Customer Reviews

The English Resistance: The Underground War Against the Normans (Revealing History)

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Having interest in this period since college days and having books on the shelf of this period, I was pleasantly surprised at last to find a book that told of the period after the 1066 conquest. Most generally whether in college courses or history books dealing with this era, everything halts at the conquest. Everything was fine, peaceful, everyone working together, right? Well as the author relates, nothing could be farther from the tragic truth. 'Ethnic cleansing' of our age had its predecessor in England after 1066.

However, as this author and his engrossing book tell much happened in this hardly ever written about "underground war against the Normans". The book is well written, easy to comprehend, and shows the resistance the English continued to offer after the 1066 battle. William did not begin to build the Tower of London because all things were peaceful, no, and in many, many other places as well small castles were needed to keep William's men from being themselves wiped out. All important offices were taken from the English and given to the Norman vassals, a complete changing of the guard.

Though some would view William as offering 'pacification attempts' the truth more nearly approaches a campaign of totally doing away with the native population. William seems to have had little use, trust, or respect for any native English person. The sooner they were gone the better.

This is some story and one wonders just why no one else through the years has bothered to tell it. History at its best.

Semper Fi.

Admittedly, I have been reading a lot, lately, about the transition from Anglo-Saxon England to Norman-Anglo England, so I may have been jaded by the time I read this account of the English resistance to the Normans right after the events of 1066. I can't say this book is essential reading simply because you can read better descriptions in some of Frank Barlow's books about the anti-Norman campaigns. Peter Rex has written extensively about Hereward the Exile in other books, and I felt like he was trying to just breeze through material he himself was getting sick of. Or, maybe, I'm getting burned out on the subject. I will state, however, in my own defense, that this book just reads like a rehash of chronicle accounts, and Domesday Book references. The author sometimes gets mundane when presenting his lists of evidence for various conjectures he makes, which aren't very dangerous ones: ie. he's a conventional historian in his presentation of conventional information. He is however quite skilled at sussing out the obscure identities of some of the Northern rebels/resistance fighters' lineages, their estate holdings, and some of their post-rebellion fates. I guess ultimately this monograph read like an uninspiring assigned reading book. I will be reading other accounts of Anglo resistence to the Normans, such as Victor Head's account of Hereward the Wake. Read this Peter Rex book if you've never thought about the subject, but don't expect to be blown away by new information. Not an essential read, just a standard one, though well-done.

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.