In Search of the Dark Ages: Series 2

In this place, in 939, was buried the first king of all England. In his day a Norseman called him the greatest man in the European world, to a Frenchman he was the most famous king of modern times, an Irishman thought him the summit of the honour of the Western World. From Iceland, from Germany, and Wales, poets sang of his deeds, renowned through the whole globe whom God set over the English as king plainly so that mighty in war he might conquer other fierce kings and crush their proud necks. And yet who knows of Athelstan today?

In this year—954—in a certain lonely place called Stainmore, King Erik was treacherously betrayed and killed, along with his son Haeric and his brother Ragnald. From then on, King Eadred of Wessex ruled in these parts north of the Humber. And from that time to the present, the Northumbrians have been subject to the southern English and have grieved for want of a king of their own and for the liberty they once enjoyed.

AD1001: In this year there were constant hostilities in England because of the Danish army and they harried and burned almost everywhere. And they went about at will encountering no resistance. No fleet by sea, nor levies on land, dared approach them however far inland they went. Time after time, the more urgent a thing was, the greater was the delay from one hour to the next, and all the while the King and his counsellors were allowing the strength of their enemies to increase. In the end, our naval and land preparations were a complete failure and succeeded only in adding to the distress of the people, wasting money and encouraging their enemy. In every way, it was a hard time, for they never ceased from their evil deeds.

1944: The greatest amphibious invasion in history lands on the Normandy beaches. Today the wreckage of war still stands in the shallows where 35 years ago armies drawn from much of the free world began the liberation of Europe. But great events are not new to these shores; for the whole of recorded history momentous waves of immigrants and invaders have crossed the narrow sea between England and the Continent and shaped our history. Nine-hundred years ago an amphibious invasion left these shores which was to have as great an effect on our destiny as 1944 may prove to have. From these beaches, in 1066, an army set sail for England. Its leader would become known to history as William the Conqueror.