The Norman Conquest

A comprehensive, very readable history of a major change in the course of English history. Marc Morris makes this historic event available to everyone.

I love English history. This book is so well written and easy to read. I have learned a great deal from it.

This is one of the most interesting and easily read history books I've had the pleasure of reading. I could't put it down. I recommend it to any one who is interested in the Conquest period in history.

Being a regular battlefield visitor, I bought this book before visiting the area last year on the 950th anniversary of the momentous occasion. I found it an excellent and easy read describing relevant events both in Normandy and England(and indeed parts of Wales) before and after the invasion as well as the likely conduct of the battle itself. The story of William, the Godwinesons and other relevant parties is narrated in a manner that made it difficult to put down at times. It's quite a lengthy book packed with information providing a detailed description of events. Highly recommended if you are not looking to wade through treacle.

This is an outstanding work that puts the whole century (and more) surrounding the Norman Conquest into context. The machinations in England and Normandy in the decades leading up to 1066 are covered in detail, as are (more briefly) the consequences over the centuries following the death of the Conqueror, until an ‘English’ King was again on the throne, in the form of Edward I. I was not previously aware of the circumstances of the death of William I, from a radiant all-conquering warlord, to his final days as a grossly overweight parody who could only be crammed into his sarcophagus by bursting his bowels, an unseemly end to a funeral that was in every sense farcical. Many other learnings – the Battle of Hastings was exceedingly bloody and close-run, but the magnanimity of the Conqueror after the bloodletting in and immediately following the battle was illuminating. Those English magnates who survived the battle were allowed to live and in many cases retained their landholdings (after paying heavy fines to their new overlord); it was only as a consequence of the many heated rebellions in the following decade that the English nobility was purged and totally supplanted, as evident from the Domesday Book in 1086. Equally apparent from the Book was the terrible price that Yorkshire paid, with the devastation through the ‘harrying of the North’ evident until decades later (perhaps 150,000 of the local population disappeared in the killings and starvation).

English history is fortunate to have such an expansive record of these times documented through the Bayeux tapestry, the Anglo-Saxon (and other) chronicles and the Great and Little Domesday books. An incredible range of characters is brought to life in this wonderfully researched and truly engaging read.

A very detailed yet enjoyable book to read regarding this time in history. Having recently been to France and visited Bayeaux and having seen the Bayeaux Tapestry this book is a great book to bring all of that information together.