Download or read book Mercia written by Michelle P. Brown and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2005-03-01 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The kingdom best remembered for Offa and his famous dyke was not only a dominant power on the island of Britain in the eighth century, but also a significant player in early medieval European politics and culture. Although the volume focuses on the eighth and ninth centuries when Mercian power was at its height, it also looks back to the origins of the kingdom and forward to the period of Viking settlement and West Saxon reconquest. With state-of-the-art contributions from experts in palaeography, art history, archaeology, numismatics and landscape - as well as from historians - this book establishes a new baseline for Mercian scholarship, by covering the rise and fall of the kingdom, its major institutions, relations with other political entities as well as its visual and material culture.

Download or read book Citadel of the Saxons written by Rory Naismith and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-11-29 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With a past as deep and sinewy as the famous River Thames that twists like an eel around the jutting peninsula of Mudchute and the Isle of Dogs, London is one of the world's greatest and most resilient cities. Born beside the sludge and the silt of the meandering waterway that has always been its lifeblood, it has weathered invasion, flood, abandonment, fire and bombing. The modern story of London is well known. Much has been written about the later history of this megalopolis which, like a seductive dark star, has drawn incomers perpetually into its orbit. Yet, as Rory Naismith reveals – in his zesty evocation of the nascent medieval city – much less has been said about how close it came to earlier obliteration. Following the collapse of Roman civilization in fifth-century Britannia, darkness fell over the former province. Villas crumbled to ruin; vital commodities became scarce; cities decayed; and Londinium, the capital, was all but abandoned. Yet despite its demise as a living city, memories of its greatness endured like the moss and bindweed which now ensnared its toppled columns and pilasters. By the 600s a new settlement, Lundenwic, was established on the banks of the River Thames by enterprising traders who braved the North Sea in their precarious small boats. The history of the city's phoenix-like resurrection, as it was transformed from an empty shell into a court of kings – and favoured setting for church councils from across the land – is still virtually unknown. The author here vividly evokes the forgotten Lundenwic and the later fortress on the Thames – Lundenburgh – of desperate Anglo-Saxon defenders who retreated inside their Roman walls to stand fast against menacing Viking incursions. Recalling the lost cities which laid the foundations of today's great capital, this book tells the stirring story of how dead Londinium was reborn, against the odds, as a bulwark against the Danes and a pivotal English citadel. It recounts how Anglo-Saxon London survived to become the most important town in England – and a vital stronghold in later campaigns against the Normans in 1066. Revealing the remarkable extent to which London was at the centre of things, from the very beginning, this volume at last gives the vibrant early medieval city its due.

Download or read book The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo Saxon England written by Michael Lapidge and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-10-02 with total page 760 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Widely acknowledged as the essential reference work for this period, this volume brings together more than 700 articles written by 150 top scholars that cover the people, places, activities, and creations of the Anglo-Saxons. The only reference work to cover the history, archaeology, arts, architecture, literatures, and languages of England from the Roman withdrawal to the Norman Conquest (c.450 – 1066 AD) Includes over 700 alphabetical entries written by 150 top scholars covering the people, places, activities, and creations of the Anglo-Saxons Updated and expanded with 40 brand-new entries and a new appendix detailing "English Archbishops and Bishops, c.450-1066" Accompanied by maps, line drawings, photos, a table of "English Rulers, c.450-1066," and a headword index to facilitate searching An essential reference tool, both for specialists in the field, and for students looking for a thorough grounding in key topics of the period

Download or read book Anglo Danish Empire written by Richard North and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2022-06-21 with total page 569 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anglo-Danish Empire is an interdisciplinary handbook for the Danish conquest of England in 1016 and the subsequent reign of King Cnut the Great. Bringing together scholars from the fields of history, literature, archaeology, and manuscript studies, the volume offers comprehensive analysis of England’s shift from Anglo-Saxon to Danish rule. It follows the history of this complicated transition, from the closing years of the reign of King Æthelred II and the Anglo-Danish wars, to Cnut’s accession to the throne of England and his consolidation of power at home and abroad. Ruling from 1016 to 1035, Cnut drew England into a Scandinavian empire that stretched from Ireland to the Baltic. His reign rewrote the place of Denmark and England within Europe, altering the political and cultural landscapes of both countries for decades to come.

Download or read book The Anglo Saxon World written by Nicholas J. Higham and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2013-07-30 with total page 495 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Anglo-Saxon period, stretching from the fifth to the late eleventh century, begins with the Roman retreat from the Western world and ends with the Norman takeover of England. Between these epochal events, many of the contours and patterns of English life that would endure for the next millennium were shaped. In this authoritative work, N. J. Higham and M. J. Ryan reexamine Anglo-Saxon England in the light of new research in disciplines as wide ranging as historical genetics, paleobotany, archaeology, literary studies, art history, and numismatics. The result is the definitive introduction to the Anglo-Saxon world, enhanced with a rich array of photographs, maps, genealogies, and other illustrations. The Anglo-Saxon period witnessed the birth of the English people, the establishment of Christianity, and the development of the English language. With an extraordinary cast of characters (Alfred the Great, the Venerable Bede, King Cnut), a long list of artistic and cultural achievements (Beowulf, the Sutton Hoo ship-burial finds, the Bayeux Tapestry), and multiple dramatic events (the Viking invasions, the Battle of Hastings), the Anglo-Saxon era lays legitimate claim to having been one of the most important in Western history.

Download or read book Early Medieval Britain written by Pam J. Crabtree and published by Case Studies in Early Societie. This book was released on 2018-06-07 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traces the development of towns in Britain from late Roman times to the end of the Anglo-Saxon period using archaeological data.

Download or read book The Making of the British Landscape written by Francis Pryor and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2010-06-03 with total page 754 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the changing story of Britain as it has been preserved in our fields, roads, buildings, towns and villages, mountains, forests and islands. From our suburban streets that still trace out the boundaries of long vanished farms to the Norfolk Broads, formed when medieval peat pits flooded, from the ceremonial landscapes of Stonehenge to the spread of the railways - evidence of how man's effect on Britain is everywhere. In The Making of the British Landscape, eminent historian, archaeologist and farmer, Francis Pryor explains how to read these clues to understand the fascinating history of our land and of how people have lived on it throughout time. Covering both the urban and rural and packed with pictures, maps and drawings showing everything from how we can still pick out Bronze Age fields on Bodmin Moor to how the Industrial Revolution really changed our landscape, this book makes us look afresh at our surroundings and really see them for the first time.

Download or read book The Glass Vessels of Anglo Saxon England written by Rose Broadley and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2019-12-27 with total page 546 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume combines a comprehensive exploration of all vessel glass from middle and late Anglo-Saxon England and a review of the early glass with detailed interpretation of its meaning and place in Anglo-Saxon society. Analysis of a comprehensive dataset of all known Anglo-Saxon vessel glass of middle Anglo-Saxon date as a group has enabled the first quantification of form, colour, and decoration, and provided the structure for a new typological, chronological and geographical framework. The quantification and comparison of the vessel glass fragments and their attributes, and the mapping of the national distribution of these characteristics (forms, colours and decoration types), both represent significant developments and create rich opportunities for the future. The geographical scope is dictated by the glass fragments, which are from settlements located along the coast from Northumbria to Kent and along the south coast to Southampton. Seven case studies of intra-site glass distribution reveal that the anticipated pattern of peripheral disposal alongside dining waste is widespread, although exceptions exist at the monastic sites at Lyminge, Kent, and Jarrow, Tyne and Wear. Overall, the research themes addressed are the glass corpus and its typology; glass vessels in Anglo-Saxon society; and glass vessels as an economic indicator of trade and exchange. Analysis reveals new understandings of both the glass itself and the role of glass vessels in the social and economic mechanisms of early medieval England. There is currently no comprehensive work examining early medieval vessel glass, particularly the post sixth-century fragmentary material from settlements, and my monograph will fill that gap. The space is particularly noticeable when considering books on archaeological glass from England: the early medieval period is the only one with no reference volume; no recent, through and accessible source of information. The British Museum published a monograph entitled ‘Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Glass in the British Museum’ in 2008, but as the title suggests it is a catalogue at heart, and of a collection of fifth and sixth century grave goods in a single museum. Chronologically, a volume on the subject would fill the space between various books on Roman glass from Britain and ‘Medieval glass vessels found in England c. AD 1200-1500’ by Rachel Tyson. This book on early medieval vessel glass and the contexts from which it came will also make a significant contribution to early medieval settlement studies and the archaeology of trade in this period: both are growth areas of scholarship and interest and vessel glass provides a new tool to address key debates in the field.

Download or read book A Short History of London written by and published by Sinead Fitzgibbon. This book was released on with total page 79 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A People s History of London written by Lindsey German and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2012-06-19 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the eyes of Britain’s heritage industry, London is the traditional home of empire, monarchy and power, an urban wonderland for the privileged, where the vast majority of Londoners feature only to applaud in the background. Yet, for nearly 2000 years, the city has been a breeding ground for radical ideas, home to thinkers, heretics and rebels from John Wycliffe to Karl Marx. It has been the site of sometimes violent clashes that changed the course of history: the Levellers’ doomed struggle for liberty in the aftermath of the Civil War; the silk weavers, match girls and dockers who crusaded for workers’ rights; and the Battle of Cable Street, where East Enders took on Oswald Mosley’s Black Shirts. A People’s History of London journeys to a city of pamphleteers, agitators, exiles and revolutionaries, where millions of people have struggled in obscurity to secure a better future.

Download or read book Kentish arch ology written by William Archibald Scott Robertson and published by . This book was released on 1878 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Warrior of Mercia written by MJ Porter and published by Boldwood Books Ltd. This book was released on 2022-11-09 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The next thrilling adventure, all NEW from MJ Porter Icel is a lone wolf no more... Oath sworn to Wiglaf, King of Mercia and acknowledged as a member of Ealdorman Ælfstan’s warrior band, Icel continues to forge his own destiny on the path to becoming the Warrior of Mercia. With King Ecgberht of Wessex defeated and Londonium back under Mercian control, the Wessex invasion of Mercia is over. But the Wessex king was never Mercia’s only enemy. An unknown danger lurks in the form of merciless Viking raiders, who set their sights on infiltrating the waterways of the traitorous breakaway kingdom of the East Angles, within touching distance of Mercia’s eastern borders. Icel must journey to the kingdom of the East Angles and unite against a common enemy to ensure Mercia’s hard-won freedom prevails. Praise for MJ Porter 'Immediate and personal' Bestselling author Matthew Harffy ** 'No lover of Dark Age warfare is going to be disappointed. Personal, real, fascinating and satisfying.' **S.J.A. Turney ** 'If you love history, fiction, adventure and great stories - You won’t regret it!" **Eric Schumacher 'MJ Porter recounts a sensitive, reluctant hero's coming-of-age within a Dark Age realm riven by chaos and conflict' **Bestselling author Matthew Harffy ** ‘Refreshing... I was reluctant to put the book down’ Historical Novel Society Reader Reviews for Warrior of Mercia ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 'So real I felt I was there!... A page-turner' Reader Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 'Wonderful to read and hard to put down' Reader Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 'I found the pages flying by... A great book' Reader Review

Download or read book Writing Battles written by Máire Ní Mhaonaigh and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-05-14 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Battles have long featured prominently in historical consciousness, as moments when the balance of power was seen to have tipped, or when aspects of collective identity were shaped. But how have perspectives on warfare changed? How similar are present day ideologies of warfare to those of the medieval period? Looking back over a thousand years of British, Irish and Scandinavian battles, this significant collection of essays examines how different times and cultures have reacted to war, considering the changing roles of religion and technology in the experience and memorialisation of conflict. While fighting and killing have been deplored, glorified and everything in between across the ages, Writing Battles reminds us of the visceral impact left on those who come after.

Download or read book The Material Fall of Roman Britain 300 525 CE written by Robin Fleming and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2021-06-11 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although lowland Britain in 300 CE had been as Roman as any province in the empire, in the generations on either side of 400, urban life, the money economy, and the functioning state collapsed. Many of the most quotidian and fundamental elements of Roman-style material culture ceased to be manufactured. Skills related to iron and copper smelting, wooden board and plank making, stone quarrying, commercial butchery, horticulture, and tanning largely disappeared, as did the knowledge standing behind the production of wheel-thrown, kiln-fired pottery and building in stone. No other period in Britain's prehistory or history witnessed the loss of so many classes of once-common skills and objects. While the reasons for this breakdown remain unclear, it is indisputable the collapse was foundational in the making of a new world we characterize as early medieval. The standard explanation for the emergence of the new-style material culture found in lowland Britain by the last quarter of the fifth century is that foreign objects were brought in by "Anglo-Saxon" settlers. Marshalling a wealth of archaeological evidence, Robin Fleming argues instead that not only Continental immigrants, but also the people whose ancestors had long lived in Britain built this new material world together from the ashes of the old, forging an identity that their descendants would eventually come to think of as English. As with most identities, she cautions, this was one rooted in neither birth nor blood, but historically constructed, and advanced and maintained over the generations by the shared material culture and practices that developed during and after Rome's withdrawal from Britain.

Download or read book London written by Victoria R. Williams and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2022-01-24 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive volume is an indispensable resource for researchers as well as general readers interested in the geography, history, and culture of London, examining all aspects of life in the United Kingdom's capital city. London is one of the largest cultural and financial centers in the world. How did it become the capital city of the United Kingdom, and what is life like in this global city today? Narrative chapters cover a wide range of topics in this volume, examining such themes as location, people, history, politics, economy, environment and sustainability, local crime and violence, security issues, natural hazards and emergency management, culture and lifestyle, London in pop culture, and London's future. Inset boxes entitled "Life in the City" include personal memoirs from people who are from or have lived in London, allowing readers a glimpse into daily life in the city. Sidebars, a chronology, and a bibliography round out the text. This volume is ideal for students and general readers who are interested in learning about life in this global city.

Download or read book Food Eating and Identity in Early Medieval England written by Allen J. Frantzen and published by Boydell & Brewer Ltd. This book was released on 2014 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fresh approach to the implications of obtaining, preparing, and consuming food, concentrating on the little-investigated routines of everyday life. Food in the Middle Ages usually evokes images of feasting, speeches, and special occasions, even though most evidence of food culture consists of fragments of ordinary things such as knives, cooking pots, and grinding stones, which are rarely mentioned by contemporary writers. This book puts daily life and its objects at the centre of the food world. It brings together archaeological and textual evidence to show how words and implements associated with food contributed to social identity at all levels of Anglo-Saxon society. It also looks at the networks which connected fields to kitchens and linked rural centres to trading sites. Fasting, redesigned field systems, and the place offish in the diet are examined in a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary inquiry into the power of food to reveal social complexity. Allen J. Frantzen is Professor of English at Loyola University Chicago.

Download or read book The Viking Blitzkrieg written by Martyn Whittock and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2013-06-12 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If the Viking Wars had not taken place, would there have been a united England in the tenth century? Martyn Whittock believes not, arguing that without them there would have been no rise of the Godwin family and their conflict with Edward the Confessor, no Norman connection, no Norman Conquest and no Domesday Book. All of these features of English history were the products, or by-products, of these conflicts and the threat of Scandinavian attack. The wars and responses to them accelerated economic growth; stimulated state formation and an assertive sense of an English national identity; created a hybrid Anglo-Scandinavian culture that spread beyond the so-called Danelaw; and caused an upheaval in the ruling elite. By looking at the entire period of the wars and by taking a holistic view of their political, economic, social and cultural effects, their many-layered impact can at last be properly assessed.