Showing results by author "Mercedes Rochelle" in All Categories

Harold Godwineson, the Last Anglo-Saxon King, owed everything to his father. Who was this Godwine, first Earl of Wessex and known as the Kingmaker? Was he an unscrupulous schemer, using King and Witan to gain power? Or was he the greatest of all Saxon Earls, protector of the English against the hated Normans? The answer depends on who you ask.

If you listened to A King Under Siege, you might remember that we left off just as Richard declared his majority at age 22. He was able to rise above the humiliation inflicted on him during the Merciless Parliament, but the fear that it could happen again haunted him the rest of his life. Ten years was a long time to wait before taking revenge on your enemies, but King Richard II was a patient man.

Richard II found himself under siege not once, but twice in his minority. Crowned king at age ten, he was only 14 when the Peasants' Revolt terrorized London. But he proved himself every bit the Plantagenet successor, facing Wat Tyler and the rebels when all seemed lost. Alas, his triumph was short-lived, and for the next 10 years he struggled to assert himself against his uncles and increasingly hostile nobles.

Earl Godwine had great plans for his children. But he didn't understand his sons. And they barely understood each other. This is England in the days of Edward the Confessor, when Godwine and his sons tower over the other great families. Harold emerges as the power behind the throne. Tostig rules the north. They control all the earldoms except one. What could go wrong?

In 1066, the rivalry between two brothers brought England to its knees. When Duke William of Normandy landed at Pevensey on September 28, 1066, no one was there to resist him. King Harold Godwineson was in the north, fighting his brother Tostig and Harald Hardrada at Stamford Bridge. How could this have happened? Why would Tostig turn traitor to wreak revenge on his brother?

The road to kingship had a most inauspicious beginning, and we follow Fleance into exile and death, passing the Witches' prophecy to his son Walter. Born on the wrong side of the blanket and raised in disgrace, Walter was caught inside of a preordained fate he barely understood. In an effort to untangle Banquo's murder and honor his lineage, Walter moved through events that shaped the course of England and Scotland. He served Harold Godwineson, finding himself in the middle of Harold's Welsh campaign.