Neil Oliver’s Vikings episode 2

Vikings episode 2: Neil Oliver heads out from the Scandinavian homelands to Russia, Turkey and Ireland to trace the beginnings of a vast trading empire that handled Chinese silks as adeptly as Pictish slaves. Neil discovers a world of 'starry-eyed maidens' and Buddhist statues that are a world away from our British experience of axe-wielding warriors, although it turns out that there were quite a few of those as well. Neil Oliver's Vikings episode 2 Shield-maiden…

The Last Battle of the Vikings

Post category:History
Post author:HDclump
Post published:June 27, 2020
Reading time:3 mins read

The Last Battle of the Vikings

The Last Battle of the Vikings: Nowhere in the British Isles was the Viking connection longer-lasting or deeper than in Scotland. Hundreds of years after their first hit-and-run raids, the Norsemen still dominated huge swathes of the country. But storm clouds were gathering. In 1263 the Norwegian king Haakon IV assembled a fleet of 120 long-ships to counter Scottish raids on the Norse Hebrides. It was a force comparable in size to the Spanish Armada over three centuries…

The Normans episode 3 - Normans of the South

Post category:History
Post author:HDclump
Post published:April 14, 2020
Reading time:3 mins read

The Normans episode 3 – Normans of the South

The Normans episode 3 - Normans of the South: Professor Robert Bartlett explores the impact of the Normans on southern Europe and the Middle East. The Normans spread south in the 11th century, winning control of southern Italy and the island of Sicily. There they created their most prosperous kingdom, where Christianity and Islam co-existed in relative harmony and mutual tolerance. It became a great centre of medieval culture and learning. But events in the Middle East provoked…

The Normans episode 2 - Conquest

Post category:History
Post author:HDclump
Post published:April 13, 2020
Reading time:3 mins read

The Normans episode 2 – Conquest

The Normans episode 2 - Conquest: In the second of this three-part series, Professor Robert Bartlett explores the impact of the Norman conquest of Britain and Ireland. Bartlett shows how William the Conqueror imposed a new aristocracy, savagely cut down opposition and built scores of castles and cathedrals to intimidate and control. He also commissioned the Domesday Book, the greatest national survey of England that had ever been attempted. England adapted to its new masters and both the…

The Normans episode 1 - Men from the North

Post category:History
Post author:HDclump
Post published:April 12, 2020
Reading time:4 mins read

The Normans episode 1 – Men from the North

The Normans episode 1 - Men from the North: In the first episode of a three-part series, Professor Robert Bartlett explores how the Normans developed from a band of marauding Vikings into the formidable warriors who conquered England in 1066. He tells how the Normans established their new province of Normandy -'land of the northmen' - in northern France. They went on to build some of the finest churches in Europe and turned into an unstoppable force of…