| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £4.90
Trade in The Feudal Kingdom of England 1042-1216 for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £4.90, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Plus, get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'...readable and scholarly, and goes very far to enable us to see the life of those times clearly and to see it as a whole.' English Historical Review
Product Description
Now in its fifth edition, this hugely successful text remains as vivid and readable as ever. Frank Barlow illuminates every aspect of the Anglo-Norman world, but the central appeal of the book continues to be its firm narrative structure. Here is a fascinating story compellingly told.
At the beginning of the period he shows us an England that is still, politically and culturally, on the fringe of the classical world. By the end of John’s reign, the new world that has emerged was in outlook, structure and character, recognisable as part of the modern age.
Incorporating the findings of the most recent scholarship in the field – much of it Barlow’s own – the fifth edition includes new material on the role of women in Anglo-Norman England.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Frank Barlow goes into considerable depth in this extensive book on the 11th th 13th centuries. Packed with details about all formf of life in that era but mainly concentrating on the rulers and their squabbles. I picked this book up without much more knowledge than knowing the names of the odd king or battle but I put it down with a great understanding of the times. At times I did find it hard going, especially when reading the descriptions of the land organisation but the rest of the time it flows along very nicely. At the back there are very handy maps and, especially, family trees that are essential for understanding the convulated politics that existed then.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I am jointly reviewing Frank Barlow's The Feudal Kingdom of England and Robert Bartlett's England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings. They deal with the same period, they are remarkably complementary, and I highly recommend reading them together.
Barlow's book, first published in 1955, takes a traditional approach and reviews the events of the Norman and early Angevin period chronologically. Bartlett's, benefiting from recent research, offers a more static but broader picture of the period's trends and features. To the newcomer (as I was) or, I think, to someone with basic knowledge of 12th century England, the combination will be as instructive as it is exciting to read.
The Feudal Kingdom of England recounts the main political events from the Norman invasion to the forced grant of the Magna Carta by king John. Barlow tells the drama of the conquest, the tales of dynastic intrigue, the blow-by-blow of three-sided feuding between king, church and baronage in sometimes gory, sometimes inspiring detail. Some stories simply need to be given chronologically, which Bartlett doesn't do: the manoeuvrings of William's sons, the dispute between Becket and Henry II, Richard's crusade and capture, the crafty king John's miserable reign. Though the narrative remains central to it, the book also contains chapters on aristocratic society, the church, and the English towns and countryside. In fact, it begins with an overview of England under Edward the Confessor which is invaluable for understanding change in post-invasion England.
Bartlett's England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings paints a multi-faceted panorama of 12th and early 13th century England. It is equally awesome in breadth and depth. And it is free of the typical fault of medieval history, in which 90% of space is devoted to the doings of 10% of the population. Bartlett devotes more than half his book to ordinary people's lives, urban and rural: their work, their habitat, their relationship to the lords, their money problems, their beliefs. He offers fascinating information on perceptions of the world, how the day was spent and divided, on marriage, manners and pastimes, even on sex. His section on culture and language isn't the boring recital one often finds, but is lively and relevant to the rest of the book. He describes the church at all levels, not just that of the bishopric, and from both the institutional and the spiritual perspective. He makes the best use of available data to discuss economic developments, themselves key to some of the period's political events (e.g. late 12th century inflation and the disasters of John's reign). And of course, Bartlett describes government and political patterns, only not in sequence.
These two books are complementary in other ways. Where Barlow tends to use original words, Bartlett prefers their more explicit equivalents (for example danegeld in one book is called a land tax in the other). If you only have time to read one, I would probably recommend The Feudal Kingdom of England, as it will leave you with the period's basic milestones. Still, it would be a shame to miss the fun of Bartlett's big canvas.
Barlow's book, first published in 1955, takes a traditional approach and reviews the events of the Norman and early Angevin period chronologically. Bartlett's, benefiting from recent research, offers a more static but broader picture of the period's trends and features. To the newcomer (as I was) or, I think, to someone with basic knowledge of 12th century England, the combination will be as instructive as it is exciting to read.
The Feudal Kingdom of England recounts the main political events from the Norman invasion to the forced grant of the Magna Carta by king John. Barlow tells the drama of the conquest, the tales of dynastic intrigue, the blow-by-blow of three-sided feuding between king, church and baronage in sometimes gory, sometimes inspiring detail. Some stories simply need to be given chronologically, which Bartlett doesn't do: the manoeuvrings of William's sons, the dispute between Becket and Henry II, Richard's crusade and capture, the crafty king John's miserable reign. Though the narrative remains central to it, the book also contains chapters on aristocratic society, the church, and the English towns and countryside. In fact, it begins with an overview of England under Edward the Confessor which is invaluable for understanding change in post-invasion England.
Bartlett's England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings paints a multi-faceted panorama of 12th and early 13th century England. It is equally awesome in breadth and depth. And it is free of the typical fault of medieval history, in which 90% of space is devoted to the doings of 10% of the population. Bartlett devotes more than half his book to ordinary people's lives, urban and rural: their work, their habitat, their relationship to the lords, their money problems, their beliefs. He offers fascinating information on perceptions of the world, how the day was spent and divided, on marriage, manners and pastimes, even on sex. His section on culture and language isn't the boring recital one often finds, but is lively and relevant to the rest of the book. He describes the church at all levels, not just that of the bishopric, and from both the institutional and the spiritual perspective. He makes the best use of available data to discuss economic developments, themselves key to some of the period's political events (e.g. late 12th century inflation and the disasters of John's reign). And of course, Bartlett describes government and political patterns, only not in sequence.
These two books are complementary in other ways. Where Barlow tends to use original words, Bartlett prefers their more explicit equivalents (for example danegeld in one book is called a land tax in the other). If you only have time to read one, I would probably recommend The Feudal Kingdom of England, as it will leave you with the period's basic milestones. Still, it would be a shame to miss the fun of Bartlett's big canvas.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I have a particular interest on the transition from English (Anglo-Danish), hierarchy to a Norman one, and this book is THE book on the subject; highly recommended.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
