1066: The Year of the Conquest

Too many "probably", " maybe," " could be," etc. I put it in the little lending library. Not a keeper.

The author take several historical sources, considers their bias along with his own, and give a historical account that is driven by an underlying plot. The author rarely gets bogged down in historical minute details and offers an enjoyable fast paced read.

I have read this book for sheer pleasure at least four times since I came across it a few years ago. David Howarth writes extremely well and does an excellent job of engaging the reader in the times, the events, and the characters, making the presented facts much more memorable than they would be in a "scholarly" work. I would recommend this book to anyone as a valuable introduction to the history of the Norman Conquest, or just as an enjoyable book.

I first read this book back in the late 1970s when it was first published and since then I've read nearly every book by David Howarth. He is the consumate popular historian, who makes history really come alive for the reader.1066 is probably his best book and is certainly my favourite book of history. He takes the reader through the main events of that year, introduces the major players in the story he is unfolding, and speculates about their motives and on the way history has dealt with the story (ie history comes down to us as told by the winners).He makes people like King Harold, William the Bastard and the amazing Harald Hardrada of Norway real for the reader. At the end you are left wondering how English history might have been if just one of the events he descibes had turned out differently.A truly wonderful book - history at its very best.

Anyone who has taken any European History classes can tell you that 1)the Battle of Hastings was fought in 1066, 2) Herald, King of England, was killed there by an arrow that struck him in the eye, and 3)because of William the Conqueror, French words entered the English vocabulary. David Howarth provides you with the rest of the story.This is not a book about the Battle of Hastings. Howarth covers that in less than 15 pages. Howarth tries to tell the story of court intrigue and how England was organized, governed and how the common man lived in the eleventh century. There are no more that 20 works that any writer of this period can refer to and Howarth is not reluctant to draw his own interpretations of the facts. His ability to draw convincing conclusions fills in the holes that 900 years have made and makes the book a pleasure to read.There are two things that Howarth exposes in this book that are surprising to anyone who is not a student of the 1100's. First, Herald was an effective, enlightended and energetic King of England. His father, Godwin, came from a mysterious origin but made himself indispensable as a kind of prime minister to a series of weak English monarchs. When Godwin died his son Herald assumed his role. Herald served King Edward wisely and upon the death of the childless Edward was named King. Here is where the trouble begins because William, Duke of Normandy and a certain Harald Hadrata of Norway both believe that they have a more natural claim to the throne than Herald. Herald defeats Hadrata and then turns to face William.The second surprising fact is just how lucky William was. The Normans were not a seafaring people and his effort to cross the English Channel with horses and knights was more of a miracle than a prodigious feat of arms. His timing could not have been more perfect because Herold, who had been watching the coast all summer for William, was in York defeating the army of Hadrata. If William nad landed a month earlier he would have faced opposition almost immediately from a large and confident English fyrd, or conscripted army.William's most impressive weapon, however, was not a shield or sword but an endorsement from the Pope that his cause was just. He obtained this endorsement rather dubiously but to the devoted minds of eleventh-century warriors a blessing from God offered immortality. Howarth concludes that Herald's lethargy on the day of Hastings was due to the William's papal standard among his battle flags. Howarth admits that we can never know if this was the case or not--maybe that's the best thing about writing about events that occured 900 years ago. But these conclusions make this story more than justa history. Howarth, like most good writers, puts the reader smack dab in the middle of Herald's battle line on that October day.