MERRY CHRISTMAS! And what could be more festive than talk of pious Christians finally overcoming their pagan occupiers by clever use of marrying enemy Earls, raising a kick-arse nephew and stealing a corpse in the name of patriotism.

Featuring:

Æthelflæd https://en.wikipedia.org/Æthelflæd

Tom Holland @holland_tom Historian. New biography of Athelstan out now! Herodotus translator. Dinosaur lover. Hedgehog conservator. A 'leading English cricketer' - The Times tom-holland.org

Iszi Lawrence is a presenter of BBC's Making History and The British Museum Membercast. www.iszi.com and on twitter: @iszi_lawrence.

NEWS: A new series of BBC Radio 4 Making History Presented by Iszi and Tom Holland will be out in the New year listen on BBC Sounds and here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qxrc

Please do check out more of iszi's podcasts on www.iszi.com and support the show by donating to paypal here: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=7ZECZ8GLF5SSU