Product Description

 At last: an authoritative, up to date account of the troubled reign of King Stephen, by a leading scholar of the Anglo-Norman world. David Crouch covers every aspect of the period - the king and the empress, the aristocracy, the Church, government and the nation at large. He also looks at the wider dimensions of the story, in Scotland, Wales, Normandy and elsewhere. The result (weaving its discussions around a vigorous narrative core) is a a work of major scholarship. A must for specialist and amateur medievalists alike.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #145066 in Books
• Published on: 2000-01-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Review
 "This is quite the best study to have been devoted to a complicated and still somewhat mysterious period... (it) recasts an entire period of English history..."  Times Literary Supplement 'a useful and timely book...It goes probably about as far as we ever can with this neglected king' Speculum

Customer Reviews

Earnest, readable.
It's the first history book of this period I've ever read, and I found it fascinating. I'm fed up of dramatisations of Tudors in plays/on the BBC, this subject should be next on their list!

The book benefits from the author making clear from the start that he wants to debunk the idea of 'Anarchy' - you feel like you've taken a side and want to find out how persuasive the author's going to be. The author also has a rare combination of skills - a sense of humour and articulate writing. The latter makes the former all the funnier.
On the down side I found it harder and harder to remember which Earl was which and which Robert, William, etc was which, so it would benefit greatly from a much fuller set of 'Dramatis Personae' lists than just the one showing Stephen of Blois's connections. In particular it was hard to remember who were the bastard children of Henry I. Sometimes some sentences are overlong, requiring the reader to have a very firm grasp of every person mentioned before they can be understood well.

Maybe the book was never intended for a wide audience (the back of it states it's "a must for specialist and amateur medievalists alike") but I think it comes close enough to a wide audience style that after a few tweaks it could be stacked next to the Antonia Frazer-like books.