Edoardo AlbertEdwin: High King of Britain (The Northumbrian Thrones, 1)

This is a fantastic a beautiful historical reading, I really enjoy the reading, because I learn about this era, Edwin was great,I am going to do some research about the person you mention at the end of the book, Bede, so Bede is very important in this story, this is fascinating, Edwin King of Northumbria, I like him because he listen when people talk, to be born in that era he was a very loving father, and his 2 older sons love him and listen to him. He listen when his wife talk to him about her religion, because she was Christian.His wife was AEthelburg of Kent. One of the conditions of her marriage, was King Edwin conversion to Christianity . This is one of my favorites era for my study.I invite you to read this great book!!!!!This is a beautiful story that send you back to the Kingdoms of Britain C.625. I invite you to take this journey .Edwin was King of Northumbria. Around 604 , Edwin was in exile and at the same time he was under the protection of King Raewald. One night Edwin was walking at the beach and he saw a shadow of a person, but he can not see who it was, the shadow talk to him and told him that he was going to be King of Britain. This was like a prophesy.Edwin rises again and between battles and battles he was becoming really strong and very powerful.Come the day that he was going to married for the second time,his first wife had dies. So he was going to married to the Princess of Kent, but in order to get married to the Princess of Kent he had to respect and allowed the Princess to keep the Christian religion. So he agreed.In this era to be a king was about power and strength, so in order to keep his throne he has to be strong, in good health and be surrounded by very good and strong people.Edwin converted to Christianity and was baptized.I invite you to read this great book , and to learn about Edwin, this is one of my favorite eras!!BRAVO !!!!! Edoardo Albert

As an armchair scholar and author of works on Edwin, and as a fan of the author's nonfiction work, I expected a lot from this book. The attention to detail in description and setting is phenomenal, and often pulled me right into the book. Many aspects of Edwin's later life have been woven into a cohesively accessible story. That being said, I admit to finding some of the translations and vocabulary a bit choppy. My biggest complaint is that I rarely related to the characters themselves. While the book is full of active descriptions, the characters fell flat at times. I would give this book 3.5 stars, had I that option.

Once I got to the third chapter, you would have had to pry *Edwin: High King of Britain* out of my hands. The reason? It reminded me of The Lord of the Rings. I read this paragraph...."The wind blew harder and Edwin shivered, but it was not from a cold to which he was inured that he shook. 'He made me bow to him. He forced me to my knees in front of his men, in front of mine, and made me do homage.' Edwin turned to Forthred, and his eyes were as grey and cold as the sea.'He bought me my kingdom and defeated my enemy, but he ground my knees into the blood soaked mud and forced the homage I would have willingly given. But he is dead now, and no other man will make me kneel.''But I will kneel to you lord,' said Forthred, and he went down on one knee before Edwin. 'Get up, get up.' Edwin hauled Forthred back to his feet. 'We have endured too much together for you to kneel to me, old friend.' "And I said to my friend "This is a real-life Middle Earth kind of story."I like learning history through novels, and I love the fact that this book is a true-to-history account. However, I was sucked in by the story and the characters, and the factual basis was all an extra benefit. This books reads like Tolkien, and a bit like a Stephen Lawhead novel, with kings and queens and battles and warcraft.One thing really struck home to me: Nothing is new under the sun. People still do horribly violent things to one another. Weapons are still formed to take life and spill blood. Power and empires are still sought. And the Gospel still goes out- a very tiny seed that grows greatly in good soil, an insane idea that saves souls, a beautiful word amidst the evil and coarseness.Edwin, a man who walked this earth and saw the sun and impacted history, had to choose how to live and whom to serve. This novel imagines how he made those choices. His bride, Æthelburh, another true figure, came to Edwin's house with Christianity and two spiritual counselors, a priest Paulinus, and a deacon James. These men are humble and devout without becoming cliches, just as Edwin is hard-headed and determined.Christianity at its most unadulterated, life-giving form is about to enter this pagan land. That's what makes this book so cool... it wrestles with the introduction of Christ into history, and shows how men's hearts changed when they encountered the Gospel, but it is not your typical poorly-written tract style novel. Readers can enter it without fear of anything but accuracy meeting imagination.Thank you Lion Fiction for my review copy!

My TBR list grew exponentially last year without me much whittling it down. With everything going on I had loads of time, but little inclination to read and actually writing anything was hellish. Then along came Edoardo Albert’s ‘Edwin’ and a stunning series set during the Heptarchy that I devoured, and it really shook me out of my miasma. Twitter isn’t always a hive of scum and villainy, sometimes you can find great books and writers on there too…Edwin is the first book in the series and details the life of the historical Edwin of Northumbria. Now, this is a period I know; I have read my Bede, and it’s no secret I am a big fan of Matt Harffy’s Beobrand series, but after the first few pages I relaxed confident that I was in the hands of an outstanding storyteller and accomplished historian. Albert’s descriptive prose is wonderfully evocative and his dialogue fast and believable, and you quickly become immersed into the world he reveals.The novel opens with Edwin and exile in East Anglia with a price on his head, and follows his rise to reclaim his throne in Northumbria and ultimately take the title of Bretwalda – High King of the English. There are some wonderful scenes as the story unfolds that firmly root the story in its historical setting. The clash of religion in a world where Christianity is a minority cult comes across very well. Christianity does not have the all encompassing authority of later centuries and there are no anachronistic values on display here. However, it is in the battle scenes where Albert really excels. The armour and weapons, tactics and abilities of seventh century Britain’s warrior world are spot on, and the action is brutal and bloody but never gratuitous. The whole series really rattles along at breathless pace.When I finished Edwin, I downloaded the final two books in the trilogy: Oswald and Oswiu and finished them a week. They are all fantastic. I can recommend Northumbrian Thrones series to anyone who loves a well researched and thrilling piece of historical fiction.Next up A Time of Swords by Matthew Harffy; a brilliant return for one of my favourite writers.

This is a very good piece of historical fiction that tells the adventurous and eventful story of Edwin of Deira, of the House of Yffings, who had to flee for his life and live a dozen years in exile after the murder of his father by his brother-in-law Aethelfrith, who became King of Northumbria and usurped the throne.As others have mentioned, one of the great qualities of this book is that it is largely faithful to what little we know about the events that took place and most of the characters are historical. For instance, Edwin did seek refuge at the court of King Raedwald of East Anglia, after having been hosted by other Kings, including the King of Gwynedd, and having to flee to another court as Aethelfrith sought to have either murdered on handed over to him by his previous guests.This time, however, Edwin chooses not to run, and King Raedwald does not betray him. Instead, they stand up against the domination of King Aethelfrith, defeat him and kill him in battle and, as a result, Edwin becomes King of Northumbria in AD 616. He rules until AD 633 when he is in turn defeated and killed in battle.Most of the main characters that appear in this book are historical, including the Roman missionary Paulinus and the Kentish and Christian princess Aethelburh whom Edwin marries. It is through the influence of these two, and with Edwin’s tolerance and acceptance, that Christianity begins to spread into Northumbria, with the King himself and his followers accepting baptism although whether this was a sincere conversion, a way to hedge his bets, a political ploy, or a bit of all these elements together is unknown.This is where the fictional elements come in. The events described in the book are historically recorded. The motivations of the main players, their personal characters and their feelings and thoughts are largely fictional. In this volume at least, this works mostly well. I particularly like the depiction of Edwin’s character which, given everything that he had to go through, seemed plausible and even believable. One exception perhaps is Cadwallon’s hatred for Angles and Saxons in general and his determination to thrown them back into the sea and reconquer “the lost lands” in a very Arthurian fashion, and his hatred of Edwin, in particular. The latter is explained – or rather not entirely explained – by Edwin’s relationships with Cadwallon and his family when he was a refugee guest in Gwynedd.Another strongpoint of this book is that it shows rather well the endless warring and feuding between multiple smallish Briton and Anglo-Saxon kingdoms across the whole of Britain, with all sorts of alliances between them, and none of them able to maintain for very long their supremacy over all of the others. These had a clear tendency to gang up against any smallish kingdom that was in the ascendency. This is exactly what happened with Edwin (and with Aethelburh before him) who, after being acknowledge as High King by both Angles and Saxons and Britons, was defeated and killed by a coalition of Mercians under Penda and Welsh lead by Cadwallon. Two related good points were to show how Edwin became supreme through a combination of wars, diplomacy and political marriages and how he was interesting in writing, but also how kings and their households at the time essentially had itinerant courts, moving from one domain to another and consuming the surplus food.One point where I found the author somewhat excessive was on military matters, with numbers on each side in the low hundreds, at most, and often even less than that (Edwin has less than a hundred against 250 in his last battle, for instance), and all of them fully equipped with mail, helmets, shields, swords and spears. Most historians currently agree that battles at the time were probably relatively small affairs opposing hundreds and, exceptionally, perhaps a thousand or two thousands men on each side, when both had the time to fully muster all available troops. Most also agree that all warriors, including those of King’s personal retinues, were not necessarily fully-equipped and well-armed, with the weapons and equipment depending upon their status within the respective households, and their personal wealth and lands, if any.There are at least two reasons underpinning this thesis about the relatively small size of most armies. One has to do with logistics and transportation. There was no commissariat and warriors at the time mostly carried their own supplies with them or else had to live on the land. The other reason was that war was essentially a collection of raids and counter-raids by war bands, so that most battles occurred when the homeland warrior band had – or decided - to fight the raiders. The latter may have been partly or entirely on horseback, if only because of speed, and this would explain relatively low numbers. The defenders may have often been fewer in numbers than would have otherwise been the case, especially when caught unprepared before all contingents of warriors had time to gather. The latter case seems to be largely the cause of Edwin’s defeat and death, as shown in the book. Four strong stars.For those wanting some historical background, I can recommend two other books. One is Max Adams rather superb “King of the North”, which is about much more than Oswald and also covers the reign of his uncle Edwin. The other one is from Guy Halsall and is titled “Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West (450-900).

First of all, be warned; this is the first in a series of three books set in 7th century Northumbria. It's so compelling I defy anyone to read this, the first in the series, and not order the rest of the series right away.King Edwin of Northumbria is the subject of this novel set in the early 7th century. He is caught up in changing times. His wife is a Christian and he a pagan. The story traces Edwin's conversion from the old religion to the new and also his encounters with hostile kingdoms all around him.I was a little uncertain about this book because it concerns the conversion of a pagan king into a Christian and I thought there might be a lot of sermonising but this is not the case. As much time is spent on the political, military and social as the religious. There are also no 'history dumps'. Fact and fiction are seamlessly woven together.This is a period of intrigue and violence, and a simple mistake can cost you your life. Vibrant, evocative, master storytelling brings this little known time to glorious life. A fabulous read.

I really like this period in our history and I especially like anything about the north east region, so I thought that I'd give this book, the first in a trilogy, a go. I'm really glad that I did. Although it took me a short while to get into the story, the pace picks up and the story just gets better and better as it progresses. The writing style is quite crisp, with well-rounded characters and evocative descriptions of areas.As is always the case with books set in this period, the names are confusing in several ways; spellings have lots of use of the 'ash' (a combined A and E that is intended to sound like the 'a' in cat) and are also very similar (AEthelburgh, Aethelbert, AEthelfrith, Ethelthryd etc) and, in addition, some names that sound feminine to our ears are, actually, masculine and vice versa. These days, many people talk about 'The Game of Thrones' when wishing to describe political intrigue and, especially, the convoluted family connections arising from inter-marriage and political alliance, but, in fact, the real life convolutions of these royal dynasties surpass anything in fictional works. Keeping straight who's who in this world where one king might apprentice his son to his rival, to try to ensure strong alliances, and where kings might have several wives (but not at the same time), resulting in various offspring, can be confusing. I have no magic solution to these problems but it's worth persevering for a story this good.One of the best things about this book is that it manages to stick very closely indeed to accurately evidenced historical fact while weaving in only those elements of fiction / imagination required to make the story flow, That authenticity really bolsters this book.The intended structure of this trilogy is quite clear and this, the first in the series, describes the rule of Edwin. As Edwin dies, at the conclusion, the final chapter introduces the reader to the subject of the second book in the series; Oswald. I've already downloaded that book to read next!If I can assume that you wouldn't be looking at this review unless you are already interested in this type of historical novel, then I can, without hesitation, recommend 'Edwin: High King of Britain' to you. It is absorbing, informative, authoritative and extremely enjoyable. It will leave you wanting to see what happens next. I enjoyed this book hugely and I'll bet that you will too.

Very gripping, with short, well written chapters, lots of characterisation, description, so that you get really involved in the people and their stories. This is set in the early days of Christianity in the country we live in, then composed of a number of warring monarchies and peoples. Raw military power contending with religious asceticism. I've read the first two and am about to embark on the third. Historical notes at the end are very enlightening. Would make an excellent TV series or film. Plenty of dialogue for the characters, good, if minor, female roles, and intelligent accounts of action in battles etc. Battles normally bore me stiff and cause me to turn off but these battles are nail-bitingly well described.