By J. G. Edgar. This is a sweeping history of the major events in British history from the ninth century AD to the end of the Norman Conquest more than 200 years later, featuring the fascinating stories of the series of Vikings, Saxons, and Normans who blazed their way across England during that tumultuous time.
Read here of Rollo the Norman (“Rolfganger”), a Viking and first duke of Normandy, and his most famous descendent, William the Conqueror; and of the Danish invasion under Earl Godwin, the restoration of the Anglo-Saxon kings under Edward the Confessor, and many others, including the adventurers Siward the Dane, Harold Hardrada, and Hereward the Saxon.
The overview shows how the Normans under Rolfganger forced a settlement in the dominions of Charles the Simple, while Alfred the Great was struggling with the Danes in England, and recounts the events which led to a connection between the courts of Rouen and Westminster, and to the invasion of England by William the Norman. It then traces the path of William the Conqueror’s career from the coast of Sussex to the banks of the Humber and the “harrying of the north.” It also dramatically reveals the struggles for power within the Norman king’s house, and how, after the wars of succession, the Plantagenet house came to rule England.
Contents
I: Rolfganger and His Comrades
II: William the Conqueror
III: The Danes in England
IV: Earl Godwin
V: Edward the Confessor
VI: The King and the King-Maker
VII: Matilda of Flanders
VIII: Siward the Dane
IX: Harold, the Saxon King
X: Duke William and His Difficulties
XI: Tostig, Son of Godwin
XII: Harold Hardrada
XIII: The Alarm in England
XIV: The Battle of Stamford Bridge
XV: Philip of France
XVI: The Norman Armament
XVII: Harold’s Host
XVIII: The Battle of Hastings
XIX: The Body of Harold
XX: The Conqueror and the Kentishmen
XXI: Edgar Atheling
XXII: Coronation of the Conqueror
XXIII: The Siege of Exeter
XXIV: Matilda and Brihtrik
XXV: The Normans in Northumberland
XXVI: Cospatrick and the Conqueror
XXVII: Saxon Saints and Norman Soldiers
XXVIII: The Reduction of Chester
XXIX: Lanfranc of Pavia
XXX: Edwin and Morkar
XXXI: Ivo Taille-Bois
XXXII: Hereward the Saxon
XXXIII: Building of Battle Abbey
XXXIV: Malcolm Canmore
XXXV: The Death of Cospatrick
XXXVI: Atheling and His Allies
XXXVII: Fitzosborne and De Gael
XXXVIII: Waltheof, Son of Siward
XXXIX: Wulstan, Bishop of Worcester
XL: Robert Curthose
XLI: The Conqueror and His Heir
XLII: Odo, Bishop of Bayeux
XLIII: Domesday Book
XLIV: The Conqueror’s Death
XLV: The Burial at Caen
XLVI: The Red King
XLVII: Rufus and the Jews
XLVIII: Rufus and the Scots
XLIX: Robert De Moubray
L: Henry Beauclerc
LI: The Death of Rufus
LII: A Change of Fortune
LIII: Curthose at the Crusade
LIV: Beauclerc and Curthose
LV: After Tinchebray
About the author: John George Edgar (1834–1864) was, despite his short life, a prolific English writer who produced fifteen books devoted to English and Scottish history, as well as being the first editor of Every Boy’s Magazine. His life and work were tragically cut short by encephalemia at the age of thirty.
254 pp
Softcover $12.95
Preview here:
