From Alfred the Great to Stephen

From Alfred the Great to Stephen PDF Author: R. H. C. Davis
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 9781852850456
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
Twenty-two collected essays on late Anglo-Saxon and Norman history.

From Alfred the Great to Stephen

From Alfred the Great to Stephen PDF Author: R. H. C. Davis
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 9781852850456
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
Twenty-two collected essays on late Anglo-Saxon and Norman history.

From Alfred the Great to Stephen

From Alfred the Great to Stephen PDF Author: Ralph Henry Carless Davis
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781472598875
Category : Electronic books
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description


King Alfred the Great

King Alfred the Great PDF Author: Alfred P. Smyth
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 816

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Book Description
Soldier, statesman, and scholar, Alfred the Great was a fascinating and highly successful king, pushing back the Vikings to command what is now thought of as the heart of England as ruler of Wessex from 871-899. In this, the first major biography of King Alfred since 1902, his life, career and enduring legacy are given a radical new interpretation, putting into question most of our assumptions about this singular monarch. Alfred P. Smyth's portrait of King Alfred rejects the image of a neurotic and invalid king who supposedly remained a pious illiterate until he was almost 40. Instead, we are shown a man of remarkable energy and intelligence who took necessary steps to defend his people from the Norsemen. We see, too, a king who had been a scholar all his life and who used his great knowledge to bolster the powers of his own kingship. Smyth also provides a detailed examination of the much-disputed medieval biography of King Alfred, attributed to the King's tutor, Asser. Alfred Smyth argues that Asser's Life may, in fact, have been a late medieval forgery--a revelation with profound implications for our understanding of the whole of Anglo-Saxon history. Smyth's King Alfred also contains major studies on the writings of this gifted king, on the controversial charters of his reign, and on the origins of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. (Smyth shows this work to have been much more closely connected with the court of King Alfred than previously realized and suggests a new date for the completion of the earliest Alfredian section of the Chronicle.) A monumental and intriguing work of historical scholarship, King Alfred the Great will dramatically change the way we understand this early period of western civilization.

Conquered England

Conquered England PDF Author: George Garnett
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191518735
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
Conquered England argues that Duke William of Normandy's claim to succeed Edward the Confessor on the throne of England profoundly influenced not only the practice of royal succession, but also played a large part in creating a novel structure of land tenure, dependent on the king. In these two fundamental respects, the attempt made in the aftermath of the Conquest to demonstrate seamless continuity with Anglo-Saxon England severed almost all continuity. A paradoxical result was a society in which instability in succession at the top exacerbated instability lower down. The first serious attempt to address these problems began when arrangements were made, in 1153, for the succession to King Stephen. Henry II duly succeeded him, but claimed rather to have succeeded his grandfather, Henry I, Stephen's predecessor. Henry II's attempts to demonstrate continuity with his grandfather were modelled on William the Conqueror's treatment of Edward the Confessor. Just as William's fabricated history had been the foundation for the tenurial settlement recorded in the Domesday Book, so Henry II's, in a different way, underpinned the early common law procedures which began to undermine aspects of that settlement. The official history of the Conquest played a crucial role not only in creating a new society, but in the development of that society.

Alfred the Great

Alfred the Great PDF Author: Justin Pollard
Publisher: John Murray
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
Alfred is the only English king ever to be called 'Great'. It was not a title given by political supporters, not the sycophantic gift of an official biographer, nor a self-styled title. It was the gift of history. Justin Pollard's enthralling, authoritative account befits Alfred - a soldier, a scholar and statesman like no other in English history. His rule spanned troubled times. His shores were under constant threat from Viking marauders and he faced turmoil at home. Soon after he began his rule a conspiracy erupted and he was hounded out of his kingdom into solitary exile in forests and fens. But his ambition was not felled by adversity. Alone in this damp, dangerous, half-world of bogs and quicksand Alfred looked within and found the motivation to create a new type of nation. Drawing on the latest historical, textual and archaeological research Justin Pollard radically reassesses the key moments in Alfred's life. He offers a new interpretation of what caused this most remarkable king to begin the formation of England and how it coloured the subsequent history of the Western World down to the present day.

Anglo-Saxon England: Volume 28

Anglo-Saxon England: Volume 28 PDF Author: Michael Lapidge
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521652032
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
This volume is framed by articles that throw interesting light on the achievement and reputation of the greatest of Anglo-Saxon kings - Alfred.

The Warrior Queen

The Warrior Queen PDF Author: Joanna Arman
Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited
ISBN: 1445662051
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
The story of a medieval Boudicca, Alfred the Great's daughter, and her struggle to restore her people and reclaim their land

The Anarchy of King Stephen's Reign

The Anarchy of King Stephen's Reign PDF Author: Edmund King
Publisher: Clarendon Press
ISBN: 019159072X
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
The reign of King Stephen (1135-54) is famous as a period of weak government, as Stephen and his rival the Empress Matilda contended for power. This is a study of medieval kingship at its most vulnerable. It also shows how individuals and institutions enabled the monarchy to survive. A contemporary chronicler described the reign as "nineteen long winters in which Christ and his saints were asleep". Historians today refer to it simply as 'the Anarchy'. The weakness of government was the result of a disputed succession. Stephen lost control over Normandy, the Welsh marches, and much of the North. Contemporaries noted as signs of weakness the tyranny of the lords of castles, and the break-down of coinage. Stephen remained king for his lifetime, but leading churchmen and laymen negotiated a settlement whereby the crown passed to the Empress's son the future Henry II. This volume by leading scholars gives an original and up-to-date analysis of these major themes, and explains how the English monarchy was able to survive the Anarchy of King Stephen's reign.

Alfred the Great Special Sales

Alfred the Great Special Sales PDF Author: Justin Pollard
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781473636088
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


The Making of England

The Making of England PDF Author: Toby Purser
Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited
ISBN: 1398105074
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 511

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Book Description
'The Making of England' seeks to challenge the established narrative of the inevitable rise of the unified Christian state. England was not exceptional in its governance, parliaments, religion or monarchy: it was a European state.