J G Edgar

Danes, Saxons, and Normans J G Edgar

This is a sweeping history of the major events in British history from the ninth century AD to the end of the Norman Conquest more than 200 years later, featuring the fascinating stories of the series of Vikings, Saxons, and Normans who blazed their way across England during that tumultuous time. Read here of Rollo the Norman ("Rolfganger"), a Viking and first duke of Normandy, and his most famous descendent, William the Conqueror; and of the Danish invasion under Earl Godwin, the restoration of the Anglo-Saxon kings under Edward the Confessor, and many others, including the adventurers Siward the Dane, Harold Hardrada, and Hereward the Saxon. The overview shows how the Normans under Rolfganger forced a settlement in the dominions of Charles the Simple, while Alfred the Great was struggling with the Danes in England, and recounts the events which led to a connection between the courts of Rouen and Westminster, and to the invasion of England by William the Norman. It then traces the path of William the Conqueror's career from the coast of Sussex to the banks of the Humber and the "harrying of the north." It also dramatically reveals the struggles for power within the Norman king's house, and how, after the wars of succession, the Plantagenet house came to rule England.