8. The Birth of Scotland & Wales

Send me a messageAs you will have discovered from previous episodes, once there wasn't a country called England. Nor were there countries called Wales or Scotland either.Just like England, the countries  were divided into a series of squabbling kingdoms.This is the story of how they finally unified into the countries we know today.Join my Supporter's ClubOur story ends in 1063 when all three, Scotland, Wales and England are, after hundreds of years, finally unified into their respective nations.Three years later, the Normans will conquer England and Britain will never be the same again.So join me as I explore the intriguing story of Wales in this period - it's the story od Rodri Mawr (the Great), Hywel Da (whose law codes survived the English invasions) and Gruffudd ap Llewelyn (the only man the English ever recognised as King of all of Wales.)Then we will travel north to see how the Picts, the Brythonic kingdom of Strathclyde and the Irish Celts of Dal Riata start to be brought together by Kenneth Mac Alpin.We finish as one of Kenneth's descendants, Duncan, is overthrown by MacBeth (yes, THAT MacBeth!) before, in turn, being killed by Duncan's son, Malcolm Canmore.Support the show