1066 Arguably the most famous date in English history. The Norman conquest of England.
How did it happen?
What were the circumstances that led to such events?
How did around seven thousand Normans and their allies conquer a nation of over two million people?
Leofric knows. He was there.
The year is AD 1071.
William the Conqueror and his Norman army have taken the Isle of Elig. After eighteen months of bloody siege, someone showed them the way through the secret paths of the treacherous marshes. Leofric the Black, one of a few who have escaped, has been accused of being that traitor. He writes this account to prove his innocence. The son of a Saxon thegn, Leofric is born with a club foot. He is a disappointment to his father who yearns for a strong warrior son to become the heir of his estates. On hearing his father tell someone that he thinks he was given the wrong son, Leofric vows to become the man his father yearns for and not the priest most say is his destiny. The fractured English Church is at loggerheads with Rome, and jealous earls and ambitious thegns are vying for control of England with the most powerful family in the land, the Godwins. Watching these divisive events unravel are power hungry rulers from the west and north of Britain, Norway and Normandy, eager to seize the English crown.
Once linked with the Scandinavian countries, Europe now beckons.