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    A Great and Terrible King: Edward I and the Forging of Britain
    A Great and Terrible King: Edward I and the Forging of Britain
    A Great and Terrible King: Edward I and the Forging of Britain
    Audiobook18 hours

    A Great and Terrible King: Edward I and the Forging of Britain

    Written by Marc Morris

    Narrated by Ralph Lister

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    About this audiobook

    Edward I is familiar to millions as "Longshanks," conqueror of Scotland and nemesis of Sir William Wallace (in Braveheart). Yet this story forms only the final chapter of the king's action-packed life. Earlier, Edward had defeated and killed the famous Simon de Montfort, traveled to the Holy Land, and conquered Wales. He raised the greatest armies of the Middle Ages and summoned the largest parliaments. Notoriously, he expelled all the Jews from his kingdom.

    In this book, Marc Morris examines afresh the forces that drove Edward throughout his relentless career: his character, his Christian faith, and his sense of England's destiny-a sense shaped in particular by the tales of the legendary King Arthur. He also explores the competing reasons that led Edward's opponents (including Robert Bruce) to resist him.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateMar 24, 2015
    ISBN9781494580902
    Author

    Marc Morris

    Marc Morris is a historian specializing in the Middle Ages. He is the author of A Great and Terrible King; King John; and the Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling The Norman Conquest. Marc lives in England.

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    Reviews for A Great and Terrible King

    4/5

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    • 5/5
      Excellent, compelling and well read. Provided insights and historical references in a very interesting manner.
    • 3/5
      I read a lot of biographies, my theory being that history is best studied by looking at the people who make it. In this case, the subject is Edward I of England, nicknamed “Longshanks”.I would venture to say that most people best know Edward I through his portrayal in the movie “Braveheart”. As the movie is told through the eyes of the Scottish freedom fighters, Edward is not treated charitably, though by earning the nickname, “Hammer of the Scots”, it is likely he would likely not have been terribly unhappy with his portrayal.Edward I is a subject deserving of study, as his reign was long and eventful. Unfortunately, I found this treatment to be extremely dry and uninteresting. While it lays out the important facts and events, the narrative does not flow well and fails to engage the reader. I would think that a better biography of Edward would be available.
    • 4/5
      4.5 stars

      Well-written and balanced book. Edward's never been one of my favourite kings but this made me nearly like him at times.
    • 4/5
      Marc Morris’ work was been advertised as the first biography of Edward I in years, and in many ways it may have been a necessary one.

      Edward I ‘Longshanks’ stands today as arguably one of the most notorious and despised Kings of Medieval England (perhaps in part with good reason), many people may know him only as the baddie in Braveheart. Some (as a result of the said movie) have seem even to regard him as a ‘pagan’ King.
      Morris explores Edward’s life in its entirely to present a more well-rounded view of Edward the man, far removed from the diabolical movie baddie.

      From his birth and early childhood, to his turbulent teenage years in which the England was in the grip of political upheaval, to his ascension and reign spanning thirty years, revealing Edward’s varying roles as warrior, crusader, ruler, lawmaker, friend, adversary, and faithful husband.
      Perhaps most significantly, the author generally tries to avoid the pitfalls of judging the King by modern standards, though I did not feel that this prevented him from being critical upon occasion.
      One reviewer said that this biography ‘bordered on hagiography’. I disagree, not everything Morris says about Edward was positive as far as I could see, and sometimes a rather unflattering picture of the King or Prince emerges.

      This said, the author does shed light on some of the perhaps more controversial and unpalatable actions of Edward by the standards of the time, by which they might not have been considered so heinous.
      For instance, the infamous massacre at Berwick upon Tweed, as terrible as it was, was consistent with the medieval laws of war regarding sieges. Also England’s relationship with Scotland, before Edward’s fateful decision in the 1290s is also examined, and perhaps surprisingly is revealed to have been positive.

      Other aspects of the social background of the political and military events of Edward’s reign are also shed light upon, such as the common attitude towards the Welsh, or the challenges posed by the last King of Wales in ruling his own Kingdom, as well as Edward’s turbulent relationship with his nobles. Also there are other interesting details, such as the assassination attempt on Edward by none other than Sultan Baybars himself.

      On a personal level, I found the chronological examination supported a belief I have long held- that Edward’s wife died, and he faced rebellion and war not long after expelling all the Jews from England, and so his ‘ill-fortune’ was a direct consequence of such. In the Jewish and Christian scriptures it says of the Jews that God would ‘bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you’ and it seems what happened to Edward was the latter.

      Though towards the end I found the book became a little slower, bogged down perhaps with relating the King’s extortions of money from his nobles to fund his wars, and it may sometimes be a little too detailed, I believe it is still a fascinating and valuable work on the King.
      I also wasn’t sure if I agreed with all the author’s conclusions made in the final chapter, especially regarding the King’s temper, but his overall summary of the characters and reign of Edward may be hard to undermine.
      Hate him or view him more sympathetically, Edward was indeed A Great and Terrible King, admired by many of his contemporaries, missed when he died, and shaped by his times.
    • 4/5
      Being a biography of England's Edward I, yclept Longshanks. An effective king bracketed by two duds, Edward is one of the most important monarchs in English history. This is an interesting book, a model of how to write a medieval narrative history; the author is painstaking and his account may fairly be called definitive. He assumes very little prior knowledge, explains the background of the events thoroughly and he isn't afraid to deploy a touch of wit to leaven his account. That said, this is an extremely long book, as befits a life of a major monarch, and few will be sorry to reach the end.
    • 4/5
      A well written and readable history of Edward 1. Morris successfully combines an historical academic approach with a more popular style that will hold the interest of most readers. There are over 50 pages of notes, which the actual text wears lightly and does not hinder the flow of the storeytelling. Morris is retelling the story of Edward I using mostly secondary sources, but is somewhat successful in getting a feal for the character of the king and his medieval world. There are some novelish like touches particularly at the end of a chapter to whet the appetite of the reader, however there are not so many occasions where Morris resorts to phrases like: "he would have been", or "he may have thought". He keeps his text close to the historical sources.The final chapter sums up the reign of Edward putting it into perspective and challenging some of the views of previous historians and biographersI would certainly recommend this to anyone interested in medieval Britain and to the more casual reader as there is a good story in this very good biography
    • 5/5
      A very readable, well researched and balanced account of this most significant of kingly lives and reigns. This took me longer to read than expected and I slowed down a bit during the interminable Welsh uprisings of the 1270s and early 80s. The author rightly does not judge Edward by modern standards, though some of his actions still shock, such as the execution of half the adult male Jewish population of England in 1279 for alleged counterfeiting.