Storyline | The British History Podcast · Jamie Jeffers

Mynydd Carn

·34 min·2 clips

Orderic Vitalis's Book Six opens with a complaint about critics who "snarl at their works and tear them in pieces."

1. Storyline | The British History Podcast episode 442, "Mynydd Carn," moves from Orderic Vitalis's Book Six to the politics of Northumbria and Wales in 1080-1081. 2. Jamie is the host, and he repeatedly cites Orderic Vitalis, the Chronicle of the Princes, and Domesday Book because those sources shape the episode's account of contested medieval events. 3. The core argument is that chronicles were criticized in their own time, and that source bias matters even when an account is still useful. 4. Orderic's preface complains about "scurrilous critics" and people who "snarl at their works," while Jamie compares that reaction to modern complaints that historians should "just tell us the history." 5. The episode also argues that silence in the record is not proof of consensus, because monasteries, chroniclers, and critics could have argued extensively without writing it down. 6. In 1080, Duke Robert marched through burned Northumbria, King Malcolm III of Scotland dispersed his people, and the result was a settlement at Falkirk that repeated the earlier peace of Abernethy. 7. Robert then built a new castle on the Tyne, creating Newcastle upon Tyne, and installed Aubrey de Cusse-le-Chateau-afrique as Earl of Northumbria. 8. Griffith ap Cunin returned from six years in Ireland, met Rhys at St. David's, and led a mixed army of Irish, Danes, and Welshmen north toward Minyth Cairn. 9. The night attack at Minyth Cairn killed King Caradog of Gwent, King Trehearne of Gwynedd, and King Melir of Powys, after which William reached St. David's, accepted a tribute of 40 quid, and saw Cardiff fortified. 10. Listeners interested in medieval Wales, chroniclers, and Norman England.

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