Nobility and Fortune: England in the Short Tenth Century

TD Asch looks at the story of England from the accession of Edward the Elder in 899 to the death of Edgar in 975. It's the story of a royal family, and how the children and grandchildren of a legendary patriarch forged a nation out of rivalrous kingdoms. In 899, the accession of Edward the Elder, son of Alfred the Great, ushered in a tumultuous period that would see seven reigning kings in England over seventy-six years. It is during this turbulent time that England was transformed from an idea into a kingdom. This is the story of the unification of a nation that includes a shadowy patriarch, a warrior princess and a dissolute reprobate. It is the story of a deeply principled archbishop and another who was corrupt, of heroic deeds and squalid misdeeds. Above all, it is the story of an ongoing contest for power: between rival candidates for the throne, between Crown and Church, between north and south, and between the English and the Norse.