Edward the Confessor

Edward the Confessor

Edward the Confessor

By Frank Barlow (1997)
Buy this book
Buy this book

Frank Barlow's magisterial biography, first published in 1970 and here reissued with new material, updated bibliography and a fresh introduction, rescues the king from contemporary myth and subsequent bogus scholarship. Disentangling verifiable fact from saintly legend, he vividly recreates the final years of the Anglo-Danish monarchy and examines England on the brink of the Norman Conquest with deep insight and great historical understanding.

Frank Barlow was Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Exeter.

Fact of the Day

One of the English ships sent on the disastrous attack on Cadiz in 1625 had sails that had been used during the Armada, almost 40 years earlier.

Quote of the Day

"Revolution is not an apple that falls when it's ripe. You have to make it fall. "
~ Che Guevara

On This Day

1579 Thomas Gresham, merchant, financier, and founder of the Royal Exchange, died suddenly, apparently of apoplexy. He bequeathed his estate, after the death of his wife, to the Corporation of London and the Mercers' Company to set up a college to provide free lectures to the public; Gresham College thus became London's first institution of higher education.
1916 The hospital ship Britannic, sister-ship of Titanic, hit a mine and sank, killing 30.
1918 Ten days after the Armistice, the German navy surrendered to the British in the Firth of Forth. 
1920 The assassinations of British intelligence officers ordered by Michael Collins in the Irish War of Independence led to thirty-one dead (from both sides) in what became known as 'Bloody Sunday'.
1974 21 people were killed and 182 injured when bombs exploded in two Birmingham pubs. The IRA was probably responsible, but the real culprits have never been found. The Birmingham Six, originally convicted of the bombings, were released because of dodgy police practices.
1981 The proceedings of the House of Commons were televised live for the first time.