As a lover and student of late medieval and renaissance history, I was hoping that this book would give me a solid knowledge of the events and issues that were to become the foundation of 'Britain'.... and that's exactly what I found!
This is a great book for anyone that is interested in the history of Britain. I have read many 'history' books that assume the reader has an in-depth knowledge of the subject before they begin, but happily this is not the case. All of the events are explained in a full, interesting and (on the whole) entertaining way. As the book is written in a very personal style you really get the feeling of riding alongside Edward for all of his 68 years, however this is no way undermines the tremendous amount of work that has obviously gone into writing it.
Most of us know of Robert Bruce, William Wallace, Simon de Montfort and have heard about the 'confiscation' of the Stone of Scone, and the origins of the Prince of Wales title, but this book explains the 'whys', 'hows' and 'whens' that makes history real.
If I had one complaint, (and it's so small that the book still gets Five stars), it's that you get the feeling that Marc Morris is sometimes over-justifying Edwards decisions. Yes, the things he did were not always 'PC' but, and as Mr Morris does quantify at the end of the book, he was a bigotted king in a bigotted time.
That aside, this is a great book for the serious student, the history lover and anyone else that enjoys expanding their knowledge of such an important time in history.
