Through the career of Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex, Round reconstructs the civil war between King Stephen and the Empress Matilda. He works charter by charter—the king’s, the empress’s and a lost charter of the queen—to show how Geoffrey sold his support to each side in turn, through the rout of Winchester to his fall and death.
A landmark of Victorian medieval scholarship, demanding but rewarding for readers serious about twelfth-century England. Download the free EPUB.