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HAWK OF NORMANDY by George Baker

HAWK OF NORMANDY

By

Pub Date: Sept. 16th, 1957
Publisher: Roy

Although the facts of William the Conqueror's life are marshalled accurately in this latest addition to the Pageant of History series, a lumbering style and failure to convey places or periods are deficiencies which mar a fictionalized biography. The illegitimate son of Robert, Duke of Normandy, William succeeded to his father's title when the latter died on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. William's courtship of Matilda of Flanders, his marriage despite Papal objections on grounds of consanguinity, the ransom paid by William to rescue Harold Godwin, successor to Edward the Confessor's English reign, and the ensuing Battle of Hastings bring the reader to William's coronation. William's reign is briefly described, highlighted by his recording of all land holdings in the Domesday Book, of necessity rather than choice.