"Beginning with the desperate period when Roman rule had crumbled, Morris skillfully evokes each era of Anglo-Saxon England, the varying nature of the challenges facing its rulers and the crucial role, almost unimaginable to modern minds, that churchmen played in supporting and subverting its kings. Morris handles the grand narrative of Anglo-Saxon history well. Through this maze of chance, dynastic quarrels, abstruse ecclesiastical disputes and clashes of shield walls, Morris guides the reader with aplomb, providing a survey of Anglo-Saxon history that is both rounded and nuanced." Much of the Anglo-Saxon world was wiped out by the Normans, but as Morris’s splendid new book shows, there is plenty we can still see, and enjoy, today.” Throughout this clever, lively book Morris leans enthusiastically into uncertainty, inviting the reader to figure out the puzzles with him. Morris is such an accomplished guide to the tricksy Anglo-Saxon world. “Medievalist Marc Morris has produced a deep dive into one of the murkiest ages in our national history. Through their remarkable careers we see how a new society, a new culture and a single unified nation came into being.ĭrawing on a vast range of original evidence - chronicles, letters, archaeology and artefacts - renowned historian Marc Morris illuminates a period of history that is only dimly understood, separates the truth from the legend, and tells the extraordinary story of how the foundations of England were laid. It is a tale of famous figures like King Offa, Alfred the Great and Edward the Confessor, but also features a host of lesser known characters - ambitious queens, revolutionary saints, intolerant monks and grasping nobles. It charts the revival of towns and trade, and the origins of a familiar landscape of shires, boroughs and bishoprics. It explores how they abandoned their old gods for Christianity, established hundreds of churches and created dazzlingly intricate works of art. It explains how their earliest rulers fought relentlessly against each other for glory and supremacy, and then were almost destroyed by the onslaught of the vikings. The Anglo-Saxons traces the turbulent history of these people across the next six centuries. Into this violent and unstable world came foreign invaders from across the sea, and established themselves as its new masters. Grand cities and luxurious villas were deserted and left to crumble, and civil society collapsed into chaos.
Sixteen hundred years ago Britain left the Roman Empire and swiftly fell into ruin. A sweeping and original history of the Anglo-Saxons by national bestselling author Marc Morris.
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