Richard Abels
Richard Abels (born 1951) is an American educator, historian, and professor emeritus at the United States Naval Academy. Abels is a specialist in the military and political institutions of Anglo-Saxon England.
Quotes
[edit]- All quotes are from the first edition hardcover in the Penguin Monarchs series, ISBN 978-0-141-97949-6
- Academic historians are by nature revisionists.
- Introduction (p. 4)
- The poem is literature, however, not history. As such it provides a window on the mentality and the values of its audience. Loyalty is lauded, betrayal and failure to fulfill one’s duty condemned.
- Chapter 3, “The Viking Challenge” (p. 38)
- Loyalty to the person of the king was the glue that unified an English kingdom so recently forged from separate peoples.
- Chapter 3, “The Viking Challenge” (p. 46)
- Æthelred was the only king in Western Christendom in 1002 who could reasonably expect that his decrees would be conveyed throughout his kingdom and perhaps even obeyed.
- Chapter 5, “Law and (Dis)order” (p. 72)
- One suspects that many landowners thought Æthelred overly eager to find reasons to confiscate property.
- Chapter 6, “Losing the Kingdom” (p. 101)
