An important, indeed invaluable, addition to the English Monarchs series. Based throughout on extensive research in primary sources, complemented by perceptive synthesis, the volume is a tour de force. - Northern History Journal
Northern History Journal
In keeping with the high standards of the Yale Monarch series, King has produced an effective account of the man and ... Read morehis reign that will hold up for a long time. His scholarship demonstrates a comfortable familiarity with the era. Successfully scouring the many chronicles, charters, letters and papal correspondence, King has rendered it all in crisp prose.- Laurence W. Marvin, Berry College, Canadian Journal of History
Laurence W. Marvin
Canadian Journal of History
...a balanced and reliable account. -The Good Book Guide
The Good Book Guide
Selected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2011 in the United Kingdom category.
Choice Outstanding Academic Title
Choice
This new monograph on King Stephen makes a formidable addition to the Yale English Monarchs series, and to medieval studies more generally. -Medium Aevum, 80:2 (2011)
Medium Aevum, 80:2 (2011)
King has written a masterpiece that reveals how a medieval political community can both consume and then reconstitute itself and offers readers a king emblematic of his truncated, troubled age. -J.P. Huffman, Choice
J.P. Huffman
Choice
This is a splendid addition to the English Monarchs series, a piece of thickly descriptive political history at its best. With magisterial command of the sources and contexts, Edmund King takes us on a lively tour of Stephen's castles and courts, his options and dilemmas. It is the story of Matildas, one of them the admirable wife-queen who repeatedly rescued Stephen; of his tumultuous brother Henry; of lesser men who, with the king himself, tried to carry on the work of royal power as public order failed; and of the dynastic and clerical elites that dominated England. Close to his sources, Professor King shows how the violence of castles pervades all these stories. He writes with verve and sympathy. His Stephen, found wanting in the end - although hardly 'as usual' - was no nonentity. - Thomas N. Bisson, Emeritus Lea Professor of Medieval History, Harvard University
Thomas Bisson 'King's strength has always been in the close reading of the texts he uses. He deploys his knowledge of the contemporary authors to great effect, time and again making arresting observations about their individual perspectives and links to events, which adds to the freshness and liveliness of his treatment.' - Reviews in History
David Crouch
Reviews in History
King is an expert guide, with a forensic eye for detail and a sharp-witted way with an explanation for a 21st-century readership. -Helen Castor, Times Higher Education
Helen Castor
Times Higher Education
Edmund King's discussion of these issues is the fullest and most detailed to date, offered through the medium of a compelling biography of the king. -Nigel Saul, History Today
Nigel Saul
History Today
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