Knight in Anarchy

by George Shipway

His father murdered, his estate seized, he himself mutilated by a rival landowner.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Medieval

251 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

George Shipway (1908–1982) was a British author best known for his historical novels, but he also tried his hand at political satire in his book The Chilian Club.

Shipway was born in 1908, and served in the Indian Imperial Cavalry until 1946. He died in 1982. His cavalry background served him well when he took up writing; his descriptions of cavalry battles are full of minute detail and his works generally were meticulously researched.

IN his 1969 novel Knight in Anarchy Shipway describes the life of Humphrey de Visdelou as he follows Geoffrey de Mandeville to his doom. In the book Shipway indicates that he lives on the estates that de Visdelou once owned.

Reviews

[Chrisl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Shipway to reread ... Amazon's list of used hardcovers has impressive prices.
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Suggest/recommend for followers of Sharon Penman's when christ slept.
When Christ and His Saints Slept
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linked article reinforces desire to re-read. a civil war story.
https://www.archaeology.org/issues/30...
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quote copied from Wiki about the author :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_...
"In his 1969 novel Knight in Anarchy Shipway describes the life of Humphrey de Visdelou as he follows Geoffrey de Mandeville to his doom. In the book Shipway indicates that he lives on the estates that de Visdelou once owned. The Vis de Lou family certainly held lands in Berkshire post-Conquest."

Re-read Quotes from Chapter 1 :

"January -- April 1136

"On a bleak January day I followed King Henry's funeral procession when they buried him below the High Altar in Reading Abbey.

"Eight horses drew the hearse, lurching and bouncing between iron-hard furrows on a frozen road ...

"Henry's body had rested at Shinfield, four miles from Reading. Here the great men of England assembled like an army gathering for battle, and their pavilions and escorts and baggage surrounded the hamlet and made it the petty nucleus of a vast encampment. The counts were there: Ranulf of Chester and Robert of Leicester, each with his train of lords and liegemen ...

"One among them could certainly not have mourned at all. Golden-bearded, florid and blue-eyed, Stephen of Blois, Count of Mortain and King of England, strode at the head of his vassals. Thirty days ago he had been merely Henry of England's nephew ... casting no shadow of royalty."

" ... although of gentle blood, I wore no spurs; although sturdy and muscular I had no experience in war. For him therefore I had no significance. Such treatment I had met before: the chasm between knights and the rest of mankind was profound."

" ... Odinel was amused. 'Were you telling him the tale?' he asked. 'The boy must have a strong stomach. Remember Rouen?'

"'Never shall I forget. We had to keep the old man at Caen until he had leaked himself dry. By the time we reached England he hardly smelt at all.'"

[Keith Currie · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Anarchy is salvation for such as we!’

If you have read any of Shipway’s other novels you will understand that they are violent tales about violent men steeped in the customs and prejudices of the times. This novel is no exception. The central characters are Norman knights who respect each other, but consider everyone else as effectively sub-human – all the more brutal as the novel is set in the times of the English Anarchy, as King Stephen and Empress Matilda slug it out for the control of England. The central character, Humphrey Visdelou, finds his home destroyed, his family killed and himself mutilated by a rival baron. Attaching himself to the amoral and cruel Geoffrey de Manderville, he shares in that ambiguous lord’s rise and fall. There are some terrific scenes of medieval warfare in this novel: the siege of Humphrey’s castle, the battle of the Standard in the wilds of North Yorkshire, Geoffrey’s wheeling and dealing, but some of the violence is stomach-churning, although it should be said, never gratuitous. The overall tone, however, is bleak, and the ending could be considered rather depressing, or perhaps the reader may feel that Humphrey at long last receives his just deserts.

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel was published in the US as "The Knight," the "anarchy" in the English title referring to those nobles who maintained the war between Stephen and Matilda for their own shifting personal gain. On rereading thirty-some years later, "The Knight" is still a good book, though not the match of "The Paladin."

[Josephine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would love to read more George Shipway books, but sadly they are out of print. Such an authentic writer!

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Humphrey Visdelou becomes a knight of Geoffrey de Mandeville after being mutilated and dispossessed just after the death of Henry I and the start of the anarchy of Stephen and Matilda. Shipway is superb at describing battle, less so with the love interest and Humphrey’s introspection, but knightly life, the violence of the time, the plight of the peasants and interesting subsidiary characters such as Odinel de Umfraville and the priest, Ranulf, more than compensate, as Humphrey dictates his story in 1144

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

England descended into a state of civil war and anarchy following the death of Henry I in 1135 (and until the emergence of Henry II more than a decade later). Shipway's main character is a lesser landowner caught up in the private warfare, previously illegal, that marked much of that period. Having lost his family and his holdings, Humphrey Visdelou serves Geoffrey de Mandeville, a major lord who played both sides of the conflict to his own advantage, serving first one side and then the other. Though Humphrey's inner turmoil gets tiresome, Shipway clearly describes the nature of the times.

[Margareth8537 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Time of Matilda. Nicely written