Fortune's Wheel: A Podcast History of the Late Middle Ages

We shift our attentions away from Anglo-Saxon England's death spasms and sail westward on the longboats of Norwegian and Icelandic explorers in the late 900s and early 1000s. We will see how they settled Iceland and Greenland, and beat Christopher Columbus to the New World by more than 500 years! Today, we're catching up on some of the contemporaries of historical giants like Sweyn Forkbeard, Aethelred the Unready, Emma of Normandy, and Olaf Tryggvason, and meet some familiar names from our primary schooling history lessons - names such as Erik the Red and Leif Eriksson! I can't wait to tell you about it!

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Buckle up, folks! This episode will span about two decades, but everything that happens between 991 and 1012, despite what it may seem like at first, is merely the beginning of the chess game being played in the Saxons' waning years as undisputed rulers of England. From King Aethelred II struggling to maintain power to Sweyn Forkbeard's relentless onslaught, this period in European history sets up everything that is about to go down.  We discuss military engagements and Aethelred's growing family, as well as civic reform and international ties. And we'd be remiss if we didn't introduce, arguably, the single most influential woman of the time: Emma of Normandy. I hope you enjoy the show.

When we last left the marshes outside Maldon, Essex, England, in 991, the ealdorman, Byrhtnoth, held his fyrd, or militia, at bay while he surveyed the scene: a band of Viking raiders who had already terrorized the southern coasts of Kent, presumably under the leadership of the future king of Norway, Olaf Tryggvason, was amassed on Northey Island, a small patch of barely visible land right smack in the middle of the mouth of River Blackwater. Byrhtnoth was undermanned, but he had a plan. A brilliant one, in fact. The question is: Will it work? Will it alone be enough to send these Vikings packing once and for all.

Medieval Europe is a largely forgotten yet incredibly dynamic time period in world history. The sheer number of players on the scene is staggering. We begin our story in 991, halfway through the period known as the Middle Ages in Western Civilization, a time when the Dark Ages start to show the sparks and flickers of enlightenment. In 991 - as the Vikings rage across northern Europe as well as Sicily and Anatolia, as horse riders descend from the plateaus and steppes of central Asia, as the Holy Roman Empire begins another round of vast political expansion and religious conversions, as the Cordoba Caliphate loses its long-held footing in Iberia - a fairly large band of Vikings renew their marauding ways along the southern coast of England and one nobleman gathers his fellow Saxons for an unexpected showdown in a small village in Essex just one mile from the coast of the North Sea. In this episode, we set the stage for a subtle yet resounding battle that will change the course of not only England's history but also the entire Western World's.

Host/Writer/Researcher: Jonathon LaRosa

Let this stand as the introductory episode of "Fortune's Wheel: A Podcast History of the Late Middle Ages." If you like what you hear, please check back each week for new episodes as we dive headfirst into the latter half of the Middle Ages and explore the beginnings of the world we know today. Also, please leave a rating and review on your chosen podcast site, as well as share this podcast on your social media to create an ever-expanding community of listeners who are as eager to understand our shared history as they are in understanding the modern world! I'm excited to get this podcast adventure started with you, so I hope to hear your thoughts and read your comments each week! Please check our social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to stay up-to-date on all things "Fortune's Wheel" and, most of all, thank you for wanting to go to sleep tonight better and smarter than when you woke up.