Description
Book SynopsisThe cataclysmic conquests of the eleventh century are here set together for the first time. Eleventh-century England suffered two devastating conquests, each bringing the rule of a foreign king and the imposition of a new regime. Yet only the second event, the Norman Conquest of 1066, has been credited with the impact and influence of a permanent transformation. Half a century earlier, the Danish conquest of 1016 had nonetheless marked the painful culmination of decades of raiding and invasion - and more importantly, of centuries of England's conflict and cooperation with the Scandinavian world - and the Normans themselves were a part of that world. Without 1016, the conquest of 1066 could never have happened as it did: and yet disciplinary fragmentation in the study of eleventh-century England has ensured that a gulf separates the conquests in modern scholarship. The essays in this volume offer multidisciplinary perspectives on a century of conquest: in politics, law, governance, and religion; in art, literature, economics, and culture; and in the lives and experiences of peoples in a changing, febrile, and hybrid society. Crucially, it moves beyond an insular perspective, placing England within its British, Scandinavian, and European contexts; and in reaching across conquests connects the tenth century and earlier with the twelfth century and beyond, seeing the continuities in England's Anglo-Saxon, Danish, Norman, and Angevin elite cultureand rulership. The chapters break new ground in the documentary evidence and give fresh insights into the whole historical landscape, whilst fully engaging with the importance, influence, and effects of England's eleventh-centuryconquests, both separately and together. LAURA ASHE is Professor of English Literature and Fellow and Tutor in English, Worcester College, Oxford; EMILY JOAN WARD is Moses and Mary Finley Research Fellow, Darwin College, Cambridge. Contributors: Timothy Bolton, Stephanie Mooers Christelow, Julia Crick, Sarah Foot, John Gillingham, Charles Insley, Catherine Karkov, Lois Lane, Benjamin Savill, Peter Sigurdson Lunga, Niels Lund, Rory Naismith, Bruce O'Brien, Rebecca Thomas, Elizabeth M. Tyler, Elisabeth van Houts, Emily Joan Ward.
Trade ReviewThought-provoking. * HISTORY *
This substantial volume has much of considerable value to commend it. It certainly offers detailed and authoritative surveys of the context of these two invasions, which will enhance a fuller understanding of the military sphere. * BATTLEFIELDS TRUST MAGAZINE *
[T]he editors are to be congratulated for furthering the problem of conquest and its correlates. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *
Table of ContentsWhy 1016 Matters; or, The Politics of Memory and Identity in Cnut's kingdom - Charles Insley Why Did Cnut Conquer England? - Niels Lund Conquest and the Law - Bruce O'Brien Cnut and William: A Comparison - Elisabeth M C van Houts Currency and Conquest in Eleventh-Century England - Rory Naismith Episcopal Exon? Exeter, Cathedral Library, MS 3500 and the Role of Bishops in the Domesday Survey - Lois Lane Conquest and Manuscript Culture - Julia C Crick Kings, Saints and Conquests - Sarah Foot Cultures of Conquest: Warfare and Enslavement in Britain Before and After 1066 - John B Gillingham Conquest and Material Culture - Catherine E. Karkov Remapping Literary History: The Patronage of Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman Queens - Elizabeth M. Tyler Queens and Demons: Women in English Royal Genealogies, c.1100-c.1223 - Peter Sigurdson Lunga French Women in Early Norman England: The Case of Hawise of Bacqueville - Stephanie Mooers Christelow English contact with the European mainland throughout the eleventh century - Timothy Bolton The View from Wales: Anglo-Welsh Relations in the Time of England's Conquests - Rebecca Thomas England and the Papacy Between Two Conquests: The Shadow of 'Reform' - Benjamin Savill Child Kings and the Norman Conquest: Representations of Association and Succession - Emily Ward
