Episode 2 Invasion! with Sam Willis


Episode 2

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This is the story of the invasions of the British Isles.

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Whoa!

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It's the story of the enemies we feared,

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it's the story of the fear of invasion itself,

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and of the idea that we Britons are somehow unique.

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There have been battles for Britain for millennia,

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from weapons like these Hurricanes to sticks and stone axes.

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Invasions come in many forms -

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mass migrations, immigrants bringing ideas

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and religions - all have shaped Britain and made it what it is.

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The farming invasion.

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-A fashion invasion.

-The foodie invasion.

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Cheers.

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In this episode, there's Normans, Norse, and fantasists from Flanders.

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And the Spanish Armada hasn't even arrived yet.

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We love to believe in the island fortress.

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Shakespeare wrote of, "This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle".

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In Rule Britannia, we've never been defeated.

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Churchill called us, "The Island race".

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It's a story we all tell ourselves,

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but we all descend from people who came here from elsewhere,

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for one reason or another.

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This gap between that myth and the reality is a captivating tale,

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and never more so than in the centuries

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where we reached our period of peak invasion.

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The story starts in what is today a rather unremarkable field in

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southern England. It's grassy, it's on a slope,

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but something happened here in the 11th century that changed the

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history of Britain.

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The Battle of Hastings is lodged in our brains as the last great

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invasion of England -

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an idea that has become as much a part of our mythology

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as the white cliffs themselves.

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But it isn't even vaguely true.

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Since 1066, there have been at least 17 successful invasions of England,

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Wales and Scotland,

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and countless failed attempts.

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Some have led to changes of ruler, some were by invitation,

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others have been doomed from the start,

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but they all matter because we have been shaped as much by the battles

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we have lost as we have by the battles we have won.

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So the Norman Conquest wasn't the last, then,

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but it was the mother of them all.

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It wasn't just an English army that was defeated here,

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but an older English way of life.

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So much so that much of what we now think of as quintessentially English

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rose out of the blood and gore that once debased this nice, bland field.

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The person to thank for that transformation?

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A man of impeccable European origin and skill set.

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The descendant of a feared Viking lord - good at fighting.

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Relative of an English queen - good at giving orders.

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Born and brought up in present-day France -

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a flair for bureaucracy.

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Supposedly boorish, definitely illegitimate.

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The earliest sources describe him as William the Bastard.

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We know him as William the Conqueror.

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By the time William landed on the south coast of England,

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he had been fighting for much of his adult life.

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He didn't invade for a cause, but for something much more appealing -

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a crown.

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The English crown that he believed had been promised to him and then

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given to his rival, Harold, instead.

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In his armoury was the weapon that would prove to be decisive in his

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quest and become part of the mythology of this invasion.

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-Tell me about this bow.

-Well, it's a basic hunting bow of 1066.

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It is made out of yew,

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one single piece of wood,

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and it's going to be good enough to put an arrow up over that hill.

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What sort of range would it have?

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I'd say about 100, 150 metres.

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Would you be able to hit anyone deliberately at that range?

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Depending on the wind, how good I am, possibly.

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But if I was going to aim for a large body of men,

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-I think I could hit one of them.

-Let's give it a go.

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Pull out a sharp. There we are.

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Whoa!

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-Just missed.

-Nearly.

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Go, go.

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-That was good!

-That was good, very good.

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What sort of tactics did the archers use?

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Well, there's a very good one that is lob shotting.

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You put an arrow very high up in the air...

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..so they are going to have arrows coming straight out of the sun,

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coming vertically down on their heads.

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You can't keep your shield above your head

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and in front of you at the same time.

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Legend has it that one of the deadly Norman arrows did for King Harold,

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hitting him right in the eye.

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How do you think Harold died?

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Well, everyone says an arrow in the eye.

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We have seen knights wearing helmets,

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they have steel mail shirts like mine.

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There is no part of your body to be seen apart from your hands,

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your knees, your feet, and your eyes, and so...arrow in the eye?

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Well, if I had an arrow in my hand, that's not going to kill me,

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but an arrow in my eye is definitely going to kill me.

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-Good shot.

-In the eye, I think.

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Now, that,

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-I reckon, proves I've got Norman blood.

-You certainly have.

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The tale of the brilliantly accurate arrow in the eye is the story we

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tell ourselves, but one contemporary source suggests a very different story.

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It suggests something much more humiliating,

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sordid even,

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and describes Harold being hacked to death at the hands of the

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four Norman knights.

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The first, cleaving his breast through the shield with his point,

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drenched the earth with a gushing torrent of blood.

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The second smote off his head below the protection of the helmet

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and the third pierced the inwards of his belly with his lance.

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The fourth hued off his thigh and bore away the limb.

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His remains were then buried by the sea.

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This bloody act was just a taste of things to come.

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In the next few years,

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an older England, which was itself the result of countless migrations

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and invasions, would be obliterated from memory.

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This transformation has been passed down through the generations as the

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story of one man's ruthless ambition.

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After the battle, Duke William returns to camp with Bishop Odo.

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They are both weary after the terrible day.

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It begins already, brother.

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-What do you mean?

-Many things -

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Taming the knights,

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keeping order,

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putting down rebellion,

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perhaps even controlling oneself.

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All these things a man must do when he exchanges a dukedom

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for a kingdom, sire.

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Well, it shall be done, Bishop!

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Now I have got it...

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..I shall hold it.

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I will bend them all to my will, the English and the Normans.

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I will build castles to keep this land in order.

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I will own every inch of England and my

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lords and barons must bow the knee

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for all they possess.

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William's campaign north has been

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described as a scorched earth policy.

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It turned into ethnic cleansing,

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as Anglo-Saxon landowners were driven out

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and new Norman landlords moved in.

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The castles they built were bigger, better, stronger,

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unlike anything England had seen before.

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And they said, "Not only have we defeated you,

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"but we are here to stay."

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They raised new churches and, of course,

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their churches were also unlike anything England had seen before...

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..taller, more ornate, superior,

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like this one in Barfrestone in Kent.

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In new churches like these,

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they would have given thanks for their good fortune in hitting the

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jackpot with England's rich and fertile land.

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But just how rich was it?

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20 years after the invasion,

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they ordered a massive stocktake to find out.

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There shall be a great book, as big as the Bible,

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and in it the clerks will set out all that lies in England,

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every farm, every fish pond,

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every horse and plough.

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In town after town, village after village,

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every source of wealth was recorded by Norman inspectors.

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The invaders referred to it as "the great survey".

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The conquered referred to their

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hellish day of reckoning as "Doomsday".

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And as the wealth was entered into giant ledgers,

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the name - Domesday Book - stuck.

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This very place is mentioned in the Domesday Book.

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Now, you might be surprised because it's so small,

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but that's exactly the point.

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Everywhere was important enough for the Doomsday Book.

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It tells us that its value in 1066 was 50p,

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that its household consisted of one poor woman.

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And then, this is the really important bit, in 1086,

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the tenant in chief was not the Archbishop of nearby Canterbury,

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as you might suspect, it was Bishop Odo of Bayeux.

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The Normans recorded England's wealth in such detail,

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not out of curiosity,

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but so that they could raise taxes.

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It is mine!

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William the Taxman just doesn't have the same ring to it as

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William the Conqueror, but that's exactly what he was.

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And these were taxes to pay for his armies, to pay for his court,

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to line his own pockets.

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England's new rulers used the Domesday Book to estimate the wealth

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of their entire kingdom,

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and that knowledge helped transform England into one of the strongest

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and most cohesive countries in all of Europe.

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Gradually, the otherness of the Norman Invasion faded into memory.

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Their vocabulary worked its way into our language.

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Years later, those French words,

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those words of invaders, became terms that we used to describe the

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finer things in life - amorous, tranquil, or restaurant.

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But Anglo-Saxon words, on the other hand,

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were used to describe base things - like sweat or shit.

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Ever since then, the Norman Conquest has been the benchmark against which

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all other invasions have been measured.

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It's the reality on which the myth was founded.

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Ever wonder how we got here, to the point where we have a Parliament,

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where the most powerful people in the land are held to account,

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criticised and even publicly lampooned?

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Well, it has something to do with this next invasion.

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Exactly 150 years after the Normans landed,

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a remarkable invasion took place, an invasion by invitation.

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In the 13th century, Rochester Castle was

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one of the most important military bastions in the whole of England.

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If Rochester fell, well, London was only two days' march away.

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But, in 1216, a very curious incident happened just here,

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one which has been all but lost to history.

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The gates, designed to keep attackers and invaders out,

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were thrown open to an approaching French army

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and its leader, a French prince, was welcomed as a saviour.

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The invader in question? Meet Prince Louis.

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This is just one of a few pictures of him from the time.

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He was invited to invade to help get rid of the tyrant bad King John.

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And, thanks to the story of Robin Hood,

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we have lots of pictures of bad King John.

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King John's rule was so terrible that it echoes through the ages

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as a low point in England's bloody history.

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He is often described as the worst king England ever had

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and this 1922 silent film of Robin Hood isn't far off the mark.

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John was definitely fond of hanging people.

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He may well even have been a puppy snatcher.

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Don't even think about stealing a boar from his forest

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if you want to keep both eyes in your head.

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And if all that wasn't bad enough,

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after being excommunicated by the Pope,

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he even suspended the Church - all of it.

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Depriving his citizens of confession, mass, last rites

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and Christian burial was so tyrannical

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that people were even afraid to die in case they didn't go to heaven.

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England under John was a kind of living purgatory.

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King John's tyrannical rule brought him into direct conflict

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with many of his nobles.

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They tried to find ways to curb John's absolute power

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and asked him to sign a treaty called Magna Carta

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that set clear limits on his authority.

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At first, John agreed to do this.

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But then, he changed his mind

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and the patience of his barons ran out.

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They decided that England needed a new king.

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Prince Louis was the son of the French king

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and a direct descendant of William the Conqueror.

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He was 27, pious, brave and had proved himself as a military leader.

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The barons couldn't have found a starker contrast to John.

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In May of that year, he took up their invitation

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to invade and landed on the coast of Kent.

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A French army on English soil - again.

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But, this time, there was no battle like Hastings.

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Instead, they marched unopposed from the Isle of Thanet in Kent

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to Canterbury, Rochester, and on to London.

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So, how come most of us have never heard of this invasion?

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I've managed to track down one of the few historians

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who has delved into Louis's remarkable story.

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So, these images are from the manuscript of a chronicle

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written by Matthew Paris,

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who was actually writing in the 13th century,

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so they're almost contemporary,

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and they tell the story very well of what Louis was doing.

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So this is Louis arriving, this is him landing in England,

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and it shows that Louis had various different types of people with him.

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He had sailors to sail the boat,

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he had armed knights in his retinue,

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he also had lots of foot soldiers and engineers,

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which is very important when you want to take castles.

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And he also has administrators and clerics with him

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because he's intending to govern.

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And this figure here, as you say, stepping out of the boat first,

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this is probably meant to be Louis himself.

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And what's interesting about this is he's not wearing any armour

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and that's because Matthew Paris, when he drew this picture,

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was aware that, when Louis landed,

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he was not faced with an immediate battle.

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So, he's managed to get the whole story of Louis arriving in England

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-into this one picture.

-Very clever.

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When he got to London, he was proclaimed king

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by the barons who had invited him,

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so there were cheering throngs of people in the streets.

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I mean, let's just think about that for a moment.

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Crowds of people cheering their new king,

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who is riding through the streets of London,

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and he is the son of the King of France.

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Now, that's unprecedented.

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But then, being proclaimed king in the street

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doesn't make you the king!

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Being the designated heir of the previous king doesn't make you king.

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What makes you king is having the crown put on your head

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and being anointed with holy oil.

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What happened to John?

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Well, he did the most useful thing that he could possibly have done

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at this point and he died unexpectedly.

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Now, you might think that this meant that Louis could get comfy

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in his new kingdom, but apparently not.

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John had an heir, a nine-year-old son called Henry.

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And, faced with the prospect of Louis taking over England,

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some of the nobles decided to crown Henry as king.

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And then they pulled a masterstroke.

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They offered to implement a new version of Magna Carta as well,

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and Louis's invasion suddenly looked rather redundant.

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So, this is a huge U-turn.

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The implementation of Magna Carta is what John went to war to prevent

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and now his associates are declaring their support for it.

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This was very, very clever.

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You wanted rid of John? He's dead, he's gone.

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-And you wanted Magna Carta.

-You wanted Magna Carta? Here it is.

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Oh, and your new king is an innocent young boy

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who cannot possibly be blamed for any of the things

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that have happened before.

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I think, if it wasn't for Louis,

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we would never have heard of Magna Carta.

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So, King John was intent on burying it.

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He had already reneged on it.

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He had succeeded in getting the Pope to annul it

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and he was bent on revenging himself on the barons

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who had made him agree to it in the first place.

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Louis was offered 10,000 marks, a small fortune, to go away

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and to stop saying that he had ever been the rightful King of England.

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So, we have a French king we have never heard of,

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who lasted just 18 months,

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to thank for Magna Carta finally being implemented,

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which helped enshrine our right to democracy and free speech.

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Thank you, King Louis.

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It's such an amazing story.

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Why is it not so well-known?

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I think, basically, it was written out of the history books

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because later historians found it embarrassing.

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They found it embarrassing that England had got to the point

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where the best candidate for the throne

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was the son of the King of France.

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And so, when you look at the reigns of the kings of England

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on the lists that you see, it runs very smoothly from John to Henry III

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and Louis is just not there.

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The next invasion that intrigues me took place here,

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on the west coast of Scotland, in 1263.

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-FILM FOOTAGE:

-For the first time,

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the saga of the mighty Viking hordes who swept across the world,

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breaking every commandment of heaven and Earth,

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as they put an age to the torch.

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What was it about? Pillage, plunder, conquest?

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Well, it was as much about trade as anything else.

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And it's an invasion that never really ended.

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Vikings first appeared in Britain in the eighth century

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and, from then on, they returned regularly.

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The Vikings didn't get to the west coast of Scotland

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until a little later

0:22:270:22:28

but, when they did, they got up to their old tricks.

0:22:280:22:31

This is a wonderful primary source,

0:22:320:22:36

some images scratched onto a piece of slate that was found

0:22:360:22:39

on a tiny island out there in the Firth of Clyde.

0:22:390:22:42

Here we have a very unhappy-looking man, a monk,

0:22:420:22:46

and he's being taken into captivity

0:22:460:22:48

by this extraordinary figure in the centre,

0:22:480:22:51

a huge, wild-haired, tall Viking.

0:22:510:22:55

And beyond him is his unmistakable Viking ship.

0:22:550:22:59

This man's been taken from his home to be sold in a Norse slave market.

0:22:590:23:04

But if this sounds like the end of the world,

0:23:050:23:08

well, it was only just the beginning.

0:23:080:23:10

For 200 years, they raided and returned.

0:23:120:23:16

-FILM FOOTAGE:

-To a Viking, there was no life

0:23:210:23:23

except life in battle.

0:23:230:23:26

There was no death except death in battle.

0:23:270:23:33

There were no women except women taken in battle.

0:23:360:23:40

But by the 13th century,

0:23:430:23:46

the wild bands of Pagan, slave-trading Vikings,

0:23:460:23:49

so beloved of Hollywood, had become something more organised.

0:23:490:23:53

A settled population of Norsemen, soldiers, traders and farmers,

0:23:540:23:59

who were really quite at home on Scotland's islands.

0:23:590:24:03

Who had sovereignty here?

0:24:050:24:07

Well, in the 13th century, this was Norse territory,

0:24:070:24:10

right from the Hebrides, the Western Isles, down through Kintyre,

0:24:100:24:14

the Clyde islands, right down to the Isle of Man.

0:24:140:24:17

People here owed allegiance to the Norwegian crown

0:24:170:24:19

and not the Scottish one.

0:24:190:24:22

At this time, relations were quite strained,

0:24:220:24:24

particularly as the Scottish kingdom was growing in confidence.

0:24:240:24:26

They wanted the Western Isles,

0:24:260:24:28

they wanted the western part of Scotland back.

0:24:280:24:31

This, of course, didn't go down very well back in Norway.

0:24:310:24:35

There was a particularly bad raid by Alexander

0:24:350:24:38

when he went to Skye and burned houses, burned villages,

0:24:380:24:42

killed women and children,

0:24:420:24:43

apparently had babies on the end of spears.

0:24:430:24:45

Really bad stuff, like atrocities.

0:24:450:24:48

Of course, this is the Norwegian account.

0:24:480:24:50

It might not quite have been as bad as that,

0:24:500:24:52

but that didn't play well back in Norway, and Haakon,

0:24:520:24:55

the king at the time, felt that he had to come here

0:24:550:24:58

and make Scotland realise this was Norse territory.

0:24:580:25:02

Why? Well, hard as it is to imagine,

0:25:020:25:05

this was near to the geographic centre of the Norse world.

0:25:050:25:10

You can get a sense of it from these famous chess pieces.

0:25:100:25:13

Made of walrus ivory, probably from Greenland, carved in Norway,

0:25:130:25:19

transported to Scotland to sell possibly as far south as Ireland.

0:25:190:25:25

This part of the world was a spaghetti junction of trade routes

0:25:250:25:28

that were valuable and lucrative.

0:25:280:25:31

One way or another, the fate of these islands

0:25:320:25:34

just had to be decided.

0:25:340:25:35

Were they to be the south-westernmost part of Norway,

0:25:350:25:39

or the north-westernmost part of Scotland?

0:25:390:25:42

The Norwegian King Haakon mustered what is said to be

0:25:460:25:49

the biggest fleet ever to sail from Norway.

0:25:490:25:53

In September, it gathered off the coast here at Cumbrae,

0:25:530:25:57

30 miles west of Glasgow.

0:25:570:25:59

Well, you had 120 ships, about 10,000 men, anchored off Arran.

0:26:010:26:06

This was one of the largest invasion forces ever to face Scottish shores.

0:26:060:26:12

And basically there were envoys going back and forth

0:26:120:26:14

and they were negotiating,

0:26:140:26:15

and Alexander III was basically being quite clever and quite wily.

0:26:150:26:20

He knew that the Scottish forces couldn't meet Haakon at sea.

0:26:200:26:23

He knew, if they landed, they would struggle with them as well.

0:26:230:26:26

So, he was basically waiting for the Scottish weather to do

0:26:260:26:29

what his own forces couldn't.

0:26:290:26:31

What happened was, at the end of September, the weather did break.

0:26:340:26:37

There was a massive storm,

0:26:370:26:38

a very powerful storm, according to the sources.

0:26:380:26:41

The fleet was in a bit of disarray.

0:26:410:26:42

Some of them came and anchored off Cumbrae

0:26:420:26:44

because it's a bit more sheltered.

0:26:440:26:46

But five ships were actually run ashore on the Scottish side,

0:26:460:26:50

to basically where Largs is now,

0:26:500:26:52

and that's when the Scottish forces came in and pounced,

0:26:520:26:55

and they kind of just faced each other off.

0:26:550:26:57

And it ended up more being sort of, some sling stones were thrown,

0:26:570:27:00

some arrows were shot, some insults were traded.

0:27:000:27:04

So, there was no real victory. There was nothing decided.

0:27:040:27:07

It's surprising the Norse didn't land their entire force.

0:27:070:27:10

Well, this is the interesting thing.

0:27:100:27:11

I think Haakon was here to make a statement with his force.

0:27:110:27:14

He was saying, "We have sovereignty over the Innse Gall area,

0:27:140:27:18

over the Hebrides, over Western Scotland. Look at my force."

0:27:180:27:21

I don't think it was his intention to ever invade.

0:27:210:27:24

Had he done that,

0:27:240:27:25

I think he had the numbers to actually cause serious damage.

0:27:250:27:29

Defeated by the weather, the Norsemen headed for safety.

0:27:340:27:38

Their king then died and their fleet never returned.

0:27:380:27:41

What happened to this Norse territory after the battle?

0:27:500:27:53

Well, basically, the change of allegiance to a Scottish king,

0:27:530:27:56

or to a Norwegian King, to the people living on this side,

0:27:560:28:00

didn't make that much difference to their everyday lives.

0:28:000:28:03

And really, the Norse-Gael culture, the culture of the Innse Gall,

0:28:030:28:07

the land of the foreigners, continued on.

0:28:070:28:09

There was still this idea that this place is different,

0:28:090:28:12

it was becoming Scots, and never really fully became Scots in a way.

0:28:120:28:16

The Norse left their mark on the language, the landscape,

0:28:180:28:22

and the culture.

0:28:220:28:23

A kind of currency existed here that allowed Norse Scotland

0:28:280:28:32

to take its place at the centre of the vast trade network.

0:28:320:28:36

It was a bullion economy.

0:28:360:28:39

Bullion made from plundered silver

0:28:400:28:42

and turned into something called ring money.

0:28:420:28:46

What are we making?

0:28:500:28:51

We are making a Viking-age ring money bracelet,

0:28:510:28:55

so that's this sort of thing.

0:28:550:28:58

So, they would be used to be traded for

0:28:580:29:01

food, goods, by the weight of the silver that was in them.

0:29:010:29:05

-It was used as currency?

-Yes.

0:29:050:29:07

Show you the tapering.

0:29:070:29:09

Now, that really does start to make it longer.

0:29:090:29:11

And then, with a simple punch decoration,

0:29:120:29:14

which seemed to have no purpose, really,

0:29:140:29:17

other than to make them look pretty.

0:29:170:29:19

-Is that the next stage?

-That's the next stage of this.

0:29:190:29:22

Place flat on the anvil and, with this hammer,

0:29:220:29:25

give it a good thwack like that.

0:29:250:29:28

-Right, let me have a go.

-Yep, right, so...

0:29:280:29:30

Don't hit your fingers.

0:29:300:29:32

THEY LAUGH

0:29:350:29:36

It's so difficult!

0:29:380:29:39

Not bad.

0:29:420:29:43

THEY CHUCKLE

0:29:450:29:47

So, I've managed to take a silver bracelet

0:29:470:29:49

and significantly devalue it with my own incompetence!

0:29:490:29:53

We're now turning this into a bracelet

0:29:540:29:56

by shaping it around our wooden former.

0:29:560:29:59

So what do you think of my handiwork?

0:30:060:30:08

Well, it doesn't really matter so long as it weighs the right amount,

0:30:080:30:12

does it? So there we go, let's test it with the scales.

0:30:120:30:14

And put the weight on the other side.

0:30:160:30:18

-And there we go.

-There we go. Perfect.

0:30:200:30:23

So, thanks to the Norse presence on the islands and beyond,

0:30:250:30:29

Scotland was exposed to a vast northern European market

0:30:290:30:33

and a sophisticated trading system

0:30:330:30:35

that would help to forge strong links with Scandinavia.

0:30:350:30:38

Not a bad legacy for a bunch of invaders.

0:30:400:30:43

Possibly one of our most audacious invasion stories

0:30:470:30:52

is that of a total impostor, who managed to invade no fewer

0:30:520:30:56

than three times, claiming to be the ruler of England.

0:30:560:31:01

So what did it take to carry that off?

0:31:010:31:04

Well, strange as it may seem, in 1496,

0:31:040:31:08

all that it took was some fine silks and a passing resemblance

0:31:080:31:12

to a missing prince to muster an invasion force large enough

0:31:120:31:16

to send the entire country into a tizz.

0:31:160:31:19

Aren't you forgetting something?

0:31:190:31:21

What about all the people so desperate to turn the clock back

0:31:210:31:24

they're willing to believe in pretty much anything?

0:31:240:31:28

The story captivated huge TV audiences in the 1970s

0:31:330:31:38

in a serialisation that featured the fresh-faced impostor as the puppet

0:31:380:31:42

of a foreign power sent to make mischief in England.

0:31:420:31:46

-Don't you know who I am?

-No, my lord, I do not.

0:31:460:31:50

Who are you, my lord?

0:31:510:31:53

The situation arose at the end of the War of the Roses,

0:31:530:31:56

when the House of York lost power to the Tudors, and Henry Tudor,

0:31:560:32:01

Henry VII, took the throne.

0:32:010:32:04

His kingdom was far from united, riven by divisive politics,

0:32:050:32:09

self-interest and plots to restore the old rulers.

0:32:090:32:14

Supporters of the House of York

0:32:160:32:18

still longed to overthrow the Tudors

0:32:180:32:20

and they pinned their hopes of doing this on two princes

0:32:200:32:24

who had mysteriously vanished -

0:32:240:32:26

Edward and Richard.

0:32:260:32:29

Almost 15 years after his disappearance,

0:32:340:32:37

Richard of York suddenly reappeared,

0:32:370:32:40

determined to win back the throne for his family and their supporters.

0:32:400:32:44

His first invasion was at Deal in Kent.

0:32:490:32:53

Well, actually, Richard didn't invade himself.

0:32:550:32:57

He stayed on board his ship and left all of his supporters

0:32:570:33:01

to do the actual invading.

0:33:010:33:02

150 of them waded ashore at the beach

0:33:020:33:05

and then were promptly slaughtered by the town's garrison.

0:33:050:33:09

As soon as Richard realised what was happening,

0:33:090:33:12

he turned tail and fled for the sanctuary of Ireland.

0:33:120:33:15

Richard then pitched up in Scotland at the court of James IV.

0:33:190:33:23

Here I am. Will you hand me over?

0:33:240:33:27

Never. I gave my word I'd protect you, Richard,

0:33:270:33:29

and protect you I shall.

0:33:290:33:31

Either to do mischief to the Tudors or to advance the aims

0:33:310:33:34

of his European allies, or a delicious combination of both,

0:33:340:33:39

James agreed to help this strange character invade England - again.

0:33:390:33:43

It'll be the quickest capture of a kingdom

0:33:430:33:45

since the devil first landed in Ireland.

0:33:450:33:48

-Well, when do we start?

-Tomorrow.

0:33:480:33:50

James lent him a small Scottish army and a few German mercenaries

0:33:590:34:04

and off they set, south.

0:34:040:34:06

You know, this river may look beautiful,

0:34:060:34:09

but it's as formidable a barrier as Hadrian's wall.

0:34:090:34:14

But in early autumn, Richard waded across the Tweed and into England.

0:34:150:34:21

The idea was that as soon as the Northumbrian nobles heard

0:34:230:34:26

that Richard of York was invading, they would rise up to support him.

0:34:260:34:31

But it was frankly wild and wishful thinking.

0:34:320:34:35

Richard and his army marched south into England,

0:34:350:34:38

destroying a handful of defensive towers along the way.

0:34:380:34:42

But it soon became clear that, in this part of England,

0:34:420:34:45

Richard and his cause were far less popular than he thought they were.

0:34:450:34:50

Richard and his Scottish army went quietly home.

0:34:520:34:56

On his return to Edinburgh, James grew tired of his guest

0:34:560:35:01

and sent him back to Ireland on a ship called the Cuckoo.

0:35:010:35:05

In Ireland, he did it again,

0:35:100:35:12

rallying support amongst those who yearned to bring back the old world,

0:35:120:35:16

and he set his sights on a place

0:35:160:35:18

where the Tudors' power was tentative.

0:35:180:35:21

-Show me Cornwall, John.

-Here, your Grace.

0:35:210:35:25

Well, it's a long way from London.

0:35:250:35:27

But nearer than Scotland, your Grace.

0:35:270:35:29

And my master begs that you march immediately.

0:35:290:35:31

He roused his Cornish hosts by promising to end unfair taxation

0:35:330:35:38

from distant London.

0:35:380:35:40

He even proclaimed himself King Richard IV

0:35:410:35:44

and, when news of that proclamation spread,

0:35:440:35:46

that the old Yorkist claimant to the throne had returned,

0:35:460:35:50

people flocked to him.

0:35:500:35:51

His armies swelled to 6,000 men.

0:35:510:35:54

They marched on Exeter and Exeter fell.

0:35:540:35:57

But when Richard discovered that King Henry's army

0:35:590:36:02

was nearby and planning an attack, he fled.

0:36:020:36:07

The Cornish army surrendered and its leaders were executed.

0:36:070:36:12

Richard was captured trying to reach the coast,

0:36:120:36:16

taken to London and imprisoned in the Tower.

0:36:160:36:19

Having invaded three times,

0:36:210:36:23

having destabilised Henry VII's fledgling Tudor regime,

0:36:230:36:27

having cost the Exchequer many millions to raise men to fight him,

0:36:270:36:32

Henry still welcomed him to court.

0:36:320:36:35

Educated, exotic, romantic and entirely fake, he fitted right in.

0:36:350:36:42

After 18 months in captivity, he tried to escape,

0:36:460:36:50

was caught and his hosts' patience finally ran out.

0:36:500:36:54

On 23rd of November 1499,

0:36:540:36:57

the man who had passed himself off as Richard the prince

0:36:570:37:01

was taken to Tyburn gallows.

0:37:010:37:04

He read a confession admitting his true identity

0:37:040:37:08

and his true identity was remarkable.

0:37:080:37:11

He was not a prince.

0:37:110:37:13

He was not even a member of the House of York.

0:37:130:37:15

He was an impostor.

0:37:150:37:18

Grievously and wickedly I have claimed to be Richard, Duke of York,

0:37:180:37:22

second son of King Edward IV.

0:37:220:37:25

On my oath, I do now declare that all these claims and pretences

0:37:250:37:29

are nothing but sinful lies.

0:37:290:37:32

May God have mercy on my soul.

0:37:320:37:34

His name was Perkin Warbeck.

0:37:340:37:37

He was the assistant to a silk merchant,

0:37:400:37:42

who wore his master's wares to display their beauty.

0:37:420:37:46

He was the son of a merchant from Flanders.

0:37:460:37:49

But whether or not he was the pawn of a foreign power or a chancer,

0:37:490:37:55

a fantasist intent on power himself, he played his hand brilliantly.

0:37:550:38:00

He found supporters and backers who longed for the old days

0:38:000:38:05

and who were willing to suspend their belief to bring them back.

0:38:050:38:09

Even if that meant pinning their hopes on a charlatan

0:38:120:38:16

with a dodgy cause.

0:38:160:38:18

Nobles are executed by beheading,

0:38:200:38:22

but Perkin was hanged like a common thief.

0:38:220:38:26

A miserable end for the man who tried to steal the crown.

0:38:280:38:32

The Spanish Armada is one of those iconic invasion threats

0:38:420:38:46

which contribute to the myth of an unassailable island Britain.

0:38:460:38:51

But what we've forgotten is that many in England

0:38:530:38:56

wanted this invasion to happen.

0:38:560:38:58

Maybe even as many as 50%.

0:39:010:39:04

The Spanish ships, 130 of them,

0:39:060:39:09

came up the Channel to help land an army.

0:39:090:39:13

The Spanish had been encouraged

0:39:130:39:15

by Catholic nobles in England to invade.

0:39:150:39:18

They wanted to overthrow their queen,

0:39:180:39:22

the Protestant and unpopular Queen Elizabeth.

0:39:220:39:25

But Elizabeth and her Navy were having none of it.

0:39:260:39:30

If there's one painting I could choose to have above my fireplace,

0:39:330:39:36

then this would be it.

0:39:360:39:38

It's probably the moment in the Armada campaign

0:39:380:39:42

when Britain saved herself from invasion.

0:39:420:39:44

What's happening here is that the English have released

0:39:440:39:48

a pack of fire ships onto the Spanish fleet,

0:39:480:39:50

who were anchored at Calais.

0:39:500:39:53

Now, there is simply nothing more frightening

0:39:530:39:56

when you're on a sailing warship than being faced by a fire ship.

0:39:560:39:59

They were quite large ships, packed with combustibles,

0:40:040:40:07

anything that could burn,

0:40:070:40:08

usually things that could explode,

0:40:080:40:11

and they fell down on the Spanish.

0:40:110:40:13

The Spanish were so terrified

0:40:130:40:14

they cut their anchors and they fled from Calais.

0:40:140:40:18

The British followed them like a pack of dogs.

0:40:180:40:20

The story goes that Elizabeth went to an army camp near the coast

0:40:300:40:34

to encourage her troops' efforts against the imminent invasion.

0:40:340:40:39

The speech she made there has passed into legend

0:40:390:40:43

and become a rousing monologue for generations of actors.

0:40:430:40:46

I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman...

0:40:460:40:50

..but I have the heart and stomach of a king.

0:40:520:40:56

And a king of England, too.

0:40:560:41:00

And I think foul scorn that Parma or Spain

0:41:000:41:05

or any Prince of Europe should dare

0:41:050:41:08

to invade the borders of our realm.

0:41:080:41:13

Pluck up your hearts.

0:41:130:41:15

By your peace in camp and your valour in the field,

0:41:150:41:17

we shall shortly have a famous victory.

0:41:170:41:21

CHEERING

0:41:210:41:23

The image of Elizabeth standing firm with her troops,

0:41:280:41:31

committed to repelling the invader together, has stuck.

0:41:310:41:36

But it was prime Tudor propaganda.

0:41:360:41:38

By the time Elizabeth showed up to make this speech at Tilbury,

0:41:390:41:43

the threat of imminent invasion had passed.

0:41:430:41:47

The English fleet had already caught up with the Spanish and,

0:41:470:41:51

in heavy conditions, engaged and defeated them.

0:41:510:41:55

A storm had then scattered what remained of the Armada.

0:41:550:41:58

Elizabeth was sharp and astute.

0:42:010:42:05

There was something else that could carry the propaganda message.

0:42:050:42:08

Coins would allow Elizabeth and her supporters

0:42:080:42:11

to exploit the fear of invasion further.

0:42:110:42:14

This is very exciting.

0:42:150:42:17

What have we got in here?

0:42:170:42:18

We've got a Dutch medal commemorating the defeat

0:42:180:42:21

of the Spanish Armada.

0:42:210:42:23

And when was this one made?

0:42:240:42:26

So, this was made in 1588, immediately after the events,

0:42:260:42:30

and it's sort of loaded with symbolism describing the defeat.

0:42:300:42:35

So here we've got, in Hebrew, Jehovah, the name of God,

0:42:350:42:40

coming out of a cloud with wind

0:42:400:42:42

blowing the Spanish Armada into disarray.

0:42:420:42:45

What's the link between Jehovah and the Spanish Armada?

0:42:450:42:48

Well, the idea was that the storm which dispersed the Armada

0:42:480:42:51

through the North Sea and then around the top of Scotland

0:42:510:42:55

was actually a divine intervention on behalf of the Protestants.

0:42:550:43:00

And the fabulous thing with coins, of course,

0:43:000:43:02

is there's always more than one message.

0:43:020:43:03

There is. There is another message on the other side,

0:43:030:43:06

so what you've got is a Protestant church

0:43:060:43:09

perched on a rock in the middle of a storm-tossed sea.

0:43:090:43:13

And this is the Protestant faith

0:43:160:43:19

resisting the forces of Catholic tyranny.

0:43:190:43:22

How effective was this as propaganda?

0:43:220:43:25

Well, the story it embodies becomes the real message.

0:43:250:43:29

You've got sermons being preached,

0:43:290:43:32

emphasising the importance of God's intervention

0:43:320:43:35

and the Protestant win,

0:43:350:43:37

and that story essentially becomes the norm.

0:43:370:43:39

It becomes established fact.

0:43:390:43:41

It's a wonderful thing you can pass on,

0:43:410:43:44

so I'll pass the message on to you

0:43:440:43:45

and you can then learn about the loss of the Armada.

0:43:450:43:48

Loss of the Armada, and then I can spread the message to someone else,

0:43:480:43:51

-so on it goes.

-And how far did it go?

0:43:510:43:54

Well, I mean, news of the Armada gets as far as India.

0:43:540:43:57

There is mention at the Mogul court that they had noticed that Elizabeth

0:43:570:44:01

had defeated the Spanish.

0:44:010:44:02

Yeah.

0:44:020:44:04

It was part of a concerted campaign in the aftermath of the Armada.

0:44:070:44:12

A portrait shows how the triumph was officially recorded.

0:44:140:44:18

This portrait of Elizabeth, painted just after the Armada,

0:44:200:44:23

is an incredibly powerful piece of art

0:44:230:44:26

and a very powerful piece of propaganda.

0:44:260:44:28

Notice to the left on the window

0:44:280:44:30

we have the English Navy bearing down on the Spanish Armada,

0:44:300:44:34

those fire ships clearly visible.

0:44:340:44:36

And through the window on the right, we have a stormy sea,

0:44:360:44:39

we have the Spanish ships being wrecked on the rocks

0:44:390:44:42

of Scotland and Ireland.

0:44:420:44:44

To her right is an imperial crown

0:44:440:44:46

and her hand rests possessively on a globe,

0:44:460:44:50

her fingers resting just over the Americas.

0:44:500:44:53

What's so fabulous about this painting

0:44:530:44:56

is it leaves you in no doubt at all as to who rules the waves.

0:44:560:45:00

Elizabeth turned the Armada and threat of invasion

0:45:030:45:07

into a massive political coup.

0:45:070:45:10

History remembers her as uniting England

0:45:100:45:13

and the roughly 50% who were opposed to her, well,

0:45:130:45:17

they're simply forgotten.

0:45:170:45:19

The fear of invasion by sea is deeply embedded in our psyche.

0:45:360:45:41

Living by the coast today might be highly desirable,

0:45:470:45:50

but it wasn't always that way.

0:45:500:45:53

Sometimes, the coast was the most dangerous place you could live.

0:45:530:45:57

Why? Because of invasions and raids by pirates.

0:45:570:46:01

Now, pirates aren't your classic invaders.

0:46:040:46:08

Thanks to Hollywood, we think of them like this.

0:46:080:46:11

As seafarers and plunderers, fighting amongst themselves,

0:46:140:46:18

like in this glorious version of Blackbeard.

0:46:180:46:22

The thing about pirates

0:46:240:46:26

is that they always seem to be in far-flung locations,

0:46:260:46:30

like the Spanish Main, or treasure islands.

0:46:300:46:34

Arh, we got him trapped, Worley, trapped!

0:46:340:46:38

But the early 17th century gave us a pirate who wasn't at all like that.

0:46:410:46:47

This pirate practically crept into your home and snatched you away.

0:46:490:46:55

He became a terrifying bogeyman and folk demon.

0:46:550:47:00

Meet the Barbary Coast pirate.

0:47:000:47:03

The Barbary pirate was a demon in the popular imagination.

0:47:100:47:14

He was dark-skinned. He was unchristian.

0:47:140:47:18

Their reputation was based around raids like that in Mount's Bay

0:47:180:47:22

in Cornwall. One quiet Sunday,

0:47:220:47:24

they slipped ashore and took

0:47:240:47:26

an entire congregation from a church - 60 men,

0:47:260:47:30

women and children - and sold them into slavery on the Barbary Coast.

0:47:300:47:35

The Barbary Coast was the name given to the north coast of Africa.

0:47:360:47:41

It stretched from Libya to Morocco.

0:47:410:47:45

The pirate headquarters was the notorious city state of Sale

0:47:450:47:50

in modern-day Morocco.

0:47:500:47:52

There could be found the reason for their terrifying raids

0:47:520:47:56

and coastal invasions -

0:47:560:47:58

a bustling slave market.

0:47:580:48:00

The slave trade was as lucrative as plunder and theft.

0:48:060:48:10

Those with the rough hands would be sold at the slave market.

0:48:100:48:13

Those with soft hands like mine would be ransomed.

0:48:130:48:16

Women would be sold into harems.

0:48:160:48:19

The Sale Rovers, as they became known,

0:48:190:48:21

made the Barbary Coast infamous.

0:48:210:48:23

Your best chance of ever seeing home again was if you were ransomed.

0:48:250:48:30

Ransoming became a flourishing industry and no wonder.

0:48:300:48:35

Pirates could ask for vast sums of money.

0:48:350:48:39

50,000 pieces of eight?

0:48:390:48:42

Try up to £300 in the case of the Barbary Coast raiders.

0:48:420:48:47

Sums that only increased the likelihood

0:48:470:48:49

that they would come back again.

0:48:490:48:50

We tell ourselves the story that the Royal Navy

0:48:530:48:56

were second to none, but, throughout the 17th century,

0:48:560:48:59

the Coast of England and Ireland

0:48:590:49:01

was a lucrative hunting ground for Sale Rovers

0:49:010:49:05

and it led to one of the strangest invasions in Britain's history,

0:49:050:49:09

one that has been reported in Turkish records,

0:49:090:49:12

but not in our own.

0:49:120:49:14

For five years, this island in the middle of the Bristol Channel

0:49:150:49:20

became a Barbary Pirate HQ, a base for raids as far afield as Iceland.

0:49:200:49:26

The bogeyman in chief was the pirate Jan Janszoon.

0:49:300:49:34

Originally Dutch, in the parlance of the time, he turned Turk.

0:49:340:49:40

To better be able to strike up and down the North European coast,

0:49:400:49:43

he needed a base,

0:49:430:49:45

so sleepy Lundy Island became part of a Barbary pirate kingdom -

0:49:450:49:50

or so the story goes.

0:49:500:49:53

This piracy was a bustling business,

0:49:550:49:58

one known and feared in Britain's coastal communities,

0:49:580:50:02

thanks in part to letters like this.

0:50:020:50:05

"The ship was surprised by a Turkish man of war.

0:50:070:50:11

"Matthew lost his whole estate and was taken to Sale in Barbary,

0:50:110:50:16

"where the captain of the Turkish ship

0:50:160:50:19

"sold him for 350 Barbary ducats.

0:50:190:50:22

"He lives in misery in iron chains,

0:50:220:50:25

"is forced to grind in the mill like a horse all day long.

0:50:250:50:29

"He's fed on bread and water, and insufficient of that,

0:50:300:50:35

"and is tortured to make him turn Turk.

0:50:350:50:38

"A great ransom has been set on him, which, because of his losses,

0:50:400:50:45

"he cannot procure."

0:50:450:50:47

Trinity house to the Privy Council.

0:50:500:50:52

They find that there are 12, 13 or 1,400 Englishman captives

0:50:530:50:59

in Sale, all of the greatest part of them taken within 20 or 30 miles

0:50:590:51:05

of Dartmouth, Plymouth and Falmouth.

0:51:050:51:08

Writers complained the coast is not guarded by some handsome ships to

0:51:080:51:12

defend the king's subjects and that our friends are not restrained from

0:51:120:51:17

arming and aiding infidels.

0:51:170:51:21

Spurred on by the lack of security around our shores,

0:51:230:51:26

the Navy beefed up its defences.

0:51:260:51:29

The spectre of the green flag of the Sale Rovers

0:51:290:51:32

became a thing of the past around Britain's coast.

0:51:320:51:36

Their raids became another forgotten chapter in our history.

0:51:360:51:40

Why? Perhaps because the memory of them harassing Britain's coasts

0:51:400:51:44

at will didn't exactly fit with the idea of Britannia ruling the waves.

0:51:440:51:50

Possibly the most daring invasion of Britain

0:51:580:52:02

came in the 1660s, from one of our closest neighbours -

0:52:020:52:06

the Dutch Republic.

0:52:060:52:08

This was an invasion that became known as England's Pearl Harbor

0:52:090:52:13

and it was as much the result of English neglect

0:52:130:52:16

as it was of Dutch courage.

0:52:160:52:18

King Charles II was engaged in peace talks with the Dutch

0:52:220:52:26

over wars in the colonies.

0:52:260:52:29

But while talking peace,

0:52:290:52:31

both sides were secretly still scheming.

0:52:310:52:34

And when the talks stalled,

0:52:350:52:37

the Dutch launched a surprise attack and caught the English Navy

0:52:370:52:42

napping right here at their home dockyard

0:52:420:52:44

on the River Medway in Kent.

0:52:440:52:46

The majority of the English fleet was mothballed over here

0:52:480:52:51

in front of the dockyard, but over here,

0:52:510:52:53

on the morning of the sixth of June 1667,

0:52:530:52:56

a fog bank rose, revealing England's worst nightmare.

0:52:560:53:00

It was a vast Dutch task force...

0:53:040:53:07

..62 frigates, 15 smaller vessels, 12 fire ships.

0:53:090:53:13

And unarmed and unprotected, the English Navy was a sitting duck.

0:53:130:53:19

With a dockyard full of undefended ships,

0:53:190:53:22

the response of the Naval establishment was slow,

0:53:220:53:25

if not complacent,

0:53:250:53:27

and there was one reason for that -

0:53:270:53:29

the Admiralty thought they had it covered.

0:53:290:53:32

A huge defensive chain had been stretched across the river

0:53:320:53:36

to make it impenetrable and to keep the fleet safe.

0:53:360:53:40

This gives you a really good idea

0:53:410:53:43

of what the chain would have been like.

0:53:430:53:45

It's an enormous, it's about a metre long and maybe, what,

0:53:450:53:49

two inches in diameter.

0:53:490:53:51

It's an astonishing engineering achievement

0:53:510:53:53

to have something like this in the 1660s

0:53:530:53:56

and the force it would have taken to break a chain like this

0:53:560:54:00

would've been unimaginable.

0:54:000:54:01

Samuel Pepys, the famous diarist and secretary to the Navy,

0:54:040:54:08

recorded a vivid account of the entire affair

0:54:080:54:11

and how it played out in London.

0:54:110:54:14

"That all is safe as to the great ships against any assault,

0:54:140:54:18

"the boom and chain being so fortified,

0:54:180:54:21

"which put my heart into great joy."

0:54:210:54:24

But Pepys' joy didn't last for long.

0:54:260:54:29

The Dutch sent some heavy ships forward

0:54:290:54:32

and their weight snapped the chain.

0:54:320:54:35

"Ill news has come to court of the Dutch breaking the chain at Chatham,

0:54:390:54:45

"which struck me to the heart."

0:54:450:54:47

With the chain broken, fear of a full-blown invasion took hold.

0:54:510:54:56

In nearby London, sheer selfish panic set in.

0:54:560:55:01

The rich fled, taking whatever

0:55:010:55:03

they could carry of their wealth with them.

0:55:030:55:06

I presently resolved my father's

0:55:090:55:12

and wife's going into the country and,

0:55:120:55:14

at two hours' warning, they did go by the coach this day,

0:55:140:55:19

with about £1,300 in gold in their night bag.

0:55:190:55:24

The entire city is in a state of panic.

0:55:240:55:27

The Dutch now pressed their advantage,

0:55:290:55:31

putting troops ashore and sending fire ships towards the English ships

0:55:310:55:36

in the dockyard.

0:55:360:55:37

The scene vividly captured in the painting of the time.

0:55:390:55:42

Here you can see it unfold,

0:55:450:55:48

as some of the Navy's best ships and symbols of England's naval might

0:55:480:55:53

are lost and carried home by the Dutch as trophies.

0:55:530:55:59

It was a massive strategic and symbolic defeat for England,

0:55:590:56:03

so why is it not so well-known?

0:56:030:56:06

Especially as it is so well-documented.

0:56:060:56:10

These are all Dutch paintings,

0:56:140:56:17

from Dutch artists.

0:56:170:56:19

British paintings of this event

0:56:190:56:22

are few and far between.

0:56:220:56:24

And with the Dutch in such command,

0:56:360:56:39

it was open season on the source of England's naval power,

0:56:390:56:43

the dockyard itself.

0:56:430:56:44

A Dutch attack on this dockyard

0:56:460:56:48

would have set back the English naval project

0:56:480:56:51

by a decade, maybe more.

0:56:510:56:53

At a stroke, they would have enjoyed unchallenged access

0:56:530:56:56

to disputed colonies and foreign territories

0:56:560:56:58

and they'd have grown rich in the process.

0:56:580:57:01

But somehow Chatham dockyard was spared.

0:57:010:57:04

The Dutch fleet moved on.

0:57:040:57:07

And with this lucky escape,

0:57:070:57:09

the Navy was able to piece itself back together.

0:57:090:57:12

We might have all but forgotten this invasion now,

0:57:140:57:17

but at the time it was a major mauling.

0:57:170:57:20

Just the sort of thing best swept under the carpet.

0:57:220:57:25

The fear of invasion,

0:57:350:57:38

the invasions we have chosen to forget and the invasions

0:57:380:57:42

that have enriched our lives have all shaped who we are.

0:57:420:57:47

Since 1066, Vikings, Normans, French and Dutch forces

0:57:500:57:54

had all invaded and, to an extent, held British territory

0:57:540:57:59

and yet the idea of the British Isles as being uninvaded

0:57:590:58:03

was about to become one of the founding myths

0:58:030:58:06

of the newly born British Empire.

0:58:060:58:08

In the next episode -

0:58:110:58:13

the last ever invasion of the British mainland.

0:58:130:58:16

It's a little-known story...

0:58:160:58:18

Involving a middle-aged woman,

0:58:180:58:20

a revolutionary Irish-American commander,

0:58:200:58:22

some extremely incompetent French soldiers and this -

0:58:220:58:26

a pitchfork.

0:58:260:58:28

And the largest underground tunnels we've ever built

0:58:280:58:32

to guard against invasion.

0:58:320:58:34

I don't want to die in here.

0:58:340:58:36

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