A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons (74 page)

The ‘flying angel’ from the church of St Laurence, Bradford on Avon. The little church (date unknown, though perhaps
c
.1000), its nave just 25 feet (7.6m) long, retains its sense of the numinous.

‘Christ in Majesty’ from the church of St John the Baptist, Barnack is about 3 feet, 4 inches (102cm) in height and dates from the 1060s.

The ‘death of King Harold II at Hastings’ from the Bayeux Tapestry. The Latin words ‘
hIC hAROLD REX INTERFECTUS EST
’ (‘Here King Harold is killed’) stretch over one figure who is perhaps pulling an arrow from his eye and another who has been felled by a horseman.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

A Note on Names and Measurements

List of Illustrations

Maps

Chronology

Selective Genealogy of the Royal House of Cerdic/Wessex/England

Introduction: An Idea of Early England

1   Invaders and Settlers: Beginnings to the Early 600s

2   Southern Kingdoms, AD 600–800

3   Northumbria: The Star in the North

4   The Mercian Sphere

5   Apostles of Germany

6   Alcuin of York and the Continuing Anglo-Saxon Presence on the Continent

7   Viking Raiders, Danelaw, ‘Kings’ of York

8   The Wessex of Alfred the Great

9   Literature, Learning, Language and Law in Anglo-Saxon England

10 The Hegemony of Wessex: The English Kingdom and Church Reforms

11   Danish Invasions and Kings: Æthelred ‘Unraed’, Cnut the Great and Others

12   Edward the Confessor, the Conquest and the Aftermath

Appendix 1: The Bayeux Tapestry

Appendix 2: The Death of Harold and His Afterlife?

Appendix 3: Royal Writing Office or Chancery?

Notes

Select Bibliography

Index