William I

the long version

On Christmas Day, 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, was crowned at Westminster, the first Norman king of England. It was a disaster: soldiers outside, mistaking shouts of acclamation for treachery, torched the surrounding buildings. To later chroniclers, it was an omen of the catastrophes to come. During the reign of William the Conqueror, England experienced greater and more seismic change than at any point before or since. Marc Morris's concise and gripping biography sifts through the sources of the time to give a fresh view of the man who changed England more than any other, as old ruling elites were swept away, enemies at home and abroad (including those in his closest family) were crushed, swathes of the country were devastated and the map of the nation itself was redrawn, giving greater power than ever to the king. When, towards the end of his reign, William undertook a great survey of his new lands, his subjects compared it to the last judgment of God: the Domesday Book. England had been transformed forever. - Jacket flap.