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The History of English Affairs, covering the years 1066-1197, was written at the close of the twelfth century and has been described as being "both in substance and in form ... the finest historical work left to us by an Englishman of the twelfth century" (The Dictionary of National Biography). The author's critical ability, gifts of acute observation, clear judgment and tolerant impartiality justify his high reputation as an original authority. Book Two covers the years 1154-1175, and incorporates the murder of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral, the capture of the King of Scots at Alnwick, and the first subjugation of Ireland by the English. It also documents the career of Nicholas Breakspear, the only Englishman to become Pope.
"Medieval Ghost Stories" is a collection of ghostly occurrences from the eighth to the fourteenth centuries; they have been found in monastic chronicles and preaching manuals, in sagas and heroic poetry, and in medieval romances. In a religious age, the tales bore a peculiar freight of spooks and spirituality which can still make hair stand on end; unfailingly, these stories give a fascinating and moving glimpse into the medieval mind. Look only at the accounts of Richard Rowntree's stillborn child, glimpsed by his father tangled in swaddling clothes on the road to Santiago, or the sly habits of water sprites resting as goblets and golden rings on the surface of the river, just out of reach...
The History of English Affairs, covering the years 10661198, was written at the close of the twelfth century and has been described as being "both in substance and in form ... the finest historical work left to us by an Englishman of the twelfth century" (The Dictionary of National Biography).
Henry II was an enigma to contemporaries, and has excited widely divergent judgements ever since. Dramatic incidents of his reign, such as his quarrel with Archbishop Becket and his troubled relations with his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and his sons, have attracted the attention of historical novelists, playwrights and filmmakers, but with no unanimity of interpretation. That he was a great king there can be no doubt. Yet his motives and intentions are not easy to divine, and it is Professor Warren's contention that concentration on the great crises of the reign can lead to distortion. This book is therefore a comprehensive reappraisal of the reign based, with rare understanding, on contemporary sources; it provides a coherent and persuasive revaluation of the man and the king, and is, in itself, an eloquent and impressive achievement.
Defining essays on questions of newly-emerging English nationalism and the political importance of chivalric values and knightly obligations, as perceived by contemporary historians.
The Historians of Angevin England is a study of the explosion of creativity in historical writing in England in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, and what this tells us about the writing of history in the middle ages. Many of those who wrote history under the Angevin kings of England chose as their subject the events of their own time, and explained that they did so simply because their own times were so interesting and eventful. This was the age of Henry II and Thomas Becket, Eleanor of Aquitaine and Richard the Lionheart, the invasion of Ireland and the Third Crusade, and our knowledge and impression of the period is to a great extent based on these contemporary histories. T...