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.
- ISBN10 0141987464
- ISBN13 9780141987460
- Publish Date 28 June 2018 (first published 25 August 2016)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Penguin Books Ltd
- Format Paperback (US Mass Market)
- Pages 128
- Language English
- URL https://penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/isbn/9780141987460