The Norman Conquest -

Marc Morris

Windmill

2013

464 páginas

15h 28m

ISBN-10: 1605984515

The headlines of 1066—the death of Edward the Confessor, the succession by Harold Godwinson, and Harold’s overthrow by Duke William of Normandy—rather simplify the challenges of sorting out what happened in England a millennium ago. The sources, such as the Bayeux Tapestry and various chronicles, have biases, omissions, and limitations. Beginning several decades before the Norman invasion and ending with William the Conqueror’s death in 1087, Morris’ narrative incorporates the problems of sources yet yields plausible explanations of hotly debated points, such as whether the Confessor, as the Conqueror claimed, promised him, a kinsman, the English throne. Harold’s claim was indeed weak, but as Morris notes, English royal succession was not necessarily hereditary. The issue decided by arms at the Battle of Hastings, Morris then presents in digestible prose the Conquest’s ensuing consequences, such as two decades of Norman warfare to subdue the English, the construction of castles like the Tower of London, and the commissioning of the celebrated Domesday Book. Soundly grounded popular history, Morris’ captivating account is suitable for studious or recreational purposes.