The Last English King

The Last English King

On September 27, 1066, Duke William of Normandy sailed for England with hundreds of ships and over 8,000 men. King Harold of England, weakened by a ferocious Viking invasion from the north, could muster little defense. At the Battle of Hastings of October 14, he was outflanked, quickly defeated, and killed by William's superior troops. The course of English history was altered forever. Three years later, Walt, King Harold's only surviving bodyguard, is still emotionally and physically scarred by the loss of his king and his country. Wandering through Asia Minor, headed vaguely for the Holy Land, he meets Quint, a renegade monk with a healthy line of skepticism and a hearty appetite for knowledge. It is he who persuades Walt, little by little, to tell his extraordinary story. And so begins a roller-coaster ride into an era of enduring fascination. Weaving fiction round fact, Julian Rathbone brings to vibrant, exciting, and often amusing life the shadowy figures and events that preceded the Norman Conquest. We see Edward, confessing far more than he ever did in the history books. We meet the warring nobles of Mercia and Wessex; Harold and his unruly clan; Canute's descendants with their delusions of grandeur; predatory men, pushy women, subdued Scots , and wily Welsh. And we meet William of Normandy, a psychotic thug with interesting plans for the "racial sanitation" of the Euroskepics across the water. Peppered with discussions on philosophy. dentistry, democracy, devils, alcohol, illusions, and hygiene, The Last English King raises issues, both daring and delightful, that question the nature of history itself. Where are the lines between fact, interpretation, and re-creation? Did the French really stop for a two-hour lunch during the Battle of Hastings? For over 25 years, Rathbone has been producing political thrillers and was nominated for the Booker Prize twice. In his new novel, he takes us to England at a time when "the civilization of the English reached its zenithAit turned its back on the savagery of war and embraced hedonistic willingness to live as well as one can." After losing his honor and his hands at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 while attempting to defend King Harold II of England against the invader, William of Normandy, Walt sets out on a personal pilgrimage across Europe. Joined in his self-imposed exile by Quint, a renegade, apostate monk, he tells his story of politics, intrigue, and battle as seen through the eyes of a king's bodyguard. Rathbone's spare style aptly expresses the horror of war and its aftermath. Anachronisms abound in this work and were deliberately included by the author. Some readers may be amused; others will find them a distraction. For larger historical fiction collections.AJane Baird, Anchorage Municipal Libs., AK Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. William the Conqueror defeated King Harold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, and three years later Walt, one of Harold's personal guards, is wandering continental Europe as a broken man. He encounters Quint, an ex-monk, and together they decide to travel to the Holy Land. On their journey, Walt finally begins to heal by telling his story to Quint, who, in turn, invents some very modern psychological terms to describe Walt's condition while he relates this testosterone-driven narrative. Walt was taken from his home as a child and trained to serve his king, and his entire life revolved around Harold. He was an eyewitness to Harold's and William's machinations to usurp power from each other, and he is now overwhelmed by guilt because he survived while his hero was killed in battle. With this personal account of the rivalry of two great leaders, Rathbone presents an intimate perspective on key historical events, offers a portrait of Harold as a compassionate leader, and paints a vivid picture of medieval life. Patty Engelmann A dark-hued lament for the loss of jolly old England a millennium ago, when psychopath William the Conqueror used a bagful of tricks to best good King Harold, this saga from the wide-ranging Rathbone (Blame Hitler, p. 1076, etc.) has its moments but can't sustain them The story comes out in the halting, painful recollections of Walt, one of Harold's inner circle of advisers and bodyguards who has wandered far from the Battle at Hastings in 1066, where he lost his right hand as well as his king. Dazed and feverish, Walt has crossed Europe before meeting fellow traveler Quint outside of Constantinople; the ex-monk, realizing Walt has within him a tale that will pass many a weary mile on the road, suggests he pay their way on a journey to the Holy Land. As Walt recalls the time leading up to the Norman invasion, when competing bids for the English throne gave rise to intrigues like the one that brought Harold to Normandy to be tricked by William's magician into swearing an oath of fealty that would later haunt him, an adventure en route brings them into the company of that same trick