Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32898 in Books
• Published on: 1981-08-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Customer Reviews

William advantageously uses his papal,"window of righteousness
Ther are alot of new books out about Hastings,particularly ones that cover the Viking invasions of 1066 and the Godwin family.Howarth seems to sink into an idyllic Anglo-Saxon past (which probably never existed)in his work. There are alot of descriptions of rural domesticity particularly in the first part of the book which seemed too pastoral for my liking.(Time for someone or something to shake them up there)!The price for losing contact, even to a lesser degree as the Anglo-Saxons did,with the European continent---A Norman invasion complete with a professional army with some Vikings in the north picking up some table scraps.This tale doesn't say much for Harald's Fyrd(the middle age equivalent of today's militia).So much for Anglo-Saxon fantasyland.Read Bloodfeud and you'll get a more true picture of what Anglo-Saxon was like.Mongrels are usually much smarter dogs anyway.
Anyway Howarth's thesis seems to be that William's attack on the Anglo-Saxons was the result of papal machinations in Europe.The pope had granted William an,"I'm in the right and Harold's wrong" stamp in the summer of 1066.As a result William knew he had to act quickly before the Saxon rulers had a chance to send a delegation to Europe to dispute the pope's decision. Harold indeed was duly elected by the Saxon government of England but William also had a claim due to inheritance rights.With the pope's cyclical against Harold,Harold was diminished in the hearts and minds of the common folk as well as a few of Harold's Saxon and norman enemies.If it's any consolation,anglo-norman England repays Normandy in 1337 with the start of the hundred years wars.

1066: The year of the Conquest
Very readable history. Shows how naive we Americans are because we have been so poorly taught real history.

A quick read of a world changing event
Like sitting on a star, looking down on the continental world, we get a broad, quick, and enjoyable view of this critical year. Yes, as some reviewers say, it is biased by the author. But what history is not? "History is what men have decided upon," Napoleon said. My view is that what makes a people is geography and religion, and in the end it is geography. "1066" certainly reinforces that concept. What if the wind had blown from the East -- for just one day in the summer, that history would have been written in French perhaps. For those wanting scholarly treatises with lots of footnotes, there are plenty of other big thick books. Howarth has made a valuable historical contribution to the rest of us. A great and welcome read.

Frederick R. Andresen, Author of "Walking on Ice, An American Businessman in Russia."