Continuing the tale of the war of 893-897; London faced the prospect of a large Viking fleet upriver that promised to bring war and destruction upon the town… and yet greater threats lay hidden in its future. An episode that takes us to the end of the reign of Alfred the Great. Rough script available here: https://imgur.com/gallery/hajiHGM

London was about to discover it was no longer utterly helpless in the face of Viking raids. For the first time the residents of the town were empowered to mobilise as an army… and over the course of a war that is much overlooked these days, suddenly found they had teeth… a copy of the rough script of todays episode is available here https://imgur.com/gallery/hajiHGM

We finally reach the year the City of London as we know it was created- 886. But the story behind it, and the confusion it seems to generate, are examined in a wild episode involving war, political gestures and Viking’s Vikinging other Vikings.

You can follow along the rough script used for this Chapter as well as links to support it here: https://imgur.com/gallery/hajiHGM

The second part of this bumper section, we now examine the actions of the other two candidates for the murder of London- the Viking leader Guthrum and Alfred the Great. Links to the rough script used in this episode (and all the others so far) to be found here: https://imgur.com/gallery/hajiHGM

A special two part episode, as we try and work out who was responsible, ultimately, for the death of Saxon London as it was. In the first part, we examine the role of the King’s of Mercia and the great Viking Leader, Halfdan… Links to all the scripts found here https://imgur.com/gallery/hajiHGM

The Story of London gets to the part where the Viking attacks increase as we explore two things impacting upon it- the start of the reign of Alfred the Great and the Great Heathen Army! And how the Viking’s came to occupy the town… draft script and pictures/maps available on the website.

The Vikings had raided London… how did the survivors cope and how did this change them? The Story continues looking at both the aftermath and potentially what created the identity of the city of come. A rough script and support materials can be found on the website.

An deep dive into both the evolution of the tactics and scale of the early Vikings and their impact upon London; how the small collections of pirates grew and escalated their attacks to the point they could take on huge towns, and accounts of the first two raids upon London in 842 and 851.

The second part of the special looking closely at the advent of the age of the Vikings; exploring why the residents of London would have seen these guys as highly fashionable merchants and not raiders for a whole generation… and exploring the complexity of the era in some depth.

The first of a two-part special; it’s 820, and London is part of the powerful and strong Mercian Kingdom; and yet within 15 years the world was to turn upside down, and on the horizon, something scary was looming…