Episodes

  • Cuthred of Wessex: Defiance, Bloodshed, and the Fight to Break Mercia’s Grip

    Cuthred of Wessex: Defiance, Bloodshed, and the Fight to Break Mercia’s Grip
    Aug 17 2025
    Cuthred of Wessex: Defiance, Bloodshed, and the Fight to Break Mercia’s Grip
    Royalty: Let’s Make Sense of This Shit

    👑 Mud, betrayal, and a kingdom trapped under the shadow of a powerful overlord.

    Cuthred’s Wessex is a land of rough warriors, fragile loyalties, and brutal family strife. How did one king survive revolts, royal betrayals, and the weight of Mercia’s dominance—and even push back?

    🔥 In this episode:
    • The tense dance of power between Wessex and Mercia—what did it mean to be a king under an overlord?
    • Family torn apart: the brutal revolt of Cuthred’s own son and the harsh realities of royal survival.
    • The Battle of Burford: myth, legend, and the first real taste of Wessex’s defiance.
    • Court life beyond the battlefield—who held power behind the scenes, and what was daily royal life really like?
    • Legacy lost and found: why Cuthred is the forgotten king who shaped Wessex’s future.


    ✨ Why listen?
    Because history is never tidy. Cuthred’s reign is a messy, human story of endurance in a world that wants to keep you small. Isabella leads you through the grit and grime of early medieval politics with honesty, warmth, and a little irreverence.

    🤔 What’s at stake?
    What does it mean to fight for independence when every step is under watch?
    How do you survive betrayal and loss—and still hold on to your crown and your kingdom?

    🧾 Sources & Scholarship:
    The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’s cryptic entries, later medieval genealogies, and fresh perspectives that challenge the usual heroic narrative.

    🌱 Listener Reflection:
    What would you do when your own blood turns against you? What does survival look like in your own life’s struggles? Send your stories, questions, and thoughts—we want to hear from you.

    Next up: Sigeberht’s brief and turbulent reign. The throne of Wessex shakes again. Subscribe, share your reflections, and let’s keep making sense of this royal shit—together.

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/royalty-let-s-make-sense-of-this-sh-t--6635619/support.
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    33 mins
  • Æthelheard of Wessex: Survival, Shadow, and the Struggle for a Kingdom

    Æthelheard of Wessex: Survival, Shadow, and the Struggle for a Kingdom
    Aug 10 2025
    Æthelheard of Wessex: Survival, Shadow, and the Struggle for a Kingdom
    
Royalty: Let’s Make Sense of This Shit

    👑 A kingdom on the edge—step into 8th-century Wessex, caught between fading glory and rising threats.
Æthelheard’s reign is a story of survival amid political chaos, Mercian domination, and royal uncertainty. What does it mean to rule when your power is fragile and your enemies are stronger?

    🔥 In this episode:
    * The abdication of King Ine and a throne up for grabs—how Æthelheard seized power in a crisis.
    * Mercia’s growing shadow under Æthelbald—tribute, territory loss, and the making of a client king.
    * Royal family mysteries: the missing women, unnamed consorts, and the court behind the scenes.
    * Power as negotiation: legitimacy, survival, and the delicate dance of alliance and submission.
    * The quiet resilience that kept Wessex alive when defeat seemed inevitable.

    ✨ Why listen?

    This episode digs beneath the dusty chronicles to reveal the messy, human struggles behind early English kingship. Isabella guides you through the silences, the rumors, and the real stakes of a reign few remember but no one could ignore.

    🤔 What’s at stake?
    
The meaning of legitimacy and power in a world where everything is uncertain.
How survival itself becomes a form of victory.
The legacy of kings who hold on when glory is out of reach.

    🧾 Sources & Scholarship:

    The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Mercian charters, church records, and modern historical research—woven with myth-busting and personal reflection.

    🌱 Listener Reflection:

    What would you hold onto if everything was slipping away? Who do we remember, and who fades into the shadows? Share your thoughts, questions, and family stories—let’s keep the conversation alive.

    Next up: Cuthred, Æthelheard’s successor. The fight back begins. Politics, battles, and the slow rise of a kingdom that refused to die.

    Subscribe, send your stories, and let’s keep making sense of this royal shit—together.

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/royalty-let-s-make-sense-of-this-sh-t--6635619/support.
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    40 mins
  • Ine of Wessex: Law, Loyalty, and the King Who Walked Away

    Ine of Wessex: Law, Loyalty, and the King Who Walked Away
    Aug 3 2025
    Ine of Wessex: Law, Loyalty, and the King Who Walked Away
    Royalty: Let’s Make Sense of This Shit

    👑 A kingdom on the edge—between war and law, faith and family, power and peace.
    Ine’s Wessex is a wild frontier where kings fight to hold territory, build order, and survive betrayal. But this isn’t just a tale of swords—it’s the birth of English kingship shaped by groundbreaking laws and fierce church alliances.

    🔥 In this episode:
    • A tangled web of family drama—loyal queens, lost heirs, and brothers turned rebels.
    • The oldest surviving Anglo-Saxon law code—what it reveals about justice, society, and royal power.
    • War with the Cornish, uneasy peace with Mercia, and the shifting alliances that defined a kingdom.
    • The surprising rise of Christianity’s influence in a violent, unstable world.
    • A king who dared to abdicate—and walk a pilgrim’s path to Rome, redefining what it meant to rule.
    ✨ Why listen?
    This is not a neat fairy tale, but a raw, deeply human story of survival and legacy at the dawn of England. Isabella guides you through the messy, often brutal realities of royal power, law, and faith—inviting you to question everything you thought you knew about kingship.

    🤔 What’s at stake?
    • What does leadership mean when every alliance is fragile and every decision can cost a kingdom?
    • How do we reconcile power with humility—and why does Ine’s choice to walk away still resonate today?
    🧾 Sources & Scholarship:
    The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Ine’s law code, Bede’s writings, plus modern scholarship and fresh myth-busting insights.

    🌱 Listener Reflection:
    If you held a crown, would you fight to the death—or choose a different path? Share your stories, questions, and royal curiosities with us.

    Next up: Æthelheard. Ine’s successor faces a kingdom still on edge—can he hold it together? Subscribe, send your stories, and let’s keep making sense of this royal shit—together.

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/royalty-let-s-make-sense-of-this-sh-t--6635619/support.
    Show More Show Less
    51 mins
  • Cædwalla of Wessex: The Wild King Who Burned a Kingdom to Build England

    Cædwalla of Wessex: The Wild King Who Burned a Kingdom to Build England
    Jul 27 2025
    Cædwalla of Wessex: The Wild King Who Burned a Kingdom to Build England

    Royalty: Let’s Make Sense of This Shit

    👑 Violence, exile, and the bloody forging of a kingdom
Cædwalla’s story is brutal and fast—an exiled prince returns with fire and sword to reshape the south of England. In just three years, he conquers Sussex, Kent, and the Isle of Wight, blending conquest and faith in a fierce, terrifying reign.

    🔥 In this episode:
    * Ruthless campaigns that changed the map—and scarred the land.
    * The uneasy dance between pagan violence and Christian conversion.
    * A king who abdicated, journeyed to Rome, and died baptized—but was it redemption or politics?
    * The missing voices: queens, conquered peoples, and those erased from history.
    * Legacy and loss: How did this wild reign shape Wessex and the future of England?
    ✨ Why listen?
Because this isn’t the sanitized tale of monarchy. It’s raw, complicated, and deeply human—showing the fierce cost of power and the messy intersection of faith and violence. Isabella guides you through the myth, the fact, and the shadows in between.

    🤔 What’s at stake?
    
Who defines a king? Can violence ever be redeemed? What happens when history is written by the victors—and who gets left out?

    🧾 Sources & Scholarship:

    Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and modern historians’ insights—all woven with myth-busting, personal reflection, and a dash of irreverence.

    🌱 Listener Reflection:
    
If power demands blood and sacrifice, what legacy will you leave? Share your stories, questions, and thoughts—we’re making sense of this royal shit, together.

    Next episode: Ceolwulf. From chaos to consolidation—how kingship evolves in early Wessex.

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/royalty-let-s-make-sense-of-this-sh-t--6635619/support.
    Show More Show Less
    38 mins
  • Seaxburh of Wessex: The Queen Who Defied the Throne

    Seaxburh of Wessex: The Queen Who Defied the Throne
    Jul 20 2025
    Seaxburh of Wessex: The Queen Who Defied the Throne
    Royalty: Let’s Make Sense of This Shit

    👑 A kingdom in chaos — a woman claims power where no queen dared before.
    Seaxburh’s brief reign is shrouded in mystery, controversy, and silence. From a fractured Wessex to the fragile moment when a queen ruled alone, her story shakes the foundations of early English monarchy.

    🔥 In this episode:
    • A kingdom divided: The turbulent world Seaxburh inherited after Cenwalh’s death.
    • Power in the shadows: How a queen stepped into a male-dominated throne — and why history tried to erase her.
    • Mystery and myth: What do we actually know about Seaxburh, and what was lost to time?
    • Queenship challenged: The gender politics of 7th-century England and the struggle for legitimacy.
    • Lost voices: The personal life, alliances, and silenced women behind the throne.
    • Legacy of disruption: How Seaxburh’s fleeting rule opened cracks in the royal narrative.
    ✨ Why listen?
    Because royal history isn’t just kings and battles — it’s about power, gender, erasure, and the stories that never made the scroll. Isabella guides you through the untold tale of England’s only queen regnant in the early age.

    🤔 What’s at stake?
    Power, identity, survival — and rewriting who we believe shaped the monarchy.

    🧾 Sources & scholarship:
    The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Bede’s silence, fresh research, myth-busting, and a touch of irreverence.

    🌱 Listener reflection:
    What happens when tradition is broken? When a woman claims the throne — will history remember or erase her? Send your stories and questions.

    Next up: Ceol — the king who took Wessex from chaos to cautious order.

    Subscribe, share your reflections, and let’s keep making sense of this royal shit—together.

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/royalty-let-s-make-sense-of-this-sh-t--6635619/support.
    Show More Show Less
    51 mins
  • Cenwalh of Wessex: Exile, Conversion, and the Fragile Rise of Christian England

    Cenwalh of Wessex: Exile, Conversion, and the Fragile Rise of Christian England
    Jul 13 2025
    Cenwalh of Wessex: Exile, Conversion, and the Fragile Rise of Christian England
    Royalty: Let’s Make Sense of This Shit 👑

    A kingdom on the edge—power lost, faith gained, and a king fighting to come home.

    Cenwalh’s reign is raw, messy, and transformational. From scandalous marriage breakups to exile in a foreign court, his journey sparks the fragile dawn of Christianity in Wessex. What happens when a king loses everything — and everything changes?

    🔥 In this episode:
    • Royal scandal and exile: How repudiating a Mercian princess set a warlord on the run.
    • Conversion and comeback: Cenwalh’s baptism in East Anglia and the reshaping of his kingdom.
    • Church and crown collide: Political and religious power struggles at the heart of Wessex.
    • Family and missing voices: The queens, rivals, and shadows history almost forgot.
    • Legacy in flux: How Cenwalh’s reign set the stage for England’s future—yet left more questions than answers.
    ✨ Why listen?

    Because history isn’t neat or simple. It’s about flawed humans, messy politics, faith crises, and survival. Isabella guides you through the raw and real story behind a king whose story reshaped a nation’s soul.

    🤔 What’s at stake?
    Power, identity, belief — and the stories we tell about who deserves to wear the crown.

    🧾 Sources & scholarship:
    Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, fresh scholarship, myth-busting insights, and a dash of irreverence.

    🌱 Listener reflection:
    If you lost your kingdom, would you find yourself? What parts of your story will survive? Send your thoughts, questions, and family legends.

    Next up: Ceolwulf, the king who inherited a kingdom on edge and faced the relentless push of faith and power.

    Subscribe, share your stories, and let’s keep making sense of this royal shit—together.

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/royalty-let-s-make-sense-of-this-sh-t--6635619/support.
    Show More Show Less
    57 mins
  • Cwichelm of Wessex: Assassination, Survival, and the Shadowy Origins of a Kingdom

    Cwichelm of Wessex: Assassination, Survival, and the Shadowy Origins of a Kingdom
    Jul 7 2025
    Cwichelm of Wessex: Assassination, Survival, and the Shadowy Origins of a Kingdom

    Royalty: Let’s Make Sense of This Shit👑

    A king cloaked in mystery, living in the violent blur of early 7th-century Britain.

    
Cwichelm’s reign is marked by shadowy plots, a failed assassination attempt on a rival king, and the fragile birth pains of Wessex itself.

    🔥 In this episode:
    * The daring attempt on King Edwin of Northumbria’s life — and how one man’s gamble changed the course of English history.
    * Power and partnership: unraveling the murky relationship between Cwichelm and Cynegils, co-kings or rivals?
    * The dangerous crossroads of paganism and Christianity — faith, politics, and survival in a kingdom on the edge.
    * Family and legacy: the missing queens, sons who carry on, and the invisible forces shaping a dynasty.
    * Myth-busting the murky sources — what’s history, what’s legend, and why does it matter?

    ✨ Why listen?

    This episode dives deep into the forgotten corners of early English royalty, unpacking a story that’s messy, human, and full of uncertainty — told with brutal honesty and a touch of irreverence. Isabella guides you through the wild world of Wessex’s shadow kings, where every alliance is fragile and every story incomplete.

    🤔 What’s at stake?
    
How do you hold power when history barely remembers your name?
    
Who decides which stories survive—and which are lost in the fog?
    
What does legacy mean when memory is fragile and kingdoms fragile too?

    🧾 Sources & Scholarship:

    The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, genealogical puzzles, and modern historical research — plus fresh reflections and myth-busting you won’t find in textbooks.

    🌱 Listener Reflection:
    
If you were a shadow king like Cwichelm, what story would you want remembered?
Send in your thoughts, questions, or family legends. Let’s keep the conversation going.

    Next up: Cynegils — the king who baptized Wessex and changed the kingdom forever.
    Subscribe, share, and help us unravel the royal mess — together.



    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/royalty-let-s-make-sense-of-this-sh-t--6635619/support.
    Show More Show Less
    43 mins
  • Cynegils of Wessex: Baptism, Battles, and the Birth of a Christian Kingdom

    Cynegils of Wessex: Baptism, Battles, and the Birth of a Christian Kingdom
    Jun 29 2025
    Cynegils of Wessex: Baptism, Battles, and the Birth of a Christian Kingdom
    Royalty: Let’s Make Sense of This Shit

    👑 Chaos, conversion, and survival on the edge of a new era.

    Cynegils ruled a kingdom caught between old gods and new faiths, fragile borders and fierce rivals. His baptism wasn’t just a spiritual act—it was a royal gamble that shaped the future of Wessex and England itself.

    🔥 In this episode:
    • Brutal wars and shifting alliances: battles against Britons and power plays with Northumbria’s king Edwin.
    • The tangled family tree: royal rivalries, missing queens, and the stakes of succession.
    • Christianity arrives in Wessex: baptism, Bishop Birinus, and the clash of pagan tradition with a new religion.
    • Behind the throne: daily life in a traveling royal court, invisible women, and the human costs of power.
    • Legacy in flux: what did it mean to be “king” when everything was changing?
    • Myth-busting and mystery: piecing together a life hidden in the fog of history.
    ✨ Why listen?
    This is the unvarnished, messy story of a king who held his kingdom together at the dawn of a new age. Isabella guides you through blood, faith, and family drama with humor and honesty, bringing the shadows of history into sharp, human focus.

    🤔 What’s at stake?
    How do you hold onto power when gods change and enemies multiply?
    What’s the price of survival—and conversion—in a world built on swords and stories?

    🧾 Sources & Scholarship:
    The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, archaeological insights, and cutting-edge scholarship—all woven with myth-busting and personal reflection.

    🌱 Listener Reflection:
    If you had to choose faith or family, war or peace, what would your story be? Share your thoughts, legends, and questions with us.

    Next up: Cenwalh, Cynegils’ son, faces exile, war, and the ongoing struggle to define Wessex’s place in a Christianizing England.

    Subscribe, send your stories, and let’s keep making sense of this royal shit—together.

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/royalty-let-s-make-sense-of-this-sh-t--6635619/support.
    Show More Show Less
    38 mins