Product Description

The story of William the Conqueror's first five turbulent years in England and how the British people fiercely rebelled against the new king's rule. This book shows that resistance did not end at Hastings.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #211751 in Books
• Published on: 2004-01-01
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 232 pages

Customer Reviews

*not* La Résistance!
To paraphrase H.G Wells rather melodramatically, no one would believe in the first years of the 21st century that this nation was once watched keenly and covetously by formidable personalities from across the channel; that as Englishmen busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied...

The aftermath to the Battle of Hastings was violent and ruthless. William of Normandy's achievements can be seen as a formidable combination of both clear-minded political magination and merciless, hard-nosed execution. However, after William's victory in 1066, the English were not a people who could simply roll over and allow the invaders free access to the island's bounty. A tough and equally brutal resistance was fought against Norman rule for a further five years.

Peter Rex's brilliantly researched book overturns today's meekly accepted stance that the Normans invaded and that was that. Walt, in Julian Rathbone's "The Last English King", refuses to call William 'the Conqueror' (preferring, as you might expect, an earthier soubriquet referencing William's illegitimacy) and the impression you get from "The English Resistance" is similarly one of a population rejecting the concept that they are under enemy control.

Every campaign fought during the years 1067 to 1071 is detailed, with Rex analysing the resistance's character, its motives and its triumphs and disappointments. Here, we are focussed on a time when England was divided into occupied and unoccupied zones, collaborative areas and no-go districts, resistance movements spreading through remote areas of the country.

The book examines William's responses, his initial attempts at pacification, and then the notorious harrying of the north (a rather impotent euphemism that, I've always thought, for which we might readily substitute 'genocide' or 'ethnic cleansing' if these battles and skirmishes were being played out on our news screens today). This is an eloquent portrayal of a chaotic period, which demonstrates that the English were not conquered as easily as was once thought. Perhaps the comparison with "The War of the Worlds" isn't quite so inappropriate after all.

Disappointing
I found this rather disappointing. I thought the author was too concerned with trying to make a parallel between resistance to the Normans and resistance in Nazi-occupied Europe which doesn't really work except at a fairly superficial level. Although obviously well researched to judge by the sources listed in the bibliography, the lack of footnotes for specific points was a drawback and it often wasn't clear what the source was, which increased my scepticism on points where the author differs from other accounts I have read. I thought there was a tendency to romanticise the resistance and to portray this as the dominant reaction in English society, which is only really true for the north of England and at other points the author says that the bulk of English civic society acquiesced in Norman rule in fairly short order. Partly linked to this was a tendency to take the chroniclers' accounts of land being constantly laid waste a bit too literally - most modern authors consider these accounts to be somewhat exaggerated, harsh though Norman oppression undoubtedly was, especially in the north. There was very little coverage of some aspects of resistance such as the fightback by Harold's sons in 1067-9 - okay, this was not part of an underground resistance, but is surely worth a bit more coverage as they were initially the most prominent opponents of the Normans. The Rising of the Earls in 1075 was also not covered. Most useful was the disentangling of fact and myth from the life and activities of Hereward, miscalled the Wake - though, frankly, he doesn't sound like a very attractive resister to me.