William I (Penguin Monarchs) by Marc Morris
On Christmas Day 1066, William duke of Normandy was crowned in Westminster, the first Norman king of England. The ceremony was a disaster: Norman soldiers, mishearing English shouts of acclamation as treachery, torched and looted the surrounding buildings. To chroniclers who wrote with the benefit of hindsight, it was an omen of catastrophes to come. During the reign of William the Conqueror, England experienced greater and more seismic change than ever before or since. The old ruling elites were swept away, while rebellion was met with overwhelming force, laying waste huge swathes of the country. Society was reordered, hundreds of castles constructed across the kingdom and every major abbey and cathedral torn down and rebuilt. The map of England itself was redrawn, giving greater power than ever before to the king. Towards the end of his reign, when William attempted to assess the scale of this transformation by launching a great survey, his subjects compared it to the last judgement of God: the Domesday Book.
A historian of the middle ages, Marc Morris's acclaimed books include King John: Treachery, Tyranny and the Road to Magna Carta and The Norman Conquest. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, writes for, among others, History Today and BBC History Magazine, and appears regularly on radio and television.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780141977843 |
| ISBN 10 | 0141977841 |
| Title | William I (Penguin Monarchs) |
| Author | Marc Morris |
| Series | Penguin Monarchs |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Penguin Books Ltd |
| Year published | 2016-08-25 |
| Number of pages | 128 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |