
EI Weekly Listen - Tom Holland on Æthelstan and the forging of a United Kingdom of England
The EI Podcast
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Introduction
Part one, nation state and empire. The forging of the united kingdom of england tom holland. Early in the twelfth century, a tomb in the abbey of malmsbury was briefly opened. A monk named william took the chance to inspect the skeleton that lay inside it. Traces of hair were still to be seen,. And these too, he recorded later, blond in colour and beaut y twisted into golden braids. During his lifetime, he had been a formidably generous patron of the abbey. It was thanks to his generosity that it could boast a particularly awesome relic, a fragment of the true cross.
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