43 AD: Lucius is one of several Roman spies sent into the offshore island of Pritan, quietly to study the ground before plans for the invasion by the Emperor Claudius.

400 AD: Among the splendours of his palace at Eboricum (York), Tiberius Claudius the Roman British governor the Province broods on what he believes to be the end of the civilised world The alarm and disunity of his political and military advisers influence his own indecision. The threat of barbaric invasion and its subsequent violent outbursts throughout the Empire are too much for the Imperial authority of Rome to contain. For Claudius the threat becomes a reality at a banquet to which a captive Saxon war leader is brought for diversion.

654 AD: Two powerful adversaries face each other - Penda, pagan king of Mercia, and Oswy, Christian king of Northumbria.

878 AD: King Alfred has suffered another defeat from the Danes and escapes through the Athelrey swamps to the safety of Odda's Hall. Disguised as a minstrel, Alfred enters the headquarters of the Viking invaders but his conversation with Chieftain Guthrum unsettles the Danes.

1042: Godwin, Earl of Wessex, summons Edward from out of his exile in Normandy to wear the Crown of England. But the apparent security of Godwin's Anglo-Saxan policies is disrupted by Edward's partiality for a French connection and Rome-orientated religious tendencies.