Edward the Confessor: Last of the Royal Blood (The English Monarchs Series)

Easily the best book on Edward the Confessor - full of scholarly detail, meticulously researcher, but also tells a good story and is written in style that will make this book appeal beyond an academic audience.

An excellent balance of careful scholarship with a compelling and lively read.

This book is wonderful: entertainingly written and erudite, but with the erudition lightly worn. And full of fascinating details I'd not known before. Thoroughly enjoyed it: a great read.

A useful reference on history

Edward the Confessor – last of the royal blood, by Tom Licence, 2020, 253 pages or 300 with appendices,The Yale English monarchs series is absolutely splendiferous and this book continues the good work. This is a book that matches detail, readability and insight and it left me wishing that Licence had written more about Anglo-Saxon England.There's a lot to enjoy in this book and Licence articulates a lot that often seems to be overlooked in accounts of (very) late Anglo-Saxon England. Too many books treat Edward's reign as prelude to Hastings, with everything being weighed as to its significance to the disputed throne. This book readdresses that.This isn't a history of England, but is one of Edward, and so the North only figures when it impacts Edward's rule. On the other hand, though, it's great to see Norman sources being used prominently, as continental sources often seem only to be used to confirm English ones, rather than as a matter of course. Licence certainly brings out the idea of Edward as a European king and not just a king of England.This book is sympathetic to Edward, bringing out his successes and sees him as a manager of earls who were deputised to do the mucky business of governing in his name. Licence does shoe just how unlikely it was that Edward gained the throne, something which is not always considered. He had stepbrothers who died before him, had to ride the vicissitudes of an usurpation of his line, there were two other stepbrothers through his mother who were younger than him who also died before him and his own brother's bid for the throne failed, too.Within this is the best account of the possible invasion plan of 1033x4 that I've seen. Usually this is either discounted or relegated to a footnote, so it was nice to see it gone into. Speaking of footnotes, there are surprisingly few in this book, but oddly that didn't detract from my enjoyment of it. Licence cites his sources where they are needed to substantiate his points.There are a number of fascinating points made within and whilst I think he's made his arguments well, showing supporting evidence, I can imagine a few points will be the subject of debate:1, his notion of disgruntled and nervous magnates inviting Edward to accept a royal dignity instead of the initiative coming from Harthacnut.2, he doesn't see Edward as being dominated by the Godwins. His account of the crisis with Godwin is excellent. He shows that Edward wasn't a pawn of Godwin's prior to this and suggests that rather than it being a sign of weakness, the promotion of Godwin's kin was also useful for Edward as it strengthened the state and so this was a convergence of interest, instead of domination by a magnate family.3, unlike others who don't believe that William visited Edward, he goes with the idea that he did come over, possibly in aid of Edward whilst Godwin was in exile (Licence is doubtful that a throne was promised).4, he sees Harold gaining the throne through a coup instead of by designation.There were only a couple of niggles with this book. I wasn't that keen on the term gaslighting being used without being proven and there are a few instances were speculation of someone's feelings is presented almost as fact. Beyond this, I was surprised that the paragraph on coinage reform didn't refer to the ideas of Sally Harvey regarding how this may have been reflected in the crisis of 1051. This felt like an oversight. Also, the appendix on charters is probably more for specialists, or the well informed reader than the average purchaser, but it was still good with some top experts being referenced.This is a book to buy.

This book achieves the rare feat of being both gorgeously poetic and academically substantial. Licence creates a portrait of a politically savvy ruler whose approach was influenced by his experiences as an exile in Normandy and the ideals of kingship at the time. He convincingly challenges previous arguments that Edward was disinterested in the throne, showing how he fashioned himself early on as a king who would bring peace to England. Edward’s apparent weakness in the face of the rapacious Godwin family is re-evaluated as a diplomatic balancing of interests, and a strong argument is put forward to support the idea that he backed Edgar as his successor, rather than playing multiple contenders off one another. The book draws upon a rich and diverse range of source material to construct the king’s world. It’s heartening to see a historian devote as much serious attention to poetry, religious symbolism and the marginal beasts of the Bayeux Tapestry as to biographies, chronicles and writs. The prose itself is beautiful, bordering on elegiac poetry in the passages on time that intersperse episodes of the king’s life.