The Century of Calamity: England in the Long Eleventh Century

The Century of Catastrophe is the story of a nation’s fall, and the men who brought it about. It is the story of how AEthelraed the Unready’s calamitous and vicious rule took England to the brink of collapse; of how Canute subsumed the country within a northern empire, which disintegrated under his feckless sons; of how Edward the Confessor’s wise and prudent rule held the realm together for a quarter of a century; and of how William of Normandy destroyed its way of life forever. It is a story of conquest and colonisation, of collaboration and of resistance. It is a story of cowardice and of bravery, of loyalty and of treachery. It is a tragic story of lost heroes and lost causes. And it is the story of how Harold Godwinson betrayed his wife and his brother in return for the ultimate prize, and the terrible consequences of that betrayal for his country, for his family, and for himself.