The Battle of Brunanburh 937 AD 

​@Marko Milivojević Rust Because we know very little about the early Anglo Saxon kings. Most of the things that are known is either based on archeology or from documentation written more than 2 centuries later. There is very little contemporary documentation of this period

You mean English history. There ws no Britain or British till the 1700s.

@@GhostsOfTheAngelcynn Actually I mean Britain which is the name of the island. The term Britain pre dates the name England and I was also including Scottish (which I find most interesting due to the amount of different people groups there) and welsh history.

Agreed, but I'd go further and say British history from 10,000 bc to around 1000 ad gets nowhere near enough attention.

@@SgtSteel1 exactly people seem to think the Natives of pre Roman Britain were savages when in fact there was an advanced culture with mass farming and trade in materials and objects that went to and came from as far as Egypt.

Oh same here lol ! 😅

That movie sucked compared to the series

Honestly the Anglo-Saxon era is one of the most interesting sections of English history. The Anglo-Saxons arrived in England, in much the same way as the Vikings later would, and from roughly the same geographic region. They can be seen as a first wave of Germanic invasions into the British isles, with the Vikings being the second wave. They became slightly more civilized and organized it seems, with the introduction of Christianity, but remained very warlike nonetheless. When Athelstan died, it marked the end of three powerful Anglo-Saxon (English) kings from the house of Wessex, who had transformed the political landscape and carved out an English “empire”. History can be cruel however, and it seemed that all of their efforts were undone by the weak king Ethelred the Unready’s erratic reign. The northmen returned in great strength during this time. Despite his successor Edmund Ironside’s valiant efforts, the Danish king Cnut was victorious and became the king of England. Cnut was the head of what was effectively a powerful Danish Empire which had much of Scandinavia under its banner, and adding England to that was immense. Cnut could not hold it all together however, and focused on the wealthy English kingdom, letting bits of his Scandinavian realm fall from his grasp. Luckily for the English, Cnut turned out to be a wise and fair king, largely ruling England in much of the Anglo-Saxon tradition. His son Harthacnut was ineffective, and his half brother Edward the Confessor became king. Edward the Confessor was a very pious man, who did not covet warfare. He had a mixed heritage, and spent a great deal of his life in exile in Normandy, but is considered to be the second last Anglo-Saxon king before Harold Godwinson, who died at the Battle of Hastings. Here, the era of Anglo-Saxon England ended, giving way to the Norman period. The Norman invasion would irreparably change England’s history from that point forward. Even the English language would feel the new cultural influence of the French speaking Normans. I have heard it said that the English language would sound closer to Icelandic or Dutch today, if the Normans had not conquered England in and after 1066.

​@@Jason-gg4lmthe books are amazing

We have to learn about everyone else's aboriginal cultures, as a part of pushing the lefty "White is evil" agenda. The lefty educational establishment in the UK doesn't want to publicise that we ourselves suffered our own cultural apocalypse from outsiders, who slaughtered and enslaved us.... We can't have young impressionable minds feeling sympathy for Britain can we?

What you talking about? All I remember about history was ww2 and Chinese men building rail Roads. History is non existent.

476-1066

Here Here

would make people too patriotic, has to be nazis, slavery and henry the 8th

@ And first millenium Britain was not?! There were Angles, Danes, Saxons, Norvegians, Celts, Picts, and the lot. And I'm missing many more.

Also we The English have Lost are native Anglo Saxon Tongue! A Beautiful language in its self....

Bro the Anglo Saxon’s where invaders. The native britons fought them after the Roman’s left and where bushes to Cornwall wales and Brittany. King Arthur’s legend originates with him a Briton fighting Saxon invaders

@@michaelferrell7924 So there was nobody in the land before the Britons?

@@marypetrie930 the culture that developed from the Britain’s where descended predominantly from the islands original settlers who moved up from Gaul

Yep reminds me of Friday night after a pub crawl.

Faceless Man no cavalry?

Typical of the Dark Ages. A decent Greek or Roman general would trash these morons!!!

@Terry Blanton lol I just saw it. damned auto correct

@@gerardjagroo Yes. But there were none of those there. All that counts is who wins on the day.

History Time Yeah he really is. I don't really know who he is. I've heard of Alfred the Great and Ethelred the unready but tbh from Alfred to Edward the Confessor I don't really know the kings and exploits between that

Whenever a coffee shop asks for my name for my order, I answer "the same as the first king of England". Guess how many times anyone has known what it is?

RS2Russ r/iamverysmart

Manuel Migoya ha was thinking the exact same

Aethelstan is the most underrated English ruler of all time, imo.

dont forget kings and generals :)

Thanks for the call out on that channel. Never heard of it and now have already watched 2 vids and will be watching a few more tonight. Great channel.

Fenniks al three are boss lol awesome #fall of Pompey LOLOLOLOLOL sorry I acted drunk there

to be fair, England has over 1000 years of history, with only the last 200 or so having details.

@@SantomPh There is an absolute goldmine of details concerning the period if one can be bothered to look. It is a combination of cultural amnesia and downright laziness on the part of our so-called educators that have allowed this dismissal of seven plus centuries of our history.

White people have no culture or history

@@torinjones3221 stop trolling loser

No we have to learn about black history month every month

This isn't British medieval history!!! The term British wouldn't be a thing for several hundred years later. Couldn't you see for your self in the video that the people and nations of the what would become known as Britain were all still separate?! Please use the correct terminology for the time period.

This is the dark ages not medieval

This period is, in my opinion, far more interesting than the Middle Ages in Britain post William the Conquerer

@lvan Big Nob No...the term British is wrongly applied to the Britons. The term British didn't exist until the formation of the United Kingdom. Which since has gone onto be used as interchangeable with English.

@Pneumonocolvocanomicroscopicsilicolvocano-coniosis Yes....Geographically! But you cant use it as it wasn't being applied in that time period. It confuses people If you use wrong terminalogy for a certain time period. As I stated....The term British wouldn't be applied until the formation of the political union of the Countries on The island of Britain.

king of england not britain (also not england quite but nearly) the video doesn't mention that the battle resulted in the end of his overlordship of the scottish kingdoms. it was a victory militarily for him but in reality it was a political victory for the scottish nations who ensured there independence as a result of the battle. finally a not on the inaccuracies of the video, i know he has to take sides in order to present a compelling narrative but doing so limits the perspective and causes some quite frequent and silly inaccuracies and misunderstandings such as the above. also silly things like there was no alba at this point it formally became scotland when constatine (cant spell his name sorry) took the throne being describes as the first king of scotland and even then it was only one king that was described as being a king of alba that being his predecessor before him they where the kings ofthe pics.

One wonders if King Aethelstan had any part to play in the deaths of his brother and king of north of umbria

@@jamesmcabla1772also I figure at this point, 'England' and 'Scotland' weren't anywhere near the fixed concepts they are today. So it can be confusing to make too much of big thing over whether this marked the birth of the kingdoms of either England or Scotland. A pivotal moment between the two crowns for sure, but geographically there was much still to be decided. Aethelstan's 'England' included Edinburgh, since it had been part of the kingdom of Northumbria, but not Carlisle which was part of the kingdom of Strathclyde.

he was the king of a unified Anglo Saxon realm. England itself has not been formalized yet and neither was Scotland, with Cornwall still being a fief outside of Saxon reckoning. As for the battle, it was a literal meat grinder since both forces were really similar. A cavalry unit here or there could have changed the situation greatly.

@@SantomPh *Maybe*. It depends on whether the ground and setting were suitable for cavalry and flanking. The battlefield seems to be bounded by forest on both sides. No good for flanking attacks. But who knows?

Only they lied about the Welsh being subjugated in this time period! Wouldn't happen for another 300 years or so.

previously. Local folk lore suggests the battle occurred a few miles to the West around modern Brombrough / Brakenwood, on the River Mersey side of the Peninsular. Wirral today has many Norwegian Viking place names. Wirral was one of the three forests of Cheshire as recorded a few years later in the Domesday Book - Delamere and Knutsford being the others. It is not known if any of the Wirral Vikings, from the North of Wirral participated for either side.

@@williamanderson5437 they certainly had form...Ingismund and his warband after their expulsion from Dublin, were granted land on the wirral by Aethelflaed the lady of Mercia in 902 ??...to show their gratitude they attacked Chester, but Athelflaed was forewarned and even persuaded Ingismund, s Irish confederates to switch sides...

Burnley on the river Brun.

Ikr!lol

The books version of uhtred wasn't a real person. He is a fictional character in a somewhat non fiction story. He does have some roots in a different part of history since he is based on a lord during the 11th century, but uhtred nevee fought for king alfred, he didn't fight in the great heathen invasion and he wasn't even alive for those events.

@@daltonevans3412 I know. It was a joke. Hence "historical records" in quotation marks. And the two "smiley faces".

Great books though

@@daltonevans3412 true, i think he fought for Edmund Ironsides prior to Canutes(Knut) reign, Edmonds son went into exile and his son Edgar Atheling returned to England and had a fascinating life which is hardly mention in history lessons, you could rigth 10 books on him, his sister Margeret married the king of Scotland and later became a saint and her grand daughter was the Empress Matilda, Henry Plantagenate married her and her son Henry II became king after King Stephen technically bringing back the Wessex line to the throne.

Lel XD

You mean the bastard

the bastard* "Hey Willie, how is your father!?" -I, i never knew him very well

@Adam Defibaugh Grow up child.

@kane benjamite ok boomer

And I think the Cuerdale hoard was buried on the escape back north. I imagine it was weighing them down and slowing them too much so they buried it somewhere they'd remember. It probably started out as booty to pay a now dead army, but for whatever reason they never got round to coming back for it. Seems if you're on the Wirral and you're trying to get back to Scotland ASAP you'd most likely ford the Ribble about there cause at low tide there are parts you can walk across. I can see from my window where that hoard was found and it seems the most likely route from A to B and why it found its way there.

History Gaming Verified Bruh I will pay you to never say that again.

Patreon will probably launch at the end of the month so keep that thought in mind. ;)

Yass is a meme? Maybe I am too old for this, I just used it as a Germanized yes...as in Germany we would say Ja. :P Also, my wife is partially Scottish.

Well, in Germany we do...^^

pathetic pandering

I believe Bromborough is seen as the most likely place, which I'm guessing Baz here has used, but also there are other contenders, it's one of those great historical mysteries, like 'where are the Catalaunian Fields?

@@mcallisterwill yea I remember watching time team a while ago on the same subject and they were in Bromborough itself but did say that it could be the right place but not 100% sure .

It was in bromborough in New Chester road

It's now believed the location is Bromborough Golf Course

Is there any news on when this will be published?

@@663lotty maybe a quiet word with the Wirral archeologists...best wishes from a quiet Wirralian..

I work at the Council, so will do that. Thanks.

History teaching has changed in England in the last 40 years, Anglo Saxon and Viking history is on the primary school curriculum. However, because of the lack of sources other periods of history are studied in more detail.

just you wait untill the triangles join the fray... bloody slaughter!

Unfortunately they are always changing what they teach about every 10 years. When I went to school we did learn about the vikings and we covered king Alfred but that it

Wist Man he was a Saxon. But as I said they change what they teach every ten years. I am friends with someone who works in a school. And they change what they teacher every ten years in things like history, English, religious studies,physical education.

Wist Man as a child I was taught about early Saxon England. Then most of the Norman period. Then things like tudors, Victorian times , then as you beg to secondary school you do more stuff on the word wars and we did a lot of subjects on hitler and now he came to power.

I don't think they'll do what you want when you seem so desperate. By this I mean you stating the number of attempts. This is just sad.

i dont know, they've done some pretty fucking out there battles, like the battle of visby or battle of miyajima

You seem to have a chip on you're shoulder, relax bro. If they don't want to do it then they can ignore me.

i believe so. i haven't been actively asking, but i've been super hyped for any Battle of Towton videos that may eventually come

Guys don't worry kings and generals will cover Towton in their series on the Wars of the Roses.

To understand a battle you have to know the larger context in which it took place. And anyway give them a break, they didn't fight the damn battle.

There was a long period where a lot of battles were like this

Agreed. Not an exciting battle, but really interesting politics leading up to it so I'm good with it

Trygve Plaustrum actually handreds of battles were fought like this throughout Asia but they weren't documented well

Show some appreciation to people that creates such amazing historical content.

it gets me drooling ;-)

Visigoth Runs Far I know right? I've only started watching this series a few months ago and love it , a little iffy on the "modern " stuff but still enjoyable series

*Their Kingdom. Your statement might confuse some idiots into thinking "The United Kingdom". Cause let's be honest....they are out there.

Was a Scottish king that got the English throne to make the union

i agree with the two comments above me plus this battle actually resulted in the end of English over lordship of the Scottish kingdoms so actually did the complete opposite of unite the kingdom as might be misunderstood

@@jamesmcabla1772 This video is nonsense mate...He states that the Welsh were almost subservient to the English in this period. The Kingdom of England (after being conquered themselves by the same people, The Normans) wouldn't have control over parts of Wales for another 200 years! Or so.

@@taffyducks544 i know its takes a very Anglo-centric approach to this and as a result leaves people with a half arsed understanding of the topic normally simply for narrative value

Cheshire born and bred. My family have been here since well before 1066 and a few places are named after us. The golf course should be dug up, there are too many of the things infesting Cheshire.

I thought it was a rusty 5 iron in the trap

Alan Thomas Wirral Merseyside

I do doubt it, if they actually thought it was there they could dig it up and confirm. 15000 dead bodies don't just vanish

@@ste2442 CH postcode mate, Its Wirral, Cheshire. Plus its not rumoured to be under Bromborough golf course it was meant to be on Bebington Common which is now around the acorn pub all the way down to the croft business park thats about 3 to 4 miles.

soapbaxter92 Michael Wood disagrees! Have you ever read the Saxon battle poem on Brunanburh - lots of blood, guts and Anglo-Saxon gloating!

@@Wombat1916 post Bernard Cornwell, s series of Uhtred novels, opinion has swung over to the wirral peninsula, Wirral archeologists even presented Bernard Cornwell with a dagger retrieved from the battle site ,which he referenced in his last novel...best wishes from the wirral

The Wirral now has archaeological proof.

@@peterbrown1012 it has findings of Irish arrows I believe. That proves the Norse-Irish Vikings were active in that area in the 10th century which we already knew. I don’t think it proves that the Wirral is certainly the location

Top DLC that. Have you got the Brytenwalda mod as well? I hope the mod/dev team for them make something for Bannerlord too.

Under the golf course, I'm reliably informed!... various places claim the battle, but to me, logic implies the Wirral., convenient for the Viking ships from Dublin also a sea route from Straethclud!

@@alanthomas2064 Tom Sleman a local author has written extensively about the hauntings around the battle site, he has a weekly column in the Wirral Globe available online...

Thanks Eamonn, l will look the author up!

the welsh of the hen ogledd not the welsh of wales.

why don't you do them yourselves you ungrateful shit

@Matharox, chill bro. He's just making a suggestion.

Matharox go see a doctor boy

Matharox dude stfu he's making a suggestion

It's a shame but the Byzantine empire rarely appears in history shows. My entire schooling from K-12 never even mentioned the Eastern Roman Empire other then "The Byzantine Emperor called the Pope for help which kicked off the Crusades". It's like we have a complete blindspot when it comes to one of the greatest empires in history :/

ehhhhh not really the king of all Britain maybe the overlord of most of great Britain (the largest island) for a short period of time. this video unfortunately doesn't bother to mention that this battle resulted in the end of English overload ship of the Scottish kingdoms resulting int he kingdoms independence for almost a thousand years following this battle. by that measure its fair to say that Edward the first was the first overlord of all of Britain (not king) and the first actual king was James the first and sixth (i think he was the sixth king James of Scotland) following his inheritance of the English throne after liz 1s death. and even then he didn't rule over a single Britain he ruled over two separate states so the first true king of Britain would be who ever was in power following the act of union.

I came, I saw, I liked, I commented, I subscribed, I turned on notifications.

The church I built became a mosque

Because Hastings signalled a significant change in the ruling elite. That's a pretty big deal. But I agree, these earlier battles are the reason England exists, so should be a bigger deal really.

Indeed...

The anglo saxons and vikings did not use archers nor cavalry by that time. The shieldwall was their way

No records? How about anglo saxon chronicle?

I hate how they always take the credit away from Saxons and hand it over to a made up “Viking helper” character.

@@guccifer764 Yes, and ole Uhtred would have been 70 - 80 when he finally won back his precious home. bah.

@@anglishbookcraft1516 Uhtred is a Saxon that was raised by Danes. also did you not watch any of the last kingdom all the Saxons like Alfred,Edward,Beocca, are all badass. if anything it is the danes that are the wumps in the series which makes sense seeing as in actual history Alfred the great spent his entire reign kicking the danes asses up and down england. the last kingdom simply gives us an inside fictional look into how he was able to achieve this.

Vikings won in the end.

@@quqbalam5089 oh did they? How about stamford brigde?

@@quqbalam5089 In what universe?

@@wildfire9280 Knut the Great son of Sven Forkbeard who conquered ye ruled ye for a generation and Knuts grandson is better known as Harald Godwinson of 1066 fame! and of course William the Bastard is of Royal Danish blood being grandson of Rollo who founded Normandy, The bastards descendants ruled ye for 4 centuries as the Plantangets ,so yeah they won in the end?? until a Welch cattle hustler beat them at Bosworth(The Tudors).Indeed Athelstan and all he's ancestors are Angles (Anglish)and Saxons hailing from Denmark and Northwestern Germany so you could say the last true ruler whos ancestors we'rent foreigners was Bouddica or Calgacus because most of your monarchs in last 4/5 hundred years have been imported from France and Germany.!

@@feral7523 Cnut’s grandson? The only grandchildren we know of that Cnut had was Beatrice, Abbess of Quedlinburg. Ælfwine, Haraldsson may have also been his grandson, he was a monk in France

Aethelflaed is worth a whole episode just on herself

Constantine III King of Alba Reign 995-997

It's kind of amazing just how little of Scotland was ever actually Scottish when you look back on history.

@@palepilgrim1174 Modern Scotland was created from the merger of several tribal kingdoms of different ethnic heritage: The Scots of Dal-Riata, The Picts of Caledonia, the Cumbrians of Strathclyde, and the Angles of Bernicia.

@@Domhangairt No, modern Scotland wasn't 'created' it was basically whitewashed into history. Yes the region has a mix of different neighboring peoples like literally every region of Europe does. Nobody is pure, nobody descends from one thing. There was no 'merger' or 'unions'. There were conquests and assimilations. The point is, the Scottish (in all honesty) died out. They were either killed or assimilated into other identities over time. Just like the Picts were (who claims to be Pictish today?). Just like the Welsh (or 'Cumbrians'), again who in Scotland claims to be Welsh or Cumbrian, were. Scottish actually used to mean something historically, it was an ethnic identity. A nation. People who spoke Gaelic and had Gaelic names. Now it just means people from a region of land. It's a nothing term. Now you're all just basically just English people in denial. and over half of you descend from the Germanic peoples (mainly Anglo-Saxon and Norse) who settled between the 400s and 1200s anyway.

@@Domhangairt You'd honestly be better off just calling that region today Northumbria. Because that is the people you trace ethnolinguistic descent from. Not the Scottish (which literally means Irish anyway). Not the Welsh. Not the Norse.

Freedom? Are you daft? All these Kings were warlords or mere vassal lords. Yes the biggest losers were the Celts, they were given the choice of slavery or exile, most took exile.

The indegenous Anna Geal Ish people rose up and banished the hostile Wallians from old Anna's Land(you could be a Norseman, a Belgaie, Cymbric, a Romani, Scoti, Pict, Saka or a Son of a Saka - Saxon but all 'foreigners' were refered to as Wallians to the native Anna Gaels of these once holy islands), until they returned with new financial backing from their fellow 'Germanics',to reinvade in the rank and file as the Normans in 1066(those proudly claiming to be descendants of those banished from our islands after tgeir defeat at Brunnanburgh made up more than 1/3rd of the total Norman invasion force). Boo hoo. It could have been so good. But now the Anna Geal Ish(English) people have been 'reimagined' as being the descendants of bands of 5th century Germanic mercenaries by the actual Germans (dress wearing drunken barbarian types from the Black Sea with fair hair, fair skin grey-blue eyes, barrel chests and tattoos.) whose Austro-Hungarian, Prussian/Bavarian branch have ruled over us for the past 300+ years. The foreigners now lord it up over us safely protected by the ongoing historical deceit (see above BS video)created by 18th and 19th century fundamentalist faux christian 'nationalists'(the 'celts' were invented by Puritanical Methodist and Presbyterian Protestant 'British Israelite' mad men), they have now rather sneakily imagined themselves to be the descendants of these Walt Disney fictional peacefull wise 'celtic' pre Roman settlers(Merlin, King Arthur and Co. Pure BS). It's halarious how everything has been reversed in just the time since William of Orange. The indegenous English/Irish (same people) who have lived here continously for the past 10,000 years are now to be viewed as rather hostile 'late arrivals' and the actual recent invaders (the 1066 Brigade) are now claiming that 'their ancestors' were the builders of Stonehenge, Avebury etc; Ha ha. It's FUBAR, but when we remember the heroic victory at Brunnanburgh we can look back to the last time the indegenous Anna Gaelish islanders had self rule, and peace and prosperity free from foreign usery. I can't wait for Brunnanburgh round 2.... it's the reason I'm here. Revenge

@J T I just threw that last bit about 'revenge' in their to trigger any Welsh Nationalists. My revenge is being alive, awake and still in the fight. Rise up ye mighty Geals. Much love to all critical thinking students of history. Respek mate.

You should be somebodies press agent or a politicians spin doctor.

@@christianfreedom-seeker934 You know, slavery in those times wasn't like how we imagine it today, especially in Germanic societies. Slaves (or thralls) had pretty decent lives and could earn their freedom over time through service. They would have served as builders, warriors, adventurers and other menial positions, but there was also limited potential for them to move into minor nobility if they were exceptionally talented.

ARE YOU SUBSCRIBED TO EVERYONE?

BOI

Sponsored by Justin Y.

Justin Y wait now You said that you comment on videos that are usually trending Then why the hell did i found you on minor channels

Justin Y. Stop

Do you have a link?

@@jannes3290 , no, but search for brunanburh poem here an u should find it.

@@VCYT thank you

that's what most battles looked like in the day... as bernard cornwell described it: a big sweaty pushing match...

Not much is even known about the battle, not even the exact location

the best battles where fought on the Roman Republic Time, and ancient Greece. Medieval Battles where literally just a bunch of Levies fighting on the middle.

Well this one is uneventful, but medieval battles during AD era were very interesting. Especially when mounted knights came along, his newest video showed this.

yeah he also took a very anglo-centric approach to the research for it, there appears to be very little attempt to use scottish sources and no attempt to outline the importance of the battle in that although it was an English victory it actually resulted in the end of English over-lordship of Scotland

It's sad but another Sharpe will save our sanity.

Since you wrote this, we have read it, and even watched it in a Netflix film- even though the movie was very abridge - its great the era is getting such coverage these days