"Edward the Elder" by Michael John Kay

 

The River Great Ouse at Bedford was once the frontier between the Saxons and the Vikings. Edward crossed the river to capture Bedford during his reign.

Edward the Elder was the son of Alfred the Great, King of Wessex. Alfred is justly celebrated for resisting Viking incursions into the territory of Wessex, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom that covered most of southern England, and reaching a long-lasting peace treaty with the Vikings, albeit one that recognised a split between the Anglo-Saxon part of England (Wessex and half of Mercia, the kingdom in the Midlands, against the Welsh border) and the Viking part (called the Danelaw). But Edward was the King who, with his sister Aethelflaed who was Queen of Mercia) took the fight to the Vikings, retrieving the Midlands and East Anglia. Edward's son Aethlestan was to continue the fight, liberating almost all of what is now England, and creating the unified country that we now have.

So Edward (called the Elder by later generations to distinguish him from Edward the Confessor) is a very important figure in English history and one who has been unjustly overlooked, overshadowed, perhaps, by his father. This biography puts Edward back in the limelight.

It also tells his story remarkably well. My only quibble is that the writer frequently tells you the same thing twice, for example, when he describes the boundary between Wessex-Mercia and the Danelaw, the second time in slightly more detail. But if this is the price to pay for a complicated tale to be told with clarity, so be it, although it does make the book longer (and the print is quite small so my ageing eyes found it sometimes wearisome).

It is a complicated tale. A patchwork of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms battled against a miscellany of Scandinavian marauders. The situation was rarely coherent. Given that all this happened over a thousand years ago, the sources are often either missing, possibly inaccurate or incomplete. The author does a great job or pinpointing dates and places without being overly nit-picking (for example, he tends to summarise scholarly opinion without going into the details). The result is a readable history for the general reader.

I loved it. So many of the places that appear are places I have known, such as Kingston-on-Thames were Edward (probably) and Aethelstan (definitely) had their coronations, sitting on a block of sarsen stone. And Bedford, a frontier town, whose Viking stronghold on the northern bank of the River Great Ouse surrendered to Edward, at which point he built a neighbouring fortified burh on the southern bank. And London where, the Roman city having been abandoned, the Vikings ruled Lundenwic before the Saxons retook the city moving the centre (around 883) back to the Roman ruins as Lundenburh. 

But it's not all warfare. There are lots of other interesting tales and mysteries, such as: Why did Edward ditch his first wife Ecgwyn and send his son by that relationship to be brought up by his sister in Mercia? Was she a concubine as was hinted? And why did Edward's first heir die only fourteen days after Edward; was he assassinated by his half-brother? And who was the nun abducted from Wimborne Minster by Edward's cousin Aethelwold during his first rebellion; was she Edward's sister Aethelgifu and did Aethelwold marry her and if so was it consensual?

This is the story of a critical period in the founding of the country we now know as England and this great book rescues Edward from the neglect of history.

Selected quotes:

• “The slave trade was part of accepted practice, with slaves bought and sold across markets throughout the known world.” (Ch 16)

January 2024; 263 pages

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God

"The Song of Simon de Montfort" by Sophie Therese Ambler

I find the middle ages fascinating and this biography of Simon de Montfort is no exception. It covers, roughly, the period of rapid constitutional change from the issuing of Magna Carta, a document to protect the rights of barons and to limit kingship, via the first parliaments to the calling of the first parliament by Simon to include townspeople, ie the start of the House of Commons. The political theories are fascinating: Magna Carta applied to the 50% of the population who were 'freed' (ie not the serfs) whereas Simon's Provisions of Oxford applied to all people in the realm. For the first time royal officials became truly accountable for their actions and could be acted against by ordinary people in courts. The Franciscans and Dominicans were spreading like wildfire at this time, and learning was advancing rapidly (one of Simon's mentors was Robert Grosseteste, a seminal figure in the history of science, one of Simon's opponents founded Merton College in Oxford). Simon himself was an important figure who made what was almost certainly a love match with King Henry III's sister (to Henry's fury), ended up rebelling and defeating and capturing the King and his Heir, and was at one time offered the regency of France. Not all was progress. Henry III was the first king to order that Jews wore distinctive marks on their clothes and Simon encouraged the persecution and killing of Jews. But it was a key time in English history.

It was well written and very well explained and there were some very useful maps, but one of my criticisms is that the author expects you to remember which year you are in. She gives dates such as '9 June' (for the Oxford Parliament) but if I have forgotten the year I have to move back through the pages until I can find the year mentioned; in this case it was (by implication) in the previous chapter. There are also occasions when people are mentioned and more could have been said. For example, one of the magnates supporting SdM at Oxford is listed as "Hugh Despenser"; what is not mentioned is that he is the father of High Despenser the Elder and the grandfather of Hugh Despenser the Younger who was a controversial favourite of Edward II. Why did I have to to look this up on wikipedia?

Selected quotes:

• “The worst sort of decision was one made behind closed doors. King John had been guilty of this, and it had been a major cause of resentment amongst his nobles. ... It was expected that great matters of state, affecting the whole kingdom, would be discussed in a formal setting.” (Ch 3)
• "Henry had begun to seize estates from subjects simply because he wished to - the sort of action that could see a king labelled a tyrant.” (Ch 3)
• “Suffering is to the righteous what pruning is to vines, what cultivation is to untilled land, what washing is to dirty garments, what a healing but bitter drink is to those who are ill, what shaping with a hammer is to vessels that are not yet fully moulded, what proving in fire is to gold.” (from a letter of Robert Grosseteste to SdM; quoted in Ch 4)
• “Trial by ordeal was in effect banned by Pope Innocent III at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, on the basis that it did not work.” (Ch 7, footnote).
• “The barons ... were seeking to protect lesser folk ... from the iniquities of royal justice. But what is most remarkable is how they were also determined to protect lesser folk even against baronial injustices.” (Ch 9)
• “The kings of England had carried a dragon banner perhaps since the Anglo-Saxon age ... By the thirteenth century, the raising of the dragon standard carried a particular meaning: no enemy was to be spared.” (Ch 13)

September 2022; 339 pages

This review was written by the author of Motherdarling  and The Kids of God