Books by Marc Morris

On Christmas Day 1066, William, duke of Normandy was crowned in Westminster, the first Norman king of England. It was a disaster: soldiers outside, thinking shouts of acclamation were treachery, torched the surrounding buildings. To later chroniclers, it was an omen of the catastrophes to come.During the reign of William the Conqueror, England experienced greater and more seismic change than at any point before or since. Marc Morris's concise and gripping biography sifts through the sources of the time to give a fresh view of the man who changed England more than any other, as old ruling elites were swept away, enemies at home and abroad (including those in his closest family) were crushed, swathes of the country were devastated and the map of the nation itself was redrawn, giving greater power than ever to the king. When, towards the end of his reign, William undertook a great survey of his new lands, his subjects compared it to the last judgement of God, the Domesday Book. England had been transformed forever.

This riveting book explains why the Norman Conquest was the single most important event in English history. Assessing the original evidence at every turn, Marc Morris goes beyond the familiar outline to explain why England was at once so powerful and yet so vulnerable to William the Conqueror's attack.

King John is familiar to everyone as the villain from the tales of Robin Hood - greedy, cowardly, despicable and cruel. Was he truly a monster, or a capable ruler cursed by ill luck? This book offers a compelling portrait of an extraordinary king, whose reign marked a momentous turning point in the history of Britain and Europe.

Be it ever so grand or ever so humble, a castle was first and foremost a home. To understand castles - who built them, who lived in them, and why - is to understand the forces that shaped medieval Britain.

Study of one of the most influential aristocratic families of medieval England.