BRAND NEW Please allow 4-7 working days for delivery This item is shipped from our NZ warehouse

Stephen by Watkins, Carl

ISBN: 9780141977140 PUBLISHER: Allen Lane FORMAT: Hardback PAGES: 128 PUBLICATION DATE: 27.08.2015 DIMENSIONS: 18.6 x 12.9 x 1.8 centimetres

DESCRIPTION: Known as 'the anarchy', the reign of Stephen (1135-1141) saw England plunged into a civil war that illuminated the fatal flaw in the powerful Norman monarchy, that without clear rules ordering succession, conflict between members of William the Conqueror's family were inevitable. But there was another problem, too: Stephen himself. With the nobility of England and Normandy anxious about the prospect of a world without the tough love of the old king Henry I, Stephen styled himself a political panacea, promising strength without oppression. As external threats and internal resistance to his rule accumulated, it was a promise he was unable to keep. Unable to transcend his flawed claim to the throne, and to make the transition from nobleman to king, Stephen's actions betrayed uneasiness in his role, his royal voice never quite ringing true. The resulting violence that spread throughout England was not, or not only, the work of bloodthirsty men on the make. As Watkins shows in this resonant new portrait, it arose because great men struggled to navigate a new and turbulent kind of politics that arose when the king was in eclipse.

• If using business address pls use PO Box as do not use courier
• In Stock with our supplier shipped from our NZ Warehouse
• Stock image only. Actual cover art may differ
• No returns on wrong items purchased