Medieval England

by Edmund King

Medieval England presents a broad panorama of the political and cultural development of English society from the Norman Conquest to the end of the Wars of the Roses. It is a story of change, progress, setback and consolidation, with England emerging as a wealthy and stable country, many of whose essential features were to remain unchanged until the industrial revolution. Edmund King traces his chronicle the lives of successive monarchs, the inescapable thread of that epoch. Yet the great nobles, knights and merchants meeting in parliament provided constraints which bound even the most powerful king, and a major theme of this book is the gradual emergence of a single political community of shared ideas embracing all ranks of society. Within this framework the author examines many other facets of medieval England, including everyday life, warfare and chivalry, religion and learning, agriculture and economic developments, the machinery of government, the administration of justice, art and architecture.

Genres: History, Medieval, Nonfiction, British Literature, Medieval History

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Edmund King is Emeritus Professor of Medieval History at the University of Sheffield. He took his bachelor and doctoral degrees at the University of Cambridge, where he was a student of M. M. Postan. He joined the History department at Sheffield in 1966 and has held a chair since 1989.

He has held visiting fellowships at the Huntington Library, USA (where he was a Fulbright Scholar), and at All Souls College, Oxford, and he has taught also at the universities of Connecticut and Michigan in the USA.

Reviews

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, Medieval England!

This was a good book, King is clearly an expert in his field, but in no way is this alienating. His writing style is very clear and doesn't get bogged down in particulars. It's an over view of quite a lot of history, so again, he's not getting too terribly detailed about any one person.

[Megan Ferguson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little more focused on kings and politics than on the life of the average person, which is my usual focus for historical research.

[Michael Wombat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too much perusal of high politics for my liking.