Although the book has been available for a few weeks, tomorrow, Tuesday 28 July, is the official publication date of my second history book, Conquest to Charter – The Resilience of England. As explained elsewhere on this website, this book follows up on the story of Ice to Athelstan – the Emergence of England with the story of how England was battered and ultimately taken over by Danish Vikings 50 years before the much more famous Norman Conquest.
Many of us know about the Norman Conquest but much less about why it happened and what effect it had on the English. In terms of the ‘why’, one key is to follow the story of the Vikings themselves as the group that settled along the Seine after defeat by King Alfred went on to become the even more formidable Normans, a history that the book sets out in some detail. In terms of effect, later chapters explain how the Normans fundamentally changed land ownership and tenure in England before fragmenting through the chaos of the Anarchy to become the infamous Plantagenets. A new low point followed with King John, whose barons were so outraged by his behaviour that they invited in a French prince to take the English crown, before insisting that the young Henry III observed the Magna Carta and sought the consent of parliament before raising new taxes.
Over the last four or so weeks I’ve given talks nationally and locally in Oxfordshire, with an official launch of Conquest to Charter courtesy of The Book House in Thame (the photo shows the town mayor, Andy Gilbert, with his copy) and a talk on Wessex v The Vikings – Before the Normans at Wallingford, followed by a book signing there. My other talk in Thame was on The Bayeux Tapestry – Embroidery or Fabrication? which seemed to stimulate a lot of interest and discussion ahead on the autumn British Museum opening.
By way of break I had a week re-exploring the Usk and Wye Valleys on the Welsh/ English border, where many areas are crowned with castles built in the period covered by Conquest to Charter, with visits to Raglan Castle and the stunning bluff-perch of Chepstow Castle. At the latter I was gratified on the English/ South-East Wales borders to read of the involvement of William Marshal – ‘the Greatest Knight’ and Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, both of whom feature in (different) sections of Resilience. History is hard to get away from!
