Download or read book Henry I written by C. Warren Hollister and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2008-10-01 with total page 575 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Henry I, son of William the Conqueror, ruled from 1100 to 1135, a time of fundamental change in the Anglo-Norman world. This long-awaited biography, written by one of the most distinguished medievalists of his generation, offers a major reassessment of Henry’s character and reign. Challenging the dark and dated portrait of the king as brutal, greedy, and repressive, it argues instead that Henry’s rule was based on reason and order. C. Warren Hollister points out that Henry laid the foundations for judicial and financial institutions usually attributed to his grandson, Henry II. Royal government was centralized and systematized, leading to firm, stable, and peaceful rule for his subjects in both England and Normandy. By mid-reign Henry I was the most powerful king in Western Europe, and with astute diplomacy, an intelligence network, and strategic marriages of his children (legitimate and illegitimate), he was able to undermine the various coalitions mounted against him. Henry strove throughout his reign to solidify the Anglo-Norman dynasty, and his marriage linked the Normans to the Old English line. Hollister vividly describes Henry’s life and reign, places them against the political background of the time, and provides analytical studies of the king and his magnates, the royal administration, and relations between king and church. The resulting volume is one that will be welcomed by students and general readers alike.
Download or read book The Life and Times of William the Conqueror written by Susan Sales Harkins and published by Mitchell Lane Publishers, Inc.. This book was released on 2009-09 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: William, the son of a duke and a peasant, spent his childhood in hiding, raised among the Norman peasantry. Lords owing fealty to him would have murdered him—if they had found him. He spent his early adult years fighting rebel lords for his birthright. As Duke of Normandy, he claimed the throne of England after the death of Edward the Confessor, King of England, who William said had promised to name him heir. When England refused him, he built a huge fleet, sailed across the channel, and killed Harold, the newly crowned English king, at the Battle of Hastings. One by one, English towns fell to William and his Norman army as they marched toward London. Cowering in fear, Londoners had no choice—they opened the gates and made William the Conqueror their first Norman king.
Download or read book The Norman Conquest written by Marc Morris and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-09-13 with total page 562 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A riveting and authoritative history of the single most important event in English history: The Norman Conquest. An upstart French duke who sets out to conquer the most powerful and unified kingdom in Christendom. An invasion force on a scale not seen since the days of the Romans. One of the bloodiest and most decisive battles ever fought. This new history explains why the Norman Conquest was the most significant cultural and military episode in English history. Assessing the original evidence at every turn, Marc Morris goes beyond the familiar outline to explain why England was at once so powerful and yet so vulnerable to William the Conqueror’s attack. Morris writes with passion, verve, and scrupulous concern for historical accuracy. This is the definitive account for our times of an extraordinary story, indeed the pivotal moment in the shaping of the English nation.
Download or read book The Norman Conquest written by Hugh M. Thomas and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2008 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploring the successful Norman invasion of England in 1066, this concise and readable book focuses especially on the often dramatic and enduring changes wrought by William the Conqueror and his followers. From the perspective of a modern social historian, Hugh M. Thomas considers the conquest's wide-ranging impact by taking a fresh look at such traditional themes as the influence of battles and great men on history and assessing how far the shift in ruling dynasty and noble elites affected broader aspects of English history. The author sets the stage by describing English society before the Norman Conquest and recounting the dramatic story of the conquest, including the climactic Battle of Hastings. He then traces the influence of the invasion itself and the Normans' political, military, institutional, and legal transformations. Inevitably following on the heels of institutional reform came economic, social, religious, and cultural changes. The results, Thomas convincingly shows, are both complex and surprising. In some areas where one might expect profound influence, such as government institutions, there was little change. In other respects, such as the indirect transformation of the English language, the conquest had profound and lasting effects. With its combination of exciting narrative and clear analysis, this book will capture students interest in a range of courses on medieval and Western history.
Download or read book Life of Charlemagne written by Einhard and published by . This book was released on 1880 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book William the Conqueror written by David Bates and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 633 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fifteen years in the making, a landmark reinterpretation of the life of a pivotal figure in British and European history In this magisterial addition to the Yale English Monarchs series, David Bates combines biography and a multidisciplinary approach to examine the life of a major figure in British and European history. Using a framework derived from studies of early medieval kingship, he assesses each phase of William’s life to establish why so many trusted William to invade England in 1066 and the consequences of this on the history of the so-called Norman Conquest after the Battle of Hastings and for generations to come. A leading historian of the period, Bates is notable for having worked extensively in the archives of northern France and discovered many eleventh- and twelfth-century charters largely unnoticed by English-language scholars. Taking an innovative approach, he argues for a move away from old perceptions and controversies associated with William’s life and the Norman Conquest. This deeply researched volume is the scholarly biography for our generation.
Download or read book Queen of the Conqueror written by Tracy Joanne Borman and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2012-04-03 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Around the year 1049, William, Duke of Normandy and future conqueror of England, raced to the palace of Baldwin V, Count of Flanders. The count’s eldest daughter, Matilda, had refused William’s offer of marriage and publicly denounced him as a bastard. Encountering the young woman, William furiously dragged her to the ground by her hair and beat her mercilessly. Matilda’s outraged father immediately took up arms on his daughter’s behalf. But just a few days later, Baldwin was aghast when Matilda, still recovering from the assault, announced that she would marry none but William, since “he must be a man of great courage and high daring” to have ventured to “come and beat me in my own father’s palace.” Thus began the tempestuous marriage of Matilda of Flanders and William the Conqueror. While William’s exploits and triumphs have been widely chronicled, his consort remains largely overlooked. Now, in her groundbreaking Queen of the Conqueror, acclaimed author and historian Tracy Borman weaves together a comprehensive and illuminating tapestry of this noble woman who stood only four-foot-two and whose role as the first crowned Queen of England had a large and lasting influence on the English monarchy. From a wealth of historical artifacts and documents, Matilda emerges as passionate, steadfast, and wise, yet also utterly ruthless and tenacious in pursuit of her goals, and the only person capable of taming her formidable husband—who, unprecedented for the period, remained staunchly faithful to her. This mother of nine, including four sons who went on to inherit William’s French and English dominions, confounded the traditional views of women in medieval society by seizing the reins of power whenever she had the chance, directing her husband’s policy, and at times flagrantly disobeying his orders. Tracy Borman lays out Matilda’s remarkable story against one of the most fascinating and transformative periods in European history. Stirring, richly detailed, and wholly involving, Queen of the Conqueror reveals not just an extraordinary figure but an iconic woman who shaped generations, and an era that cast the essential framework for the world we know today. Praise for Queen of the Conqueror “[Tracy Borman] brings to life Queen Matilda’s enormous accomplishments in consolidating early Norman rule. Alongside her warrior husband, William I, Matilda brought legitimacy, a deeper degree of education, diplomatic savvy and artistic and religious flowering to the shared Norman-English throne. Borman . . . the chief executive of Britain’s Heritage Education Trust, fleshes out the personality of this fascinating woman, who set the steely precedent for subsequent English female sovereigns by displaying great longevity and stamina in a rough, paternalistic time. . . . A richly layered treatment of the stormy reign that yielded the incomparable Bayeux Tapestry and the Domesday Book.”—Kirkus Reviews “Tracy Borman tells this story with a steady eye and a steady hand, tracing what can be known of Matilda’s part in the events that were to change the course of English history.”—Helen Castor, Literary Review
Download or read book The Norman Conquest written by Teresa Cole and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2016-09-15 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The origins, course & outcomes of William the Conqueror's conquest of England 1051-1087.
Download or read book Henry I written by Judith A. Green and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2006-03-02 with total page 13 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This first comprehensive biography of Henry I, the youngest son of William the Conqueror and an elusive figure for historians, offers a rich and compelling account of his tumultuous life and reign. Judith Green argues that although Henry's primary concern was defence of his inheritance this did not preclude expansion where circumstances were propitious, notably into Welsh territory. His skilful dealings with the Scots permitted consolidation of Norman rule in the northern counties of England, while in Normandy every sinew was strained to defend frontiers through political alliances and stone castles. Green argues that although Henry's own outlook was essentially traditional, the legacy of this fascinating and ruthless personality included some fundamentally important developments in governance. She also sheds light on Henry's court, suggesting that it made an important contribution to the flowering of court culture throughout twelfth-century Europe.
Download or read book Domesday Book written by John Morris and published by . This book was released on 1975 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Clash of Crowns written by Mary McAuliffe and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2012-03-16 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conflict between England and France was a fact of life for centuries, but few realize that its origins date from the time of the Vikings, when a Norse chieftain named Rollo established himself and his progeny in Normandy. In this compelling and entertaining history, Mary McAuliffe takes the reader back to those dark and turbulent times when Rollo’s descendants, the dukes of Normandy, asserted their dominance over the weak French monarchy—a dominance that became especially threatening after Duke William conquered England in 1066, giving him a royal crown. Despite this crown, William the Conqueror and his royal successors remained dukes of Normandy, with feudal obligations to their overlord, the king of France. This naturally fostered an ongoing hostility between the French and English crowns that, as McAuliffe convincingly shows, became ever more explosive as the strength and territorial holdings of the English monarchs grew. Conflict erupted regularly over the years, and Eleanor of Aquitaine’s desertion of one camp for the other only added fuel to the long-simmering feud. McAuliffe takes the reader back to this dramatic era, providing the fascinating background and context for this “clash of crowns.” She offers colorful insights into Richard Lionheart and Eleanor of Aquitaine as well as lesser-known French and English monarchs, especially Philip II of France. Philip proved a determined opponent of Richard Lionheart, and their cutthroat rivalry not only created fatal divisions within the Third Crusade but also culminated in an incendiary faceoff at Richard’s newly built Château-Gaillard, the seemingly impregnable gateway to empire. The outcome would shape the course of English and French history throughout the centuries that followed.
Download or read book William I Penguin Monarchs written by Marc Morris and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2016-08-25 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On Christmas Day 1066, William, duke of Normandy was crowned in Westminster, the first Norman king of England. It was a disaster: soldiers outside, thinking shouts of acclamation were treachery, torched the surrounding buildings. To later chroniclers, it was an omen of the catastrophes to come. During the reign of William the Conqueror, England experienced greater and more seismic change than at any point before or since. Marc Morris's concise and gripping biography sifts through the sources of the time to give a fresh view of the man who changed England more than any other, as old ruling elites were swept away, enemies at home and abroad (including those in his closest family) were crushed, swathes of the country were devastated and the map of the nation itself was redrawn, giving greater power than ever to the king. When, towards the end of his reign, William undertook a great survey of his new lands, his subjects compared it to the last judgement of God, the Domesday Book. England had been transformed forever.
Download or read book Gesta Regum Anglorum written by William (of Malmesbury) and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 543 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: William of Malmesbury's Regesta Regum Anglorum (Deeds of the English Kings) is one of the great histories of England, and one of the most important historical works of the European Middle Ages. Volume II of the Oxford Medieval Texts edition provides a full historical introduction, a detailed textual commentary, and an extensive bibliography. It forms the essential complement to the text and translation which appeared in Volume I.
Download or read book William the Conqueror written by Paul Hilliam and published by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. This book was released on 2004-12-15 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chronicles the life of the Duke of Normandy who defeated the Saxons at the Battle of Hastings, became king of England, and who dramatically changed the life of England's people.
Download or read book Cort s the Conqueror written by Henry Dwight Sedgwick and published by . This book was released on 2020-04-19 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Among the very best books ever written about the leader of the Spanish Conquistadors, Cortés the Conqueror captures the complexity and power of Cortés and portrays the full depth of his character-a man of bravery, ambition, fierce intelligence, skill, and charm, who modeled himself on Alexander the Great, and who, against incredible odds, led the conquest of Mexico. The author defends Cortés against many of the charges that have been made against him, and situates him in the proper context of his time and place. Sedgwick also admirably conveys the adventure and daring of Cortés' comrades, young men "whose spirit was impatient of the tedious conventions of an old established social order, who ... desired a new land and new opportunities." Long out of print, Cortés the Conqueror is now available again in a completely new edition from Sunwise Books.
Download or read book The Anglo Saxon Chronicle written by and published by . This book was released on 1912 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book King Rufus written by Emma Mason and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2008-07-01 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The future William II was born in the late 1050s the third son of William the Conqueror. The younger William, - nicknamed Rufus because of his ruddy cheeks - at first had no great expectations of succeeding to the throne. This biography tells the story of William Rufus, King of England from 1087-1100 and reveals the truth behind his death.
