The Last English King

About this book

On September 27 1066 Duke William of Normandy sailed for England with hundreds of ships and over 8 000 men. King Harold of England weakened by a ferocious Viking invasion from the north could muster little defense. At the Battle of Hastings of October 14 he was outflanked quickly defeated and killed by Williams superior troops. The course of English history was altered forever. Three years later Walt King Harolds only surviving bodyguard is still emotionally and physically scarred by the loss of his king and his country. Wandering through Asia Minor headed vaguely for the Holy Land he meets Quint a renegade monk with a healthy line of skepticism and a hearty appetite for knowledge. It is he who persuades Walt little by little to tell his extraordinary story. And so begins a roller-coaster ride into an era of enduring fascination. Weaving fiction round fact Julian Rathbone brings to vibrant exciting and often amusing life the shadowy figures and events that preceded the Norman Conquest. We see Edward confessing far more than he ever did in the history books. We meet the warring nobles of Mercia and Wessex; Harold and his unruly clan; Canutes descendants with their delusions of grandeur; predatory men pushy women subdued Scots and wily Welsh. And we meet William of Normandy a psychotic thug with interesting plans for the "racial sanitation" of the Euroskepics across the water. Peppered with discussions on philosophy. dentistry democracy devils alcohol illusions and hygiene The Last English King raises issues both daring and delightful that question the nature of history itself. Where are the lines between fact interpretation and re-creation? Did the French really stop for a two-hour lunch during the Battle of Hastings?