HORRIBLE HISTORIES - Anglo Saxon Ordeals

GREAT NEWS! A brand new series of Horrible Histories starts on CBBC on 31st May 2010!! In the meantime... HORRIBLE HISTORIES strikes again: If you think too much homework is unfair, you should see what ordeals the Anglo Saxons faced!

[@elmjay]

"Aethelred, the Unready. Lawmaker, and largely useless English King." "UM--!" xD

[@LEMONSareGREAT97]

the rats laugh at the end XD

[@JaceValm]

Ordeal by Chocolate cake happens to each of us every year

[@syrwen]

Ordeal by cake or bread was usually reserved for members of the Church or high ranking people such as Earls or the King’s family. Common people were made to do the other ordeals. Pretty fair if I do say so myself

[@2ac4_87ack]

Not if the cake or bread is EXTREMELY dry, and you're NOT given any drink to wash it down.

[@veryfiedd]

online class gang

[@snhhajwjijsjwjsbs2039]

Yup

[@crazycookie1352]

My teacher showed this is class she show's alot of your videos in class

[@schizoidboy]

I wonder what that cake is made out of...

[@tippy1565]

And with intentional naughtiness!! Love you mat!!!

[@Shinisoup]

there's always someone on the comments of HH videos that says it's wrong and blah blah blah! ok... you are telling us what you think on a youtube video...they are telling us what they know through comedy, entertainment, books and TV. I know who i'm gonna listen to.

[@RyanDmanStudio]

How to beat Trial by Cake: Take small bites! XD

[@thatonepumpkinataltontower8787]

No

[@2ac4_87ack]

What if the cake is super dry, and you can’t have anything to go with it?

[@RebelSword]

@greenq618 the saxons were a tribe of norse who broke away from the danish vikings and migrated to germania, they became the best warriors in the north and were hired by romans as mercenaries....they were invited to briton by the celts who were left defenceless by the romans that went home, the saxons had a prophecy about having their own country that will spout out to the four corners of the world...the saxons mixed with celts and vikings/normans and created us the english.

[@poldova]

Well, it's a little more complicated than his uselessness. Aethelred, in the lingo of the time...meant Good (or well) Council. But he did make a dreadful mess of things and most for listening to little and/or bad advice. Un-Red. It was a pun and a fact. The pun is more or less lost on us. But at the back of the word Ready is the word that meant Council.

[@ΛέσχηΕφέδρωνΕνόπλωνΔυνάμεωνΜαγ]

You are so good comedians.Your humour is unique !

[@weldonwin]

@InnannasRainbow Basically, because he was utterly useless. His solution to viking raids, was to try and pay them off... which naturally just encouraged more raids, once the vikings cottoned onto the fact that England was very rich and the king was too much of a pansy to fight them, so they'd just show up every year, demand a bigger payoff and go home

[@Emsinamic]

Fair enough, I did nick that horse! Are there any ordeals that are less... impossible? Awesome!

[@asiabegum5114]

Horrible history is really funny but educational.

[@arthurthedented]

yah.. really not. (the ordeal by cake thing)... the other ordeals where available..but they skipped compurgation which was the primary method of a saxon court. the other term would be 'oath helpers'... you swore you were innoncent, and as a free man of a certain standing if a certain number of other free men were willing to swear you were innocent.. you were. to make the accusation ALSO required oath helpers so if you didnt have friends you were pretty much screwed in either diretion.

[@historycanbecool26]

using logic!? yeah right who does that now a days

[@kaledmasterme]

@wakkyvideogroup no its not :p

[@MrsEdwardNigma]

Was going so well until the end bit... 1. His name was Earl Godwin Wulfnothson, the father of Harold Godwinson, the later Harold II. 2. Ordeal by Cake had nothing to do with his death. He died of "Elf Shot" (something most historians believe was a stroke). 3. As Earl Godwin was the father of Harold II when William I took the throne he needed to make Harold and his family look bad so this story came through in Norman Propaganda - kind of obvious when Godwin did not die for another week after he allegedly "choked to death" after being taxed with the murder of the Aetheling Alfred.

[@gt4611]

@writingsinthesky um... Smashing is used to describe the saxons, it's British slang like America's "cool" it doesn't mean that they're hating and putting them down.

[@TheFLAMEXD]

Hardly anyone uses "smashing" anymore.

[@1Thunderfire]

It's funny to think what they did so many years ago; but alas, no more ordeal by cake...

[@Ciapek666]

I'll take the cake, and this rat dude, he's cool xD

[@Sexybitchinuniforme]

I don't get it. How did he choke by cake?! I thoght that it is pretty easy ordeal... Can someone explain that to me???

[@lvcivs11]

does anybody remember aethelreds son edmund IRONSIDE from a saxon squire in the new world hereditary monarchy is best

[@ichigomaster98]

I don't care about the time stamp i will still comment on it :D

[@heatherbowman9450]

I JUST HAD A DELICIOUS BLUEBERRY DONUT💙 1:08

[@urmo345]

If that chocking was not legend then the cake was very special one...

[@RamesesBolton]

@ariaelwen no it was harold godwinson was the one who died in 1066 so hahahahaahahahhahaaaaaaaa

[@jerhinus]

I Thought theyd give him a metal cake to eat :))) XD

[@AdirondackJosh]

I could do ordeal by cake as long as it came with a scoop of ice cream

[@joinmeforacupotea]

I was reading the Wise Woman by Philippa Gregory earlier today, and it told of the ordeal by cake in Chapter 9 to see whether the protagonist was a witch or not. Then I watch this!

[@littleangel7900]

oh good i hate it when they plead guilty we dont get to do any of the fun stuff! XD

[@dragontypeliv]

7 people have had ordeal by cake happened to them

[@urmo345]

choke or was poisoned, hard to tell at this time

[@mariakhol2000]

We learned about this in school. But the trial by iron was usually for women, if I'm not wrong

[@t1t296]

@writingsinthesky, what on earth are you blabbering on about?

[@Titanlord10000]

Thats wasn't filmed in the London Dungeons was it?

[@jennifervan75]

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

[@InnannasRainbow]

Does anyone know why he was called the 'Unready'? What was it that happened in his time to give him that name?

[@janekhill8647]

It doesn't come from the modern meaning, it comes from unræd, meaning poorly advised. It is also particularly ironic as his name Æthelred means well advised.

[@weldonwin]

Who else thought "Cake or Death?" during this?

[@h3lblad3]

@TheTigersWhiskers *coughs awkwardly at this comment*

[@nikki1988ish]

And the accused........Ted Haha funny

[@505CoDplayer]

Anglo-Saxton Hale!!!!

[@lamplight5]

lol he says session se ss ion :)

[@Sophieslazy]

@sminchin Matthew

[@nivarion]

hehe. While this joke is pretty funny, the thing people always forget about dunking is that they would tie a rope around your waist. If you didn't come up within ten seconds they'd pull you out. Just, to keep from floating you'd have to exhale and resist the urge to push off the bottom for ten seconds.

[@SultanMehmed]

@icanseethefuture I think he said "Ye, made it myself".

[@snake445704]

ORDEAL BY CAKE! XD

[@Manofthesword]

Rather surprised that Cake or Death jokes haven't really been made on this one.

[@ShonaLavellan]

This is in London Dungeon again I think

[@Charlottard]

so love it when he says naughtiness

[@Ardwynna]

And don't talk with your mouth full.

[@nikki1988ish]

@SilentMissLoud Indeed it is! :)

[@KitsunenoHibi]

What is the cake made of, paste!?

[@debbieyoung6045]

The accused ted😮

[@redred3347]

I was the 700th to like

[@LaughingOwlKiller]

must not be any Izzard fans here

[@stupidintellect90]

Lawrence Rickard ( I think that's his name) looks a little like Guy Martin, I don't know how I didn't notice it before.

[@SilentMissLoud]

This was filmed at the london dungeon, right? I sorta remember it...

[@therealmckoy6772]

Please don't tell me Godwin (One of the most powerful men in England at the time) died by suffocation due to cake

[@SirRob7]

horrible histories always reminds me of monty python, which is amazing because nothing else recent has come close to it.....

[@Ambicatus]

Mmmmmmm, cake--and stealing.

[@metalheadlass]

piece of cake! that easy

[@InnannasRainbow]

@Nadesiko85 It's a rat.

[@Gavin17259]

8 people were unready.

[@knuffelkusjeprinses]

3:40 karma is a bitch

[@Lolcrazydudette]

Gets me everytime... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA no.

[@Honeybadger10110]

Shit this is old

[@Ambicatus]

OK, then. . . , Ted.

[@ibyOFshieldz]

@hfdshfgksghl its not

[@Cristinact]

You can never get enough of Rattus!! LOL

[@teenfoe]

The cake is a lie!

[@flyingdutchgirl6]

go saxons go!!!!

[@2whitie]

The Cake is a lie

[@gangurobitch]

@cartoonlover2326 The thought was that God would spare someone who was innocent. They weren't the only ones either. The water ordeal was also used by the ancient Babylonians.

[@WeaslysWizardWeezes]

Ted the evillllll

[@Cittenkitty]

CAKE OR DEATH?

[@TheLadyFrodo]

so then Ted

[@redred3347]

No!!!

[@rinasay98]

"AHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAH! HAHA! No."

[@soniccandice]

ahahahahashha

[@buringplumbranches]

It was king cake and he choked on the plastic babay!

[@h.j7469]

I'm guessing more it was poisoned

[@DemolisherovChrist]

That's so British, even back then they still had it!

[@fl333r]

I always thought the prosecutor chose the ordeal... So if I wanted to troll, I'd choose the accused to go through ordeal by boiling water every time lol Of course that'd be mean... So no.

[@spazzy69]

Larry's beard! Aaaaarrrgghhh!

[@Quinntus79]

So Eddie Izzard wasn’t completely correct. There’s a third option to cake or death, cake and death.

[@mizza1298]

Loving the beard

[@generalpatton3]

@mermaidstars123123 Dry mouth actually. That ordeal had some validity, as a guilty man lying usually is beset by a lack of saliva. Of course, stress from being interrogated can do that too, but less likely. Pacific Islander and South-East Asian tribes, for instance, have ordeals where a man chew on some grains of rice and then spits them out. If dry - guilty. If moist, then the target is innocent. Same principle.

[@rebelaar]

this was the first thing i ever seen when i first found this show, and i'm happy to know of this awesome show's exsitence. ^-^

[@Joystick74]

That cake is soo fixed!

[@Lolcrazydudette]

Portal 2 is a wonderful game :)

[@nightmareluver71559]

Hmm, seems legit. Haha! I Love Horrible Histories!

[@ichigomaster98]

Actually *trollface* Glados did bake a cake it was "delicious and moist" a black forest cake. BUT if you want to spread old memes then you can just "keep on trying till you run out of cake" and you can do this, because you can OR you can leave random portal memes out of the horrible histories and go back to fangirling over Matt (i suggest the fangirling one)

[@mistermangoman69]

This comment is a relic of its time

[@allymog5228]

@@mistermangoman69 Ironic that they would call something an old meme whilst also using '* trollface *'

[@WilliamsNewsNewsNews]

"entencinul naughtiness" no i stole his horse not him 😶😶‍🌫

[@Tareltonlives]

What if the Saxon weighs as much as a duck?

[@BashirLuli]

Rattus Rattus is dead! Rattus Rattus is the host of HH /

[@h3lblad3]

He was guilty, of course!

[@NickNation9000]

I ate cake today and I didn't choke. I'm innocent!

[@cartoonlover2326]

What exactly made saxons think ducking, hot rod or cake was a way of proving innocence?

[@ThePrincessCH]

People used to think that accused witches were innocent if they sank into the water.

[@Quinntus79]

Divine intervention. Basically, God would favor an innocent man, saving them from drowning, or prevent them from choking.