Mercia and the Making of England

Mercia and the Making of England PDF Author: Ian W. Walker
Publisher: Sutton Publishing
ISBN: 9780750921312
Category : Anglo-Saxons
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This pioneering book re-examines the events of the mid-eighth to the mid-tenth centuries to provide a completely fresh and more balanced account of the period.

Mercia and the Making of England

Mercia and the Making of England PDF Author: Ian W. Walker
Publisher: Sutton Publishing
ISBN: 9780750921312
Category : Anglo-Saxons
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This pioneering book re-examines the events of the mid-eighth to the mid-tenth centuries to provide a completely fresh and more balanced account of the period.

Athelstan (Penguin Monarchs)

Athelstan (Penguin Monarchs) PDF Author: Tom Holland
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0241187826
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 127

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Book Description
The formation of England occurred against the odds: an island divided into rival kingdoms, under savage assault from Viking hordes. But, after King Alfred ensured the survival of Wessex and his son Edward expanded it, his grandson Athelstan inherited the rule of both Mercia and Wessex, conquered Northumbria and was hailed as Rex totius Britanniae: 'King of the whole of Britain'. Tom Holland recounts this extraordinary story with relish and drama, transporting us back to a time of omens, raven harbingers and blood-red battlefields. As well as giving form to the figure of Athelstan - devout, shrewd, all too aware of the precarious nature of his power, especially in the north - he introduces the great figures of the age, including Alfred and his daughter Aethelflaed, 'Lady of the Mercians', who brought Athelstan up at the Mercian court. Making sense of the family rivalries and fractious conflicts of the Anglo-Saxon rulers, Holland shows us how a royal dynasty rescued their kingdom from near-oblivion and fashioned a nation that endures to this day.

Mercia

Mercia PDF Author: Annie Whitehead
Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited
ISBN: 1445676532
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 497

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Book Description
The extraordinary history of Mercia and its rulers from the seventh century to 1066. Once the supreme Anglo-Saxon kingdom, it was pivotal in the story of England.

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.

The Making of England

The Making of England PDF Author: Mark Atherton
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1786731541
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
During the tenth century England began to emerge as a distinct country with an identity that was both part of yet separate from 'Christendom'. The reigns of Athelstan, Edgar and Ethelred witnessed the emergence of many key institutions: the formation of towns on modern street plans; an efficient administration; and a serviceable system of tax. Mark Atherton here shows how the stories, legends, biographies and chronicles of Anglo-Saxon England reflected both this exciting time of innovation as well as the myriad lives, loves and hates of the people who wrote them. He demonstrates, too, that this was a nation coming of age, ahead of its time in its use not of the Book-Latin used elsewhere in Europe, but of a narrative Old English prose devised for law and practical governance of the nation-state, for prayer and preaching, and above all for exploring a rich and daring new literature. This prose was unique, but until now it has been neglected for the poetry. Bringing a volatile age to vivid and muscular life, Atherton argues that it was the vernacular of Alfred the Great, as much as Viking war, that truly forged the nation.

Making England, 796-1042

Making England, 796-1042 PDF Author: Richard Huscroft
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429893175
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
Making England, 796–1042 explores the creation and establishment of the kingdom of England and the significant changes that led to it becoming one of the most successful and sophisticated political structures in the western world by the middle of the eleventh century. At the end of the eighth century when King Offa of Mercia died, England was a long way from being a single kingdom ruled by a single king. This book examines how and why the kingdom of England formed in the way it did and charts the growth of royal power over the following two and a half centuries. Key political and military events are introduced alongside developments within government, the law, the church and wider social and economic changes to provide a detailed picture of England throughout this period. This is also set against a wider European context to demonstrate the influence of external forces on England’s development. With a focus on England’s rulers and elites, Making England, 796–1042 uncovers the type of kingdom England was and analyses its strengths and weaknesses as well as the emerging concept of a specifically English nation. Arranged both chronologically and thematically, and containing a selection of maps and genealogies, it is the ideal introducion to this subject for students of medieval history and of medieval England in particular.

Building Anglo-Saxon England

Building Anglo-Saxon England PDF Author: John Blair
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400889901
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 497

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Book Description
A radical rethinking of the Anglo-Saxon world that draws on the latest archaeological discoveries This beautifully illustrated book draws on the latest archaeological discoveries to present a radical reappraisal of the Anglo-Saxon built environment and its inhabitants. John Blair, one of the world's leading experts on this transformative era in England's early history, explains the origins of towns, manor houses, and castles in a completely new way, and sheds new light on the important functions of buildings and settlements in shaping people's lives during the age of the Venerable Bede and King Alfred. Building Anglo-Saxon England demonstrates how hundreds of recent excavations enable us to grasp for the first time how regionally diverse the built environment of the Anglo-Saxons truly was. Blair identifies a zone of eastern England with access to the North Sea whose economy, prosperity, and timber buildings had more in common with the Low Countries and Scandinavia than the rest of England. The origins of villages and their field systems emerge with a new clarity, as does the royal administrative organization of the kingdom of Mercia, which dominated central England for two centuries. Featuring a wealth of color illustrations throughout, Building Anglo-Saxon England explores how the natural landscape was modified to accommodate human activity, and how many settlements--secular and religious—were laid out with geometrical precision by specialist surveyors. The book also shows how the Anglo-Saxon love of elegant and intricate decoration is reflected in the construction of the living environment, which in some ways was more sophisticated than it would become after the Norman Conquest.

Æthelflæd

Æthelflæd PDF Author: Tim Clarkson
Publisher: Birlinn Ltd
ISBN: 1788850564
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
The true story of the Lady of the Mercians. At the end of the ninth century AD, a large part of what is now England was controlled by the Vikings – heathen warriors from Scandinavia who had been attacking the British Isles for more than a hundred years. Alfred the Great, king of Wessex, was determined to regain the conquered lands but his death in 899 meant that the task passed to his son Edward. In the early 900s, Edward led a great fightback against the Viking armies. He was assisted by the English rulers of Mercia: Lord Æthelred and his wife Æthelflæd (Edward's sister). After her husband's death, Æthelflæd ruled Mercia on her own, leading the army to war and working with her brother to achieve their father's aims. Known to history as the Lady of the Mercians, she earned a reputation as a competent general and was feared by her enemies. She helped to save England from the Vikings and is one of the most famous women of the Dark Ages. This book, published 1100 years after her death, tells her remarkable story.

Asser's Life of King Alfred

Asser's Life of King Alfred PDF Author: John Asser
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description


King Alfred's Daughter

King Alfred's Daughter PDF Author: Marjory A. Grieser
Publisher: Dog Ear Publishing
ISBN: 160844306X
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
In the eighth century, the Danes sailed the North Sea and landed on the Northumbrian coast of England. In less than a hundred years they ravaged everything in their path, and eventually captured the city of London. King Alfred the Great of Wessex fought back. A key role in this fight was played by Alfred's oldest child, Aethelflaed, known as the Lady of the Mercians by her own people. This story is a fictionalized account of the life of Lady Aethelflaed. Her successful defense of the western border of English Mercia against the Scandinavian Vikings was a major factor in the success of the English campaigns. She was a warrior princess, a military tactician, and a treaty negotiator whose efforts, together with those of her husband, Ethelred, Overlord of Mercia, and her brother, Edward, eventually drove back the Viking invaders and united England under one crown. Years ago I came across the name of Aethelflaed in my readings in early English history and was intrigued that this heroic woman, who played such an important military role in the making of the English nation, should have received so little mention. In the early 1970s, I started reading every record of Anglo-Saxon history I could find. Clearly, I needed to go to England to find out more about this woman's life. One trip turned into three, and when I came back to the States after these trips, I started writing about her life as I imagined it might have been. Because little is known about the lives of Aethelflaed and her contemporaries, this account of her life should be read primarily as a story told against the backdrop of ninth and tenth century Anglo-Saxon England. I trusted that recorded events might serve as a guide to the characters of these people.