The English and the Norman Conquest by Ann Williams

The English and the Norman Conquest by Ann Williams

Applies a critical and scholarly approach to a topic that has long commanded attention... Williams's book represents a remarkable scholarly achievement. THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT Most books on the Norman conquest concentrate on the conquerors, the Norman settlers who became the ancestors of the medieval English baronage. This book is different, setting out to examine the experience of the lesser English lords and landowners, which has been largely ignored. Ann Williams shows how they survived the conquest and settlement, adapted to foreign customs, and in the process preserved native tradition and culture. Though the great earls and magnates fell with Harold, some of their dependents secured a place in the entourages of their supplanters, or were too useful to the royal administration (based largely on English procedure) to be completely displaced; in the Church, too, a reservoir of English sentiment survived. The testimony of the Anglo-Norman historians who chronicled the Conquest, together with other evidence, including the Domesday Book (based on the English system of local government), are an important source for our knowledge of how the lesser aristocracy and the free landholders felt about, and reacted to, their new masters. Dr ANN WILLIAMS was until her retirement Senior Lecturer in medieval history at the Polytechnic of North London.

Ann Williams has been immersed in regional history for over thirty years. She has a particular interest in antebellum plantation life, and the families, black and white, who worked those plantations. She has researched farming practices of the period, especially cotton farming, and the extensive collections of family papers of several large Mecklenburg planters. She has used a variety of sources to study slave life especially books and papers written by slaves or former slaves. Using this information she has written detailed accounts for local historic sites. Along with her husband she volunteers at historic sites doing research, giving tours, and doing first person interpretations in the personas of those who lived before. She is the author of Your Affectionate Daughter, Isabella, a documented story drawn from family papers about the experiences and adventures of the Torrance family, owners of a fine Mecklenburg plantation. And she is co-editor of A Life in Antebellum Charlotte, The Private Journal of Sarah F. Davidson, 1837, which portrays Charlotte in a pivotal year of its history. Ann and her husband Jim have lived in Charlotte, North Carolina since 1969. They are the parents of three grown children, and four fabulous grandchildren.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780851157085
ISBN 10	0851157084
Title	The English and the Norman Conquest
Author	Ann Williams
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Year published	1997-03-06
Number of pages	280
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.