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The Essay Podcast

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The Essay: Anglo-Saxon Portraits

The Essay: Anglo-Saxon Portraits: Episode 29: Harold Godwinson

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Anglo-Saxon Portraits

Episode 29

Episode 29: Harold Godwinson

Harold Godwinson

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Clive Anderson discusses the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, Harold Godwinson.

Clive Anderson discusses the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, Harold Godwinson, whose life and reign came to a bloody end at the Battle of Hastings.

The Anglo Saxons are somewhat out of fashion, yet the half millennium between the creation of the English nation in around 550 and the Norman Conquest in 1066 was a formative one.
This major series rediscovers the Anglo-Saxons through vivid portraits of thirty key individuals.




Comedian and presenter Clive Anderson has always been fascinated by Harold Godwinson whose life and reign came to a bloody end at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, which a thousand years on is still the most famous date in English history. In his humorous look at King Harold, he wonders why Shakespeare never chose to write a play about his life - which has all the elements of a gripping historical drama, and a great tragedy.

Producer: Sarah Taylor.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Portraits of ground-breaking Anglo-Saxon men and women from the era between 550 and 1066AD

Series of portraits of ground-breaking Anglo-Saxon men and women from the era between 550 and 1066AD

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Episode 29: Harold Godwinson

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