Customer Reviews

Domination and Conquest: The Experience of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, 1100-1300 (The Wiles Lectures)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I should start with a disclaimer - Rees Davies was my doctoral supervisor at Oxford. That said, this is a short, well-written exposition of the trend in recent British medieval historiography, advanced by Davies and Robin Frame, in which the boundaries of "national" history are broken down. Davies examines the ideological underpinnings, going back to the Anglo-Saxons, for the overlordship of the British Isles and Ireland by the kings of England. He then proceeds to examine Anglo-Norman expansion and infiltration in Wales, Ireland and Scotland in all its myriad aspects. Military conquest was only one tool available, and was accompanied by economic exploitation (and blandishments), the imposition or denial of English law, and English domination of the ecclesiastical hierarchy in Wales and Ireland. With an eye for the telling anecdote, Davies shows how the Anglo-Normans were flexible, adapting from local societies what suited their purposes and exploiting political divisions and rivalries for their own ends. Davies is a good writer as well as one of the most prominent medieval historians in the U.K., and this book should prove accessible for the lay reader interested in what the author has called the "first English empire".

With Domination and Conquest Davies, one of the most prominent historians of the "British" middle ages, has put together a gem of a book. Davies' fundamental purpose here is to put an end to many of the misconceptions about the Anglicization of Britain and Ireland. Beginning with a discussion of the difference between domination and conquest, Davies helps us see that the military aspect of this episode in history is not as important as it often appears. From here Davies moves on to shatter the idea of a concerted and organized Anglo-Norman endeavor to conquer and dominate the Isles, and the myth of organized resistances in Wales and Ireland. In the end, Davies leaves us with a profoundly different understanding of Anglo-Norman expansion in the British Isles. In addition to being illuminating, Domination and Conquest is wonderfully written and a joy to read.