Now in its fifth edition, this hugely successful text remains as vivid and readable as ever. Frank Barlow illuminates every aspect of the Anglo-Norman world, but the central appeal of the book continues to be its firm narrative structure. Here is a fascinating story compellingly told.
At the beginning of the period he shows us an England that is still, politically and culturally, on the fringe of the classical world. By the end of John’s reign, the new world that has emerged was in outlook, structure and character, recognisable as part of the modern age.
Incorporating the findings of the most recent scholarship in the field – much of it Barlow’s own – the fifth edition includes new material on the role of women in Anglo-Norman England.
Few books have weathered the test of time as well as Frank barlow's classic survey of late Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman England from the threshold of the Norman Conquest to the aftermath of Magna Carta. And rightly so, for Professor Barlow is both the doyen of British Anglo-Norman scholars - a hugely influential figure who has left his stamp on a whole academic generation - and also one of medieval history's master communicators: The Feudal Kingdom of England (originally published as part of the History of England series under the General Editorship of the late W.N. Medlicott) remains as vivid and compellingly readable as ever in this handsome new Fifth Edition. One of the main reasons for that, as thousands of satisfied readers have attested, is the book's firm narrative structure. For all the wealth of explanation and analysis on the way, Frank Barlow's main concern is to tell a story - the story of the comprehensive and momentous transformation of England across these crucial years. At the beginning of the period, he shows us an England that is still, politically and culturally, on the fringe of the classical world, its formal aspects recognisably Roman in inspiration, though inhabited by English and viking 'barbarians'. Their world was to be changed in almost every respect by the extraordinary revolutions of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. By the end of John's reign, the new world that had emerged, though still remote from our own time in certain respects, was nevertheless in outlook, structure and character recognisably a part of the modern age. This Fifth Edition, the first reworking of the text for a decade, has been revised, expanded, redesigned and reset. It incorporates the findings of the most recent scholarship in the field - the new text, for instance, includes interesting material on the role of women in Anglo-Norman England. Much of this recent activity is indeed Professor Barlow's own, for he has been notably busy himself since the Fourth Edition came out in 1988, having published two new volumes of the English Episcopal Acta, an edition of the charters of the bishops of Exeter 1046-1257, fresh versions of his standard biographies of Edward the Confessor and Thomas Becket (with William Rufus to follow shortly), contributed a number of articles on leading Anglo-Norman figures to the New Dictionary of National Biography, and completed a new edition and translation of Guy of Amiens' poem on the Battle of Hastings, the Carmen de Hastingae Proelio. This vigorous activity has left its mark throughout the latest version of The Feudal Kingdom of England, one of his earliest and favourite works. The Fifth Edition comes up as fresh as paint: the legions of admirers of the book in its earlier versions will warmly welcome its latest incarnation; new readers are in for a treat. FRANK BARLOW is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Exeter, and a Fellow of both the British Academy and the Royal Society of Literature. He was awarded the CBE for services to medieval history in 1989.
