Customer Reviews

The Normans: The History of a Dynasty (Dynasties)

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The Normans, like their Viking relations, were adventurers par excellence. David Crouch also reveals cool headed calculation and organised government to be the underlying pattern of their success; illuminating this early period through sensible reconstruction, Crouch shows `how quickly complete outsiders could take possession of and transform the structures of power within a region'.

Nevertheless, fortune could tip either way in this precarious world of flux. At the close of the first millennium Wessex is `systematically plundered' by Vikings, spurring the King of England, Ethelred the Unready, into a marriage alliance with Emma, sister to Duke Richard II of Normandy...`The Normans could conceivably have closed their ports to the Vikings, as the English had wanted, but the retaliation might have been dreadful. If the Normans had refused to be Viking collaborators, they would then have been potential victims. This fear alone guaranteed a reception for Viking ships in Normandy'...The astute Duke Richard II steered his realm between the shoals of Viking freebooters and firmly entrenched Frankish mainlanders.

Meanwhile Ethelred recklessly massacres a Danish population in the south east of England bringing an `aggressive and expansionist Danish kingdom towards the shores of England.' William the Conqueror would soon enter the fray of this viscous Nordic cockpit, tipping England's fortune Normandy's way. The rest, as they say, is history. The entire story of these incredible events is impeccable history when told by David Crouch. This is one modest volume well worth its shelf space.

This is a superb book. If you are looking for a general and strictly Norman survey, this book isn't for you. I only read up through the chapters on William, so I can't speak for the rest of the book. BUT - from what I have read the author means to describe the story of the dynastic line... not Norman adventures and antics in the 11th century. The book focuses on the development of the Counts of Rouen and Dukes of Normandy, and their ultimate conquest of England.

So if you are in need of a short introduction into Norman ducal growth and its relationship with England, then I highly suggest this book. I suggest it even if you aren't looking for that, it's a great read either way.

I wanted this book for a college course I am taking to connect the Normans with their Viking roots. Often history books overlook a Viking heritage as they often assimilated into the culture they conquered. However, the Normans does not loose that connection. The author writes well and keeps your interest - as Medieval lives often have a significant amount of "soap opera" drama. The author does an excellent job of keeping track of genealogy, so if that is an important aspect for you as a reader, he does deliver. He also keeps good track of the primary and secondary sources along with the biases that are prevalent even with historians who try to record just the facts.