England's Conqueror

William I (Penguin Monarchs)

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. At the very moment God had been called upon to bless William's rule, all around were scenes of chaos and destruction. To chroniclers who wrote with the benefit of hindsight, it was an omen of the catastrophes to come. During the reign of William the Conqueror, England experienced greater and more seismic change than at any point before or since. The old ruling elites of England 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.

Part of the Penguin Monarchs series: short, fresh, expert accounts of England's rulers - now in paperback 
 
On Christmas Day 1066, William, duke of Normandy was crowned in Westminster, the first Norman king of England. It was a disaster: soldiers outside, thinking shouts of acclamation were treachery, torched the surrounding buildings. To later chroniclers, it was an omen of the catastrophes to come. 
 
During the reign of William the Conqueror, England experienced greater and more seismic change than at any point before or since. Marc Morris's concise and gripping biography sifts through the sources of the time to give a fresh view of the man who changed England more than any other, as old ruling elites were swept away, enemies at home and abroad (including those in his closest family) were crushed, swathes of the country were devastated and the map of the nation itself was redrawn, giving greater power than ever to the king. 
 
When, towards the end of his reign, William undertook a great survey of his new lands, his subjects compared it to the last judgement of God, the Domesday Book. England had been transformed forever.

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.

Treachery, Tyranny and the Road to Magna Carta

King John

The brilliantly compelling new biography of the treacherous and tyrannical King John, published to coincide with the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. 
 
King John is familiar to everyone as the villain from the tales of Robin Hood — greedy, cowardly, despicable and cruel. But who was the man behind the legend? 
 
Drawing on contemporary chronicles and the king's own letters, bestselling historian Marc Morris brings the real John vividly to life. We see how a youngest son with limited prospects became the ruler of the greatest dominion in Europe, but at a terrible cost. His rise to power involved treachery, rebellion and murder, and his reign witnessed oppression on an almost unprecedented scale. It climaxed in conspiracy and revolt, and his leading subjects forced him to issue Magna Carta, a document binding him and his successors to behave better in future. John's rejection of the charter led to civil war and foreign invasion, bringing his life to a disastrous close. 
 
Authoritative and dramatic, Marc Morris's King John offers a compelling portrait of an extraordinary man at a momentous turning point in the history of Britain and Europe.

Marc Morris’s new bestseller: the definitive and brilliantly compelling biography of the treacherous and tyrannical King John. Published in the run-up to the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta and written by a historian at the top of his game.

Fine, timely... jaunty, authoritative... Morris has already proven himself as a 13th-century royal biographer - his study of Edward I is a modern classic. He is on form here, too. His split-chronology approach to John’s life before and after the loss of Normandy highlights just how disastrous it was for the king’s reign and reputation.

Outstanding ... This is by far the best book on the monarch’s reign since W L Warren’s trail-blazing biography, King John, written in 1961 – with the literary bravura of which Morris’ book may not unfavourably be compared.

An excellent and sardonic new biography of King John. It will delight all who enjoyed his books on 1066 and Edward I.

A masterpiece of historical writing… Morris is a wonderful storyteller

A riveting and timely portrait of an execrable king

A compelling portrait of a king whose 17-year reign witnessed mass oppression on a huge scale... injected with a lively fluency... A fine reminder of the huge influence of Magna Carta that continues to form the basis of our freedoms even today.

[A] magisterial biography ... Will surely become the book of choice on this fated reign for years to come.

The John that emerges... is still a tyrant, but a more complex figure in a complex time. His importance for us, concludes the historian and broadcaster Marc Morris, is that “his oppressions led to the creation of a document that ensured they would not be repeated”.

A narrative history of the reign in muscular prose, full of anecdote and with a strong sense of period. He reconstructs with much skill some of the critical events of the reign, such as the murder of Arthur and John’s brutal feud with William de Briouze and his family.

A lively overview, which eschews a linear narrative in favour of flashbacks to John's earlier life and which offers a damning indictment of the king in the conclusion.

Morris is more than the master of his sources: he engages with them and brings his sharp critical intelligence to bear on them. His writing is clear, incisive and spiced time and again by a bon mot. This is by far the best book on the monarch's reign since W L Warren's trail-blazing biography, King John, written in 1961 - with the literary bravura of which Morris' book may not unfavourably be compared.

[A] magisterial biography ... Will surely become the book of choice on this fated reign for years to come.

Dr Marc Morris is a historian who specializes in the Middle Ages. He studied and taught at the universities of London and Oxford and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. His other books include a bestselling history of the Norman Conquest and highly acclaimed biographies of King John and Edward I (A Great and Terrible King). He also presented the TV series Castle and wrote its accompanying book. He contributes regularly to other history programmes on radio and television and writes for numerous journals and magazines.

The Norman Conquest

An upstart French duke who sets out to conquer the most powerful and unified kingdom in Christendom. An invasion force on a scale not seen since the days of the Romans. One of the bloodiest and most decisive battles ever fought. This riveting book explains why the Norman Conquest was the single most important event in English history. 
 
Assessing the original evidence at every turn, Marc Morris goes beyond the familiar outline to explain why England was at once so powerful and yet so vulnerable to William the Conqueror's attack. Why the Normans, in some respects less sophisticated, possessed the military cutting edge. How William's hopes of a united Anglo-Norman realm unravelled, dashed by English rebellions, Viking invasions and the insatiable demands of his fellow conquerors. This is a tale of powerful drama, repression and seismic social change: the Battle of Hastings itself and the violent 'Harrying of the North'; the sudden introduction of castles and the wholesale rebuilding of every major church; the total destruction of an ancient ruling class. Language, law, architecture, even attitudes towards life itself were altered forever by the coming of the Normans. 
 
Marc Morris, author of the bestselling biography of Edward I, A Great and Terrible King, approaches the Conquest with the same passion, verve and scrupulous concern for historical accuracy. This is the definitive account for our times of an extraordinary story, a pivotal moment in the shaping of the English nation.

The definitive account for our times of a pivotal moment in English history

Almost everything you know about 1066 is wrong. And there’s no better historian to put you right than the wonderful Marc Morris. His new book grips not only as a work of narrative history but also as a sleuthing exercise . . . Morris has captured the triumph and the tragedy of this tumultuous era with verve, insight and a rollicking narrative.

Morris gives a compelling account of the invasion by William the Conqueror in 1066 ... Confidently, he opens with the Bayeux Tapestry as a powerful contemporary depiction of a famous battle ... Morris sorts embroidery from evidence and provides a much-needed, modern account of the Normans in England that respects past events more than present ideologies.

Marc Morris’s lively new book retells the story of the Norman invasion with vim, vigour and narrative urgency

As every schoolboy knows, or used to, 1066 is the most important date in English history. But as Marc Morris points out in this enormously enjoyable book, the Norman conquest was much more violent, complicated and ambiguous then we usually think. Carefully steering the reader through the partisan and often contradictory sources, he paints a vivid picture of the collapse of the sophisticated Anglo-Saxon realm, and shows how William the Conqueror relied on sheer terror to establish his reign. Even a Norman chronicler admitted that William had “mercilessly slaughtered” the English, “like the scourge of God smiting them for their sins.

I loved it – a suitably epic account of one of the most seismic and far-reaching events in British history.

Stimulating popular history of the 1066 Norman invasion . . . Marc Morris’s new book is an exciting arrival ... a strong and often gripping story, developed with enormous verve, a clear sense of direction and considerable confidence

This is a wonderfully shrewd, engaging and readable account of the most pivotal event in English history.

The Norman Conquest is a scrupulously researched and well-written book. But it is also that rare thing: a work undertaken with enormous integrity. Dr Morris questions the received wisdom from past scholars, considers the Conquest and its aftermath anew, and expresses his findings with great conscientiousness.

A muscular, vivid narrative full of compelling historical insight – not just a brilliantly told story, but required reading for anyone interested in the real 1066 and all that.

A History of the Buildings that Shaped Medieval Britain

Castle

Beginning with their introduction in the eleventh century, and ending with their widespread abandonment in the seventeenth, Marc Morris explores many of the country’s most famous castles, as well as some spectacular lesser-known examples. At times this is an epic tale, driven by characters like William the Conqueror, King John and Edward I, full of sieges and conquest on an awesome scale. But it is also by turns an intimate story of less eminent individuals, whose adventures, struggles and ambitions were reflected in the fortified residences they constructed. Be it ever so grand or ever so humble, a castle was first and foremost a home. 
 
To understand castles – who built them, who lived in them, and why – is to understand the forces that shaped medieval Britain.

From the author of A Great and Terrible King and The Norman Conquest comes a sweeping and surprising history of some of the most magnificent buildings in Britain.

Captivating and entertaining... More than just a study of architecture, weaponry and personalities, Castle pieces together a comprehensive overview that gives a fresh take on medieval and early modern Britain and the forces that shaped it. Whether ruined or intact, castles still have the power to fire the imagination, and Marc Morris leave you in no doubt why.

Edward I and the Forging of Britain

A Great and Terrible King

This is the first major biography for a generation of a truly formidable king. Edward I is familiar to millions as 'Longshanks', conqueror of Scotland and nemesis of Sir William Wallace ('Braveheart'). Edward was born to rule England, but believed that it was his right to rule all of Britain. His reign was one of the most dramatic of the entire Middle Ages, leading to war and conquest on an unprecedented scale, and leaving a legacy of division that has lasted from his day to our own. 
 
In his astonishingly action-packed life, Edward defeated and killed the famous Simon de Montfort in battle; travelled across Europe to the Holy Land on crusade; conquered Wales, extinguishing forever its native rulers, and constructed - at Conwy, Harlech, Beaumaris and Caernarfon - the most magnificent chain of castles ever created. After the death of his first wife he erected the Eleanor Crosses - the grandest funeral monuments ever fashioned for an English monarch.

The first popular biography of Edward I in a generation by a major new historian.

Morris tells Edward's story fluently and conveys a compelling sense of the reality, and the contingency, of personal rule... It is on the subject of &quot;the forging of Britain&quot; that Morris is most consistently thought-provoking

Marc Morris's new account of the life of Edward I is a splendid example of the genre. Edward's life is in many ways an ideal subject for such an approach, full of incident and action... An excellent, readable account of his reign

This is a direct, forthright and welcoming book... Edward I was called a &quot;great and terrible king&quot; and he has been well served by Marc Morris. He leads us confidently through the litany of battles and conflicts

A highly readable account of an important reign

Marc Morris has written the first full biography of Edward I for around 100 years, and uncommonly good it is too ... He was a remarkable man, and a great king. Marc Morris does him justice, brings him clearly before our eyes, and, like a true historian, judges him by the standards of his age, not ours. It's compelling stuff

The title of Marc Morris' book is apt. No king of England had a greater impact on the peoples of Britain than Edward I. By telling his story in the context of the thirteenth-century English views of the Scots and the Welsh, and seeing Scottish and Welsh developments as interlocking with, but being more than simply responses to English invasion, he has succeeded in writing a book for today

An insightful, compelling and highly readable account of one of Britain's most influential kings

Robyn Young, author of the Brethren Trilogy

Edward I's reign during the Middle Ages was one of the most dramatic in history: a time of adventure and political advances, including Holy Land crusades and battles with Scotland. A brilliant biography

Marc Morris

A History of the Beginnings of England

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
'[A] clever, lively ... splendid new book' 
DAN JONES, SUNDAY TIMES 
 
'A big gold bar of delight' 
SPECTATOR 
 
Sixteen hundred years ago Britain left the Roman Empire and swiftly fell into ruin. Into this violent and unstable world came foreign invaders from across the sea, and established themselves as its new masters. In this sweeping and original history, renowned historian Marc Morris separates the truth from the legend and tells the extraordinary story of how the foundations of England were laid. 
 
'Marc Morris is a genius of medieval narrative' 
IAN MORTIMER, author of The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England 
 
'Brilliant ... Beautifully written, incredibly accessible and deeply researched' 
JAMES O'BRIEN 
 
'A much-needed book ... A gripping story, beautifully told' 
BERNARD CORNWELL, author of The Last Kingdom 
 
'Highly informative and hugely enjoyable' 
IAN HISLOP 
 
'A vivid, sharply drawn story of seven centuries of profound political change' 
THOMAS PENN, author of The Winter King

Marc Morris

The Anglo-Saxons

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