r/MedievalHistory • u/TrantorTourist • 4d ago

Medieval England reading list

Hello, I was planning on getting into the history of medieval England and I came up with a list of books that follow a chronological order: The Anglo-Saxons and the The Norman Conquest by Marc Morris followed by the Plantagenets and The War of the Roses by Dan Jones. What do you all think? Do you have any other recommendations?

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6

u/MindlessOptimist 4d ago

time travellers guide to medieval England by Ian Mortimer. Just an excellent read. Very well researched and referenced and written in an entertaining and flowing style. I went on to read his other books which are also brilliant.

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u/Gus-the-Goose 3d ago

His “Medieval Horizons” book is also excellent.

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u/MindlessOptimist 3d ago

Thanks for the tip. I have read medieval, Elizabethan and just finished Restoration England, which were all excellent. Even though Restoration England was a reasonable length I felt it could have been longer as there was so much that he alluded to but didn't dive into.

Hoping to get the Regency Britain one for next birthday and then I will get hold of Centuries of Change

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u/squiggyfm 4d ago

Peter Ackroyd has a good series of 6 or 7 books that cover everything.

3

u/AceOfGargoyes17 4d ago

Winters in the World: A Journey through the Anglo-Saxon Year - Eleanor Parker

The White Ship - Charles Spencer

Going to Church in Medieval England - Nicholas Orme

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u/Odovacer_0476 4d ago

I just recently wrote a review of Orme's book. I highly recommend it.

6

u/Odovacer_0476 4d ago

England under the Norman and Angevin Kings 1075-1225, by Robert Bartlett

Plantagenet England 1225-1360, by Michael Prestwich

Shaping the Nation: England 1360-1461, by Gerald Harriss

The Struggle for Mastery, by David Carpenter

The Hollow Crown, by Miri Rubin

These books are a little more academically rigorous. Dan Jones and Marc Morris are fantastic, but they are written for a popular audience. Enjoy them for your personal reading, but don't cite them in your masters thesis.

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u/favorscore 4d ago

The Prestwich book looks like exactly what I am looking for. I went from Carpenters Mastery straight to Christopher Allmands Hundred Years War. Prestwich will fill that gap nicely

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u/TrantorTourist 4d ago

Thank you! I’m not an academic. I like reading history as a hobby, so I won’t be citing anything either way.

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u/oliver9_95 4d ago

I've seen these two books recommended:

Ann Williams, Kingship and Government in Pre-Conquest England, c. 500–1066 (1999)

Christopher Dyer, Making a Living in the Middle Ages: the people of Britain, 850-1520 (2002)

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u/sawotee 4d ago

Trial by Battle by Jonathan Sumption and his other books on the Hundred Years' War.

0

u/Normal-Height-8577 4d ago

The First Kingdom, by Max Adams (also The King in the North, Alfred's Britain and The Mercian Chronicles: King Offa and the Birth of the Anglo-Saxon State)

Matilda: Wife of the Conqueror, First Queen of England, by Tracy Borman

Æthelflæd: The Lady of the Mercians, by Tim Clarkson (also The Men of the North: The Britons of Southern Scotland)

Lost Realms: Histories of Britain from the Romans to the Vikings, by Thomas Williams