A new podcast dedicated to bringing history's most iconic periods to life through the battles that shaped them, told in less than 10 minutes
This is it. It all comes down to this moment. Ever since Alfred the Great had come surging out of the swamps he had been hiding in to defeat the Vikings at Edington, he and his children and grandchildren had been inexorably pushing the Vikings out of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Aethelred was soon to conquer Northumbria which had been held by the Danes for a hundred years, and England was born. But no sooner had the new nation come screaming into the world than a massive Norse-Irish-Scottish alliance came screaming into Aethelred's new kingdom. It threatened to undo everything that had been achieved. At Brunanburh in 937 AD the future of England would be decided. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, follow us @bitesizebattles on Instagram and Facebook, and visit www.bitesizebattles.com. Thanks for listening.
The King of Wessex had been hunted as a fugitive by marauding Vikings, and he'd been hiding as one in a swamp. Wessex had been overrun and King Alfred had fled, setting up camp amidst the reeds of the Somerset Levels. But despite his survival, it seemed the same could not be said of Wessex. But in one of history's greatest comeback stories, he rebuilt his forces whilst in hiding, conducted a guerrilla campaign from the marshes, and then came surging out to rendezvous with the armies of his still-loyal Earldormen. It resulted in one of England's greatest ever battles, and led confirmed that Wessex, England's last Anglo-Saxon kingdom, would not fall to the Vikings after all. In doing so, Alfred the Great laid the foundations for the future reconquest of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and the dawn of England. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles, and visit our website at www.bitesizebattles.com. Thanks for listening.
When the Viking warlord, Guthrum, ambushed King Alfred the Great of Wessex while he was celebrating Christmas at Chippenham, Alfred had no choice but to run with his family and a few guards. Hearing that Guthrum's forces were spreading out all over Wessex, the only safe place for Alfred to go was the marshland of Somerset which he knew as a boy. Alfred was now a fugitive in his own kingdom, hiding out in a swamp with his family and just a few guards. Mercia had fallen four years earlier, crushed by the Vikings just as Northumbia and East Anglia had been before it. It seemed Wessex was going the same way. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles, and visit our website at www.bitesizebattles.com. Thanks for listening.
The Vikings shot onto the international scene when they ransacked, burned, looted and slaughtered their way through the peaceful monastic community on the island of Lindisfarne in 793 AD. But it wasn't an isolated incident. It began the so-called Viking Age and 300 years of bitter warfare between Anglo-Saxon and Viking for control of the fertile land of England. For 60 years after Lindisfarne the Vikings contented themselves with raiding and terrorising the coastal communities and riverways of Anglo-Saxon England, but by 865 their thoughts had turned to invasion. The Sea Wolves were coming to stay. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles, and visit our website at www.bitesizebattles.com. Thanks for listening.
The Battle of Osowiec in 1915 was darkly horrifying despite the bright summer's morning. The Germans gassed the stubborn Russian defenders of the Osowiec Fortress with a vicious mix of chlorine and bromine, killing every single one. Or so they thought. Because as the Germans advanced they spotted a single figure jerk suddenly upright, skin blistered and torn, eyes peeled back, teeth bared where lips had once been. The dead had risen and now they were coming for their revenge. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, follow us @bitesizebattles on Instagram and Facebook, and visit www.bitesizebattles.com. Thanks for listening.
Once Vercingetorix was in chains and the Gallic Wars over, you might have thought Caesar would be in for a well-earned rest. But Pompey and the Optimates in the Roman Senate were jealous and wanted Caesar back in Rome so they could prosecute him for any number of crimes - including his conquest of Gaul, which they had never given permission for. But Caesar wasn't about to spend the rest of his life in court, jail or exile, and sought to outmanoeuvre the Senate. The Optimates and Pompey sought to drag Caesar back to Rome. It ended in a tussle which led Caesar to the banks of the Rubicon, and the biggest decision of his life. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles, and visit us at www.bitesizebattles.com. Thanks for listening.
Vercingetorix was a proud, young Gallic chieftain who gave Caesar his first bloody nose of the Gallic Wars and led a rebellion so serious that it nearly cost Caesar everything. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, follow us on IG and FB @bitesizebattles, and visit our website at www.bitesizebattles.com. Thanks for listening.
This is where Caesar made himself a Roman legend. He fought hundreds of thousands of Gauls, saw off Germanic invasions, and even had a little jaunt over the sea to Britannia. The Senate had been desperate to prosecute him for crimes during his Consulship, but he had taken a governorship of provinces bordering Gaul which gave him immunity for five years. He then used those years to craft seemingly legitimate reasons to continually intervene in Gallic affairs, crushing tribes and intimidating others. In just over three years, Gaul was his. But it was far from easy, and on more than one occasion, Caesar was lucky to get out alive. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles, and visit our website at www.bitesizebattles.com. Thanks for listening.
It was Alexander the Great who spurred Julius Caesar to new heights. When Caesar saw a statue of him when he was 31, he realised that at his age Alexander had conquered half the world. Caesar was so distraught at his own relative lack of achievements, it's said he wept at Alexander's feet. In just a few years Caesar had become the Chief Priest of Rome, Consul, and one of the members of Rome's first Triumvirate. Join us on his journey to political power, and meet Pompey, Crassus, and a rebel gladiator named Spartacus who sparked the whole thing off in the first place. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles, and visit our website at www.bitesizebattles.com. Thanks for listening.
Julius Caesar is one of the world's most famous and successful military genius' of all time. He conquered the fierce and warlike multitudes of Gaul with a few thousands men, and he beat some of the best Roman commanders in a civil war he ignited by crossing the Rubicon. But where did Caesar come from? Where did it all start? This episode covers the extraordinary groundwork of this extraordinary man's rise, from his childhood during the Marius-Sulla Civil War, near-death experience and his capture by pirates, to returning to Rome a military hero. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles, and visit our website www.bitesizebattles.com. Thanks for listening.
In the face of the crushing ideologies of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, hundreds of thousands of civilians and former soldiers banded together in resistance right across Europe and Asia. These created tales that need telling, and while some of them are already famous, I want to bring you some of those that are lesser-known but equally gripping. Much as you'd imagine from WW2, these stories are full of horror and heroism, catastrophe and courage, tragedy and triumph. From daring rescues to audacious assassinations, and everyday people risking death by hiding Jews from Nazi hunters, to young men and women blowing up bridges and laying ambushes. So get ready for an emotional rollercoaster in this, the final episode of the Bitesize Battles Secret Warfare series, the Resistance of WW2. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, visit us @bitesizebattles.com, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles. Thanks for listening.
The Middle East of WWI was controlled by the Ottoman Empire, but it was beginning to unravel. Arab nationalism was rising, and Britain told them that they would be allowed to establish a new, independent Arab nation following WWI. So the Arab Revolt broke out. But in secret, Britain also settled on the Sykes-Picot Agreement with France, which divided the area between them instead, leaving nothing for the Arabs. Into this cauldron of conspiracy strode Lawrence of Arabia, an unconventional archaeologist, writer, romantic, soldier and intelligence officer of the British Army. He was a lover of all things Arabia, and his effect on the Arab Revolt, and the coming post-war geopolitical battleground was profound. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, visit us at www.bitesizebattles.com, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles. Thanks for listening.
The Battle of the Teutoberg Forest in 9 AD was one of Rome's worst ever defeats. Just a few years either side of the death of Christ, the Romans had been subjugating many of the Germanic tribes just east of the Rhine – some by treaty, some by force. But the Germans resented the encroachment and the will to resist was building. All they needed was an opportunity to fight back. And soon, there was someone willing to give them one by betraying Roman trust. In the year 9 AD, three Roman legions would be lured to the Teutoberg Forest, and the result would lead to the Emperor Augustus butting his head against a wall screaming. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, visit us at www.bitesizebattles.com, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles. Thanks for listening.
There was once a group of unsung heroes from World War II, a pioneering band of jungle warfare specialists fighting the Japanese behind enemy lines. This elite force was named after the mythical Burmese beast, the Chinthe, a fearsome blend of eagle and lion. To its commander, Orde Wingate, the Chinthe symbolised his vision of the close co-ordination of air and land forces. The Chindits braved searing humidity, deadly diseases, impenetrable jungle and the remorseless Japanese army to disrupt the enemy behind their lines, destroy vital bridges and railways, and provoke them into rash decisions from which they could be punished. The Chindits were responsible for provoking one of the greatest defeats for the Japanese Empire, and the lessons learned greatly enhanced the Allied cause both during and after World War 2. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, visit www.bitesizebattles.com, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles. Thanks for listening
On 9/11, 2001, the United States and the world watched in shocked disbelief as al-Qaeda hijacked passenger airliners were flown directly into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre, causing them to collapse into dust, blood and tears. Nearly 3000 people were killed. The Pentagon, a symbol of the United States' military prestige, was hit too, and a final airliner crashed when its heroic passengers fought back against the hijackers. The experience was searing, enraging, and awakening for the United States, in a way the country hadn't experienced since Pearl Harbour 60 years before. And like Pearl Harbour, the American military giant now unfurled itself, flexed its muscles and called its friends to assemble. Just a month later, the United States and its allies retaliated in a massive invasion of Afghanistan, from where the attack was orchestrated and financed. But while the conventional militaries of the coalition overran Afghanistan's Taliban, what the American people and government wanted most of all was the man who had masterminded 9/11. Revenge would not be considered to have been had until he had been found and brought to justice. That demand sparked the largest, most expensive, most determined and most far-reaching manhunt the world has ever seen. From the mission control rooms of the CIA, to the barren wastes of the Afghan-Pakistani mountains, the hunt lasted a decade. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, visit www.bitesizebattles.com, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles
In the wake of 9/11, Britain stood shoulder to shoulder with the United States. It joined the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and soon its special forces were engaged all over the country. In one mission, the largest concentration of SAS firepower since World War II took on crack al-Qaeda terrorists guarding an elevated, fortified opium factory at the base of a mountain. The Regiment had to draw on all its expertise to face down hardened, heavily-armed fanatics in a rare, direct-action assault. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, visit www.bitesizebattles.com, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles. Thanks for listening!
“I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” The last words of Nathan Hale, an American patriot sent to spy on New York by George Washington, but captured by the British and hanged. George Washington was hit hard and resolved never to use amateurs to do his spying for him again. Instead, he set up the United States' first professional spy network - the Culper Ring. They saved the critical fort at West Point, uncovered the treachery of Benedict Arnold, saved the newly arrived French under Rochambeau, the new American economy and George Washington himself. I think, they saved the Revolution, and the new United States with it. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, visit us at www.bitesizebattles.com, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles. Thanks for listening.
16th century England was a seething hotbed of religious rivalry, a cauldron of conspiracies, treason, rebellion, persecution and war. At stake was the life of Queen Elizabeth I, English Protestantism, and England itself. Into this mix strode Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth's ingenious and pioneering spymaster. He was an expert in subterfuge, a creator of international networks of informants, a code-maker and code-breaker, and agent provocateur. Without him, its possible England would have become dominated by Spain just as it was about to burst on to the world stage. Delve into 16th century intrigue and spy games, with Francis Walsingham. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, visit www.bitesizebattles.com, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles. Thanks for listening.
In the midst of the fury and horror of World War 2, a secret war was waged in the towns, cities and countryside of Europe. Spy games respected neither borders nor neutrality, and the agents that played them knew that if caught, they would be first interrogated, probably tortured, and then either shot or hanged. The spies of WWII took on assignments that made hearts hammer and palms grow sweaty, but two of them in particular took them on with such cool-headed swagger that their exploits resound with heroism and adventure. Virginia Hall was a Gestapo-swerving, jail-breaking, one-legged hero who supported the French Resistance until it was finally time to get out of dodge. Dusko Popov was one of the inspirations for James Bond, a Serbian playboy and womanising double-agent who could have changed the course of the entire war. Both of them, and all Allied spies like them, fought a different kind of war to the men flying Spitfires or storming the beaches of Normandy, but it was all in the cause of the liberation of Europe from Hitler's Nazism, and their contribution was just as dangerous and just as great as any soldier, sailor or airman. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, check us out at bitesizebattles.com, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles. Thanks for listening.
6 months after the infamous Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, Admiral Yamamoto aimed to lure the American carriers to Midway and destroy them once and for all. Midway would have been taken, and perhaps even Hawaii. Along with a string of other islands it would have created a Pacific wall over which the Americans would have to bloodily clamber if they ever wanted to win the war. But the repercussions of a Japanese victory would have had world-wide repercussions too. The outcome of this battle would either see an American defeat even more devastating than Pearl Harbour, or see a turn in the tide from which the Japanese would never recover. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles, and please leave us a good review! Thanks for listening.
The Battle of Jutland was the shuddering earthquake that released the seismic tension of the Anglo-German naval arms race of the last decade. What was at stake was the blockade and starvation of the vanquished. The German High Seas Fleet aimed to destroy a large enough part of the British Grand Fleet to allow it to break out to the Atlantic where it would effectively blockade the commerce and supplies Britain utterly relied on to survive, let alone fight. If that happened, Britain would be forced into submission. No wonder then that Winston Churchill said of the commander of the British Grand Fleet, Admiral Jellicoe: “He is the only man on either side who could have lost the war in an afternoon.” Churchill was right. This one battle, more than any other, would decide the outcome of World War One, and with it the likelihood of a World War Two. The future of the world rested on Jellicoe’s shoulders. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles, and please leave us a good review! Thanks for listening.
If there was one battle the world might have wished had never happened, it might be Tsushima in 1905. This one clash set dominos falling which would see Russia become the Soviet Union, World War I erupt, and the Pacific theatre of World War 2 explode at Pearl Harbour in 1941. In its own right it was a colossal clash of 16 battleships, 32 cruisers, 29 destroyers and multiple other warships. It announced to the globe that Japan was now a world power to be reckoned with, and its effects, already noted as global, would also have long lasting implications for Korea, China and the whole Asia-Pacific region. Implications that still exist today. The story of how it unfolded deserves a grand plaque in history’s hall of fame. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles, and please leave us a good review! Thanks for listening.
This is the battle more than any other which confirmed that Britannia rules the waves, and set in stone the reputation of Admiral Horatio Nelson, even at the moment of his own death. In October 1805, 27 British ships of the line took on 33 of the French and Spanish Empires. Waiting for the outcome was Napoleon, desperate to be rid of the Royal Navy so he could invade Britain and take out the perennial thorn in his side, just out of reach across the waves. The outcome of the battle would play a key role in the outcome of the Napoleonic Wars. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles, and please leave us a good review! Thanks for listening.
As the Ottoman Empire spread inexorably across Arabia, Persia, North Africa and the Levant, it seemed nothing could stop it. It even shook Europe to the core when Ottoman cannon blasted holes through Constantinople's previously impregnable walls, causing the final collapse of the 1000-year Byzantine Empire. Now, in 1571, with Venetian Cyprus on the brink of falling, Pope Pius V calls together a Holy League to try to halt the Ottoman advance into the Mediterranean Sea. Fail, and all Christendom might fall. At the Battle of Lepanto, a Christian alliance of Spain, Venice, the Italian States and the Knights of Malta and Hospitallers took on the might of the Ottoman Empire. The outcome would decide the fate of Christian Europe, and by extension, the world. Subscribe here on your favourite podcast channel, follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles, and please leave us a good review! Thanks for listening.
The rising might of the Roman Republic was about to clash with the centuries-old power of Carthage, the greatest naval power the western Mediterranean had ever known. The Battle of Cape Ecnomus in 256 BC remains the largest naval battle in history, by the number of men involved. 300,000 fought in 680 ships for dominance. Part of the First Punic War, the battle would eventually lead to the rise of one of the world's greatest Empires, and the extinction of another. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles, and leave us a good review! Thanks for listening.
September 480 BC. Up to 500,000 Persians were rampaging through Greece, having overwhelmed Leonidas and his Spartans at Thermopylae the month before. Several major cities had been taken and destroyed, including - unthinkably - Athens. The Greeks had just one chance left to save southern Greece. Hold the Isthmus of Corinth where the narrow neck of land connecting the Peloponnese offered the only hope of resisting the Persian horde. But to do this, the Greek fleets had to stop the Persians simply sailing around them. Less than 400 Greek triremes met 800 Persian ships at Salamis, in perhaps the most history-changing naval battle of all time. The future of Western Civilisation as we know it would hang on its outcome. SUBSCRIBE to us here on your favourite podcast channel and follow us @bitesizebattles on Instagram and Facebook
Why do everyday people risk life and limb by going to fight in deadly combat? To put your body and mind in the midst of flying arrows or shrapnel, to risk the hacking of axes or the sights of a sniper, to sail on an ancient bireme or WW2-era battleship when there's a good chance you won't be coming out of it alive, is mortally terrifying. We explore the motivations of the men and women who often gladly take up arms, from excitement to loyalty, radicalisation to brotherhood. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles
The relationship between nations and their geography has shaped warfare for thousands of years, from the borders of the Roman Empire to modern day Russia. Keeping enemies behind natural defensive frontiers, ensuring access to vital resources, and controlling the vital land routes and waterways - all these and more have caused and continue to cause savage conflict.We cover the Greco-Persian Wars, the rise of Japan and the new frontier of space in our exploration of the role of Geopolitics in Why We Fight. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles
Revenge is one of the most formidable causes of war around. It has sparked bitter conflicts over thousands of years, and thousands of miles.From Boudicca's anti-Roman raising of the British tribes to the modern-day War on Terror, and the merry-go-round of Franco-German revenge relations to Genghis Khan obliterating an entire Empire which killed some of his traders, revenge has caused and continues to cause wars which leave scars often lasting decades. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, leave a review, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles
It has fired imaginations and inspired epic poetry. It's also brought down nations and empires.In this episode we cover one of the most primal causes of human conflict - men's fight over women. Its older than history itself, and we take a look at everything from the destruction of the Huron, Troy and the Ming Dynasty of China, to Mark Antony and Cleopatra and the Sabine women of early Rome.Men's lust for and love of women have caused thousands of years of war. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, leave us a review, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles
Fighting for freedom is one of the supremely powerful motivators behind conflict. Whether it’s slaves rising up, as they did under Spartacus in the Roman Republic and Toussaint L'Ouverture in Haiti, American and French revolutionaries throwing out the established order, or Geronimo in a heroic fight for the liberty of his people, freedom has galvanised and enthused the oppressed.And we explore what it means today in the face of Chinese treatment of the Uighur people and the fact that the Human Freedom Index still defines 25 African nations as some of the least free in the world. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, leave a review, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles
Whether it's for living space, resources, religion, culture, power, wealth or simply protecting your home, humans like to fight over land.From the largest invasion in history, Operation Barbarossa, to the ongoing Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan, we explore history's lessons on why land has always been one of major causes of Why We Fight. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, leave a review, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles
In their power to spark wars, ideologies can be just as powerful as religions. Once the Scientific Revolution and the European Enlightenment began a societal awakening about human existence and our relationship with our rulers, political revolutions swept much of the world - usually violently.Come with us as we discuss ideology's impact on war and conflict, in national revolutions and international power plays. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles
Religious rivalry is behind some of history's most intractable and bitter conflicts. Join us as we explore some of them, and why religion looks set to continue to create hotbed's of conflict for years to come. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles
From farmland to gold mines, and spices to oil, competition over resources has been one of the single greatest sources of human conflict for millennia. And it looks set to continue to be.We'll explore the motivations behind why resources create conflict and some of the empires, wars and tragedies this competition has created. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, leave us good reviews and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles
Why do we fight? Why go to war? This series looks at 9 of history's biggest motivations and causes for conflict, and a final episode on the psychology of the individual and what drives people to risk life and limb by going to war.In this first episode we look at the power of Ego, and how time and again it has propelled leaders, and the men and women who follow them, to cause nations and empires to rise and fall. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles
William Wallace's victory at Stirling Bridge had shattered the English psyche, but Bannockburn was the turning point. Now Scotland had to push a final time to win the independence she had been fighting for, for so long.But Edward II's England was riven with dissent, and powerful factions were about to rise up and demand firmer action against the Scots.The die was cast and Scotland's freedom was in the balance. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles
After Longshanks' used the world's largest ever trebuchet, War Wolf, to batter Stirling Castle into submission, he had captured William Wallace and had him brutally executed in London in 1305. Once again, it seemed that Scotland's destiny as an independent Kingdom was doomed.But inspired by Wallace's stand and appalled by Longshanks' brutality, there rose a new and even greater leader - Robert the Bruce - who would lead Scotland to triumph over England in a victory even more shattering than Stirling Bridge had been.In 1314, he led a force of just 6,000 men to take on Longhshanks' son, Edward II, and an English army of 20,000 men. They met at a small river, called the Bannock Burn. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles
Longshanks seems in control of Scotland - he has the towns and cities, he has the castles, and he even has the King.But soon to rise would be a Scottish Knight, William Wallace, for whom living under English domination was unbearable. He and other leaders, like Andrew de Moray, roused the country to rebellion and gathered an army with which he fought the English at Stirling Bridge and Falkirk.This famous freedom fighter would shatter the image of English invincibility and be a Scottish talisman for centuries to come.Find out what happened at Stirling Bridge and Falkirk, what fate befell William Wallace, and what it meant for Scottish Independence. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, and follow us @bitesizebattles on Instagram and Facebook
The opening episode of the rollercoaster ride of the Scottish Wars of Independence.On a pitch-dark night, Scotland's King Alexander III urged his horse to ever-greater speeds, galloping across vales and glens in a wind-driven storm.He was hurrying to see his young and beautiful Queen, Yolande of Dreux. Alexander was 44, she just 22. It was her birthday the next day, and it's likely that Alexander was rushing to help her, let's say, see it in.But in the lashing rain his horse lost its footing, causing them both to crash down a steep and rocky embankment. He was found the next morning on the sand of the shore. With a broken neck.Little did he know that his lust for his young Queen was about to throw Scotland into decades of civil strife, and plunge it into a bitter war with England where it would struggle for its very existence.Find out what happened and where the famous names of William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, and Edward Longshanks fit in. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, and follow us @bitesizebattles on Instagram and Facebook.
This is the season finale, the climactic finish to this epic story of the Fall of the Roman Empire.While the West was hanging from a thread after the Vandals had taken North Africa, the Eastern Roman Empire wasn't so quick to let it fade away.The Eastern Emperor, Leo, spend 100,000 pounds of gold putting together an immense armada, and sent it straight to Vandal Africa.At the Battle of Cape Bon, the Romans and Vandals would face off in a decisive and destructive naval battle in 468.The outcome would decide the fate of the Roman Empire, and the history of Europe. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles
Now comes the body-blow that would rock the Western Roman Empire on its heels. The Vandals, part of the original Rhine invasion of 406, now surged out of Spain and made a beeline for Roman North Africa.North Africa was Rome's bread basket and money-maker - any threat to it would create a food and financial crisis from which it would be nearly impossible to recover.Find out what happened and how the brilliant Roman commander, Flavius Aetius, reacted alongside the powerful Eastern Empire. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles.
Part 2 of our epic episode on Attila the Hun and his titanic showdown with the Western Roman Empire on the Catalaunian Plains in 451.The fate of both the Hunnic and Roman Empires rested on its outcome.Come and join the action here at Bitesize Battles. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles
Part 1 of our epic episode on Attila the Hun and his titanic showdown with the Western Roman Empire on the Catalaunian Plains in 451.The fate of both the Hunnic and Roman Empires rested on its outcome.Come and join the action here at Bitesize Battles. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles
Britain and Spain were lost, Gaul in the hands of a usurper, and Italy ravaged following the Sack of Rome. The Empire looked doomed.By then rose Flavius Constantius, a brilliant and experienced Roman commander. Just seven years after Rome's sack, he had put much of the Empire back together and it seemed to be about to embark on a new golden age.Find out how he did so, against overwhelming odds. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles
The Sack of Rome by Alaric's Goths was a seismic moment which sent shockwaves throughout the Empire.Find out why and how it happened right now, and what it meant for the Fall of the Roman Empire.Subscribe to us right here on your favourite podcast channel, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles
The moment some Romans started to think the end was nigh.The Rhine invasion of Gaul in December, 406, was an unprecedented incursion by up to 200,000 men, women and children of the Vandal, Alan and Suevi nations.As a direct result, Spain was lost, Gaul ransacked and Britain abandoned. Hear about it all here, only @bitesizebattles.Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook for more.
When the Goths turned up on the banks of the Roman frontier of the Danube river, they were desperate asylum seekers.But through some utterly inept Roman policy-making, they were turned into enemies and the Gothic War of 376-382 erupted.The Battle of Adrianople was the turning point in this war, allowing the Goths more or less free rein to rampage throughout Thrace, the Balkans and Greece - and it was the local Roman population which bore the brunt.The battle, the war, and the subsequent peace that was made had huge consequences for the integrity of the Roman Empire.There was a long way to go to the Fall of Rome, but it was a decisive moment with long-lasting repercussions. Welcome to the first episode in our series on the Fall of Rome - only Bitesize Battles.Subscribe here on your favourite podcast channel, and follow us on instagram @bitesizebattles to stay up to date with what's coming up.Thanks for listening.
On this dark Halloween night, meet the real life Dracula, Vlad the Impaler. If you don't like spooky and gruesome tales, turn off now. If you do, listen to be horrified. Vlad the Impaler was born in Transylvania, and is the inspiration behind the most famous of all vampires - Dracula. With a legendary taste for blood, and for impaling his victims, it's easy to see why. In this story, Vlad battles the invading Ottoman Empire and uses sheer gruesome horror to turn his enemies away at the gates. Happy Halloween.
The English Game of Thrones is nearly at an end.William the Conqueror had spent the three years since Hastings crushing one rebellion after another, culminating in the terrible Harrying of the North in 1069/70. Through tactical brilliance and sheer brutality, he finally must have sensed that the Kingdom of England was truly his.But, a last flame of resistance spat into life in the form of a dispossessed English thegn, named Hereward. This was the Anglo-Saxon last stand.Find out how close William came to giving in to Hereward, how Vikings, again, nearly turned the tide, and how the victors and vanquished alike continued to play a game of thrones in other European states for centuries to come.So vivid is this story and so much to tell that I've gone over our usual 10 minutes, stretching to just shy of 14. I hope you'll forgive me. Subscribe to our podcast right here and follow us on Instagram @bitesizebattles
When Edgar Aetheling's northern army fled into Scotland in 1069, William the Conqueror took his frustration out on the civilian population of Northumbria, Yorkshire and the other northern shires of England.In order to end the seemingly ceaseless rebellions emerging from the region, William ordered every foodstuff, animal and dwelling in northern England to be utterly destroyed, and every armed man killed. By sword, fire, exposure and starvation, Orderic Vitalis tells us 100,000 died. Hear about the Anglo-Saxon resistance which sparked this shocking event, and why it was so important in the Norman Conquest of England. Follow/subscribe for more, and follow us on Instagram @bitesizebattles
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