The EssayAnglo-Saxon PortraitsEpisodes Episode guide

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1. The Makers of the Bayeux Tapestry

   30/30Gale Owen-Crocker explores the making of the Bayeux Tapestry.
2. Harold Godwinson

   29/30Clive Anderson discusses the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, Harold Godwinson.
3. Edward the Confessor

   28/30Stephen Baxter creates a portrait of the remarkable Anglo-Saxon king Edward the Confessor.
4. Aethelred the Unready

   27/30Simon Keynes discusses the life of the Anglo-Saxon monarch Aethelred.
5. Episode 26

   26/30Historian Pauline Stafford assesses the life of Queen Emma of Normandy.
6. Cnut the Great

   25/30Dr Timothy Bolton presents a portrait of Cnut, son of Sven Forkbeard, the king of Denmark.
7. Athelstan

   24/30A claim for King Athelstan to be reinstated as a more significant historical figure.
8. The Smith - Gold and Black

   23/30Lesley Webster on the life of the smith and his ambivalent status in Anglo-Saxon society.
9. Wynflaed

   22/30Michael Wood on Wynflaed, seen as the first woman in British history to have left a will.
10. Leoba

    21/30Barbara Yorke on Leoba, the 8th-century nun who became a pioneering abbess in Germany.
11. Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians

    20/30Martin Carver discusses Aethelflaed, lady of the Mercians and King Alfred's daughter.
12. Alfred the Great

    19/30Michael Wood discusses Alfred the Great, King of Wessex and king of the Anglo-Saxons.
13. Law-Makers

    18/30Geoffrey Robertson assesses the ideas, influence and legacy of Anglo-Saxon lawmakers.
14. Wilfred, the Bishop

    17/30Clare Stancliffe discusses Wilfred, the bishop who introduced music into the liturgy.
15. Alcuin, the Scholar

    16/30Mary Garrison discusses the scholar Alcuin, regarded as 'the most learned man anywhere'.
16. Offa, King of the Mercians

    15/30Professor Thomas Charles-Edwards discusses Offa, who was King of Mercia from 757 to 796 AD
17. The Court of King Alfred

    14/30Jinty Nelson explains how the court of King Alfred was run and how he rewarded his thegns.
18. Caedmon, the Oldest Surviving English Poet

    13/30Writer David Almond discusses Caedmon, the earliest English poet whose name is known.
19. Bede, the Father of English History

    12/30Scholar of the Anglo-Saxons Lilian Groves explores the life and times of St Bede.
20. The Beowulf Bard

    11/30Nobel Prize-winner the late Seamus Heaney's portrait of the great Anglo-Saxon Beowulf bard
21. Eadfrith the Scribe

    10/30Richard Gameson explores the everyday working lives and vital contribution of scribes.
22. Cuthbert

    9/30Historian Tony Morris explores the life of Cuthbert, the popular saint of the Northeast.
23. Hild of Whitby

    8/30The story of Hild of Whitby, an abbess who held great power in the seventh century.
24. Penda

    7/30Historian Michael Wood celebrates Penda, the much-maligned last pagan king of England.
25. King Edwin

    6/30Discussing King Edwin, the ruler of Northumbria famous for his conversion to Christianity.
26. King Raedwald

    5/30Martin Carver discusses the inhabitant of the Sutton Hoo ship burial.
27. Three Alpha Females

    4/30Martin Carver recreates the lives of three powerful pagan women.
28. St Augustine

    3/30Rowan Williams focuses on St Augustine, the first-ever Archbishop of Canterbury.
29. The Peasant Farmer

    2/30Portrait of the peasant farmers who have shaped the English landscape as we know it today.
30. Vortigern

    1/30Discussion on Vortigern, the king often blamed for inviting the first Anglo-Saxon invaders