The Story of the Norman Conquest, and More

Shortly after Easter in the year 1066 Halley's Comet appeared in the heavens. Europeans, who called it the "long-haired star," knew that it portended some great event in human history.

Six months later, Duke William the Bastard of Normandy invaded England, and on a ridge near Hastings defeated King Harold and the English army.  His victory forever altered the course of history.

1066: A Novel is the story of this epic confrontation.  Nearly every episode described in this carefully researched book is based on contemporary accounts.  The narrator is an eyewitness to the history he reports, beginning with the Viking raids that induce England's incompetent king, Ethelred the Unready, to compact a fateful alliance with Normandy.  He serves Earl Godwin, who rises to become the most powerful figure in the kingdom, and whose sons ultimately bring catastrophe to the English.

The story of the Conquest is one of complex and all too human characters, driven by passion, greed, pride and duty:

• Edward the Confessor, king of England, is abandoned early in life by his grasping mother.  After an impotent exile in Normandy, circumstance puts him on England's throne, but he is little more than a puppet controlled by the powerful Earl Godwin.  When the earl stumbles, Edward at last controls his fate and names a distant cousin as his heir.

• William the Bastard, duke of Normandy, inherits a duchy wracked by feudal warfare as a young boy.  More than once he is spirited out of his bed chamber barely in time to escape assassination, forming him into a hard man who rules his tumultuous province with unrelenting firmness.  Having been named heir to England's throne, he is publicly humiliated to learn that the crown has been given to a rival.

• Harold Godwinson succeeds his father as the first man in England, and gradually earns the love and respect of the kingdom.  When Edward dies, the kingdom chooses Harold over the despotic Duke William.  But Harold's reign is overshadowed by two things:  his vengeful brother, whom Harold has recently forced into exile, and an oath that he swore to William when fortune delivered him into the duke's grasp.

• Harold Hardradi, king of Norway, has lived a life of adventure calculated to earn him recognition as the greatest Viking ever.  Yet for all his fantastic deeds in Russia, Greece, Asia and Sicily, Hardradi is still overshadowed by the mighty Cnut who had forged the entire northern world--including England--into a Norse empire.  When the English king's exiled brother arrives, Hardradi sees his opportunity.

As the tale unfolds, we meet Viking heroes, Christian saints, corrupt churchmen, the pope himself (William will fight at Hastings under a papal banner), and such historical personages as Macbeth and Lady Godiva.  The eleventh century is brought to life through contemporary eyes, with all the attitudes, biases and superstitions of an age marked as much by intense piety as by brutal violence.