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When England Had Three Kings in Seven Years · Ebbs of History

• Jason: Welcome to the Ebbs of History, the show where we dive into the strangest, wildest, and sometimes downright creepiest stories the past has to offer. From dancing plagues to pirate queens, you'll laugh, you'll gasp, you'll even groan at my impeccable dad jokes. But, most importantly, we'll learn how history is way cooler than your textbook ever told you. We're history loving hosts, Zoe Gavin. And me, Jason. And in every episode the three of us will take a quick trip through time and see what lessons we can still learn today. This is the Ebbs of History. She can't hear Hey there, history lovers. Welcome back to another episode of Ebbs of History. We're so glad you're here with us today. Zoe, Gavin, how was everyone's week? It was pretty good, pretty good. We're getting back into routine. And I can tell because I have a bunch of tests this week, so Yeah, right. That's usually the first sign that you're back into full swing of school. Yes. Yeah. I still have yet to have a like a real test. but yeah, I'm doing good. yesterday my friend invited me to go fishing with him and I've never gone. So I went fishing. You went fishing in the ocean, the Pacific Ocean. Yeah. I've never been. Really? No. I've been fishing in lots of lakes. Yeah. But never in the ocean. Really fun time. I caught a fish, but it was like a really good fish. Yeah. So it was a pretty fish. It was very pretty. Yeah. It it had like yellow fins and kinda like a blue like on like belly. Uh-huh. And red eyes. Did you keep it? No, we threw it back. I think it was illegal if we did keep it. So yeah. There's a lot of fish that you can't catch. Or like can't keep. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Alright, well welcome to episode two of our Norman Conquest series. if episode one was about one guy with one great idea, episode two is about four guys with terrible ideas, all happening at once, and one of the most horrifying political crimes in medieval English history is going to take place. A crime so bad that fifty years later, William the Conqueror is still going to be using it as a reason to invade. Last episode we left off in November of ten thirty five. Canute the Great, the Viking teenager who conquered England, married the widow of the king he overthrew, ruled a Norse Empire, and made his court watch him get his shoes wet on a beach to prove that he was not a god. Well, He can't come to the phone right now. Why? Because he's dead. Because he's dead. Wait, seriously? That was just my Swifty, like like control, like just taking over. Like I woke up like a sleeper agent. Like I put that in there for you specifically. He had been king of England for nineteen years, and now everything is about to fall apart. So buckle up. This one gets dark and weird and very petty. Okay, so Canute dies. Remember the deal that Emma made with Canute back in ten seventeen? Yeah. Any son that she and Canute had together get England ahead of anybody else. Well, the drone is supposed to go to Canute and Emma's son, Hartha Canute, because of the deal. It's ironclad in writing, it's a done deal. There's one tiny problem. Heartha Canute, who is now eighteen, is not in England. He's in Denmark. Where he's been ruling as Canute's regent for years and he is busy. There's a war with Norway, and if he leaves Denmark to come claim England, he's going to lose Denmark. So Hearth Canute is stuck. Meanwhile, Canute had another son. Remember the Viking concubine that Canute had a few kids with that were supposed to be passed up due to the deal? Well, that concubine's name was Elf Gfu of Northampton. Now Elf Gfu a as an aside means God's gift. ElfGafu had two sons with Canute, and she is living in England with the surviving one whose name is Harold. He is Knut's eldest son. And Harold has a nickname that we're gonna call him throughout this entire series. You ready for this one? Yeah. His nickname is Harefoot because allegedly he was really fast, like a hare or a rabbit. He had bunny feet. That is the only nickname this guy gets in history and it's fast like a bunny. I think like what my mind instantly went to was just a hairy foot. Me too. Like Well, you think about hairs, they're the same thing as rabbits. It makes sense. And it's not that bad of a nickname, really. Yeah. You're y you're being called fast your entire life. Like that's pretty cool. Some chronicles also claim he was not actually Canute's son at all. They say his mom, Elfkafu, could not have children. So she faked a pregnancy and stole a baby. From a cobbler, like a shoemaker. So according to the Chronicles, the rightful heir through primogeniture to the throne of England is secretly the son of a cobbler whose nickname is Bunnyfeet. Now to be clear, historians think the cobbler story was almost certainly made up by Emma's people to discredit Bunnyfeet. Tangent time. You guys heard me say the word primogeniture. Yes. Do you have any idea what I know what it is, it's one of my key IDs. Is really it's one of my key IDs, yeah. In American history. Yeah. Wow, okay, go for it. Well, because it's in American history because it happened in Europe. So it brought all of the second, third, fourth, fifth g youngest sons over to America, specifically the South, with all of the open land and that really started like and then they started farms and they started getting money. So Zoe, what is primogeniture? You went off on a tangent and didn't answer the question. basically p primogeniture is basically like in writing that the oldest son has priority to the throne. Basically. And basically. And gets everything. And the youngest in the second, third, young, fourth, youngest get nothing. You're right. Primogeniture is the legal right of the firstborn child to inherit all or most of the parents' estate, including thrones. Now There are three different types of primogeniture. There's boring old primogeniture where no matter your gender, if you're the oldest, you get everything. So Zoe, you get everything. Yes! Then there is agnatic primogeniture. This is male only. boy. No matter if a female was born first in the family, if there is no male heir, it goes to the next male in line. Whether it be a nephew of the king or a distant long lost cousin. No women allowed at all. As long as it's male, we good. Gavin, you now inherit everything everything that I own. Why not wait? You're not getting much. Would it be you and mom or just you? Because you are a male. Just me. Okay. Mom is just my Queen? Queen. Okay. She has no rights to the land that I own. Gotcha, gotcha. Now, the third one is called cognatic primogeniture. This one is male preferred. Meaning that even if the female is the oldest. A male son of the king will inherit the throne. That's like the most used, right? Huh? It's like the most used, right? Right. Well here, let me get into it. But if there is no male heir and there is a female in the immediate family, the female can inherit. They won't go outside the immediate family. And that's why queens like Elizabeth the First and Second became queen, because there were no other male heirs in the immediate family, so they became the queen. That's how they were able to do that. So that was all changed by Henry the Eighth. Mm-hmm. So it was you know, back then that that this became a thing in English aristocracy. we hear complaining about having no sons, but his daughters are great queens. Like, right? Yeah. Yeah. Now, this is all different today in England. They changed it recently. how recently do you think they changed this? I think I have the year. Is it two thousand thirteen? Ooh, you're so close. Or is it eleven? It's two thousand fifteen. my gosh. Even I knew it was in the two thousand tens because of a daughter that was born. They're like, Let's just change it. It's it was Charlotte before Charlotte was born. so George was the first child of Prince William. Mm-hmm. And right before Charlotte was born, they knew that she was gonna be a girl. They changed these laws so that basically it stays in that immediate family. So if George were to die, it goes to Charlotte. It doesn't go to anybody else. Mm-hmm. So interesting, right? In two thousand fifteen. That's really soon. Yeah, and we're talking about stuff that happened in in, you know, a thousand years ago. Yeah. Anyway, back to the story. In this case, Canute's firstborn is Harold Harefoot. So Harefoot, through primogeniture, is the rightful heir to the English throne. So we have a problem. Harthurknute is the legal heir through the deal that Emma struck, but he's stuck in Denmark. Harefoot's right there in England, with his powerful mother, Elfkafu, lobbying every nobleman in the country. And Emma is sitting in Winchester, guarding the royal treasury. She literally locked herself in the room with all the money trying to hold the country for Hearthakinute until he could get there. Hmm. I can see how this stems to all the William stuff. Uh-huh. This is yeah, exactly. This is what starts everything that ends with William the Conqueror. The English nobles meet at Oxford and they basically punt. They say Okay, Harefoot, you can be region, like the temporary guy in charge. For the north of England, Emma, you can hold the south for Hearthakinute. We'll just wait and see what happens. It is the worst possible compromise. because England has two kings now. Sort of. Kind of. Neither of them are official. By ten thirty-seven, there's been two years of this. And Hearthaknut still has not shown up. He is still fighting in Denmark, and Harefoot uses the time to consolidate his power, win over Earl Godwin of Wessex. and finally just declares himself the actual king, the full king of all of England. Emma is forced to flee to Bruges, which is in modern day Belgium, with whatever she can carry from the Treasury. The Danish North Sea Empire that Canute built, falling apart in less than two years. And now we get to the part of the story that is genuinely awful, and I'm gonna tell you about it because it because it is the event. Twenty-nine years from now, William the Conqueror is going to point to it and say that. That is why I am the King of England. So it's ten thirty six. Emma's sons, by her first husband, do you remember their names? This was on last week's Fun Fact Challenge, correct? Hold on, I have my notes pulled up. Let me find them. Edward and Alfred nicknames Eddie and Alfie. That's right. Eddie and Alfie, the one she basically abandoned in Normandy when she made her deal with Canute. They've been living in exile across the channel for over twenty years now. They've grown up. They're men in their thirties, and they hear that Canute is dead and their mom is in trouble. And England is falling apart, and they think, well, this is our chance. Eddie, the older one, tries first. He sails to England with a small force, fights a battle near Southampton, decides, Yeah, this isn't gonna work, takes some plunder, and he goes home. Elfie, the younger one, is not so cautious. Elfie sails from Normandy to the south coast of England with the bodyguard of Norman knights. Sources say the number was in the hundreds. His plan is to march to Winchester and reunite with his mother Emma. And on his way, he is met by Earl Godwin, the most powerful nobleman in England, who comes to him with a giant smile and says, Prince Elfie, welcome home. The drone's waiting for you. Come, stay at my estate in Guildford. Tomorrow we'll ride to London together. Elfie trusts him They go to Guildford, between London and Winchester, and they have a feast. The Norman bodyguards are split up across multiple buildings to sleep, which is normal medieval hospitality, 'cause you know, you can't fit hundreds of guys under one roof. Zeus's law. There you go. Everybody goes to bed and in the middle of the night, Earl Godwin's men attack. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle says, and I'm very loosely paraphrasing here, that some of Elfie's men were killed outright. Some were sold into slavery, some were scalped and tortured, their hands and feet amputated, some were decimated, which, side note, in the Roman military parlance means one in ten killed. And then the surviving nine tenths were decimated again. According to one chronicle, six hundred Norman bodyguards were executed at Guildford that night. Here's the wildest part. In the nineteen twenties, archaeologists were digging on Guilddown Hill near Guildford and they found a mass grave. Hundreds of skeletons, bound, executed, dated to around ten forty. Historians are pretty confident those are Alfie's Norman bodyguards. The bodies are still there to this day. I wonder if any of those are actually him. Alfie? Did Alfie die during this? Hold that thought. You can go to Guilford today and stand on top of one of the most horrifying political crimes in English history. Elfie himself, they take him alive. They tie him to a horse. They bring him by boat to the Isle of Ely. And as the boat reaches the shore, Elfie's eyes are put out with a hot poker. Just burn right out of his head. The blinding was supposed to make him unfit to rule, because a medieval king could not be physically maimed, but the wounds are too severe. Elfie is taken to the monastery at Ely, where the monks try to nurse him back to health. He dies just a few days later, probably around february fifth, ten thirty six. This is the moment that years later William the Conqueror is going to keep pointing at. Because Elfie was half Norman. Elfie was the Duke of Normandy's nephew. The Normans never forgot, and they never forgave. Earl Godwin's name is now in their family histories as the man who lured an innocent Norman prince to his death and let his bodyguards be slaughtered like cattle. Now you may you two may not understand this next reference, but But some historians have actually called the Gilfer Massacre a kind of medieval red wedding, hundreds of years before Game of Thrones. There's a big scene in Game of Thrones called the Red Wedding. Can I guess what happened? Go ahead. They all get killed and that's why it's called red, 'cause red's the color of blood. They all get invited to a wedding and they're all in there and they kill everybody. The person that invited them in kills everybody. The reason it is so shocking, even by medieval standards, is not the violence. Medieval people were pretty used to violence. It's that Earl Godwin violated the laws of hospitality. You do not invite a guy to dinner and then murder him. That was the one rule, and Earl Godwin broke it. Does that sound familiar to you guys? Zeus's love. So it sounds like the Odyssey. I can't remember which story though. Not the Odyssey. It was something we we did an episode. About it is it the Pirate Queen? It is the Pirate Queen, that's right. Hospitality is a big thing throughout history apparently. Yeah. It keeps popping up, you know, where people get even in the Odyssey. Yeah. Right? Like you just brought that up, but it's true. Yeah. Hospitality is a huge thing throughout history. And y like the Odyssey in religion, you know? Like Zeus's law. That's right. Yeah, it's Zeus's law, exactly. Alright, the story gets less sad from here, but it does get weirder. Harefoot, the king who almost certainly ordered Alfie's death, rules for about three more years. Then on March seventeenth of ten forty, he just dies. He's maybe twenty four years old, and nobody knows why. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle just says he died at Oxford, which is the medieval version of no comment. They bury him with full honors at Westminster Abbey. And Harthaknut finally finally comes to claim England. He sails in with sixty two warships. Just in case anybody wants to argue about it, nobody does. He is crowned king in June of ten forty. Is sixty two an important number? you're like sixty-two wait say that I guess sixty two ships. No then you paused it. You're like sixty-two ships. I'm conveying information without conveying information. Is that actually important? Yeah. Of course it is. Alright. On the sixty first ship. Now the last episode I asked you, what do you think? Canute did when he first became the king of England. And you guys had a bunch of different answers. Go ahead. Changed all the laws and like made it his kingdom. That's what you would think that he would do, but he didn't. He did the opposite. He became part of the country. yeah. He assimilated into Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah. I remember that. So now here's the question. What's the first thing you think? I almost wanna say the exact opposite of what his dad did to almost because isn't Canute like this big like he's very popular with the people and He was. He Hartha Canute is probably like, I don't wanna live in his shadow. I wanna be different than my dad. So he's probably gonna do the exact opposite. not even like if he thinks it's like quote unquote like moral or not. He just probably wants to just show that like I'm not him, like I'm somebody else. Okay. I feel Like it could really go either way. It's either what Zoe said or exactly the same as Canute. Okay. Well He goes all vengeance hobo. The first thing he does as the king of England, literally the first thing, and I am not kidding, is he has his dead half brother, Harefoot, dug up from Westminster Abbey. Is this gonna be another like dead person on trial kind of thing? Like Like, he goes into Westminster Abbey, he has Harefoot's body exhumed from his royal tomb, and no, there is no trial. He just has the corpse beheaded. For fun. For fun. Just cause he can. According to some sources, he also had it dragged through a sewer, but then had it thrown into a fen, which is like a swampy marsh next to the River Thames. Just tossed in the swamp like medieval garbage. Did this did Car the Canoe even know Harefoot? Like did they have a leaf? I'm sure they didn't know each other. Not enough to form an opinion on someone that wants to have you dig up their grave and run their head through the space. Even if we're like your worst enemy. When you were in Denmark the entire time for two years and your half brother was like, you know what, you're taking too long, I'm taking the king. Yeah. I'm taking it the route. I would have done too. I mean, Loki, like that's fair. Like, if you're taking years to get there Yeah. I'm taking it until I die or you come back. A few days later, a fisherman finds the body floating in the marsh. He fishes it out, he gives it to some Danish merchants in London who feel bad for it and bury it quietly in their Danish cemetery near a church that today is called Saint Clement Danes. So somewhere under modern London there's a beheaded king buried in a churchyard, and most people walking past have no idea. The pettiness here is legendary. Like, Hartha Canute has been king for days. And his first executive decision was to go dig up his brother and throw him in a swamp. Now, Hartha Knut is going to be king for two years. And in that two years, he's going to manage to make himself one of the most hated kings in all of English history. So that kind of goes with the exact opposite of what his dad did. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And here's how. He needs money. Now remember, he has a massive fleet of sixty-two warships, and warships are expensive. So what do you do when you need money? What what do you think kings do when they need money? Sell things. Okay. I help people. How does killing people make me money? Sell their body parts. Okay. Like, I don't know. On the black market. You raise you know. You raise taxes, guys. That's what all kings do. They raise taxes. He doubles them. Should've gotten that. He doubles the taxes. Yeah. Jeez. He sends tax collectors out into every English town. Twice the taxes, twice the trouble. In May of ten forty one, two of his tax collectors show up in the town of Worcester. The people of Worcester are done. They corner the tax collectors in a church tower and kill them both. Harthicnut, being the real chill guy that he is, responds to this by sending his entire army to burn Worcester to the ground. But here's the medieval ninja move that the people of Worcesters pull off. When they hear the king's army is coming, they evacuate the entire city. They take everything that they can carry, and they all flee to a small island in the middle of the River Severn called Bevier Island. they fortify it, and for four days the entire population of Worcester holds off the king's army from this little island while Hearthakinute's soldiers burn their empty city. The army eventually leaves, the Worcester people walk back, rebuild their town, and presumably never pay another tax in their entire lives. It's a total win. That's one way to do it. Meanwhile. Harthaknut is realizing he might not have any errors. He's twenty three years old, unmarried, and apparently in poor health. So in ten forty one he does the smartest thing he has ever done. He sends an invitation across the channel to his other half brother, another one of Emma's sons, Eddie. Guys remember Eddie? Mm hmm. From Eddie and Alfie? The one who fled back to Normandy while his brother Alfie went to England and had his eyes pokered out. Arthur Canute says, Hey, come to England, be my heir. We are technically half brothers, our mom's the same. We should be on the same team. Did Emma die? Not yet. Really? Okay. Eddie, who is now in his mid thirties, who has been living in exile in Normandy for almost his entire life, says, Sure. He sails to England. He is welcomed at court. He is named heir to the throne. Quick question for you two. Just opinion. After your brother went to England and was greeted like he was you know, coming back and conquering the land, and then he gets his eyes poked out, mm-hmm and then you're given this weird opportunity for basically the same thing, like, Hey, come over here, we'll you know, we'll treat you as king, you'll be my heir Would you trust anything? No. No. No. If I knew about that, you know, 'cause maybe you wouldn't Okay. No, it was it was common knowledge. Okay. Yeah, no, I would not trust the Yeah, no. I'm good, thank you. Well, this one turned out okay. He didn't he didn't get killed. And then on June eighth, ten forty two, about a year later, Heartha Knut goes to a wedding. It's the wedding of one of Canute's old companions. A Danish guy with a great name, Tovey the Proud. Who is marrying a noblewoman? There's a giant party. Arthur Canute's standing up. He's making a toast. He has a goblet of wine in his hand. He's literally mid sentence and he just falls over dead. On the floor of the wedding hall. my god. Was that like a attack? Or was it just medical? That's crazy. He's twenty three or twenty-four years old at this time. Some sources say it was from a stroke from heavy drinking. Some say it's poison, but modern historians think it might have been a congenital heart condition. Now, there's a theory that all of Knut's sons all had this had some kind of inherited weakness, because all of died young. But, however it happened, the King of England just dropped mid toast at a Danish guy's wedding. The Norse Empire ends in a puddle of spilled wine on a floor. Historiography. The story of Elfie's murder is uniquely well documented for an event from the ten thirties. Because three separate sources cover it. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle, the Chronicler John of Worcester, and the Encomium MI Regene. Do you guys remember what that was? Nope. Sounds Latin. It's the propaganda biography that Emma commissioned about herself a few years after all this happened. The sources agree for the most part, But where they disagree is who is actually responsible. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle blames Earl Godwin directly. The encomium blames Harefoot. John of Worcester says both, plus a long list of accomplices. The Harefoot was the son of a cobbler story almost certainly came from Emma's people which ha it had every reason to discredit Harefoot because she wanted her son to be the king, obviously. The the son that she had with Canute. Yeah, that makes sense. The Harefoot nickname itself, ironically, only shows up in records after Harefoot's death. So we're not sure that he was actually called that during his lifetime, which kinda sucks. I think it's a good deal. Yeah. The exclamation of Harefoot's corpse is in multiple sources, and historians generally accept it as real. Though the drag through the sewer detail comes from a later chronicler and maybe an embellishment. Hearthkinute's death at the wedding toast is reported almost identically in multiple sources. So it almost certainly happened. That's crazy how well documented this era was. That's a lot of Primary sources. Well, I said this last episode too. Like this is it. This is all there is. Yeah. It just feels like 'cause you're listing all these so it feels like a lot, but then on the other episodes you're only listing like two or three because it's just like assumed that there's so much more. Because there is. Because there is so much more. It just seems like wow. But it's also like everything is crossed. Everything it happened in multiple things, so we know it's true. That's the thing that's like it's true. It's not just like a bunch of propaganda, like Like Emma's book. Right. And the Worcester tax revolt and the people fleeing to the island is recorded in the chronicle and cooperated by other sources. So the medieval ninja move is totally real. Lessons we've learned today. The big lesson of this episode is one about power vacuums, and it's going to apply to every episode left in this series, so file that away. When a strong leader dies without a clear, undisputed successor, everyone with even a thin claim to power, is going to try and take it. And that's the crux of this entire saga. It's power vacuums and multiple people claiming the throne of England. I also thought a little bit when Alfie first came and then Earl Goodwin was like, Hey King it almost felt like almost like greed 'cause it's like I don't know, like I got like I got like greed undertones and what you're saying is kind of like it's just a power vacuum and everyone wants this and then you and you're like you're so greedy for h power and it's like it ties into that as well. I just wanted to say that 'cause Now the Godwins are going to play a large part in the rest of these stories. Huge part. They seem like a drama full family. Do they have Does Earl Godwin have relatives that are prominent in this story later? yes. It's William the Conqueror Almost. We'll get to it. Time for the Fun Fact Challenge! Last episode we left off of a score of two to one overall. I won so now the series is one to zero me and the game was two to one. yeah. Alright. You know the rules. Best of three. Lock in at any time. I'll continue reading the question if you're wrong. Sixty-two boats. Question one. What occupation do some of the chronicles claim Harefoot's actual dad have? Walked in. Zoe. Wasn't he like a like a clothing maker or like a blacksmith? No, no, I got it. I got it. Isn't correct. He was a cobbler. He was a cobbler. Darn. Ooh, we stole that one from you. Question two. In what city did Emma lock herself in the room with all of England's riches gathered. Winchester? Winchester. Yes. And question three. Mo's gonna love this. How many warships does Heart the Canoe? But 62! 62! my god, I got a point! Hey, you know what? That point counts, right? my god. Because you were like 62 I've done that in past episodes where I will emphasize the answer to one of the questions at the end. I was like it's gonna never ever picked up on it. Look it's either gonna play a big part later or it's going to be part of the fun fact challenge. It's going to be either one and I'm gonna assume it's fun fact challenge. All right, Gavin, so let's do a an end around recap on that. What are where are we at now with the war and the battles? Okay, so I'm winning the series two to zero, so if I win one more I'm at least tying. I won two to one and overall the overall score is four to two. Ooh. Got some catching up to do. You got some ego to bring down. Okay, Missy. Pot meat kettle. This day in History! ⁓ Today is September seventeenth. And on this day in seventeen eighty seven, the US Constitution was signed. Delegates to the Constitutional Convention for the Constitutional Convention signed the final draft of the United States Constitution in Philadelphia. The document created a stronger federal government, divided power among how many branches? Three. Three branches. And became the foundation of American law. Not everyone supported it immediately, but after fierce debate and ratification, it became one of the most influential political documents in world history. I never really hear much about Philadelphia history. Like so much happened there for American history and I feel like it's kind of just overshadowed. Like I'm it's not. You know what, maybe in your life it has been just a little bit because of Hamilton. Because that all takes place in New York. Yeah. But You're gonna learn a lot more about Philadelphia this year in US history. That's true. You haven't really had US history until now. That's true, but I kinda have in fifth grade, but we didn't really do history back then. No, you didn't. Not really. A little bit. You did the walk through the revolution. Yeah. Yeah. See, that was kinda weird. Like we barely did any social studies or science. It was all just like Yeah. Well you need your biggest It's a travesty in all elementary schools. That's they don't teach and social sciences are not taught as much as the rather stuff. Also on this day in 1849, Harriet Tubman made her first attempt to escape slavery in Maryland, although that attempt did not immediately lead to freedom. Tubman soon escaped successfully and became one of the most courageous conductors on the Underground Railroad. She returned again and again to help others flee, risking her life to guide enslaved people towards freedom. See, we read a book on that back in seventh grade, not too long ago. Back in maybe Yeah, probably that was not even a year ago. Anyways, but yeah, it was like just like she yeah, she was just a really good person. Absolutely. Yeah. She's supposed to be on the twenty dollar bill, but we'll leave that. Another story for a different day. And finally, in eighteen sixty-two, during the Civil War, the Battle of Antietam was fought. Union and Confederate armies clashed near Sharpsburg, Maryland It remains the bloodiest single day in American military history, with roughly twenty six thousand soldiers dead, wounded, or missing by nightfall. Wow. The Union's strategic success gave Abraham Lincoln the opportunity to announce the Emancipation Proclamation soon thereafter. So let's put that into context. Twenty six thousand soldiers were dead, wounded, or missing by nightfall. In one day. Twenty six thousand. How what was the What was the like how how much people were in that battle? Like bat fought in that battle. But what I was going to say in the Battle of Hastings only nine thousand were there altogether. Really. This twenty six thousand were dead, wounded, or missing. Yeah, that's In one day. That is nuts. I have it. Approximately eighty seven thousand Union soldiers and thirty eight thousand Confederate soldiers fought in the Battle of Antietam, totaling around one hundred twenty five thousand engaged troops. So that's like twenty percent of people in one day. That's nuts. You know, and that's back when the population of America was not as big as big as it is today. So that's a large chunk of young men missing from the country in one single day of fighting. Yeah. A lot of American history today. Yeah. All right. Eddie or Edward the Confessor, as he's going to be known Oooooh ding ding ding something just sparked. I don't know what you were talking about. I like how you knew exactly what he was talking about. Emma's son by Ethelred the Unready, the guy whose brother was murdered by Earl Godwin six years ago, the guy who's been living in Normandy since he was a child, speaking French and going to Norman church and being raised by Norman knights. This guy is suddenly the King of England. He's gonna rule for about twenty-four years. He's going to be complicated, weird, deeply religious king, who is in some ways more Norman than English. He's going to fill his court with his Norman friends, which is going to make the English nobles furious. And at some point, Historians are still arguing about exactly when. A guy who is technically his cousin. A guy named William the Conqueror. Well, at the time he was named William the Bastard. We'll get into that. That promise that he makes to William is gonna start the war that will change history forever. Forever. That's it for this episode. Thanks for travelling through time with us on the Ebbs of History. If you like today's story, share it with a teacher, a friend, or your family on Instagram at Ebbs of History. If you have any show ideas, corrections, or questions, you can contact us at questions at ebbs of history dot com or just text me directly like everybody else does. Signing off, this has been your co-host, Gavin Zoe, and me, Jason, reminding you that history isn't just about dates and battles. It's about people, curiosity, and the weird, wonderful choices that shaped our world. Until next time. Keep wondering. Keep laughing. And keep learning through the ebbs of history.