Empires of the Normans: Conquerors of Europe

Empires of the Normans: Conquerors of Europe by Levi Roach

October 16th, 1066.

As Harold II, the last crowned Anglo-Saxion king of England, lay dying in Susses, the Duke of Normandy was celebrating an unlikely victory. William "the Bastard" had emerged from interloper to successor to the English throne. He had survived the carnage of the Battle of Hasting and, two months later, on Christmas day, he would be crowned king of England. No longer would Anglo-Saxons or Vikings rule England: this was now the age of the Normans.

A momentous event in European history, the defeat of the Anglo-Saxons had the most dramatic effect of any battle in the High Middle Ages. In a few short months, the Duke of Normandy, now known as William the Conqueror, became the dominant ruler in Britain. Over the coming decades, the English kingdom would be rebuilt around a new landowning class. During the next century, as the norman kings laid the foundations of modern Britain, their poer and that of the wider Norman diaspora would spread irresistibly across Europe. From Scandinavia down to Sicily, Matta, and Antioch, the Normans built magnificent castles and churches. They created a new Europe in the image of their own nobility, recording their power with unprecedented vision, including the Domesday Book.

Empires of the Normans tells the extraordinary story of how the descendants of Viking marauders in northern France came to dominate European, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern politics. It is a tale of ambitious adventures and malicious mercenaries, of fortunes made and fortunes lost. Across the generations, the Normans made their influence felt throughout Western Europe and the Mediterranean, from the British Isles to North Africa and even to the Holy Land, with a combination of military might, political savvy, deeply held religious beliefs, and a profound sense of their own destiny

Pegasus Books, Hardcover, 1st Edition, 1st Printing, 2022