Kingship and Government in Pre-Conquest England c.500–1066

British History in Perspective

by Ann Williams

This book is a study of the exercise of royal authority before the Norman Conquest. Six centuries separate the 'adventus Saxonum' from the battle of Hastings: during those long years, the English kings changed from warlords, who exacted submission by force, into law-givers to whom obedience was a moral duty. In the process, they created many of the administrative institutes which continued to serve their successors. They also created England: the united kingdom of the English people.

Genres: History, Anglo Saxon

243 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

A specialist in the history of Anglo-Saxon England, Ann Williams is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a research fellow at the University of East Anglia. From 1965 until 1988 she was a lecturer in history at the Polytechnic of North London.

Reviews

[Peter Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a gem of a book. It is extraordinarily packed full of information. Every sentence is tightly written with no waffle. In some ways this might make it a bit tricky for someone new to the period, because there is that much good stuff in each sentence that some will need to be read more than once so that everything can be processed. To those with a good general knowledge of the period, though, this book will be extremely agreeable and rewarding. You can learn a lot in a short space of time.

Although the title is kingship and government, it is very comprehensive and covers most aspects of Anglo-Saxon England. There aren't many books that cover the whole period in so much depth, but so few pages. That can't have been an easy circle to square when it was being written. I found myself making quite a few notes as I went through it. There are absolutely loads of endnotes (I really do prefer footnotes, but it's not the end of the world) and these expand on points mentioned in the text, or briefly discuss the odd dispute over, say, the validity of a charter. I was quite chuffed to, on occasion, be able to guess which book a particular quote or bit of information came from. This is certainly a book that should be better known amongst Anglo-Saxon history enthusiasts than it appears to be.

Three things you'll take away from this book:
1, that the Anglo-Saxon period lasted a long time and institutions and approaches weren't set in stone
2, once again, just how well administered the Anglo-Saxons were
3, how rich and colourful the whole period was

[Samuel Hoover · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed but it almost verbatim repeated some info in multiple chapters which was annoying