Review: The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England, by Marc Morris

I’ve got a few books by the author, this being the fourth, and, as with the others, this is an easy to read book so whether you’re looking to bridge the Roman-Norman gap on your bookshelf or are buying this as a first foray into history it’s a sound purchase.

The period covered includes a useful section preceding the arrival of Angles and Saxons explaining what the Roman state of play was, their departure, and the unexpectedly ‘free’ Britons of the 5^th century AD. From there it goes up to the Norman Conquest but there’s little after 1066 (although the author does have an excellent book dedicated to the Norman Conquest which I can heartily recommend).

After the Romans left, the central authority was gone and trade declined substantially. This impoverished and weakened Britain and enabled the Saxons, and others, to roll up, invade, and carve out significant territory (more or less modern day England). After a brief period of many low level ‘nobles’ power began to be aggregated into larger realms by aggressive kings. As time passed, the number of kingdoms declined and the power of individual kings waxed. And then the Vikings showed up and everything went arse over kettle.

It was interesting to read how the heptarchy, which I’ve often heard of, is more or less fictional, a simplification based on something existent in a brief period of time during significant political flux.

Maps are presented roughly at the start of each chapter and reflect the changing political state of play, which fluctuates wildly from the start to the finish. Useful for both British and non-British readers as there are some places that either don’t exist any more or were far more important in the past than they are today (it’s surprising how many settlements have lasted the millennium or more to still be around).

Incidentally, anyone after a similar time frame (400-1000 AD) but covering a much wider geographical area should definitely consider Chris Wickham’s The Inheritance of Rome, which is a cracking book.

Thaddeus

Review: The Middle Ages (Everyday Life in Medieval Europe), by Jeffrey L. Singman

Recently, as a belated (for obvious reasons) Christmas present I received The Middle Ages (Everyday Life in Medieval Europe) by Jeffrey L. Singman. As I found Ian Mortimer’s The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England very engaging I had high hopes for this. Did it fulfil them?

In a word, yes.

The period covered is a little broader than Mortimer’s 14^th century, covering the high Middle Ages (10^th to early 14^th). It’s also, interestingly, both more and less focused, using examples from across western and northern Europe. But the two-thirds of the book dedicated to specific chapters on life in village, castle, monastery, and town use specific examples from history to explore what life was like (in England for the first two and France for the latter two).

It’s a very easy to read book, with helpful information presented in tables (how much English/French money was worth, prices, the monastic calendar etc). Unusual terms are explained, and the author does a very good job of putting the reader in a medieval person’s shoes. If you’re into world-building then this would be a very worthwhile book to buy. But even if you’re not, it’s highly engaging, with many little details that help bring the dim and distant past alive (monks were only allowed to run if one of them was about to imminently die, or the monastery was on fire, for example).

In addition to the specific setting chapters there are a few others covering a more general medieval worldview, and certain big differences that might not be immediately obvious (labour and land were cheap, objects were very expensive so possessions tended to be far fewer than today).

Very interesting book, and well worth reading.

 
Thaddeus