Books by Teresa Cole

Eight kings of England were the named Henry, but only two of them were born as heirs to the throne and these - the third and sixth - proved to be the weakest. Two seized the crown by force of arms, one by craft and opportunistic speed, and one by skilful diplomacy and an early flowering of that great British virtue, compromise. Among their number are saints and monsters, the best known and the least known of English kings. One was a storybook hero, leading an army to triumph against overwhelming odds. Another sat out a battle, singing to himself and playing with his fingers while the arrows flew. Half of them have been accused of murder, though in general the actual killings were carried out by others. When we look at the contributions made by the eight kings of that name, we find they underpin almost every aspect of our nation and its institutions. To the first two we owe our legal system and department of finance, to the third, intentionally or otherwise, the origins of our parliament. The fifth decreed the widespread use of English in official documents, leading to dramatic developments in that language. The seventh transformed the tax system and introduced legal reforms that curbed the power of the nobility. The eighth, again arguably unintentionally, brought into being the Church of England. Between them, these English monarchs represent every possible shade of kingship, and each in his own time was 'Harry of England'.

The bitter civil war for the English throne, which drew in Scotland and Normandy, when a princess's rightful throne was seized by her male cousin, and plunged England into 'the Anarchy'.

1066 saw three kings of England, the last of whom was William, Duke of Normandy. Tradition tells us the conquest of England by the powerful Normans was inescapable, and suggests England benefited almost at once from closer links with Europe. But new discoveries have thrown doubt on these long accepted beliefs. The Battle of Hastings itself must be re-assessed, its very site disputed, as must the whereabouts of the mortal remains of the defeated King Harold. As for the kings themselves; was Edward the Confessor as saintly and William as dominant as they have been portrayed, and was Harold more than just the hinge on which history turned?Nine and a half centuries later it is appropriate to look again at the course and outcomes of the Norman Conquest of England, the genocide committed in northern England, the wholesale transfer of lands to Norman lords, and the Domesday Book designed to enable every last drop of riches to be extracted from a subdued kingdom.