Customer Reviews

The Kings Of Medieval England, c. 560-1485

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Scarecrow has been publishing the "Magill Bibliographies" series for some time and they're generally quite good. The author of this one is a medievalist at the University of North Carolina who obviously knows his subject well. He provides here a well-considered, highly selected bibliography of monographs (and a few journal articles) on each of the English monarchs from Egbert (who can be regarded as the first "King of England") through Richard III, the last of the Plantagenets. Even though the Anglo-Saxon and Danish period is the longest, it's also inevitably the time for we have the least information, so there's not much available on kings like Edwy and Harold Harefoot, with most of the attention going to Alfred and Edward the Confessor. A great deal has been written about the Conqueror, on the other hand, and the selection here is judicious, though unremarkable. Whomever your "favorite" king might be, whether Henry II or Edward III, you may expect to find the key biographical and analytical works included. Throughout the volume, in fact, one finds the authors one expects to find. There are numerous listings for such 20th-century luminaries as Frank Barlow, Christopher Brooke, R. H. C. Davis, David C. Douglas, John Gillingham, Warren Hollister, Sidney Painter, and Michael Prestwich, as well the classic historians like Freeman and Stubbs, all of whom are synthesists whose work is accessible to most readers. But that is exactly Usilton's goal. The Introduction notes a number of other bibliographies on narrower spans of time that include more specialized academic works, nor does he include primary works. Each annotation notes the book's content, basic approach, importance in the field, and special features. And the introduction to each section of the book provides a good brief overview of each dynasty.

Dr. Larry Usilton, Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington has released a remarkably lucid, engaging, and critically important reference source for anyone interested in the early monarchs of Britain. Any lecturer in the field should feel comfortable recommending this book to their students.