The Lost English Colony of the Dark Ages

After the Norman Conquest, many Anglo-Saxon nobles, clergy, and warriors refused to submit and instead chose exile, fleeing not just to Scotland and Scandinavia, but all the way to Constantinople and the Eastern Roman Empire. The episode explores the remarkable tradition of around 10,000 English exiles traveling by ship, receiving lands from the emperor, and helping form English communities far from home, even in places remembered as a kind of early “New England” on the Black Sea. Steve Guerra and Patrick Young also trace how these exiles entered imperial service through the Varangian Guard, showing that the fall of Anglo-Saxon Engl...