461 – Destabilizing a Nation: A How-To Guide

Welcome to the British History Podcast.

My name is Jamie, and this is episode 461, Destabilizing a Nation: A How-To Guide.

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We've been spending a lot of time with Rufus and Robert.

And honestly, that was the way things were back in the 11th century, too.

Rufus and Robert got the attention, while Henry, the youngest and apparently most forgettable brother, was often left out.

And this reality was made most clear when their father died, because despite holding vast territories, the conqueror didn't bother to give Henry a single hide of land.

In doing so, the bastard ensured that his youngest son would live his life in noble limbo and at the mercy of his older brothers.

I mean, sure, Henry had money thanks to his mother, but he didn't have land, nor did he have a title.

That left him with cash and no power.

And given the structure of feudal Norman society, that meant without the support of a powerful noble, like one of his brothers, he basically had no chance of gaining lands of his own.

And that meant that he basically had no chance of getting something else he wanted, a wife.

Now, if Henry was someone else, this might have been the end of his story, and he'd just be a forgotten footnote on the royal family tree.

But Henry, well, history wasn't about to forget Henry and I suspect that's because while he might have looked like his brothers, with contemporary descriptions telling us that he was about as stout and stocky as they were, Henry had something going on that his brothers lacked.

This guy was born to play politics.

Now, granted, while he was born to play politics, that doesn't mean he always won the game.

And thus far, Henry's efforts at playing his brothers to his own advantage had completely blown up in his face.

And personally, I think it's because his uncle Odo was also born to play politics, and he had outplayed him at every turn.

And so, rather than climbing the ladder to success, Currently, Henry was a guest in Odo's prison at Bayeux.

But that was just a hiccup.

During his brief time as the Count of Cotentin, Henry had built an impressive set of alliances and friendships within the region's nobility.

And one of the special things about this kid was that he was very good at making fiercely loyal friends.

And so while he was sitting in Odo's dungeon, those friends were applying pressure to Duke Robert and working to secure his release.

And Robert was already under a lot of pressure.

Because while the Duke didn't know exactly what Rufus was planning, he and Odo had to expect some sort of response, you know?

I mean, it was highly unlikely that the Red King was just going to be chill about an attempted coup.

And on top of that, there was also the matter of France.

I mean, Rufus had created problems for Robert since they were kids.

So in a certain light, this whole situation right now was was kind of par for the course.

But now that Robert was Duke, he had a new frenemy, France.

And France was a perennial existential threat to the Dukes of Normandy.

And facing this, naturally, Robert would have looked to someone with experience in this Cold War that would occasionally turn hot.

Odo.

And Odo's advice on this, as well as his advice for any threat during this period, was pretty consistent.

Meet it head on with a massive show of force.

And so in early 1089, Robert decided to reposition his forces along the French border, and we're told he did this in anticipation of a war with France.

And here's why this matters.

We have a witness list from a charter during this march, and in it, we see a bunch of Henry's friends in attendance at court.

You You know, the friends who were currently applying a lot of pressure to get Henry released.

And wouldn't you know it?

It's at around this point that Henry gets released from prison.

And it's not because Robert had a change of heart, nor because he thought maybe he judged his baby brother wrongly.

Our sources are quite clear on this fact.

His release happened because the Norman magnates, those friends that Henry had been cultivating, had successfully pressed for it, and Robert buckled, like he often did.

However, while Robert was quick to bend, Odo wasn't.

And I'm guessing the old bishop didn't appreciate the Duke's decision to release Henry.

I mean, Odo's sole goal since returning to Normandy had been to bolster Duke Robert's position and bring the Norman nobility to heal.

And yet here he was, watching the Norman nobility bring Robert to heal.

And I get the sense that to get this deal through, Robert and the Norman magnates had to placate Odo in some way.

Because in this same charter, the one with Henry's surrogates all over it, we also learned that lands were being granted to Bayou, which was Odo's stronghold.

And it also includes a promise that the church will condemn and curse anyone who meddles with those lands.

And while our sources during this period aren't great, I have to say, this looks suspiciously like the Duke was throwing his uncle a bone in order to keep the peace.

But speaking of poor records, that campaign that Duke Robert was preparing for, you know, the whole reason why he was on the border with France to begin with?

Yeah,

they don't mention much about it.

And I wouldn't be surprised if the real goal here was to make Normandy just look like too much of a headache for King Philip to invade.

Like a show of force to bring the King of France to the negotiating table.

And the reason why I think that is because Duke Robert and King Philip didn't go to war.

And instead, they negotiated an agreement where Duke Robert would hand over the manor of Guizors.

Which in itself is a bit cheeky since it wasn't Robert's manor to begin with, and actually belonged belonged to the Archbishop of Rouen.

But whatever, the threat with war was resolved and Henry was freed.

And now that he was free, where did he go?

Well, historians aren't actually sure.

According to Malmsbury, Henry boarded a ship and crossed to England.

And that would make a certain amount of sense.

Henry must have realized how bad his prospects in Normandy were, so you can imagine that he might have wanted to make a go at life in England under the command of his older brother, King Rufus.

And Momsbury tells us that King Rufus was polite and welcoming to his brother.

But he trusted the kid about as much as Duke Robert did.

And so he basically strung Henry along, keeping him landless, and spent about a year essentially saying, Yeah, don't worry about it.

I'm going to hook you up with some land, but not today.

I'm busy today.

Now, this is a plausible scenario for both Henry and and Rufus.

I mean, Rufus probably didn't want to give this scheming little jerk anything, but at the same time, he wouldn't have wanted to create another open enemy.

And on the flip side, staying in the English court might have suited Henry's interests too.

Rufus wanted revenge against Robert.

And I'm guessing that after his stint in Odo's prison, Henry wanted a bit of revenge as well.

So in that sense, going to England might have given him a good shot at some payback.

And if things went well, he would be in a position to be rewarded by a victorious King Rufus.

And that would put him in a good place to get those lands that he needed, which would eventually enable him to get a title, not to mention a wife.

However, there is one problem with all of that.

Henry's movements during this period are very poorly recorded.

But there are accounts of Henry's activities during this same period that simply do not square up with spending a year in England.

Even worse, the account of this trip to England comes just from Malmesbury, and Malmesbury appears to be duplicating Henry's previous trip to England.

Consequently, historian Warren Hollister argues that he is not to be believed here, and that he didn't go to England.

So, if he wasn't in England, where was Henry?

Well,

other records suggest that he never left Normandy.

Instead, he returned to Western Normandy under the protection of those same friends who had secured his release.

And this makes a good amount of sense because Duke Robert had been largely ignoring Western Normandy, and as a consequence, it had been sliding into chaos and internal wars, wars, which is exactly the kind of place a third son of a bastard conqueror could build a name for himself in.

And he would have to build that name for himself, because it doesn't appear that Robert restored Henry's lands and titles.

It doesn't even appear that the brothers even met in person after his release.

But at the same time, Duke Robert was weak.

And so, with the backing of his supporters, Henry just picked up his comital authority, as if he'd never stopped being count.

And then he began strengthening the defenses of his castles and expanding his supporters among the Norman barons.

I'm sure it's going to be fine.

Speaking of fine, things in Normandy weren't.

Now, granted, our main source for what was happening in Normandy is Orderic, and Orderic isn't great with timelines.

But he does give us a pretty good idea of what was happening so long as you don't mind temporal impressionism.

And all of the drama begins in Maine.

Probably.

You see, it turns out that Duke Robert's march on Le Mans, which was intended to cow the region into submission, wasn't as effective as Odo had hoped.

And in 1089, Maine exploded into rebellion.

To the north, the rebels were being led by Geoffrey of Mayenne.

And to the south, they were being led by Hellias of La Flechie, which on the one hand, I feel like is a name I'm butchering, but on the other hand, it's exactly how the pronunciation guide said to say it.

So here we are with the La Fleschie guy.

Anyway, what we're talking about here is a multi-front rebellion, and probably a coordinated one.

This thing also had teeth.

The rebels soon captured and imprisoned Duke Robert's ally, Bishop Hole of Le Mans, and they expelled the Norman Castellans.

And then they installed their own new count, Hugh.

And so things in Maine were not looking great for Robert.

Even worse, the border region between Maine and Normandy had also broken out into war.

It turned out that imprisoning Robert of Balem and then releasing him not long after was unwise.

I mean, Balem was livid, obviously, so that wasn't great for Duke Robert personally, but the more pressing issue was that that brief stint in prison had made Balem look weak, which was like ringing the dinner bell to his neighbors.

And one of those charming neighbors was Count Jeffrey II of Mortagna.

Now this guy was a veteran of Hastings and actually a kinsman of Balem.

And he decided that you should never let family get in the way of politics, especially when it was the perfect time to grab a bit of land.

And so he launched a war against Balem.

Now, this dinner bell must have been ringing pretty loudly, because Duke Robert heard it as well.

And he bailed on his duty to keep the peace in Normandy, and instead poured gasoline on the bonfire by giving a castle that sat on Balem's borders to one of his own allies, Gilbert of Leiglé.

Now, this was almost certainly a deliberately provocative move, and it was also one that Balem didn't appreciate.

And if this was any other noble, things might have gone differently, but this was Balem.

He wasn't afraid of fighting multiple wars.

So pretty soon, Gilbert found himself under attack.

Which means that the Norman control of Maine, as well as Normandy's southern border near Maine, was all coming apart at the seams.

And seeing everything pop off, Duke Robert decided he needed some help, and he reached out to Count Fulk of Anjou and asked for aid in bringing down this rebellion.

And he wasn't wrong here.

He did need help, and Count Fulk was a strong noble.

But asking for help projected Robert's weakness, and Fulk immediately saw how overwhelmed, or at least how ill-prepared, Robert was for the task of being Duke.

This was an opportunity, and Folk, who wanted to expand his political influence, wasn't about to miss it.

So yeah, Robert, of course, I would love to help you out by putting down this rebellion for you.

In fact, I'd be only too happy to support you and do you this favor.

But first, I'd like you to solve a small problem of mine.

You see, it's time for me to get married, and I think that the niece of Count William of Evreux would be a perfect match.

So if you can secure that marriage, I'll help you secure your grip on Maine.

Duke Robert was in no place to argue.

And so he went to Count William and asked for his help in solving this new problem.

And Count William said that he would be only too happy to offer the hand of his niece to Fulk, you know, if Robert solved a small issue for him.

You see, there were a bunch of properties that the Count and his nephew, William of Bretuis, should have inherited, but instead, the Conqueror had claimed them.

And so, before this marriage could go through, Duke Robert would have to right that wrong.

Now, I'm not sure how strong the Count's argument was on a legal basis, but politically, he had a pretty strong argument because he was seeing the same thing that Folk did.

Robert was losing his grip on the duchy, and he was ripe for the picking.

And so he was pressing his advantage.

And in the face of that, Robert buckled like a belt.

The estates were handed over to Count William, who then in turn gave his niece to Count Fulk, who then in turn gave Duke Robert his help with the rebellion in Maine.

How many times have we read contemporary accounts that have mentioned that Normandy responded to strength?

Countless times, right?

And Robert was basically displaying everything other than that.

And people were talking.

And at some point, that talk reached the court of King Rufus.

And as I've mentioned, King Rufus wasn't chill about that whole coup thing.

Not even a tiny bit.

His inaction was because he was biding his time.

And considering the state of affairs in Normandy, that time had arrived.

Orderick tells us that the king summoned his barons and knights to Winchester.

Once they were gathered, he laid out the situation.

Now, Orderic wasn't there, so we can't know how accurate his account of this meeting was.

But I'm going to give you the speech that he shares with us.

However, I'm also going to rework it like I have done in the past into more modern language so it's not so orderick-y.

Here we go.

Rufus addressed his men.

We all know by now what kind of man Robert is and how much trouble he's caused.

This guy turned my vassals against me and conspired to take my life and my crown.

And I'm confident that my reign would have ended in that first year were it not for God's intervention on my behalf.

And now God is asking me to return the favor.

Because the holy church in Normandy has found itself unprotected and at the mercy of any who might seek plunder.

It's outrageous, but Duke Robert, who has spent time seeking my throne by force and fraud, is completely failing to carry out the duties of his own office.

And as a consequence, the church is suffering for it.

And that is why I've asked you to speak with me today.

You served my father before me, and you hold properties in both England and Normandy.

So you all have a stake in this.

And so I'm asking you to to support me in protecting Normandy from her duke.

We simply cannot allow our homeland to be overrun by thieves.

We can't allow our abbeys, which our forefathers founded in holy zeal, to be tarnished and plundered.

Thanks to my failure of a brother, all of Normandy is prey to theft and murder.

And so now it falls to me as the heir to my father's crown to do what he would have done and defend Normandy from this threat to her very existence.

And so I ask all of you here to provide me with counsel and advice on what to do regarding this horrific state of affairs.

And I promise you, if you approve it, I will summon my army and restore order in Normandy.

The church, the widows, and the orphans of our homeland will all be protected by my sword of justice.

And I will will deal with this mischief that my brother has raised.

Just wall-to-wall demagoguery.

And if I had to pick somebody who was super concerned about the church, Rufus would not be on that list.

He wouldn't be anywhere near that list.

But Orderic tells us that the assembled nobles were all very impressed by the king's speech.

And then Rufus delivered his closing argument.

He called forward William de Warren, who had been a staunch supporter of the king during Robert's attempted coup, and he made him the Earl of Surrey.

Next, he called up Robert Fitzhammon, another steadfast supporter during the previous war, and he granted him so many lands and honors that in an instant he became one of the wealthiest men in England.

And the assembled nobles got the message.

Support Rufus against Robert, and you will be rewarded.

Stephen of Aumans caught on the quickest.

Now, Stephen was the son of the Count of Champagne, and he also commanded a sizable force and a castle on the River Eu.

So he was a significant player in Norman politics, and Stephen immediately swore fealty to Rufus, agreeing to fortify his castles and stock it with the king's royal garrison.

Not wanting to be left behind, Gerard de Gournay gave the king command of quote Gournay, La Forte, Guille Fontaine, and all his other fortresses, end quote, and promised to convince his neighbors to do the same.

But peer pressure only goes so far, especially when dealing with the aristocracy, and so Rufus upped the ante.

He knew this was going to get expensive.

And so the king swore that any who supported this endeavor would be supplied with large sums of money, which would allow them to fortify their castles and estates and also finance the arming of their vassals.

And this did the trick.

The floodgates were open, and soon Count Robert Avu, Walter Giffard, Ralph de Mortimer, and almost all the Norman nobles living in the lands beyond the Seine and as far as the sea pledged their support to Rufus.

And do you remember how the construction of the White Tower halted right around this point in history?

And how Malmesbury tries to imply that Rufus was draining the treasury by buying shoes?

Yeah, it wasn't shoes that were draining the national funds.

I think it was this.

Rather than investing in England, Rufus was spending the crown's treasure on Normandy.

And he wouldn't be the last king to do it.

But right on queue, Robert suddenly started experiencing a whole new set of political issues back at home.

For example, do you remember Ivry Labataille?

You know, the castle that likely inspired the design of the White Tower?

The castle that was so formidable that, according to Orderic, its architect was beheaded for fear that he might make a similar castle for someone else.

Well, that castle had been answering to Duke Robert lately because its castellan, a guy named Ascalin, had surrendered it to him.

Now, this didn't sit right with the Castellan's lord, William of Bretuis.

And so Bretuis went on campaign against his own castellan to try and regain Ivry Labataille.

Which means that while Bretuis hadn't technically gone to war with Robert, he was fighting in a war to retake a castle that answered to Robert.

So this was an insult at best and a shot across the bow at worst.

And Bretuis wasn't the only one who wanted Ivry Labataille.

I mean, this was medieval Normandy.

There were a lot of people who had claims on a lot of properties.

And one of those claimants to Ivry was Count Robert of Moulin.

You see, it turns out that Mulan's dad, Roger de Beaumont, used to own that castle.

And so he decided that he was going to cross the channel and demand that Duke Robert give him his dad's castle.

Now, unfortunately for Mulan, this claim was ridiculous on its face.

Because ages ago, Beaumont had sold that castle in exchange for Brian.

But while the claim was absurd, it still created a huge headache for Duke Robert.

Because the Beaumonts were a powerful, influential, and wealthy family.

So not exactly the sort to cross.

However, a line had to be drawn somewhere.

You can't buckle to everybody.

And this apparently was the place to draw that line.

Because Duke Robert denied the request.

And that didn't sit well with Mulan.

And I'm guessing that was probably the plan all along, since Mulan just happened to be one of those nobles who was on Rufus' payroll.

And so, rather than letting the matter drop, instead, Beck Abbey tells us that Mulan went full chivalric lord.

and tried to lay claim to the monastery.

This enraged Duke Robert, and he imprisoned the Count, seized Brian, and then gave it to a rival noble family.

And I'm guessing that probably felt really good in the moment.

But demonstrations of power only work if you can back them up.

And remember, this guy's dad was Roger de Beaumont.

And once Beaumont learned that his son had been imprisoned, he started using all that family influence and power to turn the screws on Duke Robert.

And, you know, this was Robert.

So it didn't take long before Mulan was released.

And the Duke agreed to sell him Brian.

And he even agreed to help the Beaumonts retake the castle by storm.

When it comes to shows of force and demonstrations of authority, I think you'd be hard pressed to fail harder than Duke Robert did here.

But at the same time, you can kind of see what was going on behind the scenes, right?

I mean, Mulan had been in England for quite some time.

And then all of a sudden, after getting cash and prizes from King Rufus, he crosses the channel, declares that Ivry should be his, tries to seize a bunch of properties that aren't his, creates a bunch of chaos, gets his ass imprisoned, and then waits for his father to show up like the hammer of God and force Robert to back down, thus destabilizing Normandy and making Robert look even weaker than before.

Things in Normandy were getting bad,

and with the threats to his rule growing, Robert decided to focus on issues north of the Seine.

Now these lands formed the heartland of Robert's ducal power.

So if he was going to weather the storm, if he was going to have a hope of preventing a civil war, he had to hold on to his ducal stronghold and crush any nearby turncoats in the region.

And while a lot of Norman politics hadn't been going Robert's way these days, the fact was he had arranged a peace deal with King Philip of France.

And that meant that his only threat in the north of the country these days was his own rotten brother, the King of England, and, you know, whatever greedy aristocrats had joined his cause and were now sowing division and unrest within Normandy.

So he was just going to deal with that, directly.

And it looks like Robert was well aware of what his brother was up to and who was supporting him.

I say that because if you remember, the first man who swore allegiance to Rufus was Stephen, who held a castle on the river O,

and then the Count of O joined the plot soon thereafter.

And Duke Robert, in his first act against this rebellion, besieged the stronghold at Eu.

The nearby town quickly surrendered to the Ducal forces, but unfortunately, we're not told whether the castle itself actually fell.

But whatever happened there, Duke Robert must have been satisfied with the outcome, because then he turned his attentions to the castle of La Ferte-Ambray.

And La Ferte-Ambré was governed by Gerard de Gournay, who just so happened to be the second Norman who swore his fealty to Rufus.

So he was practically going down the list here.

Or, you know, maybe Orderic built his list based on the order of Robert's attacks.

I don't know.

But either way, these attacks seem like a clear response to Rufus's aggression and the bribes that he was sending.

Now, in an exciting twist, when Duke Robert trekked to La Ferte Hombre,

he wasn't alone.

He was joined by the forces of none other than King Philip of France.

Because it turned out that as part of that peace deal, King Philip agreed to help Robert out.

And he wasn't the only one.

When When you look at the witness lists for his court during this period, you can see that most of his commanders were with him.

We see Odo, Count William of Evreux, William of Bretuis, Robert de Montfort, our old friend and legal thorn in Rufus' side, the Bishop of Durham.

And we even see Count Robert of Moulin, who was apparently reconciled with Robert now that he'd buckled to Beaumont's pressure.

All of them were there.

So Robert was taking this threat very seriously.

He was very clearly looking to crush this rebellion before it had a chance to take root.

And to do it, he'd even work with the shadiest members of Norman society to get it done.

And Robert wasn't just using military force to bring down the rebellion.

He was also using diplomacy.

Because during this same period, Duke Robert gave the hand of his daughter to Hellius of Sans-Sons, who was a nobleman who held the fortress of Sans.

Now, this might surprise you because Robert was unmarried, but he did have a daughter.

This daughter was by a concubine.

And the fact was, a marriage alliance was still a marriage alliance.

But just in case a daughter by a concubine wasn't enough, Robert decided to celebrate and cement this alliance by giving his new son-in-law several more castles and estates in the lands north of the Seine.

And this move created a bulwark of strongholds that were loyal to Robert.

And he needed it, because King Rufus' bribes and Duke Robert's missteps had resulted in a huge chunk of Normandy itching for change.

Robert's show of force against Eu and Gournay really could only do so much to blunt what Rufus was setting up, because Normandy was absolutely full of nobles who were growing weary of Duke Robert's rule, or at least saw the political advantage in backing a successful rebellion, which meant the crises kept coming.

And they were coming from unexpected directions.

For example, Ralph de Tozny had married Isabel, who came from the powerful Montfort family.

And apparently, Isabel was an absolute delight.

She was popular, fun, gregarious, and generous.

Now, granted, Orderic also takes the time to tell us that she was hot to go.

And, you know, maybe she was, but when it comes to Orderic, you really have to take his slut-shaming with an entire pantry of salt.

But whatever the case, it sounds like everyone loved Isabel.

Everyone, except for Helwissa, the wife of Ralph's half-brother, Count William of Evreux.

Now, Helwissa also came from a noble family, being the daughter of the Count of Nevers.

And, you know, I don't know what her upbringing was like, but she's basically described as the exact opposite of Isabel.

We're told she was shrewd, cruel, and just incredibly spiteful.

Like a real-life Nesta, if you know what I mean.

And as is often the case with cruel and surly people, she had a very thin skin.

And so when Isabel said something she didn't like, I assume at some family event, Helwissa absolutely flipped out.

The feud was on, and according to Orderic, these ladies were the true power in their homes.

So when Helwissa started feuding, soldiers were summoned, and this quickly turned into a proper war.

But Helwissa was making a classic mistake of bullies.

She was confusing affability with weakness.

But being kind and pleasant to be around isn't a sign of weakness.

And Isabel wasn't just a pretty face.

Orderick tells us that when the war took to the field, Isabel donned armor and led the troops in battle herself.

And she was good at it.

We're told that whenever these forces met, Isabel and her army were kicking the hell out of Helwissa and Tozny's forces.

And this got so bad that Helwissa's husband, Ralph de Tozny, sought out Duke Robert's help.

But Robert was, you know, pretty busy these days with his own problems.

Also, Ralph had been one of those nobles who had ejected his ducal garrisons.

So Tosny probably wasn't high on the list of folks that Robert was willing to drop everything for and go rescue.

So, rebuffed, Ralph turned to his next option, King William Rufus.

And this is going to shock you, but it turns out that Rufus was only too happy to militarily intervene in Normandy, and he quickly sent troops over the channel.

If his brother wasn't going to protect his vassals in Normandy, then King Rufus of England would.

But then again, if Robert wasn't protecting his vassals, and Rufus was,

then really, aren't they his vassals when you think about it?

Well, King Rufus thought so.

All of these bribes and all of the alliances, and now all of the troop transfers were starting to have an effect.

Rufus was gaining a foothold in northeastern Normandy, which meant that Duke Robert's grip on Upper Normandy, the heartland of his power, was weakening.

But the job wasn't done yet.

That marriage alliance with Hellias had created a problem for Rufus.

I mean, that kid controlled a lot of territory now.

And it turned out, he was remarkably loyal to his new father-in-law.

Try as he might, the Red King couldn't drive a wedge between them.

But Robert's alliance with King Philip of France was another matter entirely.

The king of France was in his late 30s, and these days, his interests were drifting away from the battlefield and drifting towards the dinner table.

And according to Malmsbury, King Rufus exploited that.

He sent the French king an enormous bribe, and he encouraged him to use those funds to host extravagant banquets, ideally far from Normandy.

Philip thought this was a great idea, and he immediately abandoned his erstwhile ally in favor of, I assume, Duck Laurent.

It was a remarkable show of disloyalty, but if we're being fair here, loyalty wasn't really King Philip's thing.

In a matter of months, he's got to create an international scandal when he abandons his wife, Bertha of Holland, and runs off with the young and apparently smoking hot Countess of Anjou.

Because France has always been France.

But the point is, while Rufus was burning through cash, it was clearly having an effect.

Robert was losing his allies, Upper Normandy was divided, and the eastern portion was increasingly coming under the control of nobles who were siding with Rufus.

And meanwhile, Western Normandy was a chaotic mess and largely under the control of not Robert, but Henry.

And so, to his horror, Duke Robert was coming to realize that Rufus had managed to destabilize Normandy without even setting one foot outside of England.

And then, in early 1090, Robert realized how deep Rufus' intelligence operation went.

When the people of Rouen, his capital city, suddenly rebelled en masse.

It turned out Rufus was bribing far more than just the nobility.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, you can reach me at thebritishhistorypodcast at gmail.com.

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Thanks for listening.

My name

is Agas.