"A Strong Land and a Sturdy" looks at Britain from the time of the Norman Conquest until the end of the English kings’ wars in France in 1453. The great events it records are not the ones usually found in history books: they are the appearance of the first heroic romances, the emergence of English as a language for poetry and written works, the splendors of Richard II's court, the building of cathedrals and the making of manuscripts. And the Normans appear not as warriors, but as great organizers, who made England the first efficiently governed state in Europe.
All this is set down using the words and pictures left by men who lived in those days, men like Bartholomew the Englishman who in the thirteenth century called England "a strong land and a sturdy, and the most plentiful corner of the world; so rich a land that it scarcely needs the help of any other country."
The book is lavishly illustrated with over sixty black-and-white photographs and eight pages of full color.
Author(s): Richard Barber
Series: The Mirror of Britain Series
Publisher: The Seabury Press
Year: 1976
Language: English
Pages: 128+VIII
City: New York
The coming of the Normans 7
The king and his court 16
A nobleman and his household 26
The manor and the village 29
The merchant and the towns 40
Schools and universities 48
The church 61
Medicine and science 76
Artists and craftsmen 83
The travellers 107
The knight and war 114
Conclusion 123
Bibliography 124
Index 126
