperor he was a god on earth whose
functioning political institution in task it was to rule and to defend the
Europe it's also unique because right Empire the duty of his subjects on the
from the beginning the monarchy had a other hand was to obey and to pay their
strong popular element this means that taxes the idea that there might be any
its history is more than a tale of kings limit on what the emperor could do or
and queens of royal heroes like king that others should have a say in what
alfred and henry v and crowned villains got done was simply inconceivable for
like King John it's also the story of a 400 years
dialogue between King and people in this was the bedrock of life important
which the English learned to rule it brought peace and prosperity but
themselves and became the envy and the already from about 250 AD Roman power
example of the world was beginning to crumble
barbarians poured over the Imperial a great turning point in the history of
borders amongst the most dangerous were England but the Saxon conquest was even
Seabourn invaders from Germany which more important because it created the
Rome had never conquered so a great very idea and reality of England itself
ringed of fortresses like this one but indeed it's scarcely possible to
Richburg in Kent was built along the exaggerate the scale of the Saxon
east coast of Britain to repel the incursions perhaps two hundred thousand
Raiders people flooded into a native population
but in vain this vast fortress was of only about 2 million proportionately
overwhelmed and abandoned and its ruins it's the largest immigration that
marked the ruin of Britain or at least England has ever known
the ruin even the annihilation of moreover as most of the income as were
everything that was Roman about Britain men they quickly turned from immigrants
the law the language the literature the into conquerors in many areas of the
religion all vanished and all legitimate country DNA evidence shows that up to
political authority came to an end for 90% of the native male population was
that had been vested in the Emperor displaced they were driven out or killed
the collapse of Roman rule opened the and their women their villages and their
door to a vast influx German people farms taken over by the in comers this
today they're known as the anglo-saxons is ethnic cleansing at its most savagely
and we know quite a lot about them effective
because 300 years later a Northumbrian but it wasn't only blood that changed
monk wrote a great book about their the immigrants brought with them a new
early history that the writers name was language an early form of English they
bead and he's the first great English gave new names to districts villages and
historian Mead describes it was probably rivers names that we still use today
a mixture a fact and legend how in 449 they even renamed the country itself
Hengist and Horsa settled with their Britannia became Engelen and their
followers in kent other groups under political values were as different as
other leaders soon settled elsewhere we their language but this was a community
rightly think of the Norman Conquest as without sharp social distinctions and a
people without Kings today the closest Germany and transplanted to their new
we can come to the world of those early home in England here it flourished and
anglo-saxon settlers is the became a central part of the English
reconstructed village of West Stowe in political experience with powerful
Suffolk it dates from about 450 ad what echoes in Magna Carta the Glorious
was found here tells us what food they Revolution and the insistence of those
ate what clothes they wore and what Englishmen abroad the American
jewelry they took with them to the grave revolutionaries that they would pay no
above all nothing here suggests that taxation without representation
anyone was much more important than this was the beginning of kingship in
anyone else we're a long way here from England local war leaders chosen by the
the exalted autocracy of the Roman people of the district all leaders like
Empire with its huge gap between rich beer wolf hero of the anglo-saxon epic
and poor instead the folk of West Stowe poem who thanks to his prowess
here seem to have been and essentially eventually became king reigned
egalitarian people and this gloriously for fifty winters and was
egalitarianism was their great legacy to given a magnificent funeral hymn though
the development of kingship in England you get a tan Yatta lay older the yet
nevertheless such communities still people built a pyre for beer wood
needed leaders especially in times of stacked it and decked until it stood
war but how did their rise Foursquare hung with helmets heavy war
our earliest sources on the German shields gone and over the heights they
people's bead himself and the Roman kindled the hugest of all funeral fires
historian Tacitus have the answer flames wrought havoc in the hot bone
they choose their Kings the power even house burning it to the court
of the Kings is not absolute or heaven swallowed the smoker reg sway
arbitrary this is the idea of government ogre
by consent in which the leader is chosen via walls treasures were burn with beer
by the people or at least is answerable walls body luckily other war leaders Cam
to them it was an idea taken by the Kings were not cremated but buried that
anglo-saxons from their homeland in is those burials which provide the best
evidence for the origins of monarchy in power as a warrior and his legendary
England the Morial is often clustered wealth made him stand out as a first
round even older prehistoric monuments amongst equals but was he a true king
by reusing these older sites it seems sanctified by rituals like coronation he
the new men were demonstrating their was certainly a very rich man as his
importance to all their people written grave Goods testifying
and succs Anna like none of these the gold and garnet jewelry is unequaled
cemeteries is more impressive than in Europe the shoulder clasps and belt
Sutton Hoo in East Anglia where the buckles are unique
mounds cry on a ridge by the estuary of from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea
the River Devon in 1939 attracted by came richly engraved silverware from the
some chance finds archaeologists far-off Byzantine Empire classical and
investigated one of the mounds here what even Christian but the barrel also
they found was spectacular an entire contained objects which are even more
ship had been buried in a Barrow the intriguing
body had gone eaten away by the acid i pattern-welded sword of the finest
soil but the archaeologists were able to steel of the kind we find named and
make out the detail of the Dark Age ship celebrated in the epic poetry of the
timbers rivets and all the grave goods time
were astonishing you
there's been intense debate about who is the ceremonial helmet was far more piece
buried here but most collars are now of military hardware for in later times
agreed that these mounds are the burial the saxon word for crown was killer l or
site of a family called the war fingers helmet of the kin
the royal dynasty of the east angles and most intriguingly the burial included a
this the biggest mound is probably the decorated whetstone polished from the
burial site of the most important member harvest rock was this perhaps a kind of
of the dynasty a man called red walled royal sceptre these are more than the
beads history tells us that red world grave Goods of just a rich man their
ruled in East Anglia as one of several regalia the symbols of a ritualized
regional leaders in the new england his monarchy and they include many objects
the sceptre there if that's what it is amongst equals or even overlord of most
the sword and the helmet that were later of Inc one of the most successful was
on to figure in real coronation rituals Ethelbert king of Kent Ethelbert
it's clear that red world here is much prestige derived from his access to the
more than just an elected war leader material and cultural riches across the
he's a real king like Henry the eighth channel for there unlike here Roman
theme like Henry he's fond of music and institutions have not disappeared with
he's buried with a liar like Henry he's the political collapse of the Empire the
a discerning patron of the Arts and he's territory have been conquered by another
got a court craftsman who's able to make Germanic people the Franks who gave
the finest jewelry in Europe and like their name to France but under Frankish
Henry he delights in the weaponry and rule Roman society
the accoutrements of the warrior world language and literature and Roman
but red walls grave Goods also shows Christianity had all survived
something else the result was a glittering prospect for
he had contacts beyond just the world of ambitious anglo-saxon King like
the North Sea he reached out into Ethelbert and he determined to grab a
Christian France and beyond that to the share of it by marrying a Frankish
surviving Roman Empire in Byzantium princess and in that marriage two
because red wool here is an English King different contrasting worlds the Anglo
on the cusp of a new world the world of Saxon and the room were to meet the
Christian monarchy princess's name was Bertha and she came
England at the turn of the 6th century to England in about 580 ad her arrival
the world of red world his fellow began a process which would transform
regional Kings was rich strange and the nature of English kingship because
bloody it was people with monsters and Bertha was a Christian brought up in a
Dragons miracle-working swords and kings Christian court her husband Ethelbert
all claimed descent from wooden chief of gave her the little romano-british
the anglo-saxon pagan gods periodic by Church of Sint Maartens at Canterbury to
Gaia or military prowess one of these worship Him it wasn't long before
petty kings would make himself first Bertha's Frankish family got a letter
telling them that the people of England allowed the mission to stay and start
wish to be converted to the Christian its work in Kent
faith Ethelbert was playing a subtle political
the man who wrote the letter was Gregory game he was well aware of the advantages
bishop or Pope of Rome he was a great which had accrued to the Franks after
man in a great office for the Pope's their conversion to Christianity but he
were already claiming to be as not only needed to be convinced that it would
distant Peter but of the Roman emperors work for him for the political risks of
as well conversion were enormous
Gregory's power was different of course so in effect he was inviting Agustin to
it consisted not of legions of soldiers market test Christianity Agustin got to
but of regiments a priests and monks but work right away with a mission based
they were organized with all the old here in Bertha's little Church of st.
Roman respect for discipline hierarchy Martin's Canterbury
efficiency and law now within a few months a Gustin was
Bertha's marriage to Ethelbert presented claiming success with a mass baptism at
Gregory with the opportunity to launch a Christmas the mission built itself a new
new Roman conquest of England for much grander Church as its headquarters
Christianity and his chosen General in here at Santa gustin's Canterbury soon
the campaign was an Italian monk of good even Ethelbert himself was convinced and
family named Agustin the party landed in he was to be buried here with all the
597 ad beed tells us that a Gustin pomp that the Roman Church could muster
approached the king singing a litany and the King had been converted but it was
bearing a silver cross as his standard not the fear of hell that convinced
fearing that Agustin might possess Ethelbert it was politics for
magical powers Ethelbert insisted that Christianity enhanced his kingship with
the encounter take place in the open air two things which were very attractive to
but the meeting itself was all Dark Age roomin ideas about power and
courteousness Roman ways doing things
on both sides the pagan King Ethelbert but the Roman Church borrowed much more
wasn't immediately convinced even so he from the Roman Empire than just ceremony
like Rome it used Latin it had an in Staffordshire The Chronicle tells us
elaborate system of law and that he was treacherously killed by his
administration and it built in stone but own household at night in shocking
above all it was ruled by a monarch the fashion
Pope who claimed like the Emperor's the King's remains were brought to
absolute and divinely ordained Authority Repton here and buried in this mausoleum
he even used one of the imperial titles of the Mercian Kings it was another
Supreme Pontiff now all this the church spectacular royal funeral like those at
made available to Ethelbert now that he Sutton Hoo our son - gustin's Canterbury
converted to Christianity could the Old and you can still see behind me here one
English idea of elective kingship of the alcoves where the richly jeweled
survive these new trappings of Imperial relic Riz once stood but there's a
and divine authority of the power that wicked twist to this story because the
went with from now on English kings man who organized this splendid funeral
presented themselves not as pagan was perhaps also the man behind the
warlords of but as the successors of the murder certainly he was the one who
Emperor's and the new kings of Israel profited from it he's one of the
literate godly and divinely ordained but Forgotten heroes of English history a
despite this new elevated rhetoric of man who operated on a European scale and
Christian kingship the life of the dominated the England of his day his
typical anglo-saxon King we may name is offer king of Mercia the kingdom
nasty brutish and short the England was of Mercia had formed the Marches a
still divided into a clutch of regional frontier district of England where the
monarchies to the north they the kingdom Saxons fought with the Welsh from here
of Northumbria to the south were the offers predecessors and pushed their
kingdom's oppresses Sussex and Kent influence south and east right down
strolling across the Midlands was mercy Watling Street to London the rich
to the stage next power play in the pickings of Kent and Essex effectively
story of the English monarchy in the they were the Lords of the cross England
year of our Lord 757 the kingdom Mercia highway
was murdered at second - near Tamworth a-five like other anglo-saxon Kings
offer had to exert control through brute on his currency here it is with a
military power but he also aimed to portrait of the King which echoes
recreate the absolute autocratic manuscript images of the biblical King
authority of the Christian Roman Empire David and most astonishing of all here
and here at bricks worth Church in is his name on a new gold coinage model
Northamptonshire which offer enlarged on coins from the fabulous east the
and beautified we have a spectacular front of all wealth but with offers
insight into offers vision for although names stamped in the middle of the
the church is anglo-saxon it looks Roman copied Arabic inscription
with its round arches of Roman brick and the greatest symbol of the Kings
its lofty wall crowning a prominent Hill imperial power is this offers Dyk 64
bricks worth is an appropriately miles long and a continuous earthwork
bombastic monument to the zenith of barrier along his frontier with Wales it
mercian power is a work of almost still in contempt
offers room and style autocracy brooked for the wealth
no opposition he was determined to this was the largest civil engineering
extend his power over the other English project since the Romans fully
kingdoms and he was ruthless in his comparable in scale to Hadrian's war and
methods the Dyke is more than a monument it's
dynasty's which had lasted for centuries evidence
disappeared proof that offer could mobilize enough
Sussex which had once held sway across man part building offer was bidding for
the whole of southern England was swept Imperial status with a fortification of
away an imperial guy
even the kingdom of Kent where Ethelbert finally it's m87 offer attempted to
had established the English tradition of ensure the survival of his magnificent
Christian monarchy was abolished vision by having his son anointed king
nothing impressed at Kings image honest offer was creating a dynasty which could
subjects more than the coins with which inherit his power and status and in line
they bought their daily bread offer was with offers Imperial pretensions this
the first English King to stamp his name was the first Christian royal
consecration we know of in England in turn invaded by pirates from further
which the whole panoply of the church north the Vikings Vikings came from
was deployed to declare that the boy was Scandinavia and their effect on England
God's anointed his father's was devastating
unchallengeable successor but it was drawn by plunder for three generations
also an English ceremony invoking older their warriors had attacked courts and
royal traditions that went back to monasteries of England almost destroying
Sutton boom and beyond the English in the process
for the boy was investing not the crime but by the 1860s their success had
but with a royal helmet suggested new opportunities to the
with this consecration investiture of Viking leaders once mere raiders they
his son offer was confident the future now determined on permanent conquest one
both of his house and of mercian power by one the anglo-saxon kingdoms fell
seemed secure until only one remained Wessex now the
but it was not to be the author seems to Viking leader Guthrum aim to make Wessex
have behaved more like the godfather of his own
a Mafia family than the ruler of the his opponent was like all successful
legitimate state indeed anglo-saxon Kings a man of action and a
the English were to remember him more warrior but this king of Wessex was more
for the Kings that he murdered them for indeed he's just about unique in
the kingdom that he built the result was medieval history he was an intellectual
that within 20 years of his death in 796 a writer a man whose very words have
the greater Mercian Dominion that he'd come down to us for the first time in
created had dissolved back into what was our history we can hear the genuine
then the usual state of England a voice of an English king his name was
patchwork of smaller rival kingdoms Alfred double Quentin on English they is
kingdoms that were about to undergo the e'en eminent or leaden pastor Alice and
Severus Tavor deals invasion on English parody book we loom murdered
four and a half centuries after the be worded a coelom onion of an heater
Angles and Saxons have begun to Rhea the and two Alcon bishops cooler on mineral
English coast they found themselves in richer Willie on guff from the Vikings
assault on Alfred's Kingdom reached a across the showers of weddings the
climax in the window at eight seven message Ram calling the people to their
eight traditional assembly points one of them
Guthrum surprised Alfred and drove him was here in the district of Swanberg in
from his Hall Chippenham in Wiltshire the veil of beauty beneath my feet is
the Saxon King was forced to flee to the the prehistoric burial mound known
marshlands of Somerset to athelney it locally a swan Brad hump doesn't look
was the nadir of his fortunes later in much but it's got his own place in the
one of his writings history of England because this for
Alfred probably recalled his predicament centuries was actually the center of the
on dhaumya Sun fulness on that mood we local community it was here that the
are o parven and on them AR fathom in people came once a month for the MOOC or
the midst of prosperity the mind is assembly of what was known as the
elated and in prosperity a man forgets hundred of swan brand here in the
himself your son fool Nessa one for y it presence of the Kings Reeve or Bailey
is service in hardship he's forced to the people received the King's justice
reflect on himself even though he be out in the open air
unwilling Incheon they are hey doula the King's wreath was a royal official
athelney means royal island and alfred responsible for law and order taxation
fled here because it was an island it's and the administration of justice and
difficult to find in the middle of the his hundred court relied as English
marshes and the water which floods the government would do for the next
friend land in winter makes it difficult thousand years on the distinctively
to attack but at the same time it allows English idea the jury a collection of
for easy communication by boat with the local people some quite humble who took
rest of Wessex we should imagine Alfred part as a matter of course in the local
sending out such messengers as he administration of justice and government
plotted and planned the counter-attack above the level of the hundred Wessex
the winter turned into spring at last was divided into Cheyenne's Hampshire
after several months he was ready he Wiltshire Somerset and Dorset they were
sent out the call to arms run by royal officials not local
magnates in the same way as the hundreds the test of his style of kingship and
so twice a year the people would come to across west six in their Shire 100
receive the King's justice on the one courts his people who responded
hand and to make their concerns known to Alfred's army assembled at a prehistoric
the Kings officers on the other Barrow in Wiltshire where his
in we're sexy rough-and-ready grandfather's celebrated the final
egalitarianism at the earliest settlers victory over the British people of corn
had developed into kind of partnership but the muster didn't just evoke Wessex
between the king and people this his glorious past
partnership Alfred's campaign was also a kind of
unlike what happened in the rest of crusade for his call to arms coincided
Europe hadn't been hijacked by the with Easter the Feast of the
leading landowners and alfred was well resurrection and the parallel between
aware of its importance because this Alfred's recovery from defeat and Christ
partnership the sense of all being in it victory over death wasn't lost on his
together made it easier for alfred to truest
make heavy demands on his people as the when they saw the King receiving him not
invasion crisis deepened in contrast to surprisingly as if one restored to life
offer of Mercia Alfred's kingship after suffering such great tribulations
combined Christian Roman Authority with they were filled with immense joy
the traditional participation of the from there the army advanced to a place
anglo-saxon folk that bit Elka the man called Le Oak the traditional site of
cannot work on any enterprise without another West 600 court
resources but in the case of the King they're in the woods they made camp in
the resources and tools with which he the morning they would march out to meet
has to rule that authority have his gothram and his Vikings military experts
lands fully manned that he hover is have calculated that this was probably
non-full Hornet what do without these the site of the battle we can't know for
tools no King may make his ability known certain as there'd be no systematic
his craft of a cooler excavations but Charles fines have
Alford's call to arms went out it was turned up remains of the right period
some of them heavily mutilated this kingdom but winning a battle wasn't the
isn't surprising because the battle was same as winning the war to do that
both savage and bloody both sides had Alfred had to put all Wessex on a
too much at stake full-time war footing he created a navy
for it to be anything else Gus room knew with bigger and better ships and he
that for his takeover of the kingdom of reorganized the army to enable him to
Wessex to succeed he had to kill Alfred put troops into the field almost anytime
outright as for Alfred and the men of most effective of all was the chain of
Wessex they knew that this was probably fortresses he built across his kingdom
their last chance of Independence if to deny the Vikings passage
Gotham won the Viking takeover of Winchester the capital was one of the
England would be first and their true significance was
on the brow of the hill above Eddington much greater than their defensive
Guthrum station the front rank for the capability these birth fortresses
shilling world weren't private castles owned by some
outfits men were forced to attack Lord or Bishop and man by his retainers
fighting fiercely with a compact shield instead they were fortified communities
wall against the entire Viking army he founded by the king and defended by his
persevered resolutely for a long time people and as unfitted intended from the
at length he gained the victory through beginning they quickly became real towns
God's will he destroyed the Vikings with boosting trade and with it taxes as a
great slaughter result the King got rich and his people
Alfred had established himself as a grew prosperous whilst the word borough
great war leader at the head of the as we pronounce it today started to
Shires and Wessex were saved for the assume its modern meaning as well of a
time being at least self-governing urban community under
but the future of the rest of England royal patronage of the first and
still hung in the balance greatest of those royal patrons was
Eddington in eight seven eight kick Alfred himself
alfred had vanquished an enemy would the birds were so important and Alfred
threaten the very existence of his that their names often replace the names
of the money errs on the reverse of his Alfred in fact ruled only part of
coins this one displays monogram of the England but already there's the
mint at London for London was the birth beginning here of a national political
of birds as the Viking tide ebbed in idea and Alfred's books tell the same
England Al Fateh pushed forward beyond story
his kingdoms traditional frontiers but it was Alfred who commissioned the
it was his capture Andrey fortification National Book of record the anglo-saxon
of the City of London that marked new chronicle is called anglo-saxon not only
direction in his kingship because of its subject matter but
London was already the largest town and because of its language for unlike the
the commercial powerhouse of England it Chronicles produced elsewhere in Europe
had been the jewel in King offers crown it's written not in Latin but in the
now the jewel was Alfred's and the vernacular Anglo Saxon this means that
prestige that went with it it's not written by churchmen for church
so following his capture of the city and men instead it's a king talking to his
its refor typic a shoe in 886 Alfred people in the language that they
inflated his title and his ambition understand and his people talking to
hitherto he'd only been king of the West themselves and there's no doubt that
Saxons now he called himself King at the this use of anglo-saxon the vernacular
angles and the Saxons could acclaim for the language of the people is a
alpha to be king of all the English deliberate policy of
before behind consciousness-raising on ARF it's part
for that's how he's described in this because not only does Alfred himself
vital document this is that frif dot make many such translations into
Alfred pin and booth room King and s the anglo-saxon he also in the letter which
peace treaty introduces the past for care tells us
Alfred made with gothram which why we they're on that if they order
formalized Viking control of eastern when de we - we should turn into the
England but in the treaty Alfred language that we can all understand
describes himself as king of all the certain books which are the most
English not ruled over by the Danes necessary for all men to know for the
older model so that all the Freeborn time for them to celebrate
young men now in England who have the here Jaeger was here was Edgar Lord of
means to apply themselves to it may be the English hallowed to King Albert
set to learning until the time that they under at Aikman Chester the ancient city
can read English writings properly jester yep whose modern sons the island
English give it our Adam when Alfred dwellers have called us bath
died in 899 he still ruled over only about 70 years after Alfred's death his
part of England but his legacy was to be great-grandson Edgar came here to Bath
the permanent unification of the country for what was probably his second
the actual work was the task of his sons coronation he'd already been crowned as
and king of the English but meantime he'd
grandsons but it was Alfred who in the established his authority over all
crucible of the Viking invasions had Britain hence the choice of Bath for
forged an idea of England that was more another bigger ceremony for in Bath
than simply cultural or linguistic it there was a unique combination of a
was political or rather uniquely in Christian Abbey next door to the largest
Europe at the time it was a combination the most impressive ruins of Roman
of Britain it was an incomparable setting
in the years after his death his for Edgar's coronation as king of the
successes pushed back the Vikings taking first British Empire 10th century style
over all the land they had settled and let thy most sacred unction flow upon
as they did so they created shires on his head and descend into his heart and
the Wessex pattern across the whole of enter his soul and let him by the grace
England up to the Humber and this be worthy of the promises which the
political geography is with us today the victorious Kings have obtained that in
creation of England was almost complete this present life he may reign with
but the house of Wessex did not stop happiness and finally attained to their
there in two generations English kings fellowship in the kingdom of heaven
had established their lordship over the receive this ring the seal of the holy
whole of the rest of Britain over Wales faith the strength of thy kingdom and
Scotland and the Western Isles it was the increase of thy power whereby thou
mayst learn to drive back thy foes with England and the unity of England ever be
triumph destroy heresies unite those challenged
whom thou has conquered and bind them you
firmly to the Catholic faith
unlike Saxon kings of an earlier age
Edgar was invested with a crown not a
helmet and the service conducted by his
archbishop deliberately compared the
king
Christ this coronation was so
spectacular that when in 1910 more than
a thousand years later the King Emperor
George v was eager to emphasize his
Imperial status he turned to Edgar's
coronation surface as one of his models
he was right to do so his kingship was
the lineal descendant of Edgar's and of
Alfred's and that participate rhe
monarchy which had been first pioneered
in England over millennium before out of
the chaos of post-roman Dark Age Britain
the English had created the world's
first nation-state one king
one country one church one currency one
language and a single unified
representative national administration
never again in England would sovereignty
descend to the merely regional level
never again
despite disagreements and troubles Wars
and even revolutions would the idea of