The Normans: Bibliography -- The Normans in England

General Works

Edward Freeman provides the starting-point for any discussion of the Conquest and its consequences. His History of the Norman Conquest of England, six volumes, 1867-79 and less well-known but perhaps better The Reign of William Rufus and the Accession of Henry I, two volumes, 1882 contain invaluable detail even if his conclusions are now seen as flawed. Frank Stenton Anglo-Saxon England, Oxford University Press, 3^rd ed., 1971 and A.L. Poole From Domesday Book to Magna Carta 1087-1216, Oxford University Press, 2^nd ed., 1955 are still, despite their age perhaps the best general surveys of the period. Oxford University Press is now publishing a ‘new’ Oxford History of England. Robert Bartlett England under the Norman and Angevin Kings 1075-1225, Oxford University Press, 2000 is more thematic in approach and should be read alongside Stenton and Poole. Frank Barlow The Feudal Kingdom of England, 1042-1216, 4^th edition, London, 1988 remains a good textbook. G. Garnett ‘Conquered England, 1066-1215’, in N. Saul, (ed.), The Oxford Illustrated History of England, Oxford, 2000, Wendy Davies From the Vikings to the Normans, Oxford, 2003 and Barbara Harvey (ed.), The Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, 1066-c.1280, The Short Oxford History of the British Isles, Oxford, 2001 contain useful papers.

Inevitably more recent research has modified some of their conclusions and reference should also be made to M.T. Clanchy England and its Rulers 1066-1272, Fontana, 1983, 2^nd ed., Blackwell, 1999, David Carpenter The Struggle for Mastery: Britain 1066-1284, Penguin, 2003 and Marjorie Chibnall Anglo-Norman England 1066-1166, Blackwell, 1995. Henry Loyn Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest, Longman, 2^nd ed., 1992 is the best introduction to social and economic questions while his The Governance of Anglo-Saxon England 500-1087, Edward Arnold, 1984 does the same for administration and legal questions. W. L. Warren The Governance of Norman and Angevin England 1086-1272, Edward Arnold, 1987 is excellent on the Anglo-Saxon legacy and the ‘normanisation’ of England. Judith Green The Government of England under Henry I, CUP, 1991 looks back to 1066 in what is undoubtedly the definitive study.

There are major biographies of the ‘key’ players. Frank Barlow Edward the Confessor, Methuen, 1970, revised edition, Yale University Press, 1998 and William Rufus, Methuen, 1983, revised edition, Yale University Press, 2000. D.C. Douglas William the Conqueror, Methuen 1964, revised edition, Yale University Press, 1999 though now somewhat dated remains the best account. David Bates William the Conqueror, London, 1989, revised edition Tempus, 2001 gives a different perspective. I.W. Walker, Harold: the Last Anglo-Saxon King, Sutton, 1997 is a brave and sympathetic attempt at a difficult subject. C Warren Hollister Henry I, Yale University Press, 2001 is the first modern biography but should be supplemented with Judith Green Henry I, Cambridge University Press, 2006.

The Conquest

On William’s claim to the English throne see: B. English, ‘William the Conqueror and the Anglo-Norman Succession’, Historical Research, volume 64 (1991), pages 221-36 and G. Garnett, ‘Coronation and Propaganda: Some Implications of the Norman Claim to the Throne of England in 1066’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5^th series, volume 36 (1986), pages 91-116. George Garnett Conquered England: Kingship, Succession and Tenure 1066-1166, Oxford University Press, 2007 is essential on the nature of the Conquest and the problem of succession.

In addition to the general texts on 1066, see the following articles: H.E.J. Cowdrey ‘Bishop Ermenfrid of Sion and the Penitential Ordinance following the Battle of Hastings’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History volume 20 (1969), pages 225-42 (compare with S. Hamilton, The Practice of Penance, 900-1050, Rochester, NY, 2001), John Gillingham, ‘William the Bastard at War’, in C. Harper-Bill, C. J. Holdsworth and J. L. Nelson, (eds.), Studies in Medieval History presented to R. Allen Brown, Woodbridge, 1989, pages 141-58 reprinted in S. Morillo, (ed.), The Battle of Hastings: Sources and Interpretations, Woodbridge, 1996, pages 96-112; and, C. Morton, ‘Pope Alexander II and the Norman Conquest’, Latomus volume 34 (1975), pages 362-82. There are three useful papers by E.M.V. van Houts ‘The Memory of 1066 in Written and Oral Traditions’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 19 (1997), pages 167-79; ‘The Norman Conquest through European Eyes’, English Historical Review, volume 110 (1995), pages 832-53 and ‘The Ship List of William the Conqueror’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 10 (1988), pages 159-83.

The Process of Colonisation and Settlement

Of books about the Conquest, D.J.A. Matthew, The Norman Conquest, Batsford, 1966 and R.A. Brown, The Normans and the Norman Conquest, Boydell, 2^nd ed., 1995 retain their value, the latter a forthright restatement of the view that the Conquest did indeed intoduce feudalism to England. Ralph Allen Brown has produced several books on the subject: The Norman Conquest, Edward Arnold, 1984 includes a valuable collection of sources and English Castles, 3^rd ed., Boydell, 1976. Brian Goulding Conquest and Colonisation: The Normans in Britain 1066-1100, Macmillan, 1994, 2^nd ed., 2001 and David Walker The Normans in Britain, Blackwell, 1995 are more recent analyses. Marjorie Chibnall The Debate on the Norman Conquest, Manchester University Press, 1999 is an excellent recent study of the historiographical debates on the Conquest. John Le Patourel, ‘The Norman Colonisation of Britain’, in Settimane di Studio del Centro Italiano di Studi sull’alto Medioevo, volume 16, I Normanni e Loro Espansione in Europa nell’alto Medioevo, Spoleto, 1969, pages 409-38 remains a classic account.

R. Fleming Kings and Lords in Conquest England, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, 4^th series, volume 15, Cambridge, 1991 provides the most accessible study of the process of colonisation and changes in landownership. John Hudson Land, Law and Lordship in Anglo-Norman England, Oxford University Press, 1993 provides the legal context. T.A.M. Bishop ‘The Norman Settlement of Yorkshire’, in R. W. Hunt, W. A. Partin and R. W. Southern, (eds.), Studies in Medieval History presented to F. M. Powicke, Oxford, 1948, pages 1-14, W. E. Kapelle The Norman Conquest of the North: the Region and its Transformation, Chapel Hill, 1979 and P. Dalton, Conquest, Anarchy and Lordship: Yorkshire, 1066-1154, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, 4^th series, volume 27, Cambridge, 1994 are excellent on the north. Other useful case-studies include two papers by C.P. Lewis ‘The Formation of the Honour of Chester, 1066-1100’, Journal of the Chester Archaeological Society, volume 71 (1991), pages 37-68 and ‘The Norman Settlement of Herefordshire under William I’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 7 (1985), pages 195-213.

On the impact of the Conquest on the Norman aristocracy see Judith Green The Aristocracy of Norman England, Cambridge, 1997, especially pages 25-99, on the Norman settlement. Useful papers include: R. Abels ‘Sheriffs, Lord-Seeking and the Norman Settlement of the South-East Midlands’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 19 (1997), pages 19-50; David Bates ‘The Character and Career of Odo, Bishop of Bayeux (1049/50-1097)’, Speculum volume 50 (1975), pages 1-20, B. Golding, ‘Robert of Mortain’, Anglo-Norman Studies volume 13 (1991), pages 119-44; C.W. Hollister ‘The Greater Domesday Tenants-in-Chief’, in J. C. Holt, (ed.), Domesday Studies, Woodbridge, 1987, pages 249-65; N. Hooper ‘Edgar the Ætheling: Anglo-Saxon Prince, Rebel and Crusader’, Anglo-Saxon England, volume 14 (1985), pages 197-214; J.F.A. Mason ‘Roger de Montgomery and his Sons’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5^th series, volume 13 (1963), pages 1-28; H.J. Tanner ‘The Expansion of the Power and Influence of the Counts of Boulogne under Eustace II’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 14 (1992), pages 251-86; and, A. Williams, ‘The King’s Nephew: the Family, Career and Connections of Ralph, earl of Hereford’, in C. Harper-Bill, C. J. Holdsworth and J. L. Nelson, (eds.), Studies in Medieval History presented to R. Allen Brown, Woodbridge, 1989, pages 327-43.

The Fate of the English and the History of English Identity

Peter Rex The English Resistance, Tempus, 2004 provides a useful summary of the resistance to the Normans and their reactions.  On Hereward see Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, MSS. DE, sub anno 1071. Richard of Ely, Gesta Herwardi incliti militis, represents a twelfth-century Ely tradition: translated M. Swanton, Three Lives of the Last Englishmen, 1984, pages 45-88; for further details of the events at Ely, see the Liber Eliensis edited E. O. Blake, 1962. For Peterborough traditions, see Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, MS. E, sub anno 1070, and Hugh Candidus: Chronicle of Hugh Candidus, compiled in the mid-twelfth century; text: The Chronicle of Hugh Candidus, a Monk of Peterborough, ed. W. T. Mellows, 1949; translation: C. Mellows and W. T. Mellows, The Peterborough Chronicle of Hugh Candidus, 1966.  Commentaries on Hereward include: C. Hart, ‘Hereward “the Wake” and his Companions’, in C. Hart, The Danelaw (1992)  pages 625-48, and J. Hayward, ‘Hereward the Outlaw’, Journal of Medieval History volume 14 (1988), pages 293-304; see also M. Keen, The Outlaws of Medieval Legend, 1961; revised edition 1977, pages 9-38, and V. Head, Hereward, Sutton, 1995.  S. Reynolds, ‘Eadric “Silvaticus” and the English Resistance’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research volume 54 (1981), pages 102-5 is invaluable on the early resistance in 1067.

A. Williams The English and the Norman Conquest, Woodbridge, 1995 and Hugh M. Thomas The English & The Normans, Oxford University Press, 2003 are essential and important works. Useful articles include: S. Foot ‘The Making of Angelcynn: English Identity before the Norman Conquest’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 6^th series, volume 6 (1996), pages 25-49; G. Garnett ‘Franci et Angli: The Legal Distinction between Peoples after the Conquest’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 8 (1984), pages 109-37; John Gillingham The English in the Twelfth Century: Imperialism, National Identity, and Political Values, Woodbridge, 2000; A.P. Smyth ‘The Emergence of English Identity’, in A.P. Smyth, (ed.), Medieval Europeans: Studies in Ethnic Identity and National Perspectives in Medieval Europe, Basingstoke, 1998, pages 24-52; and, P. Stafford ‘Women and the Norman Conquest’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 6^th series, volume 4 (1994), pages 221-49, reprinted in L. K. Little and B. H. Rosenwein, (eds.), Debating the Middle Ages: Issues and Readings, Malden, MA, 1998, pages 254-63.