Nineteen Days in Autumn

The definitive character-led history of the most famous year in history. On 5 January 1066, Edward the Confessor's death plunged the nation into a succession crisis that would indelibly change England forever. Mere hours after Edward’s remains had been laid to rest, his brother-in-law Harold II seized power, inciting the wrath of two formidable challengers: King Haraldr of Norway and Edward’s ambitious cousin, William, Duke of Normandy. In this startling new history, Dr Erin Goeres unveils the intense drama that unfolded over the tumultuous nineteen days between the Battles of Stamford Bridge and Hastings in the Autumn of 1066, and which led to the deaths of two monarchs, ending a centuries-long Anglo-Scandinavian rule. Drawing on sources from England, Normandy and Scandinavia, Goeres uncovers complex histories, characters, and motivations. We meet the women at the heart of the fray – such as William's enigmatic wife, Matilda of Flanders, the alleged lover of Harold of England and the ‘driving force’ behind her husband's invasion – as well as the regular people who were swept up in events beyond their control, such as a farmer, beheaded for an unwillingness to give his jacket to a Norwegian invader. Nineteen Days in Autumn is a gripping tale of three nations entwined, the devastating consequences of their unravelling and the subsequent memorialisation of this saga, which has given rise to the nationalistic myths of today.