Britain 1066-1284

The Penguin History of Britain: The Struggle for Mastery

'The Struggle for Mastery is a work of mature scholarship, which wears its learning lightly. Written with verve for specialist and non-specialist alike, it is a study that will last.' The Times Literary Supplement

David Carpenter is Professor of Medieval History at King's College London. He is the author of THE BATTLES OF LEWES AND EVESHAM and THE REIGN OF HENRY III.

The two-and-a-half centuries after 1066 were momentous ones in the history of Britain. In 1066, England was conquered for the last time. The Anglo-Saxon ruling class was destroyed and and the English became a subject race, dominated by a Norman-French dynasty and aristocracy. This book shows how the English domination of the kingdom was by no means a foregone conclusion. 
 
 
The struggle for mastery in the book's title is in reality the struggle for different masteries within Great Britain. The book weaves together the histories of England, Scotland and Wales in a new way and argues that all three, in their different fashions, were competing for domination

David Carpenter

Lively and detailed, Carpenter's elucidations confirm the commonly held view of King John ("mockery...cruelty...arrogance...fearful suspicions"), while probing the background to Runnymede. From June 1215, Magna Carta "asserted the rule of law" and laid the basis for the tax-based parliamentary state. Yet it also buttressed existing hierarchy - not good news for women or unfree peasants

Of all the books that commemorated the octingentenary of the signing of Magna Carta, the one that stands out for me is David Carpenter's new Penguin Classics edition. Not only does Carpenter vividly re-create the vicious civil war that precipitated the intense drama at Runnymede, he reminds us of the equally vicious civil war that followed, leading to the extraordinary invitation from the rebel barons to Prince Louis of France to replace John on the throne. No less important, Carpenter settles the Great Charter into the social and economic life of a growing nation in which the feudal structures were beginning to erode and a country of free citizens was soon to emerge. David Carpenter deserves to replace Sir James Holt as the standard authority, and an unfailingly readable one too.

'No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land.' 
 
Magna Carta is probably the most famous declaration in western legal history. Wrested by rebellious barons from a very reluctant King John, it set out a series of rights and duties which have been appealed to, ignored, suppressed and argued about ever since. 
 
2015 is the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta's creation - an event which will be marked with exhibitions, commemorations and debates in all the countries over whose constitutions and legal assumptions the shadow of Magna Carta hangs.

David Carpenter

Praise for Magna Carta

Lively and detailed, Carpenter's elucidations confirm the commonly held view of King John ("mockery...cruelty...arrogance...fearful suspicions"), while probing the background to Runnymede. From June 1215, Mag ...

Of all the books that commemorated the octingentenary of the signing of Magna Carta, the one that stands out for me is David Carpenter's new Penguin Classics edition. Not only does Carpenter vividly re-create ...

Books by David Carpenter

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