
The Anglo-Saxons
A History of the Beginnings of England: 400 - 1066
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Narrated by:
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Roy McMillan
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By:
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Marc Morris
About this listen
A sweeping and original history of the Anglo-Saxons by national best-selling author Marc Morris.
Sixteen hundred years ago Britain left the Roman Empire and swiftly fell into ruin. Grand cities and luxurious villas were deserted and left to crumble, and civil society collapsed into chaos. Into this violent and unstable world came foreign invaders from across the sea, and established themselves as its new masters.
The Anglo-Saxons traces the turbulent history of these people across the next six centuries. It explains how their earliest rulers fought relentlessly against each other for glory and supremacy, and then were almost destroyed by the onslaught of the vikings. It explores how they abandoned their old gods for Christianity, established hundreds of churches, and created dazzlingly intricate works of art. It charts the revival of towns and trade, and the origins of a familiar landscape of shires, boroughs, and bishoprics. It is a tale of famous figures like King Offa, Alfred the Great, and Edward the Confessor, but also features a host of lesser known characters - ambitious queens, revolutionary saints, intolerant monks, and grasping nobles. Through their remarkable careers, we see how a new society, a new culture, and a single unified nation came into being.
Drawing on a vast range of original evidence - chronicles, letters, archaeology, and artefacts - renowned historian Marc Morris illuminates a period of history that is only dimly understood, separates the truth from the legend, and tells the extraordinary story of how the foundations of England were laid.
©2021 Marc Morris (P)2021 Penguin Audio, all rights reserved. Published by Brilliance Publishing, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Story
At the end of the fifteenth century, Burgundy was extinguished as an independent state. It had been a fabulously wealthy, turbulent region situated between France and Germany, with close links to the English kingdom. Torn apart by the dynastic struggles of early modern Europe, this extraordinary realm vanished from the map. But it became the cradle of what we now know as the Low Countries, modern Belgium and the Netherlands. This is the story of a thousand years, a must-listen narrative history of ambitious aristocrats, family dysfunction, treachery, savage battles, luxury, and madness.
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Extraordinary story, expertly told and skillfully narrated
- By Daniel Vergara on 03-01-24
By: Bart van Loo, and others
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The English and Their History
- By: Robert Tombs
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 43 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Robert Tombs' momentous The English and Their History is both a startlingly fresh and a uniquely inclusive account of the people who have a claim to be the oldest nation in the world. The English first came into existence as an idea, before they had a common ruler and before the country they lived in even had a name. They have lasted as a recognizable entity ever since, and their defining national institutions can be traced back to the earliest years of their history.
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Should be called, The English and their politics
- By Mary Elizabeth Reynolds on 08-24-16
By: Robert Tombs
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The Plantagenets
- The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England
- By: Dan Jones
- Narrated by: Dan Jones
- Length: 21 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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The first Plantagenet king inherited a blood-soaked kingdom from the Normans and transformed it into an empire stretched at its peak from Scotland to Jerusalem. In this epic history, Dan Jones vividly resurrects this fierce and seductive royal dynasty and its mythic world. We meet the captivating Eleanor of Aquitaine, twice queen and the most famous woman in Christendom; her son, Richard the Lionheart, who fought Saladin in the Third Crusade; and King John, a tyrant who was forced to sign Magna Carta, which formed the basis of our own Bill of Rights.
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Old book--new narrator
- By Kay Long/The Lady Kay on 02-02-24
By: Dan Jones
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Assyria
- The Rise and Fall of the World's First Empire
- By: Eckart Frahm
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 15 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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At its height in 660 BCE, the kingdom of Assyria stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. It was the first empire the world had ever seen. Here, historian Eckart Frahm tells the epic story of Assyria and its formative role in global history. Assyria’s wide-ranging conquests have long been known from the Hebrew Bible and later Greek accounts. But nearly two centuries of research now permit a rich picture of the Assyrians and their empire beyond the battlefield.
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Outstanding Historical Book
- By Okahead on 05-15-23
By: Eckart Frahm
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Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood
- The Rise and Fall of Byzantium, 955 A.D. to the First Crusade
- By: Anthony Kaldellis
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 15 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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In the second half of the tenth century, Byzantium embarked on a series of spectacular conquests. By the early eleventh century, the empire was the most powerful state in the Mediterranean. Yet this imperial project came to a crashing collapse fifty years later, when political disunity, fiscal mismanagement, and defeat at the hands of the Seljuks and the Normans brought an end to Byzantine hegemony. By 1081, Byzantium's very existence was threatened.
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Very Detailed but Tedious
- By Amazon Customer on 09-06-24
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The Thirty Years War
- Europe's Tragedy
- By: Peter H. Wilson
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 33 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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The Thirty Years War devastated seventeenth-century Europe, killing nearly a quarter of all Germans and laying waste to towns and countryside alike. Peter Wilson offers the first new history in a generation of a horrifying conflict that transformed the map of the modern world.
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Less caffeine, narrator
- By Jeff Joyner on 02-12-24
By: Peter H. Wilson
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Brothers York
- A Royal Tragedy
- By: Thomas Penn
- Narrated by: Roy McMillan
- Length: 23 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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The Brothers York is the story of three remarkable brothers, two of whom were crowned kings of England and the other an heir presumptive, whose antagonism was fueled by the mistrust and vendettas of the age that brought their family to power. The house of York should have been the dynasty that the Tudors became. Its tragedy was that it devoured itself.
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Absorbing detail
- By Tad Davis on 08-06-20
By: Thomas Penn
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The House of Beaufort
- The Bastard Line That Captured the Crown
- By: Nathen Amin
- Narrated by: Graham Mack
- Length: 16 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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The Wars of the Roses were a tumultuous period in English history, with family fighting family over the greatest prize in the kingdom—the throne of England. But what gave the eventual victor of these brutal and complex wars, Henry Tudor, the right to claim the crown? What made his Beaufort mother the great heiress of medieval England, and how exactly did an illegitimate line come to challenge the English monarchy? This book uncovers the rise of the Beauforts and tracks their fall during the 1460s and 1470s.
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Too many "ashumptions" for me...
- By Vicki Patterson on 12-11-23
By: Nathen Amin
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Hannibal
- By: Patrick N. Hunt
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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One of the greatest commanders of the ancient world brought vividly to life: Hannibal, the brilliant general who successfully crossed the Alps with his war elephants and brought Rome to its knees. Hannibal Barca of Carthage, born 247 BC, was one of the great generals of the ancient world. Historian Patrick N. Hunt has led archaeological expeditions in the Alps and elsewhere to study Hannibal's achievements. Now he brings Hannibal's incredible story to life in this riveting and dramatic audiobook.
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A monotone mundane narration
- By Jeff Lacy on 05-22-20
By: Patrick N. Hunt
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Vanished Kingdoms
- The Rise and Fall of States and Nations
- By: Norman Davies
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 30 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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There is something profoundly romantic about lost civilizations. Davies peers through the cracks in the mainstream accounts of modern-day states to dazzle us with extraordinary stories of barely remembered pasts, and of the traces they left behind. This is Norman Davies at his best: sweeping narrative history packed with unexpected insights. Vanished Kingdoms will appeal to all fans of unconventional and thought-provoking history, from listeners of Niall Ferguson to Jared Diamond.
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needs a good editor.
- By Ryan Anderson on 09-25-21
By: Norman Davies
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The Ancient Celts, Second Edition
- By: Barry Cunliffe
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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For 2,500 years, the Celts have continued to fascinate those who have come into contact with them, yet their origins have remained a mystery and even today are the subject of heated debate among historians and archaeologists. Barry Cunliffe's classic study of the ancient Celtic world was first published in 1997. Since then, huge advances have taken place in our knowledge: new finds, new ways of using DNA records to understand Celtic origins, new ideas about the proto-urban nature of early chieftains' strongholds. All these developments are part of this fully updated edition.
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Missing the foundation and migration from the steppe and the Tuatha Dé Dannan
- By cpdb on 03-15-20
By: Barry Cunliffe
What listeners say about The Anglo-Saxons
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- Stuart Forman
- 04-17-22
Terrific and gripping history
This is a wonderful book and is a comprehensive treatment of a period of history that has spotty documentation. Dr. Morris writes with vigor and humor and I actually laughed out loud a few times. Morris tells us what is true, what is conjecture, and what is myth. It really is terrific.
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4 people found this helpful
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- neale aslett
- 05-03-22
Engrossing
And illuminating, especially on root meanings for words and phrases. It is told and read in an easy to follow manner
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2 people found this helpful
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- Jennifer Forrester
- 12-12-22
Amazing!
Great read, wonderful information about the history of the Anglo-Saxons and their legacy. Definitely recommend.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kindle Customer
- 10-18-23
Exactly What It Says On The Tin
I found the book engrossing, but it is only about the Anglo-Saxons, so not much in the way of Canute or William of Normandy for the fan of the period, even though they were Kings of the English in their own right (seeing as they are of course not Anglo-Saxons). Still, a very good history stretching from late Roman Britain to Harold the Saxon, so often swept over in more general histories.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Antone
- 09-08-24
the detailed stories and chronicles are amazing.
Getting to hear and learn so much history of England is fascinating. i would highly recommend this book to everyone!
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- Buretto
- 03-26-22
King Offa, innit?
A very comprehensive, perhaps too comprehensive, account of the Anglo-Saxon period. There are some quite interesting segments, and others that drag a bit. But the overriding takeaway from this book for me was more speculative. With the fluidity of modern British historicity, the willingness to assimilate various cultures as their own, yet conveniently ignore the awkward inaccuracy of other "glorious" parts of its history, an old nagging theory raised its head. Listening to this audiobook, it's become much less unreasonable to think that the mythology of King Arthur may be nothing more than a repackaging of the Anglo-Saxon King Offa, into a Celtic, or Welsh, or Breton, or British if you like, legend. The truth of Arthur's existence is in doubt, but Offa's isn't. And considering that there is, tellingly, no recorded history of Arthur until after Offa's reign and death, though he was meant to predate Offa by a few centuries, one must wonder. Perhaps identity theft is older than we know. Or perhaps with the romanticized racist corruption of the Anglo-Saxon name (what no love for the Jutes?), it might be mischievous fun to think one of their most powerful rulers morphed into a fantasy story.
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10 people found this helpful
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- Matt
- 10-05-21
Pretty basic
Short history with typical Marc Morris A-S talking points for those familiar with his Norman Conquest book.
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5 people found this helpful
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- M. Joslyn
- 04-01-24
excellent history
The Anglo Saxon heritage is part of my family heritage and I loved hearing more about them. I am familiar with much of it but I learned much more and the reader was fantastic.
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1 person found this helpful
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- KK
- 02-25-24
Details can overwhelm - Listen for overview
A good medium for lots of information. I used this for an overview , then read the book.
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- Jon
- 03-29-24
great thoroughly researched history
can be a little dry but lays out a great history of Anglo-Saxon England, good for anyone who wants to know more
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