
Conquered
The Last Children of Anglo-Saxon England
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Narrated by:
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Kristin Atherton
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By:
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Eleanor Parker
About this listen
Bloomsbury presents Conquered by Eleanor Parker, read by Kristin Atherton.
"Outstanding." – The Sunday Times
"Beautifully written." The Times
"Superbly adroit." The Spectator
"Excellent." BBC History Magazine
The Battle of Hastings and its aftermath nearly wiped out the leading families of Anglo-Saxon England – so what happened to the children this conflict left behind?
Conquered offers a fresh take on the Norman Conquest by exploring the lives of those children, who found themselves uprooted by the dramatic events of 1066. Among them were the children of Harold Godwineson and his brothers, survivors of a family shattered by violence who were led by their courageous grandmother Gytha to start again elsewhere. Then there were the last remaining heirs of the Anglo-Saxon royal line – Edgar Ætheling, Margaret, and Christina – who sought refuge in Scotland, where Margaret became a beloved queen and saint. Other survivors, such as Waltheof of Northumbria and Fenland hero Hereward, became legendary for rebelling against the Norman conquerors. And then there were some, like Eadmer of Canterbury, who chose to influence history by recording their own memories of the pre-conquest world.
From sagas and saints’ lives to chronicles and romances, Parker draws on a wide range of medieval sources to tell the stories of these young men and women and highlight the role they played in developing a new Anglo-Norman society. These tales – some reinterpreted and retold over the centuries, others carelessly forgotten over time – are ones of endurance, adaptation and vulnerability, and they all reveal a generation of young people who bravely navigated a changing world and shaped the country England was to become.
There is a simple reason for this: a striking lack of contemporary sources exists describing the lives of the people most adversely affected. This often leaves those most interested in the subject at a frustrating dead end. Eleanor Parker does much to remedy this in a way that is both historically meticulous and emotionally-connected.
I think this book should be considered a triumph in the struggle to understand and piece together the short and long-term societal and cultural effects of the Conquest.
It is also brilliantly narrated, with a clear understanding of the subject matter, and accurate pronounciation of Old English names.
Indispensable
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Great read
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Children of the Conquered
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Excellent
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