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Conscience Of The King
''Conscience of the King'' (1951) is an historical novel by British author Alfred Duggan based on the life of Cerdic Elesing, founder of the Kingdom of Wessex. It begins 40 years after the events covered in ''The Little Emperors'' (also 1951), set during the last years of Roman Britain from 406 to 410 CE. His later novel '' The King of Athelney'' (1962) concerns one of Cerdic's most famous descendants, Alfred the Great. Plot The story begins with Cerdic's birth in 451 CE, ending shortly before his death in 534 CE. Britain now consists of small states battling each other while also fighting off Danes, Irish, Picts, Jutes, Angles and Saxons. Cerdic (whose Roman name is Coroticus) is the youngest son of Eleutherus, King of the Regni, a territory in southern England roughly equivalent to modern East and West Sussex. Although raised as a Roman, his paternal grandfather was closely related to a Germanic ruler given land in Southern Britain around 370 CE in return for military servic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfred Duggan
Alfred Duggan (born Alfredo León Duggan; 1903–1964) was an Argentine-born English historian and archaeologist, and a well-known historical novelist in the 1950s. His novels are known for meticulous historical research. Background Though brought up in Britain, he was born Alfredo León Duggan in Lomas de Zamora, Buenos Aires, Argentina, to a family of wealthy landowners of Irish descent. His family moved to Britain when he was two years old. His father, Alfredo Huberto Duggan, a first generation Irish Argentine, was appointed in 1905 to the Argentine Legation in London, and died in 1915. In 1917, his mother, the Alabama-born Grace Elvira Hinds, daughter of the U.S. Consul General in Rio de Janeiro, became the second wife of Lord Curzon, the former Viceroy of India. Duggan and his brother, Hubert (1904–1943), were brought up in Britain at Curzon's seats, and were educated first at Wixenford and Eton. Thereafter Alfred went to Balliol College at Oxford, where he became a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geoffrey Of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth (; ; ) was a Catholic cleric from Monmouth, Wales, and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur. He is best known for his chronicle '' The History of the Kings of Britain'' ( or ') which was widely popular in its day, being translated into other languages from its original Latin. It was given historical credence well into the 16th century, but is now considered historically unreliable. Life and career Geoffrey was born between about 1090 and 1100, in Wales or the Welsh Marches. He had reached the age of majority by 1129 when he is recorded as witnessing a charter. Geoffrey refers to himself in his as (Geoffrey of Monmouth), which indicates a significant connection to Monmouth, Wales, and may refer to his birthplace. His works attest to some acquaintance with the place-names of the region. Geoffrey was known to his contemporaries as or variants thereof. The "Arthur" in these vers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Novels Set In Anglo-Saxon England
A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning 'new'. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, Medieval Chivalric romance, and the tradition of the Italian Renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, in the historical romances of Walter Scott and the Gothic novel. Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, and John Cowper Powys, preferred the term ''romance''. Such romances should not be confused with the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Novels Set In Sub-Roman Britain
A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and Publication, published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning 'new'. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek novel, Ancient Greek and Roman novel, Medieval Chivalric romance, and the tradition of the Italian Renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, in the historical romances of Walter Scott and the Gothic novel. Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, and John Cowper Powys, preferred the term Romance (literary fiction) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Modern Arthurian Fiction
Modern may refer to: History *Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Philosophy and sociology * Modernity, a loosely defined concept delineating a number of societal, economic and ideological features that contrast with "pre-modern" times or societies ** Late modernity Art * Modernism ** Modernist poetry * Modern art, a form of art * Modern dance, a dance form developed in the early 20th century * Modern architecture Modern architecture, also called modernist architecture, or the modern movement, is an architectural movement and style that was prominent in the 20th century, between the earlier Art Deco and later postmodern movements. Modern architectur ..., a broad movement and period in architectural history ** Moderne, multiple architectural styles ** Modernisme a.k.a. Catalan Modernism * Modern music ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1951 British Novels
Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United Kingdom announces abandonment of the Tanganyika groundnut scheme for the cultivation of peanuts in the Tanganyika Territory, with the writing off of £36.5M debt. * January 11 – In the U.S., a top secret report is delivered to U.S. President Truman by his National Security Resources Board, urging Truman to expand the Korean War by launching "a global offensive against communism" with sustained bombing of Red China and diplomatic moves to establish "moral justification" for a U.S. nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. The report will not not be declassified until 1978. * January 15 – In a criminal court in West Germany, Ilse Koch, The "Witch of Buchenwald", wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King Arthur (2004 Film)
''King Arthur'' is a 2004 epic historical adventure film directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by David Franzoni. It features an ensemble cast with Clive Owen as the title character, Ioan Gruffudd as Lancelot and Keira Knightley as Guinevere, along with Mads Mikkelsen, Joel Edgerton, Hugh Dancy, Ray Winstone, Ray Stevenson, Stephen Dillane, Stellan Skarsgård and Til Schweiger. The film is unusual in reinterpreting Arthur as a Roman officer rather than the typical medieval knight. Several literary works have also done so, including David Gemmell's ''Ghost King'', Jack Whyte's ''Camulod Chronicles'', and perhaps the strongest influence on this film, Bernard Cornwell's ''Warlord'' series. The producers of the film attempted to market it as a more historically accurate version of the Arthurian legends, supposedly inspired by new archaeological findings. The film also replaces the sword in the stone story with a darker and more tragic backstory of how Arthur claimed his sword ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Equites Cataphractarii
''Equites cataphractarii'', or simply ''cataphractarii'', were the most heavily armoured type of Roman cavalry in the Imperial Roman army and Late Roman army. The term derives from a Greek word, κατάφρακτος ''kataphraktos'', meaning "covered over" or "completely covered" (see Cataphract). Origins Heavily armoured cataphract cavalry, usually armed with a long lance ('' contus''), were adopted by the Roman army to counter Parthian troops of this kind on the eastern frontier and similar Sarmatian cavalry in on the Danubian frontier. In distinction to both Parthian and Sarmatian cataphracts, who represented a wealthy feudal or tribal elite equipped for war, Roman cataphracts had no social dimension, being composed of professional soldiers like any other troop type of the Roman army. The Romans also used the terms '' contarii'' for lance-armed cavalry, and ''clibanarii'' for heavily armoured cavalry. It is uncertain whether these terms were used interchangeably with 'cataphr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th centuryAD, it endured until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. The term 'Byzantine Empire' was coined only after its demise; its citizens used the term 'Roman Empire' and called themselves 'Romans'. During the early centuries of the Roman Empire, the western provinces were Romanization (cultural), Latinised, but the eastern parts kept their Hellenistic culture. Constantine the Great, Constantine I () legalised Christianity and moved the capital to Constantinople. Theodosius I, Theodosius I () made Christianity the state religion and Greek gradually replaced Latin for official use. The empire adopted a defensive strategy and, throughout its remaining history, expe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King Arthur
According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Great Britain, Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In Wales, Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a leader of the Sub-Roman Britain, post-Roman Britons in battles against the Anglo-Saxons in the late-5th and early-6th centuries. He first appears in two early medieval historical sources, the ''Annales Cambriae'' and the ''Historia Brittonum'', but these date to 300 years after he is supposed to have lived, and most historians who study the period Historicity of King Arthur, do not consider him a historical figure.Tom Shippey, "So Much Smoke", ''review'' of , ''London Review of Books'', 40:24:23 (20 December 2018) His name also occurs in early Welsh-language literature, Welsh poetic sources, such as ''Y Gododdin''. The character developed through Welsh mythology, appearing either as a great warrior defending Britain from human and supernatura ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dark Ages (historiography)
The ''Dark Ages'' is a term for the Early Middle Ages (–10th centuries), or occasionally the entire Middle Ages (–15th centuries), in Western Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, which characterises it as marked by economic, intellectual, and cultural decline. The concept of a "Dark Age" as a historiographical periodization originated in the 1330s with the Italian scholar Petrarch, who regarded the post-Roman centuries as "dark" compared to the "light" of classical antiquity.. Reprinted from: The term employs traditional black-and-white dualism, light-versus-darkness imagery to contrast the era's supposed ''darkness'' (ignorance and error) with earlier and later periods of ''light'' (knowledge and understanding). The phrase ''Dark Age(s)'' itself derives from the Latin ''saeculum obscurum'', originally applied by Caesar Baronius in 1602 when he referred to a tumultuous period in the 10th and 11th centuries. The concept thus came to characterize the entire Middle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hengist And Horsa
Hengist (, ) and Horsa are legendary Germanic peoples, Germanic brothers who according to later English legends and ethnogenesis theories led the Angles (tribe), Angles, Saxons and Jutes, the progenitor groups of modern English people, in their Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, supposed invasion of Great Britain in the 5th century. Tradition lists Hengist as the first of the Jutish kings, or alternatively as the founder itself, of the Kingdom of Kent. Modern scholarly consensus regards Hengist and Horsa as mythical figures, given their alliteration, alliterative animal names, the seemingly constructed nature of their genealogy, and the unknowable quality of Bede's sources.Halsall (2013:60-62). Their later detailed representation in texts such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says more about ninth-century attitudes to the past than about the time in which they are said to have existed.Yorke (1993).Harland (2021:32). According to early sources, Hengist and Horsa arrived in Britain ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
