For our November talk we welcome back guest speaker David Harvey who will be talking to us about the Bretwaldas of Anglo-Saxon England and focusing on local kings and battles.
David did this talk earlier in the summer for the Battlefields Trust and by all accounts, it was very well received.
Our limited information of a history of a ‘dark age’ established a reasonable narrative of post Roman rule of Britannia. A few Germanic elite Saxons, Angles and Jutes settled and dominated the Britons. In this talk the overlord Bretwalda’s of the period are examined in their alliances and warfare, with particular focus on Raedwald and Edwin. The second part of this talk examines new significant information to the settlement debate – were they a minority elite or whole Germanic tribes?
There’s a saying ‘never let facts get in the way of a good story’ however David believes truth holds a more revealing narrative than merely an exciting story. Radical scientific advances are enabling accepted theories of past times and their recorded histories to be reassessed. It seems likely wholescale revisions of history are consequential to new analysis of physical traces of the past.
David graduated from the School of Archaeology and Ancient History at Leicester University in 2012, he uses his familiarity with modern archaeological techniques to provide fresh insights into battlefields as turning points in history.
He became an accredited guide, with the International Guild of Battlefield Guides in 2013 and is also a director on their board.
