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A Great and Terrible King: Edward I and the Forging of Britain Paperback – June 14, 2016
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Edward I is familiar to millions as "Longshanks," conqueror of Scotland and nemesis of Sir William Wallace (in "Braveheart"). Yet that story forms only the final chapter of the king's action-packed life. Earlier, Edward had defeated and killed Simon de Montfort in battle; traveled to the Holy Land; conquered Wales, extinguishing its native rulers and constructing a magnificent chain of castles. He raised the greatest armies of the Middle Ages and summoned the largest parliaments; notoriously, he expelled all the Jews from his kingdom. The longest-lived of England's medieval kings, Edward fathered fifteen children with his first wife, Eleanor of Castile and, after her death, erected the Eleanor Crosses—the grandest funeral monuments ever fashioned for an English monarch.
In this book, Marc Morris examines afresh the forces that drove Edward throughout his relentless career: his character, his Christian faith, and his sense of England's destiny—a sense shaped largely by the tales of the legendary King Arthur. Morris also explores the competing reasons that led Edward's opponents (including Robert Bruce) to resist him.
The result is a sweeping story, immaculately researched yet compellingly told, and a vivid picture of medieval Britain at the moment when its future was decided.
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Print length480 pages
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LanguageEnglish
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PublisherPegasus Books
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Publication dateJune 14, 2016
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Dimensions6 x 1.4 x 9 inches
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ISBN-101681771330
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ISBN-13978-1681771335
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"Enhanced with color and b&w photos, a list of abbreviations, chapter notes, a bibliography, Family Trees, and a comprehensive index, A Great And Terrible King is an extraordinary read and highly recommended for both community and academic library collections." ― Midwest Book Review
"Morris expertly puts Edward’s achievements, such as the Model Parliament, into historical context while laying bare—and making interesting—the king’s struggles. Descriptions of Edward waging war in Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and even Gascony maintain a level of excitement as Morris cleverly builds anticipation, never dropping a narrative thread." ― Publishers Weekly
"A splendid example of the genre. An excellent, readable account of his reign." ― The Literary Review
"Morris does a splendid job of distinguishing England, Scotland and Wales in geographic, topographic, political and cultural terms. His descriptions of battles, political shenanigans and betrayals are as clear as a bell and his enthusiasm for his subject helps to make this biography something of a page turner." ― The Providence Journal
"Uncommonly good. Edward was a remarkable man, and a great king. Marc Morris does him justice. It’s compelling stuff." -- Allan Massie, bestselling author of 'The Royal Stuarts'
"An informative and easily digestible account of the life of an important if often unattractive medieval monarch." ― Booklist
"Richly contextual treatment of a pivotal Medieval English monarch. An elucidating biography." ― Kirkus
"Marc Morris is historical biography’s newest star." ― The Bookseller
"The title of Marc Morris’ book is apt. No king of England had a greater impact on the peoples of Britain than Edward I. Morris has succeeded in writing a book for today." ― The Times Literary Supplement
About the Author
Marc Morris is a historian specializing in the Middle Ages. He is the author of A Great and Terrible King; King John; and the Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling The Norman Conquest. He lives in England.
Product details
- Publisher : Pegasus Books; Reprint edition (June 14, 2016)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 480 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1681771330
- ISBN-13 : 978-1681771335
- Item Weight : 1.12 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 1.4 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #128,720 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #110 in England History
- #122 in Historical British Biographies
- #195 in Royalty Biographies
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Dr Marc Morris is a historian who specialises in the Middle Ages. He studied and taught at the universities of London and Oxford and is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He is the author of the Sunday Times bestseller The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England (2021). His other books include King John: Treachery, Tyranny and the Road to Magna Carta (Hutchinson 2015), The Norman Conquest (Windmill, 2013) and A Great and Terrible King: Edward I and the Forging of Britain (Windmill, 2009).
In 2003 Marc presented the highly acclaimed TV series Castle for Channel 4 and wrote its accompanying book (now published in paperback by Hutchinson). He has also contributed to other history programmes on radio and television.
An expert on medieval monarchy and aristocracy, Marc has written numerous articles for History Today, BBC History Magazine and Heritage Today (now published together as an e-book, Kings and Castles).
For more information, including details of upcoming talks and tours, visit www.marcmorris.org.uk or www.facebook.com/marcmorrishistorian.
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While waiting to assume the throne, Edward led an interesting life. He came under the spell of Simon de Montfort and for a time he was in conflict with Henry III. Later, he returned to his loyalty to his father and this section, too, Morris untangles (and it IS complicated). Of interest to many is Morris' narrative of Edward's adventures during the Crusades (and almost losing his life in the process). He was on his way home when he learned that he was now king of Englad after Henry III finally obliged many by dying. It is here that Edward comes into his own.
Morris deals with all of Edward's wars, first against Wales and then later against Scotland. The propriety or impropriety of these wars is left to the reader to decide. This is a very good military history of the times: marches, counter marches, more victories than not, betrayals and all the rest. Running like threads throughout this part of the book some are interesting problems that Edward faced while fighting his wars. First, Edward was impecunious throughout most of his reign. This brought him into continual conflict with his many parliaments, where he often faced off against Roger Bigod, earl of Norfolk, and Roger Winchelsea, Archbishop of Canterbury, when Edward applied to the laity and clergy to pay for all of his wars. Second, Edward's lordship of Gascony was a constant trouble, as its inhabitants were unruly and a series of French kings kept a predatory eye on his territory, one of the last remnants of Henry II's Angevin empire. Third, Edward's dubious claims to Scottish lordship troubled the rest of his reign. Here he faced the unremitting antipathy of Roger Wishart, bishop of Glasgow, William Wallace, and various obstreperous Scottish lords. Dealing was these people was fairly straightforward compared to what Edward had to endure from the ultra-slippery Bruce family, especially Robert the younger. Edward was facing yet another Scottish rebellion when he died at Burgh by Sands in Cumbria, bringing to a close one of the most eventful lives experienced by any monarch.
What this biography is not is a look at life at Edward's court. Such a peripatetic King had little time for the usual stories of activities that fill biographies of, say, the Tudor house. This is a male-dominated narrative. Edward's first queen, Eleanor of Castile, provides what little there is of female perspectives. We learn little about his daughters and very little about his second wife, Margaret of France, sister to Philip IV. Of all of Edward's children we learn most about his son Alfonso and, towards the end of the book, and inevitably, his eventual heir who became Edward II. Morris tries to steer clear of lurid premonitions about Edward II, who later was also in the running for worst king of England. Still, there is no getting around the epic character flaws of Edward I's heir, but Morris is both frank and tactful about this aspect of Edward I's troubles.
Readers will also have to look elsewhere for more information about William Wallace, the Welsh princes, and other legendary characters. In sum, however, this book is highly readable and, as mentioned before, Morris never loses control of his narrative. It is consistently clear, closely reasoned, and speculation is kept to an utter minimum. It appears that Morris will publish a biography of Edward I's grandfather, King John of ill fame, and I hope that Marc Morris will continue to publish more excellent biographies of British monarchs.
Edward was tough, not always fair, sometimes seemingly bloodthirsty, stunningly selfish --but a very effective monarch in terms of creating a kingdom, suppressing rivals and building international alliances. He unified Wales and kept Scotland within English rule,mostly. He was very good at depleting the treasury too, suggesting that nation building is not an inexpensive enterprise. While 'Braveheart' indelibly made Edward ("Longshanks"} look like Patrick McGoohan in my imagination, the scope of A Great and Terrible King is much more, as well as more thorough and remains consistently interesting. It was inspiring enough to make me look around for other authors covering the same time period with less success than I hoped. . Those were busy times, when "nation hood' sort of became a thing, and when an English king could, very reasonably, assume that a substantial swath of France belonged to him as well. The inability of Edward II (son and heir) to keep it together supports the Great Man theory of evaluating history (a view I don't entirely hold). I read this book perhaps 6-8 months ago and am certainly failing to note some important moments, but for me to still remember so much of the man and his wars and wives is an endorsement of the effectiveness of the author. An interesting and engaging read throughout.
I didn't know much about Edward I as most of my reading has been about the transition between the Plantagents and the Tudors. Going further back to the post conquest kings was an adventure. Edward had a busy reign with many successes and failures. It would be tedious to summarise his reign here and really you should read the book. But, there's really never a dull moment and Marc Morris manages the compleixities and characters really well. The book is a skillful blend of history and narrative. It reminded me of the book about William Marshal (The Greatest Knight, Thomas Asbridge). This makes the book useful for fans of history and very readable. The footnotes leave you in no doubt of the intensive research behind the book. There are a couple of trends I've noticed from this course of self-study. There are narrative histories that can be mostly narrative and not much history or there are histories with no narrative. If you do want to learn more about the complex world of the thirteenth century then there is no better way to do it. And yes, I'd vote for Edward I as being the second English king called "great"
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Que nous offre-t-on en effet, d'ordinaire, sous des apparences de 'biographie' (la popularité du genre expliquant la contrefaçon éditoriale)?
Soit des ouvrages plutôt savants dont le caractère biographique est noyé dans un flux et reflux de chapitres thématiques qui seraient mieux à leur place, disjoints, dans des revues académiques spécialisées. La prolifération de minuties archivistiques d'intérêt souvent fort relatif brouille irrémédiablement la chronologie et donc l'enchaînement des faits, la cohérence d'une tranche d'histoire: ce n'est point l'arbre, c'est le brin d'herbe qui cache la forêt ouvrant la voie à l'affleurement de dérives idéologiques.
Soit de fausses biographies où c'est d'une époque en général qu'il est question plus que d'un personnage aux prises avec cette époque.
Rien de tel avec ce livre. Nous suivons pas à pas Edward I de sa naissance à sa mort dans son contexte temporel et spatial. Ne cherchez pas de détails croustillants: la vie conjugale de ce roi fut en tous points irréprochable contrairement à d'autres monarques, au premier rang desquels son faible successeur, sans parler des chefs d'Etat ou de gouvernement de nos républiques. La vie publique d'Edward est à peu près exclusivement prise en compte, il s'agit de 'grande histoire', la seule qui importe à l'échelle des temps, mais une grande histoire qui intègre comme il se doit tous les facteurs explicatifs d'un devenir politique, l'aspect économique des choses n'étant pas négligé mais cantonné à sa juste place. Et Marc Morris nous offre de surcroît un apport personnel aussi significatif que passionnant dans sa mise en relief des aspects idéologiques du règne, précieux témoignage que la propagande institutionnalisée ne date pas d'hier.