The Last English King

by Julian Rathbone

After the Battle of Hastings (1066), Walt, a friend and adviser to ex-King Harold of England, travels to the Holy Land with a former monk who listens to his story. Through Walt, we hear of the events before and after the Norman invasion, until en route the two meet the man who, Walt knows, is responsible for much of England's woes.

Available editions of The Last English King

	9780312242138, Hardcover, St Martins Pr, 1999 $1.00 (Used - Good) Other copies of 9780312242138

Publisher Notes

On September 27, 1066, Duke William of Normandy sailed for England with about 600 ships and over 10,000 men. King Harold of England, weakened by a ferocious Viking invasion from the North as well as demoralized by his sudden ex-communication by the Pope, could muster little defense. At the Battle of Hastings on October 14th, he was outflanked, quickly defeated and killed by William's superior troops. The course of English history was altered forever.

Three years later, Walt, King Harold's only surviving bodyguard, is still emotionally and physically scarred by the loss of his king and his country. Wandering through Asia Minor, headed vaguely for the Holy Land, he meets Quint, a renegade monk with a healthy line in skepticism and a hearty appetite for knowledge. It is he who persuades Walt, little by little, to tell his extraordinary story.

And so begins a roller-coaster ride into an era of enduring fascination. Weaving fiction round fact, Julian Rathbone brings to vibrant, exciting and often amusing life the shadowy figures and events that preceded the Norman Conquest. We see Edward, confessing far more than he ever did in the history books. We meet the warring nobles of Mercia and Wessex; Harold and his unruly clan; Canute's descendants with their delusions of grandeur; predatory men, pushy women, subdued Scots and wily Welsh. And we meet William of Normandy, a psychotic thug with interesting plans for the "racial sanitation" of the Eurosceptics across the water.

Peppered with discussions on philosophy, dentistry, democracy, devils, alcohol, illusions and hygiene, The Last English King raises issues, both daring and delightful, that question the nature of history itself. Where are the lines between fact, interpretation or recreation--and did the French really stop for a two-hour lunch during the Battle of Hastings?

Media Reviews

"A dark-hued lament for the loss of jolly old England a millennium ago....[A]n often haunting evocation of a tumultuous time of glory and grief."

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