Audio • Season 2 • Episode 8 •
The Lambeth Articles to Hampton Court, No Bishop, No King!.
Part 1. Britain and its beginnings, language and religion.
Artwork • Lambeth Palace.
Lambeth Palace is the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Located in North Lambeth on the south bank of the River Thames, it stands roughly 400 yards southeast of the Palace of Westminster, home to Parliament, directly across the river.
Music • Rhenish Hymns of Praise to the Virgin (c. 1500)
Song:Puer natus in Bethlehem, “A child is born in Bethlehem”, is a medieval Latin Christmas hymn. Its thirteenth-century text is traditionally paired with a fourteenth-century melody of the same name.
It relates the story of Jesus' incarnation, from the announcement by Gabriel to the visit of the Three Wise Men.
Performed by: Ars Choralis Coeln.
The hymn appears in the Songbook of Anna of Cologne, an important late-medieval manuscript from the Rhine–Meuse region, compiled around 1500 with additions after 1524.
The original manuscript is preserved in the Berlin State Library.
The songbook contains eighty-two Latin and vernacular songs, primarily in German and Dutch. Twenty-four include musical notation, of which only two are polyphonic.
Attributed to its first owner, Anna van Collen, who likely lived in a Beguine community, the manuscript was copied by seven different scribes, indicating a communal effort.
It offers valuable insight into the spiritual and cultural life of Beguine convents in the Lower Rhine during the Late Middle Ages and reflects the ideals of the “Devotio Moderna”, which emphasised using everyday language as a tool for devotion and instruction.
Beguine communities were groups of lay religious women who lived communally without permanent vows. They focused on prayer, work, and caring for the poor, supporting themselves through trades such as weaving or teaching.
Widespread in the medieval Low Countries, they offered an independent alternative to marriage or convent life, though many later declined due to Church opposition.
Overview Notes
While revisiting this episode, it became clear that parts of it needed updating—and in the process, the scope grew larger than expected.
The story simply demanded more room to breathe.
For that reason, this episode has been reworked and divided into two parts.
In Part One, we begin with a brief but powerful journey through the origins of the British people and the land they came to inhabit.
From the pagan Celts to the marching Roman legions; from relentless attacks by Germanic tribes to near-erasure at the hands of Viking hordes—these islands have endured wave after wave of conquest and upheaval.
And just when survival seemed achievement enough, Britain faced its final great invasion: subjugation by the Norman conquerors.
It is a history marked by resilience, adaptation, and survival against overwhelming odds. Yet what followed is perhaps the most remarkable chapter of all.
Instead of turning inward and tearing ourselves apart once more, Britain looked outward—often by force—and went on to build a global empire unlike anything the world had seen before.
As for where Part Two will take us… that’s a story you’ll have to wait to discover. But not for long—I promise.
Part 1 Episode Notes.
We start with the earliest pagan traditions, then look at our gradual conversion to Christianity, first as a Catholic nation, and finally our often reluctant shift to Protestantism.
