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Choice, Pick of the Paperbacks
'A vivid portrait of the power struggles of the early Middle Ages.'
L’Aventures d’Histoire (France)
'Luckily, an English writer has been willing to restore the life of this princess descended from Vikings.'
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Important Queen of England,
By
This review is from: Emma, the Twice-crowned Queen: England in the Viking Age (Paperback)
I have for a long time been interested in the history of England prior to the Norman conquest, and often browse this period of the history section of bookshops. I read the book rapidly - which is a good sign.
Emma was the wife and Queen of King Ethelred (`The unready') of the house of Wessex, and later the wife and Queen of the Danish King, Knut (also known as Canute). This is an extraordinary straddling of the two sides in the prolonged struggle for the control of England between the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings. As Ethelred's wife (1002 - 1016), she was on the losing side, while the country was progressively invaded. She was even forced into temporary exile with her young children, one of whom was Edward - who later became a king of England (known as `The Confessor'). As Knut's wife (1017 - 1035), she gave legitimacy to the Danish conquerors and made great efforts to heal the nation's wounds by gifts to the church. She also gave birth to a son by Knut, called Hardeknut, who was king of England for a short time. In both marriages Emma had to compete or co-operate with another wife and her children. This was an age when the church winked at an informal polygamy, so important was securing the blood-line of kings. Ethelred had previously married Elgiva, one of whose many children was Edmund (`Ironside') who fought the Danish invaders, and whose bloodline stretches down to the present royal family. Knut had previously had an informal `marriage' with (another!) Elgiva (`of Northampton), who gave him a son, Harold (`Harefoot') who also was king of England for a short time. Confused? The dynastic struggles of the period were complex, but extremely important in determining the whole direction of subsequent English history. So it is worth studying this period in detail. I am always annoyed by the victors' version of history which virtually starts at the Norman conquest, ignoring hundred of years of proud, independent and interesting history. However, detail is something in short supply, unfortunately. Historians gave to glean information from a paucity of documents, with very little opportunity to cross-reference to establish the true facts. One could describe the known facts of Emma's life in a short monograph. Isabella Strachan has to pad out the book with other facts and a huge dose of speculation. Note the frequency of phrases and words, such as "one can imagine", "would", "if", "might have", "would have", "may", "possibly" and "probably", and one realises that very little can be relied on in this book. I am not blaming the author, since this is an ineluctable problem with the history of the era. In fact, she makes a good (though sometimes mawkish) attempt at adding colour and drama to the story. However there are many unqualified sentences, especially those telling us what Emma thought (!) which are novelistic rather than historical.
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3.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews) 10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The first full biography of Queen Emma,
By Midwest Book Review - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Emma, the Twice-crowned Queen: England in the Viking Age (Paperback)
Emma The Twice-Crowned Queen: England In The Viking Age is the first full biography of Queen Emma, mother of Edward the Confessor and Hardecanute. The half-Danish sister of the Duke of Normandy and a descendant of Vikings, she would be Queen to two kings, Ethelred the Unready (who needed to ally with the Normans against Viking raiders) and later, the Danish Canute. She was a noteworthy political figure of her day, and her writings indicate she was a Danish nationalist who wished to see England join with Viking Denmark. Yet her great-nephew William the Conqueror would be the one to drastically alter the future of England. Drawing from primary sources, the work of scholars, contemporary writings and more, Emma The Twice-Crowned Queen is at once both scholarly and readily accessible. A must-have for British history and biography reference shelves.
4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not quite there....,
By J Sutherland - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Emma, the Twice-crowned Queen: England in the Viking Age (Paperback)
I never really got a good idea of what Emma was like or what she thought.
That may be because of the lack of documentation to be had for her. Her character was flat and never came alive as I expected. Seems like the story was more about the men in her lives than her life. |
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