The various warlord kingdoms of Anglo Saxon England were united temporarily in 937 AD by Aethelstan the grandson of Alfred the Great. For the next 130 years the various kingdoms and combinations of allies resisted wave after wave of Viking invaders. But it was not the Vikings who ultimately defeated this proto-English society but the Normans from France in 1066. Discover more about this early history of the Anglo Saxons.

DELIVERY MODE

• Face-to-Face

SUGGESTED READING

• Levi Roach, Aethelred II The Unready (Yale U P: 2016), ISBN 0300196296
• Michael Lapidge ed., The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo Saxon England (Wiley Blackwell: 2016), ISBN 0631224920
• Rob Bartlett, England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings 1075-1225 (OUP: 2014), ISBN 0199251010
• W B Bartlett, King Cnut and the Viking Conquest of England (Amberley: 2016), ISBN 978144564

COURSE OUTLINE

• Anglo Saxon rulers, successors of Aethelstan after 939 AD – 1016 including Aethelred II The Unready 978-1013 and 1014-1016
• The Viking dynasty ruling England 1016-1035
• Return of the last of the Anglo Saxon kings 1035-1066, including Edward the Confessor 1042-1066
• 1066 and the Norman conquest. Significance of William the Conqueror and his longer term impact on the creation of the kingdom of England
• The Norman dynasty 1035-1154

LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

1. Determine the value of evidence, both written and archaeological from the period of mediaeval England
2. Discuss the significant influences of the Celts, the Romans, European Germanic tribes, the Scandinavian Vikings and the Norman French on the development of England as a nation state
3. Account for the marked success of the Norman invasion but not the long term success of the Danish Viking Invasion in 1013/1016